8,458 research outputs found
First search for double-beta decay of 184Os and 192Os
A search for double-beta decay of osmium has been realized for the first time
with the help of an ultra-low background HPGe gamma detector at the underground
Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the INFN (Italy). After 2741 h of data
taking with a 173 g ultra-pure osmium sample limits on double-beta processes in
184Os have been established at the level of T_{1/2} about 10^{14}-10^{17} yr.
Possible resonant double-electron captures in 184Os were searched for with a
sensitivity T_{1/2} about 10^{16} yr. A half-life limit T_{1/2} > 5.3 10^{19}
yr was set for the double-beta decay of 192Os to the first excited level of
192Pt. The radiopurity of the osmium sample has been investigated and
radionuclides 137Cs, 185Os and 207Bi were detected in the sample, while
activities of 40K, 60Co, 226Ra and 232Th were limited at the mBq/kg level.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 2 table
Instantons in N=2 magnetized D-brane worlds
In a toroidal orbifold of type IIB string theory we study instanton effects
in N=2 super Yang-Mills theories engineered with systems of wrapped magnetized
D9 branes and Euclidean D5 branes. We analyze the various open string sectors
in this brane system and study the 1-loop amplitudes described by annulus
diagrams with mixed boundary conditions, explaining their role in the stringy
instanton calculus. We show in particular that the non-holomorphic terms in
these annulus amplitudes precisely reconstruct the appropriate Kahler metric
factors that are needed to write the instanton correlators in terms of purely
holomorphic variables. We also explicitly derive the correct holomorphic
structure of the instanton induced low energy effective action in the Coulomb
branch.Comment: 40 pages, 5 figures, JHEP class. Some footnotes added and typos
corrected. Version published in JHE
Instanton effects in N=1 brane models and the Kahler metric of twisted matter
We consider locally consistent systems of magnetized D9 branes on an
orbifolded six-torus which support N=1 gauge theories. In such realizations,
the matter multiplets arise from "twisted" strings connecting different stacks
of branes. The introduction of Euclidean 5 branes (E5) wrapped on the
six-dimensional compact space leads to instanton effects. For instance, if the
system is engineered so as to yield SQCD, a single E5 brane may account for the
ADS/TVY superpotential. We discuss the subtle interplay that exists between the
annuli diagrams with an E5 boundary and the holomorphicity properties of the
effective low-energy action of the N=1 theory. The consistency of this picture
allows to obtain information on the Kahler metric of the chiral matter
multiplets arising from twisted strings.Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures. V2: improved discussion, clarifyng comments and
references added. Version to be published in JHE
Quantitative determination of spin-dependent quasiparticle lifetimes and electronic correlations in hcp cobalt
We report on a quantitative investigation of the spin-dependent quasiparticle
lifetimes and electron correlation effects in ferromagnetic hcp Co(0001) by
means of spin and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The experimental
spectra are compared in detail to state-of-the-art many-body calculations
within the dynamical mean field theory and the three-body scattering
approximation, including a full calculation of the one-step photoemission
process. From this comparison we conclude that although strong local many-body
Coulomb interactions are of major importance for the qualitative description of
correlation effects in Co, more sophisticated many-body calculations are needed
in order to improve the quantitative agreement between theory and experiment,
in particular concerning the linewidths. The quality of the overall agreement
obtained for Co indicates that the effect of non-local correlations becomes
weaker with increasing atomic number
Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: I. A global model for the broadband spectral energy distribution
An extensive multi-satellite campaign on NGC 5548 has revealed this
archetypal Seyfert-1 galaxy to be in an exceptional state of persistent heavy
absorption. Our observations taken in 2013-2014 with XMM-Newton, Swift, NuSTAR,
INTEGRAL, Chandra, HST and two ground-based observatories have together enabled
us to establish that this unexpected phenomenon is caused by an outflowing
stream of weakly ionised gas (called the obscurer), extending from the vicinity
of the accretion disk to the broad-line region. In this work we present the
details of our campaign and the data obtained by all the observatories. We
determine the spectral energy distribution of NGC 5548 from near-infrared to
hard X-rays by establishing the contribution of various emission and absorption
processes taking place along our line of sight towards the central engine. We
thus uncover the intrinsic emission and produce a broadband continuum model for
both obscured (average summer 2013 data) and unobscured ( 2011) epochs of
NGC 5548. Our results suggest that the intrinsic NIR/optical/UV continuum is a
