811 research outputs found
Charged Current Neutrino Cross Section and Tau Energy Loss at Ultra-High Energies
We evaluate both the tau lepton energy loss produced by photonuclear
interactions and the neutrino charged current cross section at ultra-high
energies, relevant to neutrino bounds with Earth-skimming tau neutrinos, using
different theoretical and phenomenological models for nucleon and nucleus
structure functions. The theoretical uncertainty is estimated by taking
different extrapolations of the structure function F2 to very low values of x,
in the low and moderate Q2 range for the tau lepton interaction and at high Q2
for the neutrino-nucleus inelastic cross section. It is at these extremely low
values of x where nuclear shadowing and parton saturation effects are unknown
and could be stronger than usually considered. For tau and neutrino energies
E=10^9 GeV we find uncertainties of a factor 4 for the tau energy loss and of a
factor 2 for the charged current neutrino-nucleus cross section.Comment: 20 pages and 11 figure
On Inflation with Non-minimal Coupling
A simple realization of inflation consists of adding the following operators
to the Einstein-Hilbert action: (partial phi)^2, lambda phi^4, and xi phi^2 R,
with xi a large non-minimal coupling. Recently there has been much discussion
as to whether such theories make sense quantum mechanically and if the inflaton
phi can also be the Standard Model Higgs. In this note we answer these
questions. Firstly, for a single scalar phi, we show that the quantum field
theory is well behaved in the pure gravity and kinetic sectors, since the
quantum generated corrections are small. However, the theory likely breaks down
at ~ m_pl / xi due to scattering provided by the self-interacting potential
lambda phi^4. Secondly, we show that the theory changes for multiple scalars
phi with non-minimal coupling xi phi dot phi R, since this introduces
qualitatively new interactions which manifestly generate large quantum
corrections even in the gravity and kinetic sectors, spoiling the theory for
energies > m_pl / xi. Since the Higgs doublet of the Standard Model includes
the Higgs boson and 3 Goldstone bosons, it falls into the latter category and
therefore its validity is manifestly spoiled. We show that these conclusions
hold in both the Jordan and Einstein frames and describe an intuitive analogy
in the form of the pion Lagrangian. We also examine the recent claim that
curvature-squared inflation models fail quantum mechanically. Our work appears
to go beyond the recent discussions.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. Version 2: Clarified findings and improved
wording. Elaborated important sections and removed an unnecessary section.
Added references. Version 3: Updated towards JHEP version. Version 4: Final
JHEP versio
Performances and stability of a 2.4 ton Gd organic liquid scintillator target for antineutrino detection
In this work we report the performances and the chemical and physical
properties of a (2 x 1.2) ton organic liquid scintillator target doped with Gd
up to ~0.1%, and the results of a 2 year long stability survey. In particular
we have monitored the amount of both Gd and primary fluor actually in solution,
the optical and fluorescent properties of the Gd-doped liquid scintillator
(GdLS) and its performances as a neutron detector, namely neutron capture
efficiency and average capture time. The experimental survey is ongoing, the
target being continuously monitored. After two years from the doping time the
performances of the Gd-doped liquid scintillator do not show any hint of
degradation and instability; this conclusion comes both from the laboratory
measurements and from the "in-tank" measurements. This is the largest stable
Gd-doped organic liquid scintillator target ever produced and continuously
operated for a long period
Tau energy losses at ultra-high energy: continuous versus stochastic treatment
We study the energy losses of the tau lepton in matter through
electromagnetic processes at ultra-high energy (UHE). We use both a stochastic
and a continuous framework to treat these interactions and compare the flux of
tau leptons propagated after some amount of matter. We discuss the accuracy of
the approximation of continuous energy losses by studying the propagation in
standard rock of taus with both mono-energetic and power law injection spectra.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Comment on Higgs Inflation and Naturalness
We rebut the recent claim (arXiv:0912.5463) that Einstein-frame scattering in
the Higgs inflation model is unitary above the cut-off energy Lambda ~ Mp/xi.
We show explicitly how unitarity problems arise in both the Einstein and Jordan
frames of the theory. In a covariant gauge they arise from non-minimal Higgs
self-couplings, which cannot be removed by field redefinitions because the
target space is not flat. In unitary gauge, where there is only a single scalar
which can be redefined to achieve canonical kinetic terms, the unitarity
problems arise through non-minimal Higgs-gauge couplings.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure V3: Journal Versio
Embedding (R+R^2)-Inflation into Supergravity
We find the natural embedding of the (R+R^2)-inflationary model into the
recently constructed N=1 F(\cal R)-supergravity. It gives a simple and viable
realization of chaotic inflation in supergravity. The only requirement for a
slow-roll inflation is the existence of the (\cal R)^3-term with an anomalously
large coefficient in Taylor expansion of the F(\cal R) function, where \cal R
is the covariantly-chiral scalar supercurvature superfield.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, no figures (very minor additions, a reference added
The Cosmic Ray Muon Flux at WIPP
In this work a measurement of the muon intensity at the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, NM, USA is presented. WIPP is a salt mine with a
depth of 655 m. The vertical muon flux was measured with a two panels
scintillator coincidence setup to
Phi_{vert}=3.10(+0.05/-0.07)*10^(-7)s^(-1)cm^(-2)sr^(-1).Comment: 18 pages, p figure
Implication of Compensator Field and Local Scale Invariance in the Standard Model
We introduce Weyl's scale symmetry into the standard model (SM) as a local
symmetry. This necessarily introduces gravitational interactions in addition to
the local scale invariance group \tilde U(1) and the SM groups SU(3) X SU(2) X
U(1). The only other new ingredients are a new scalar field \sigma and the
gauge field for \tilde U(1) we call the Weylon. A noteworthy feature is that
the system admits the St\" uckelberg-type compensator. The \sigma couples to
the scalar curvature as (-\zeta/2) \sigma^2 R, and is in turn related to a St\"
uckelberg-type compensator \varphi by \sigma \equiv M_P e^{-\varphi/M_P} with
the Planck mass M_P. The particular gauge \varphi = 0 in the St\" uckelberg
formalism corresponds to \sigma = M_P, and the Hilbert action is induced
automatically. In this sense, our model presents yet another mechanism for
breaking scale invariance at the classical level. We show that our model
naturally accommodates the chaotic inflation scenario with no extra field.Comment: This work is to be read in conjunction with our recent comments
hep-th/0702080, arXiv:0704.1836 [hep-ph] and arXiv:0712.2487 [hep-ph]. The
necessary ingredients for describing chaotic inflation in the SM as
entertained by Bezrukov and Shaposhnikov [17] have been provided by our
original model [8]. We regret their omission in citing our original model [8
Muon-Induced Background Study for Underground Laboratories
We provide a comprehensive study of the cosmic-ray muon flux and induced
activity as a function of overburden along with a convenient parameterization
of the salient fluxes and differential distributions for a suite of underground
laboratories ranging in depth from 1 to 8 km.w.e.. Particular attention
is given to the muon-induced fast neutron activity for the underground sites
and we develop a Depth-Sensitivity-Relation to characterize the effect of such
background in experiments searching for WIMP dark matter and neutrinoless
double beta decay.Comment: 18 pages, 28 figure
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