Equation of state of sticky-hard-sphere fluids in the chemical-potential route

The coupling-parameter method, whereby an extra particle is progressively coupled to the rest of the particles, is applied to the sticky-hard-sphere fluid to obtain its equation of state in the so-called chemical-potential route ($\mu$ route). As a consistency test, the results for one-dimensional sticky particles are shown to be exact. Results corresponding to the three-dimensional case (Baxter's model) are derived within the Percus-Yevick approximation by using different prescriptions for the dependence of the interaction potential of the extra particle on the coupling parameter. The critical point and the coexistence curve of the gas-liquid phase transition are obtained in the $\mu$ route and compared with predictions from other thermodynamics routes and from computer simulations. The results show that the $\mu$ route yields a general better description than the virial, energy, compressibility, and zero-separation routes.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; v2: Results from the zero-separation route have been adde

Chemical-potential route for multicomponent fluids

The chemical potentials of multicomponent fluids are derived in terms of the pair correlation functions for arbitrary number of components, interaction potentials, and dimensionality. The formally exact result is particularized to hard-sphere mixtures with zero or positive nonadditivity. As a simple application, the chemical potentials of three-dimensional additive hard-sphere mixtures are derived from the Percus-Yevick theory and the associated equation of state is obtained. This Percus-Yevick chemical-route equation of state is shown to be more accurate than the virial equation of state. An interpolation between the chemical-potential and compressibility routes exhibits a better performance than the well-known Boubl\'ik-Mansoori-Carnahan-Starling-Leland equation of state.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor change

Directional detection of galactic dark matter

Directional detection is a promising Dark Matter search strategy. Taking advantage on the rotation of the Solar system around the galactic center through the Dark Matter halo, it allows to show a direction dependence of WIMP events that may be a powerful tool to identify genuine WIMP events as such. Directional detection strategy requires the simultaneous measurement of the energy and the 3D track of low energy recoils, which is a common challenge for all current projects of directional detectors.Comment: Proceedings of UCLA Dark Matter 2012, 10th Symposium on Sources and Detection of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe, Marina del Rey Marriott, CA, USA, February 22-24, 201

Exact solution of the Percus-Yevick integral equation for fluid mixtures of hard hyperspheres

Structural and thermodynamic properties of multicomponent hard-sphere fluids at odd dimensions have recently been derived in the framework of the rational function approximation (RFA) [Rohrmann and Santos, Phys. Rev. E \textbf{83}, 011201 (2011)]. It is demonstrated here that the RFA technique yields the exact solution of the Percus-Yevick (PY) closure to the Ornstein-Zernike (OZ) equation for binary mixtures at arbitrary odd dimensions. The proof relies mainly on the Fourier transforms $\hat{c}_{ij}(k)$ of the direct correlation functions defined by the OZ relation. From the analysis of the poles of $\hat{c}_{ij}(k)$ we show that the direct correlation functions evaluated by the RFA method vanish outside the hard core, as required by the PY theory.Comment: 6 page

Directional Detection of Dark Matter with MIMAC

Directional detection is a promising search strategy to discover galactic Dark Matter. We present a Bayesian analysis framework dedicated to Dark Matter phenomenology using directional detection. The interest of directional detection as a powerful tool to set exclusion limits, to authentify a Dark Matter detection or to constrain the Dark Matter properties, both from particle physics and galactic halo physics, will be demonstrated. However, such results need highly accurate track reconstruction which should be reachable by the MIMAC detector using a dedicated readout combined with a likelihood analysis of recoiling nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the TAUP 2011 conference held in Munich (5 - 9 September, 2011

Elodie metallicity-biased search for transiting Hot Jupiters I. Two Hot Jupiters orbiting the slightly evolved stars HD118203 and HD149143

We report the discovery of a new planet candidate orbiting the subgiant star HD118203 with a period of P=6.1335 days. The best Keplerian solution yields an eccentricity e=0.31 and a minimum mass m2sin(i)=2.1MJup for the planet. This star has been observed with the ELODIE fiber-fed spectrograph as one of the targets in our planet-search programme biased toward high-metallicity stars, on-going since March 2004 at the Haute-Provence Observatory. An analysis of the spectroscopic line profiles using line bisectors revealed no correlation between the radial velocities and the line-bisector orientations, indicating that the periodic radial-velocity signal is best explained by the presence of a planet-mass companion. A linear trend is observed in the residuals around the orbital solution that could be explained by the presence of a second companion in a longer-period orbit. We also present here our orbital solution for another slightly evolved star in our metal-rich sample, HD149143, recently proposed to host a 4-d period Hot Jupiter by the N2K consortium. Our solution yields a period P=4.09 days, a marginally significant eccentricity e=0.08 and a planetary minimum mass of 1.36MJup. We checked that the shape of the spectral lines does not vary for this star as well.Comment: Accepted in A&A (6 pages, 6 figures

Higher order self-dual models for spin-3 particles in D=2+1D=2+1

In $D=2+1$ dimensions, elementary particles of a given helicity can be described by local Lagrangians (parity singlets). By means of a "soldering" procedure two opposite helicities can be joined together and give rise to massive spin-$s$ particles carrying both helicities $\pm s$ (parity doublets), such Lagrangians can also be used in $D=3+1$ to describe massive spin-$s$ particles. From this point of view the parity singlets (self-dual models) in $D=2+1$ are the building blocks of real massive elementary particles in $D=3+1$. In the three cases $s=1,\, 3/2,\, 2$ there are $2s$ self-dual models of order $1,2, \cdots, 2s$ in derivatives. In the spin-3 case the 5th order model is missing in the literature. Here we deduce a 5th order spin-3 self-dual model and fill up this gap. It is shown to be ghost free by means of a master action which relates it with the top model of 6th order. We believe that our approach can be generalized to arbitrary integer spin-$s$ in order to obtain the models of order $2s$ and $2s-1$. We also comment on the difficulties in relating the 5th order model with their lower order duals