Observational constraints on the nature of very short gamma-ray bursts

We discuss a very peculiar subgroup of gamma-ray bursts among the BATSE sources. These bursts are very short ($T_{90} \le$0.1 s), hard, and came predominantly from a restricted direction of the sky (close to the Galactic anti-center). We analyze their arrival times and possible correlations, as well as the profiles of individual bursts. We find no peculiarities in the arrival times of Very Short Bursts (VSBs) despite their highly non-uniform spatial distribution. There is no dependence in the burst shapes on location. Bursts coming both from the burst-enhancement Galactic Anticenter region and from all other directions show considerable dispersion in their rise and fall times. Significant fraction of VSBs have multiple peaks despite their extremely short duration. Burst time properties are most likely to be consistent with two origin mechanisms: either with binary NS-NS mergers with low total masses passing through a phase of hypermassive neutron star, or with evaporation of the primordial black holes in the scenario of no photosphere formation.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures; accepted to New Astronom

Viability of primordial black holes as short period gamma-ray bursts

It has been proposed that the short period gamma-ray bursts, which occur at a rate of $\sim 10 {\rm yr^{-1}}$, may be evaporating primordial black holes (PBHs). Calculations of the present PBH evaporation rate have traditionally assumed that the PBH mass function varies as $M_{{\rm BH}}^{-5/2}$. This mass function only arises if the density perturbations from which the PBHs form have a scale invariant power spectrum. It is now known that for a scale invariant power spectrum, normalised to COBE on large scales, the PBH density is completely negligible, so that this mass function is cosmologically irrelevant. For non-scale-invariant power spectra, if all PBHs which form at given epoch have a fixed mass then the PBH mass function is sharply peaked around that mass, whilst if the PBH mass depends on the size of the density perturbation from which it forms, as is expected when critical phenomena are taken into account, then the PBH mass function will be far broader than $M_{{\rm BH}}^{-5/2}$. In this paper we calculate the present day PBH evaporation rate, using constraints from the diffuse gamma-ray background, for both of these mass functions. If the PBH mass function has significant finite width, as recent numerical simulations suggest, then it is not possible to produce a present day PBH evaporation rate comparable with the observed short period gamma-ray burst rate. This could also have implications for other attempts to detect evaporating PBHs.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev. D with additional reference

CP violation through particle mixing and the H-A lineshape

We consider the possibility of looking for CP-mixing effects in two-Higgs doublet models (and particularly in the MSSM) by studying the lineshape of the CP-even (H) and CP-odd (A) neutral scalars. In most cases H and A come quite degenerate in mass, and their s-channel production would lead to nearly overlapping resonances. CP-violating effects may connect these two Higgs bosons, giving origin to one-loop particle mixing, which, due to their mass proximity, can be resonantly enhanced. The corresponding transition amplitude contains then CP-even and CP-odd components; besides the signal of intereference between both amplitudes, leading to a CP-odd asymmetry, we propose to look for the mixing probability itself, a quantity which, although CP-even, can originate only from a CP-odd amplitude. We show that, in general, the effect of such a mixing probability cannot be mimicked by (or be re-absorbed into) a simple redefinition of the H and A masses in the context of a CP-conserving model. Specifically, the effects of the CP-mixing are such that, either the mass-splitting of the H and A bosons cannot be accounted for in the absence of CP-mixing, and/or the detailed energy dependence of the produced lineshape is clearly different from the one obtained by redefining the masses, but not allowing any mixing. This analysis suggests that the detailed study of the lineshape of this Higgs system may provide valuable information on the CP nature of the underlying theory.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures; v2: added one reference; v3: radiative corrections taken into account, agreement now with CP-SuperH, conclusions unchanged. v3 matches the paper version accepted for publication in JHE

The role of ν\nu-induced reactions on lead and iron in neutrino detectors

We have calculated cross sections and branching ratios for neutrino induced reactions on ^{208}Pb and ^{56}Fe for various supernova and accelerator-relevant neutrino spectra. This was motivated by the facts that lead and iron will be used on one hand as target materials in future neutrino detectors, on the other hand have been and are still used as shielding materials in accelerator-based experiments. In particular we study the inclusive ^{56}$Fe(\nu_e,e^-)$^{56}Co and ^{208}$Pb(\nu_e,e^-)$^{208}Bi cross sections and calculate the neutron energy spectra following the decay of the daughter nuclei. These reactions give a potential background signal in the KARMEN and LSND experiment and are discussed as a detection scheme for supernova neutrinos in the proposed OMNIS and LAND detectors. We also study the neutron-emission following the neutrino-induced neutral-current excitation of ^{56}Fe and ^{208}Pb.Comment: 23 pages (including 7 figures

Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era

With its rapid-response capability and multiwavelength complement of instruments, the Swift satellite has transformed our physical understanding of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Providing high-quality observations of hundreds of bursts, and facilitating a wide range of follow-up observations within seconds of each event, Swift has revealed an unforeseen richness in observed burst properties, shed light on the nature of short-duration bursts, and helped realize the promise of GRBs as probes of the processes and environments of star formation out to the earliest cosmic epochs. These advances have opened new perspectives on the nature and properties of burst central engines, interactions with the burst environment from microparsec to gigaparsec scales, and the possibilities for non-photonic signatures. Our understanding of these extreme cosmic sources has thus advanced substantially; yet more than 40 years after their discovery, GRBs continue to present major challenges on both observational and theoretical fronts.Comment: 67 pages, 16 figures; ARAA, 2009; http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/toc/astro/47/

