986 research outputs found
Luck as Risk
The aim of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that luck is a risk-involving phenomenon. I start by explaining why this hypothesis is prima facie plausible in view of the parallelisms between luck and risk. I then distinguish three ways to spell it out: in probabilistic terms, in modal terms, and in terms of lack of control. Before evaluating the resulting accounts, I explain how the idea that luck involves risk is compatible with the fact that risk concerns unwanted events whereas luck can concern both wanted and unwanted events. I turn to evaluating the modal and probabilistic views and argue, firstly, that they fail to account for the connection between risk and bad luck; secondly, that they also fail to account for the connection between risk and good luck. Finally, I defend the lack of control view. In particular, I argue that it can handle the objections to the probabilistic and modal accounts and that it can explain how degrees of luck and risk covary
Corrections to the fluxes of a Neutrino Factory
In view of their physics goals, future neutrino factories from muon decay aim
at an overall flux precision of or better. We analytically study
the QED radiative corrections to the neutrino differential distributions from
muon decay. Kinematic uncertainties due to the divergence of the muon beam are
considered as well. The resulting corrections to the neutrino flux turn out to
be of order , safely below the required precision.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures. Some references changed. Final version accepted
for publication in EPJ
Rephasing Invariants of Quark and Lepton Mixing Matrices
Rephasing invariants of quark and lepton mixing matrices are obtained in the
standard model extended by the seesaw mechanism, and in its low-energy
effective theory with the dimension-five Majorana mass operator. We classify
the basic invariants, discuss non-trivial relations between them, and determine
the independent invariants which characterize all the information in the mixing
matrices in a basis-independent way. We also discuss the restrictions on the
allowed ranges for the mixing phases, and on the rephasing invariants, which
follow from a discrete invariance of the Majorana mass matrix.Comment: Some references added, and typos correcte
Epistemic luck
In almost any domain of endeavour, successes can be attained through skill, but also by dumb luck.
An archer’s wildest shots occasionally hit the target. Against enormous odds, some fair lottery tickets
happen to win. The same goes in the case of purely cognitive or intellectual endeavours. As
inquirers, we characteristically aim to believe truly rather than falsely, and to attain such standings as
knowledge and understanding. Sometimes such aims are attained with commendable competence,
but of course, not always. Epistemic luck is a species of luck which features in circumstances where
a given cognitive success—in the broadest sense, some form of cognitive contact with reality—is
attained in a manner that is (in some to-be-specified sense) interestingly lucky—viz., chancy,
accidental or beyond our control. In the paradigmatic case, this involves the formation of a belief
that is luckily true, and where the subject plausibly deserves little credit for having gotten things
right. Although the literature on epistemic luck has focused predominantly on the relationship
between luck and propositional knowledge—which is widely taken to (in some sense) exclude
luck—epistemologists are increasingly exploring the compatibility of epistemic luck with other kinds
of epistemic standings, such as knowledge-how and understanding
Renormalization of Lepton Mixing for Majorana Neutrinos
We discuss the one-loop electroweak renormalization of the leptonic mixing
matrix in the case of Majorana neutrinos, and establish its relationship with
the renormalization group evolution of the dimension five operator responsible
for the light Majorana neutrino masses. We compare our results in the effective
theory with those in the full seesaw theory.Comment: 28 pages. With axodra
Sujeto y subjetividad en la mente extensa
In this paper we aim to defend a version of the thesis of “extended mind” against the criticism of some authors that consider that the “extracraneal” devices cannott acomplish the requirements that the components of mental processes must meet. We propose a quality of integration as a criterion to be a mental process, and we consider that, in some situations, external devices can be considered as meeting this criterion
Tribimaximal Mixing, Leptogenesis, and theta13
We show that seesaw models based on flavor symmetries (such as A_4 and Z_7 X
Z_3) which produce exact tribimaximal neutrino mixing, also imply a vanishing
leptogenesis asymmetry. We show that higher order symmetry breaking corrections
in these models can give a non-zero leptogenesis asymmetry and generically also
give deviations from tribimaximal mixing and a non-zero theta13 >~ 10^(-2)Comment: Results generalized to include flavored leptogenesi
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