216 research outputs found
Supernova Neutrinos and the LSND Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations
The observation of the energy spectrum from a supernova burst
can provide constraints on neutrino oscillations. We derive formulas for
adiabatic oscillations of supernova antineutrinos for a variety of 3- and
4-neutrino mixing schemes and mass hierarchies which are consistent with the
LSND evidence for oscillations.
Finally, we explore the constraints on these models and LSND given by the
supernova SN1987A 's observed by the Kamiokande-2 and IMB-3
detectors.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Changes with respect to original version:
appendix added; minor changes in text, figures, reference
Nuclear Parton Distribution Functions
We study nuclear effects of charged current deep inelastic neutrino-iron
scattering in the framework of a chi^2 analysis of parton distribution
functions (PDFs). We extract a set of iron PDFs which are used to compute
x_Bj-dependent and Q^2-dependent nuclear correction factors for iron structure
functions which are required in global analyses of free nucleon PDFs. We
compare our results with nuclear correction factors from neutrino-nucleus
scattering models and correction factors for charged-lepton--iron scattering.
We find that, except for very high x_Bj, our correction factors differ in both
shape and magnitude from the correction factors of the models and
charged-lepton scattering.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Ringberg
Workshop "New Trends in HERA Physics 2008
Low energy electron/recoil discrimination for directional Dark Matter detection
Directional detection is a promising Dark Matter search strategy. Even though
it could accommodate to a sizeable background contamination, electron/recoil
discrimination remains a key and challenging issue as for direction-insensitive
detectors. The measurement of the 3D track may be used to discriminate
electrons from nuclear recoils. While a high rejection power is expected above
20 keV ionization, a dedicated data analysis is needed at low energy. After
identifying discriminant observables, a multivariate analysis, namely a Boosted
Decision Tree, is proposed, enabling an efficient event tagging for Dark Matter
search. We show that it allows us to optimize rejection while keeping a rather
high efficiency which is compulsory for rare event search.With respect to a
sequential analysis, the rejection is about 20 times higher with a multivariate
analysis, for the same Dark Matter exclusion limit.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figure
The ZZ' kinetic mixing in the light of the recent direct and indirect dark matter searches
Several constructions, of stringy origins or not, generate abelian gauge
extensions of the Standard Model (SM). Even if the particles of the SM are not
charged under this extra , one cannot avoid the presence of a kinetic
mixing between and the hypercharge . In this work, we
constraint drastically this kinetic mixing, taking into account the recent
experimental data from accelerator physics, direct detection and indirect
detection of dark matter. We show that the region respecting WMAP and
experimental constraints is now very narrowed along the pole line where
, being the gauge boson associated to the extra
.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, final version to appear in JCA
Functional outcomes in adult patients with herpes simplex encephalitis admitted to the ICU: a multicenter cohort study
PURPOSE: We aimed to study the association of body temperature and other admission factors with outcomes of herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) adult patients requiring ICU admission.
METHODS: We conducted a retrospective multicenter study on patients diagnosed with HSE in 47 ICUs in France, between 2007 and 2017. Fever was defined as a body temperature higher or equal to 38.3 °C. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with poor outcome at 90 days, defined by a score of 3-6 (indicating moderate-to-severe disability or death) on the modified Rankin scale.
RESULTS: Overall, 259 patients with a score on the Glasgow coma scale of 9 (6-12) and a body temperature of 38.7 (38.1-39.2) °C at admission were studied. At 90 days, 185 (71%) patients had a poor outcome, including 44 (17%) deaths. After adjusting for age, fever (OR = 2.21; 95% CI 1.18-4.16), mechanical ventilation (OR = 2.21; 95% CI 1.21-4.03), and MRI brain lesions > 3 lobes (OR = 3.04; 95% CI 1.35-6.81) were independently associated with poor outcome. By contrast, a direct ICU admission, as compared to initial admission to the hospital wards (i.e., indirect ICU admission), was protective (OR = 0.52; 95% CI 0.28-0.95). Sensitivity analyses performed after adjustment for functional status before admission and reason for ICU admission yielded similar results.
