2,206 research outputs found
Statistical tests of sterile neutrinos using cosmology and short-baseline data
In this paper we revisit the question of the information which cosmology
provides on the scenarios with sterile neutrinos invoked to describe the SBL
anomalies using Bayesian statistical tests. We perform an analysis of the
cosmological data in CDM cosmologies for different
cosmological data combinations, and obtain the marginalized cosmological
likelihood in terms of the two relevant parameters, the sterile neutrino mass
and its contribution to the energy density of the early Universe . We then present an analysis to quantify at which level a model with one
sterile neutrino is (dis)favoured with respect to a model with only three
active neutrinos, using results from both short-baseline experiments and
cosmology. We study the dependence of the results on the cosmological data
considered, in particular on the inclusion of the recent BICEP2 results and the
SZ cluster data from the Planck mission. We find that only when the cluster
data is included the model with one extra sterile neutrino can become more
favoured that the model with only the three active ones provided the sterile
neutrino contribution to radiation density is suppressed with respect to the
fully thermalized scenario. We have also quantified the level of
(in)compatibility between the sterile neutrino masses implied by the
cosmological and SBL results.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figure
Two photon annihilation of Kaluza-Klein dark matter
We investigate the fermionic one-loop cross section for the two photon
annihilation of Kaluza-Klein (KK) dark matter particles in a model of universal
extra dimensions (UED). This process gives a nearly mono-energetic gamma-ray
line with energy equal to the KK dark matter particle mass. We find that the
cross section is large enough that if a continuum signature is detected, the
energy distribution of gamma-rays should end at the particle mass with a peak
that is visible for an energy resolution of the detector at the percent level.
This would give an unmistakable signature of a dark matter origin of the
gamma-rays, and a unique determination of the dark matter particle mass, which
in the case studied should be around 800 GeV. Unlike the situation for
supersymmetric models where the two-gamma peak may or may not be visible
depending on parameters, this feature seems to be quite robust in UED models,
and should be similar in other models where annihilation into fermions is not
helicity suppressed. The observability of the signal still depends on largely
unknown astrophysical parameters related to the structure of the dark matter
halo. If the dark matter near the galactic center is adiabatically contracted
by the central star cluster, or if the dark matter halo has substructure
surviving tidal effects, prospects for detection look promising.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures; slightly revised versio
Running mass of the rho0 meson's implication for the dilepton mass spectrum and the mu+mu-/e+e- branching ratio in the K+ --> pi+l+l- decays
We make an attempt to resolve the discrepancy of the observed e+e- mass
spectrum in the K+ --> pi+e+e- decay with that predicted by meson dominance. To
this end we investigate the properties of the rho0 propagator. We use
dispersion relations to evaluate the running mass squared m_rho^2(t) of the
rho0 resonance without adjustable parameters. To improve the convergence of the
dispersion integral, the momentum dependence of strong vertices is taken from
the flux-tube-breaking model of Kokoski and Isgur. The obtained behavior of
m_rho^2(t) at small momentum squared t makes the K+ --> pi+e+e- form factor
rise faster with increasing than in the original meson-dominance
calculation and more in agreement with the published data. As a consequence,
the meson-dominance prediction of the mu+mu-/e+e- branching ratio changes
slightly, from 0.224 to 0.236. We do not see any possibility to accommodate
into the meson-dominance approach an even steeper e+e- spectrum, indicated by
the preliminary data of the E865 collaboration at BNL AGS.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX, epsf.sty, 4 embedded figure
Constraining dark energy
In this paper we propose a mechanism that protects theories violating a
holographic bound suggested in arXiv:1203.5476 from developing accelerated
expansion. The mechanism builts on work on transplanckian physics, and a
non-trivial choice of vacuum states. If correct, it lends further support for
detectable signatures in the CMBR signalling new physics.Comment: 8 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0606474.
Minor misprints correcte
A new Determination of the Extragalactic Background of Diffuse Gamma Rays taking into account Dark Matter Annihilation
The extragalactic background (EGB) of diffuse gamma rays can be determined by
subtracting the Galactic contribution from the data. This requires a Galactic
model (GM) and we include for the first time the contribution of dark matter
annihilation (DMA), which was previously proposed as an explanation for the
EGRET excess of diffuse Galactic gamma rays above 1 GeV.
In this paper it is shown that the newly determined EGB shows a
characteristic high energy bump on top of a steeply falling soft contribution.
The bump is shown to be compatible with a contribution from an extragalactic
DMA signal from weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with a mass
between 50 and 100 GeV in agreement with the EGRET excess of the Galactic
diffuse gamma rays and in disagreement with earlier analysis. The remaining
soft contribution of the EGB is shown to resemble the spectra of the observed
point sources in our Galaxy.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by A&A, made Fig. 4 and table 1
consisten
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