A new study of muons in air showers by NBU air shower array

The North Bengal University (NBU) air shower array has been in operation in conjunction with two muon magnetic spectrographs. The array incorporates 21 particle density sampling detectors around the magnetic spectrographs covering an area of 900 sq m. The layout of the array is based on the arrangement of detectors in a square symmetry. The array set up on the ground level is around a 10 m high magnetic spectrograph housing. This magnetic spectrograph housing limits the zenith angular acceptance of the incident showers to a few degrees. Three hundred muons in the fitted showers of size range 10 to the 4th power to 10 to the 5th power particles have so far been scanned and the momenta determined in the momentum range 2 - 440 GeV/c. More than 1500 recorded showers are now in the process of scanning and fitting. A lateral distribution of muons of energy greater than 300 MeV in the shower size range 10 to the 5th power to 7 x 10 to the 5th power has been obtained

Synthesis, photophysical and metal ion signalling behaviour of mono- and di-azacrown derivatives of 4-aminophthalimide

Synthesis, photophysical behaviour and metal ion signalling ability of 3-component systems, I and II, comprising a 4-aminophthalimido moiety as fluorophore, a dimethylene spacer and two different azacrown receptors, are reported. The fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes of both the systems have been found to be significantly lower than that of the parent fluorophore indicating the occurrence of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) between the terminal moieties. PET is found to be more efficient in II, presumably due to the presence of more than one electron-donating centre in the receptor moiety. Fluorescence decay behaviour of the systems suggests a through-space nature of PET. The systems exhibit off-on fluorescence signalling in the aprotic media in the presence of several metal ions, some of which are well known for their fluorescence quenching abilities. Diazacrown derivative, II, appears to be a somewhat better signalling system than the monoazacrown derivative, I

Liouville Decoherence in a Model of Flavour Oscillations in the presence of Dark Energy

We study in some detail the master equation, and its solution in a simplified case modelling flavour oscillations of a two-level system, stemming from the Liouville-string approach to quantum space time foam. In this framework we discuss the appearance of diffusion terms and decoherence due to the interaction of low-energy string matter with space-time defects, such as D-particles in the specific model of ``D-particle foam'', as well as dark energy contributions. We pay particular attention to contrasting the decoherent role of a cosmological constant in inducing exponential quantum damping in the evolution of low-energy observables, such as the probability of flavour oscillations, with the situation where the dark energy relaxes to zero for asymptotically large times, in which case such a damping is absent. Our findings may be of interest to (astrophysical) tests of quantum space-time foam models in the not-so-distant future.Comment: 27 pages late

Leptogenesis and low energy CP phases with two heavy neutrinos

An attractive explanation for non-zero neutrino masses and small matter antimatter asymmetry of the present Universe lies in "leptogenesis". At present the {\it size} of the lepton asymmetry is precisely known, while the {\it sign} is not known yet. In this work we determine the sign of this asymmetry in the framework of two right handed neutrino models by relating the leptogenesis phase(s) with the low energy CP violating phases appearing in the leptonic mixing matrix. It is shown that the knowledge of low energy lepton number violating re-phasing invariants can indeed determine the sign of the present matter antimatter asymmetry of the Universe and hence indirectly probing the light physical neutrinos to be Majorana type.Comment: 26 pages (revtex), 8 eps figures, Typos corrected and one reference is added, Section VI is expanded, Two new figures are added, Journal version, To appear in PR

The Complex Time WKB Approximation And Particle Production

The complex time WKB (CWKB) approximation has been an effective technique to understand particle production in curved as well as in flat spacetime. Earlier we obtained the standard results on particle production in time dependent gauge in various curved spacetime. In the present work we generalize the technique of CWKB to the equivalent problems in space dependent gauge. Using CWKB, we first obtain the gauge invariant result for particle production in Minkowski spacetime in strong electric field. We then carry out particle production in de-Sitter spacetime in space dependent gauge and obtain the same result that we obtained earlier in time dependent gauge. The results obtained for de-Sitter spacetime has a obvious extension to particle production in black hole spacetime. It is found that the origin of Planckian spectrum is due to repeated reflections between the turning points. As mentioned earlier, it is now explicitly shown that particle production is accompanied by rotation of currents.Comment: 12 pages, Revte

New Exactly Solvable Model of Strongly Correlated Electrons Motivated by High T_c Superconductivity

We present a new model describing strongly correlated electrons on a general $d$-dimensional lattice. It differs from the Hubbard model by interactions of nearest neighbours, and it contains the $t$-$J$ model as a special case. The model naturally describes local electron pairs, which can move coherently at arbitrary momentum. By using an $\eta$-pairing mechanism we can construct eigenstates of the hamiltonian with off-diagonal-long-range-order (ODLRO). These might help to relate the model to high-$T_c$ superconductivity. On a one-dimensional lattice, the model is exactly solvable by Bethe Ansatz.Comment: 10 pages, using latex, Phys.Rev.Lett. 68 (1992) 296

Modeling Traffic Impact of Flyover at an Urban Intersection Under Mixed Traffic Environment

In order to ease transportation problems, many urban authorities in India have taken up initiative for construction of flyovers at major intersections. However, in most of the cases a comprehensive planning approach has not been adopted, either due to lack of fund or ignorance about the planning perspective of such proposals. The locations for flyovers have been decided based on present day operating conditions and the traffic impacts of such flyovers at adjacent intersections have not been analysed. In the present paper, the traffic impact of a flyover along with its adjacent intersection has been analysed, using a simulation model developed for mixed traffic operations and poor lane discipline prevailing in India. Through the case study presented in the paper, it has been demonstrated that an ill planned flyover only shifts the location of the problem without bringing any benefit to traffic. The potential use of simulation model for analyzing traffic impacts has been shown; and the need for such analysis for the planning of flyovers has been highlighted