Diffuse supernova neutrinos: oscillation effects, stellar cooling and progenitor mass dependence

We estimate the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) using the recent progenitor-dependent, long-term supernova simulations from the Basel group and including neutrino oscillations at several post-bounce times. Assuming multi-angle matter suppression of collective effects during the accretion phase, we find that oscillation effects are dominated by the matter-driven MSW resonances, while neutrino-neutrino collective effects contribute at the 5-10% level. The impact of the neutrino mass hierarchy, of the time-dependent neutrino spectra and of the diverse progenitor star population is 10% or less, small compared to the uncertainty of at least 25% of the normalization of the supernova rate. Therefore, assuming that the sign of the neutrino mass hierarchy will be determined within the next decade, the future detection of the DSNB will deliver approximate information on the MSW-oscillated neutrino spectra. With a reliable model for neutrino emission, its detection will be a powerful instrument to provide complementary information on the star formation rate and for learning about stellar physics.Comment: 19 pages, including 4 figures and 1 table. Clarifying paragraphs added; results unchanged. Matches published version in JCA

NLO corrections to ultra-high energy neutrino-nucleon scattering, shadowing and small x

We reconsider the Standard Model interactions of ultra-high energy neutrinos with matter. The next to leading order QCD corrections are presented for charged-current and neutral-current processes. Contrary to popular expectations, these corrections are found to be quite substantial, especially for very large (anti-) neutrino energies. Hence, they need to be taken into account in any search for new physics effects in high-energy neutrino interactions. In our extrapolation of the parton densities to kinematical regions as yet unexplored directly in terrestrial accelerators, we are guided by double asymptotic scaling in the large Q^2 and small Bjorken x region and to models of saturation in the low Q^2 and low x regime. The sizes of the consequent uncertainties are commented upon. We also briefly discuss some variables which are insensitive to higher order QCD corrections and are hence suitable in any search for new physics.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX2e, uses JHEP3.cls (included), 8 ps files for figures published versio

The Inert Doublet Model and Inelastic Dark Matter

The annual modulation observed by DAMA/NaI and DAMA/Libra may be interpreted in terms of elastic or inelastic scattering of dark matter particles. In this paper we confront these two scenarios within the framework of a very simple extension of the Standard Model, the Inert Doublet Model (IDM). In this model the dark matter candidate is a scalar, the lightest component of an extra Higgs doublet. We first revisit the case for the elastic scattering of a light scalar WIMP, M_DM~10 GeV, a scenario which requires that a fraction of events in DAMA are channelled. Second we consider the possibility of inelastic Dark Matter (iDM). This option is technically natural in the IDM, in the sense that the mass splitting between the lightest and next-to-lightest neutral scalars may be protected by a Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry. We show that candidates with a mass M_DM between ~535 GeV and ~50 TeV may reproduce the DAMA data and have a cosmic abundance in agreement with WMAP. This range may be extended to candidates as light as ~50 GeV if we exploit the possibility that the approximate PQ symmetry is effectively conserved and that a primordial asymmetry in the dark sector may survive until freeze-out.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. v2: minor changes and discussion on the embedding in SO(10) added. v3: matches the published version in JCA

Dark Matter Direct Detection with Non-Maxwellian Velocity Structure

The velocity distribution function of dark matter particles is expected to show significant departures from a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. This can have profound effects on the predicted dark matter - nucleon scattering rates in direct detection experiments, especially for dark matter models in which the scattering is sensitive to the high velocity tail of the distribution, such as inelastic dark matter (iDM) or light (few GeV) dark matter (LDM), and for experiments that require high energy recoil events, such as many directionally sensitive experiments. Here we determine the velocity distribution functions from two of the highest resolution numerical simulations of Galactic dark matter structure (Via Lactea II and GHALO), and study the effects for these scenarios. For directional detection, we find that the observed departures from Maxwell-Boltzmann increase the contrast of the signal and change the typical direction of incoming DM particles. For iDM, the expected signals at direct detection experiments are changed dramatically: the annual modulation can be enhanced by more than a factor two, and the relative rates of DAMA compared to CDMS can change by an order of magnitude, while those compared to CRESST can change by a factor of two. The spectrum of the signal can also change dramatically, with many features arising due to substructure. For LDM the spectral effects are smaller, but changes do arise that improve the compatibility with existing experiments. We find that the phase of the modulation can depend upon energy, which would help discriminate against background should it be found.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figures, submitted to JCAP. Tables of g(v_min), the integral of f(v)/v from v_min to infinity, derived from our simulations, are available for download at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mqk/dmdd

Tests of Higgs Boson Couplings at a mu+mu- Collider

We investigate the potential of a muon collider for testing the presence of anomalous Higgs boson couplings. We consider the case of a light (less than $160 GeV$) Higgs boson and study the effects on the Higgs branching ratios and total width, which could be induced by the non standard couplings created by a class of dim=6 $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ gauge invariant operators satisfying the constraints imposed by the present and future hadronic and $e^-e^+$ colliders. For each operator we give the minimal value of the $\mu^+\mu^-$ integrated luminosity needed for the muon collider ($\mu C$) to improve these constraints. Depending on the operator and the Higgs mass, this minimal $\mu C$ luminosity lies between $0.1 fb^{-1}$ and $100 fb^{-1}$.Comment: 18 pages and 4 figures; version to be published in Phys. Rev.D. e-mail: [email protected]