single Comptonised component with its higher energy tail creating the 'soft
X-ray excess'. This component is compatible with emission from a warm,
optically-thick corona as part of the inner accretion disk. We then investigate
the effects of the continuum on the ionisation balance and thermal stability of
photoionised gas for unobscured and obscured epochs.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 19 pages, 13 figure
Intrinsic neutron background of nuclear emulsions for directional Dark Matter searches
Recent developments of the nuclear emulsion technology led to the production of films with nanometric silver halide grains suitable to track low energy nuclear recoils with submicrometric length. This improvement opens the way to a directional Dark Matter detection, thus providing an innovative and complementary approach to the on-going WIMP searches. An important background source for these searches is represented by neutron-induced nuclear recoils that can mimic the WIMP signal. In this paper we provide an estimation of the contribution to this background from the intrinsic radioactive contamination of nuclear emulsions. We also report the neutron-induced background as a function of the read-out threshold, by using a GEANT4 simulation of the nuclear emulsion, showing that it amounts to about 0.06 per year per kilogram, fully compatible with the design of a 10 kg Ă— year exposure
Probabilistic Model-Based Safety Analysis
Model-based safety analysis approaches aim at finding critical failure
combinations by analysis of models of the whole system (i.e. software,
hardware, failure modes and environment). The advantage of these methods
compared to traditional approaches is that the analysis of the whole system
gives more precise results. Only few model-based approaches have been applied
to answer quantitative questions in safety analysis, often limited to analysis
of specific failure propagation models, limited types of failure modes or
without system dynamics and behavior, as direct quantitative analysis is uses
large amounts of computing resources. New achievements in the domain of
(probabilistic) model-checking now allow for overcoming this problem.
This paper shows how functional models based on synchronous parallel
semantics, which can be used for system design, implementation and qualitative
safety analysis, can be directly re-used for (model-based) quantitative safety
analysis. Accurate modeling of different types of probabilistic failure
occurrence is shown as well as accurate interpretation of the results of the
analysis. This allows for reliable and expressive assessment of the safety of a
system in early design stages
A fast and long-lived outflow from the supermassive black hole in NGC 5548
Supermassive black holes in the nuclei of active galaxies expel large amounts
of matter through powerful winds of ionized gas. The archetypal active galaxy
NGC 5548 has been studied for decades, and high-resolution X-ray and UV
observations have previously shown a persistent ionized outflow. An observing
campaign in 2013 with six space observatories shows the nucleus to be obscured
by a long-lasting, clumpy stream of ionized gas never seen before. It blocks
90% of the soft X-ray emission and causes simultaneous deep, broad UV
absorption troughs. The outflow velocities of this gas are up to five times
faster than those in the persistent outflow, and at a distance of only a few
light days from the nucleus, it may likely originate from the accretion disk.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures. This is the author's version of the work. It is
posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for
redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science,
electronically available at Science Express (June 19, 2014). For a brief
video explaining the key results of this paper, please visit
http://www.issibern.ch/teams/ngc5548/?page_id=2
Polyakov loop correlators from D0-brane interactions in bosonic string theory
In this paper we re-derive the effective Nambu-Goto theory result for the
Polyakov loop correlator, starting from the free bosonic string and using a
covariant quantization. The boundary conditions are those of an open string
attached to two D0-branes at spatial distance R, in a target space with compact
euclidean time. The one-loop free energy contains topologically distinct
sectors corresponding to multiple covers of the cylinder in target space
bordered by the Polyakov loops. The sector that winds once reproduces exactly
the Nambu-Goto partition function. In our approach, the world-sheet duality
between the open and closed channel is most evident and allows for an explicit
interpretation of the free energy in terms of tree level exchange of closed
strings between boundary states. Our treatment is fully consistent only in
d=26; extension to generic d may be justified for large R, and is supported by
Montecarlo data. At shorter scales, consistency and Montecarlo data seem to
suggest the necessity of taking into account the Liouville mode of Polyakov's
formulation.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, minor corrections, a few references added,
version accepted for publication in JHE
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