CONCLUSIONS: In HSE adult patients requiring ICU admission, several admission factors are associated with an increased risk of poor functional outcome. The identification of potentially modifiable factors, namely, elevated admission body temperature and indirect ICU admission, provides an opportunity for testing further intervention strategies
Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation in Clusters of Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Nearby clusters and groups of galaxies are potentially bright sources of
high-energy gamma-ray emission resulting from the pair-annihilation of dark
matter particles. However, no significant gamma-ray emission has been detected
so far from clusters in the first 11 months of observations with the Fermi
Large Area Telescope. We interpret this non-detection in terms of constraints
on dark matter particle properties. In particular for leptonic annihilation
final states and particle masses greater than ~200 GeV, gamma-ray emission from
inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons is expected to dominate the dark
matter annihilation signal from clusters, and our gamma-ray limits exclude
large regions of the parameter space that would give a good fit to the recent
anomalous Pamela and Fermi-LAT electron-positron measurements. We also present
constraints on the annihilation of more standard dark matter candidates, such
as the lightest neutralino of supersymmetric models. The constraints are
particularly strong when including the fact that clusters are known to contain
substructure at least on galaxy scales, increasing the expected gamma-ray flux
by a factor of ~5 over a smooth-halo assumption. We also explore the effect of
uncertainties in cluster dark matter density profiles, finding a systematic
uncertainty in the constraints of roughly a factor of two, but similar overall
conclusions. In this work, we focus on deriving limits on dark matter models; a
more general consideration of the Fermi-LAT data on clusters and clusters as
gamma-ray sources is forthcoming.Comment: accepted to JCAP, Corresponding authors: T.E. Jeltema and S. Profumo,
minor revisions to be consistent with accepted versio
Dark Matter and Fundamental Physics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a project for a next-generation
observatory for very high energy (GeV-TeV) ground-based gamma-ray astronomy,
currently in its design phase, and foreseen to be operative a few years from
now. Several tens of telescopes of 2-3 different sizes, distributed over a
large area, will allow for a sensitivity about a factor 10 better than current
instruments such as H.E.S.S, MAGIC and VERITAS, an energy coverage from a few
tens of GeV to several tens of TeV, and a field of view of up to 10 deg. In the
following study, we investigate the prospects for CTA to study several science
questions that influence our current knowledge of fundamental physics. Based on
conservative assumptions for the performance of the different CTA telescope
configurations, we employ a Monte Carlo based approach to evaluate the
prospects for detection. First, we discuss CTA prospects for cold dark matter
searches, following different observational strategies: in dwarf satellite
galaxies of the Milky Way, in the region close to the Galactic Centre, and in
clusters of galaxies. The possible search for spatial signatures, facilitated
by the larger field of view of CTA, is also discussed. Next we consider
searches for axion-like particles which, besides being possible candidates for
dark matter may also explain the unexpectedly low absorption by extragalactic
background light of gamma rays from very distant blazars. Simulated
light-curves of flaring sources are also used to determine the sensitivity to
violations of Lorentz Invariance by detection of the possible delay between the
arrival times of photons at different energies. Finally, we mention searches
for other exotic physics with CTA.Comment: (31 pages, Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics
Observation of the decay \psip\rar\kstark
Using 14 million events collected with the BESII detector,
branching fractions of \psip\rar\kstarkpm and \kstarknn are determined to
be: \calB(\psip\rar\kstarkpm)=(2.9^{+1.3}_{-1.7}\pm0.4)\times 10^{-5} and
\calB(\psip\rar\kstarknn)=(13.3^{+2.4}_{-2.7}\pm1.9)\times 10^{-5}. The
results confirm the violation of the "12%" rule for these two decay channels
with higher precision. A large isospin violation between the charged and
neutral modes is observed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Adsorption of mono- and multivalent cat- and anions on DNA molecules
Adsorption of monovalent and multivalent cat- and anions on a deoxyribose
nucleic acid (DNA) molecule from a salt solution is investigated by computer
simulation. The ions are modelled as charged hard spheres, the DNA molecule as
a point charge pattern following the double-helical phosphate strands. The
geometrical shape of the DNA molecules is modelled on different levels ranging
from a simple cylindrical shape to structured models which include the major
and minor grooves between the phosphate strands. The densities of the ions
adsorbed on the phosphate strands, in the major and in the minor grooves are
calculated. First, we find that the adsorption pattern on the DNA surface
depends strongly on its geometrical shape: counterions adsorb preferentially
along the phosphate strands for a cylindrical model shape, but in the minor
groove for a geometrically structured model. Second, we find that an addition
of monovalent salt ions results in an increase of the charge density in the
minor groove while the total charge density of ions adsorbed in the major
groove stays unchanged. The adsorbed ion densities are highly structured along
the minor groove while they are almost smeared along the major groove.
Furthermore, for a fixed amount of added salt, the major groove cationic charge
is independent on the counterion valency. For increasing salt concentration the
major groove is neutralized while the total charge adsorbed in the minor groove
is constant. DNA overcharging is detected for multivalent salt. Simulations for
a larger ion radii, which mimic the effect of the ion hydration, indicate an
increased adsorbtion of cations in the major groove.Comment: 34 pages with 14 figure
On velocity-dependent dark matter annihilations in dwarf satellites
Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellites are a prime target for Dark Matter (DM) indirect searches. Recently the importance of possible long-range interactions has been recognized, as they can boost the expected DM gamma ray signal by orders of magnitude through an effect commonly known as the Sommerfeld enhancement. However, for such analyses precise modelling of DM phase-space distribution becomes crucial and can introduce large uncertainties in the final result. We provide a pioneering attempt towards a comprehensive investigation of these systematics. First, the DM halo profiles are constrained using Bayesian inference on the available stellar kinematic datasets with a careful treatment of observational and theoretical uncertainties. We consider both cuspy and cored parametric DM density profiles, together with the case of a non-parametric halo modelling directly connected to observable quantities along the line-of-sight. After reconsidering the study case of ergodic systems, the basic ingredient of all previous analyses, we investigate for the first time scenarios where DM particles are allowed to have anisotropic velocity distributions. Referring to a generalized J-factor, sensitive to velocity-dependent effects, an enhancement (suppression) with respect to the isotropic phase-space distributions is obtained for the case of tangentially (radially) biased DM particle orbits. We provide new estimates for J-factors for the eight brightest Milky Way dwarfs also in the limit of velocity-independent DM annihilation, in good agreement with previous results in literature, and derive data-driven lower-bounds based on the non-parametric modelling of the halo density. This work presents a state-of-the-art analysis of the aforementioned effects and falls within the interest of current and future experimental collaborations involved in DM indirect detection programs
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