Using Implicit Instructional Cues to Influence False Memory Induction

Previous research has shown that explicit cues specific to the encoding process (endogenous) or characteristic of the stimuli themselves (exogenous) can be used to direct a reader’s attentional resources towards either relational or item-specific information. By directing attention to relational information (and therefore away from item-specific information) the rate of false memory induction can be increased. The purpose of the current study was to investigate if a similar effect would be found by manipulating implicitly endogenous cues. An instructional manipulation was used to influence the perceptual action participants performed on word stimuli during the encoding of DRM list words. Results demonstrated that the instructional conditions that encouraged faster processing also led to an increased rate of false memory induction for semantically related words, supporting the hypothesis that attention was directed towards relational information. This finding supports the impoverished relational processing account of false memory induction. This supports the idea that implicitly endogenous cues, exogenous cues (like font) or explicitly endogenous cues (like training) can direct attentional resources during encoding

On the Importance of Electroweak Corrections for Majorana Dark Matter Indirect Detection

Recent analyses have shown that the inclusion of electroweak corrections can alter significantly the energy spectra of Standard Model particles originated from dark matter annihilations. We investigate the important situation where the radiation of electroweak gauge bosons has a substantial influence: a Majorana dark matter particle annihilating into two light fermions. This process is in p-wave and hence suppressed by the small value of the relative velocity of the annihilating particles. The inclusion of electroweak radiation eludes this suppression and opens up a potentially sizeable s-wave contribution to the annihilation cross section. We study this effect in detail and explore its impact on the fluxes of stable particles resulting from the dark matter annihilations, which are relevant for dark matter indirect searches. We also discuss the effective field theory approach, pointing out that the opening of the s-wave is missed at the level of dimension-six operators and only encoded by higher orders.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures. Minor corrections to match version published in JCA

Decaying into the Hidden Sector

The existence of light hidden sectors is an exciting possibility that may be tested in the near future. If DM is allowed to decay into such a hidden sector through GUT suppressed operators, it can accommodate the recent cosmic ray observations without over-producing antiprotons or interfering with the attractive features of the thermal WIMP. Models of this kind are simple to construct, generic and evade all astrophysical bounds. We provide tools for constructing such models and present several distinct examples. The light hidden spectrum and DM couplings can be probed in the near future, by measuring astrophysical photon and neutrino fluxes. These indirect signatures are complimentary to the direct production signals, such as lepton jets, predicted by these models.Comment: 40 pages, 5 figure

Oscillating Asymmetric Dark Matter

We study the dynamics of dark matter (DM) particle-antiparticle oscillations within the context of asymmetric DM. Oscillations arise due to small DM number-violating Majorana-type mass terms, and can lead to recoupling of annihilation after freeze-out and washout of the DM density. We derive the density matrix equations for DM oscillations and freeze-out from first principles using nonequilibrium field theory, and our results are qualitatively different than in previous studies. DM dynamics exhibits particle-vs-antiparticle "flavor" effects, depending on the interaction type, analogous to neutrino oscillations in a medium. "Flavor-sensitive" DM interactions include scattering or annihilation through a new vector boson, while "flavor-blind" interactions include scattering or s-channel annihilation through a new scalar boson, or annihilation to pairs of bosons. In particular, we find that flavor-sensitive annihilation does not recouple when coherent oscillations begin, and that flavor-blind scattering does not lead to decoherence.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, A typo fixed, References adde

Light Higgsino in Heavy Gravitino Scenario with Successful Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

We consider, in the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, the case where the gravitino weighs 10^6 GeV or more, which is preferred by various cosmological difficulties associated with unstable gravitinos. Despite the large Higgs mixing parameter B together with the little hierarchy to other soft supersymmetry breaking masses, a light higgsino with an electroweak scale mass leads to successful electroweak symmetry breaking, at the price of fine-tuning the higgsino mixing mu parameter. Furthermore the light higgsinos produced at the decays of gravitinos can constitute the dark matter of the universe. The heavy squark mass spectrum of O(10^4) GeV can increase the Higgs boson mass to about 125 GeV or higher.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures; v2: version to appear in JHE

Cosmic rays from Leptonic Dark Matter

If dark matter possesses a lepton number, it is natural to expect the dark-matter annihilation and/or decay mainly produces the standard model leptons, while negligible amount of the antiproton is produced. To illustrate such a simple idea, we consider a scenario that a right-handed sneutrino dark matter decays into the standard model particles through tiny R-parity violating interactions. Interestingly enough, charged leptons as well as neutrinos are directly produced, and they can lead to a sharp peak in the predicted positron fraction. Moreover, the decay of the right-handed sneutrino also generates diffuse continuum gamma rays which may account for the excess observed by EGRET, while the primary antiproton flux can be suppressed. Those predictions on the cosmic-ray fluxes of the positrons, gamma rays and antiprotons will be tested by the PAMELA and FGST observatories.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, updated plots including PAMELA dat

Decaying Dark Matter in Supersymmetric Model and Cosmic-Ray Observations

We study cosmic-rays in decaying dark matter scenario, assuming that the dark matter is the lightest superparticle and it decays through a R-parity violating operator. We calculate the fluxes of cosmic-rays from the decay of the dark matter and those from the standard astrophysical phenomena in the same propagation model using the GALPROP package. We reevaluate the preferred parameters characterizing standard astrophysical cosmic-ray sources with taking account of the effects of dark matter decay. We show that, if energetic leptons are produced by the decay of the dark matter, the fluxes of cosmic-ray positron and electron can be in good agreements with both PAMELA and Fermi-LAT data in wide parameter region. It is also discussed that, in the case where sizable number of hadrons are also produced by the decay of the dark matter, the mass of the dark matter is constrained to be less than 200-300 GeV in order to avoid the overproduction of anti-proton. We also show that the cosmic gamma-ray flux can be consistent with the results of Fermi-LAT observation if the mass of the dark matter is smaller than nearly 4 TeV.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Superrelativity as a unification of quantum theory and relativity(II)

A underlying dynamical structure for both relativity and quantum theory-``superrelativity'' has been proposed in order to overcome the well known incompatibility between these theories. The relationship between curvature of spacetime (gravity) and curvature of the projective Hilbert space of pure quantum states is established as well.Comment: 6 pages,LaTeX,In the Abstract ``proposed on order'' should be read as ``proposed in order'