Plasticity-Induced Magnetization in Amorphous Magnetic Solids

Amorphous magnetic solids, like metallic glasses, exhibit a novel effect: the growth of magnetic order as a function of mechanical strain under athermal conditions in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetic moment increases in steps whenever there is a plastic event. Thus plasticity induces the magnetic ordering, acting as the effective noise driving the system towards equilibrium. We present results of atomistic simulations of this effect in a model of a magnetic amorphous solid subjected to pure shear and a magnetic field. To elucidate the dependence on external strain and magnetic field we offer a mean-field theory that provides an adequate qualitative understanding of the observed phenomenon

Sensitivity to Z-prime and non-standard neutrino interactions from ultra-low threshold neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering

We discuss prospects for probing Z-prime and non-standard neutrino interactions using neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering with ultra-low energy (~ 10 eV) threshold Si and Ge detectors. The analysis is performed in the context of a specific and contemporary reactor-based experimental proposal, developed in cooperation with the Nuclear Science Center at Texas A&M University, and referencing available technology based upon economical and scalable detector arrays. For expected exposures, we show that sensitivity to the Z-prime mass is on the order of several TeV, and is complementary to the LHC search with low mass detectors in the near term. This technology is also shown to provide sensitivity to the neutrino magnetic moment, at a level that surpasses terrestrial limits, and is competitive with more stringent astrophysical bounds. We demonstrate the benefits of combining silicon and germanium detectors for distinguishing between classes of models of new physics, and for suppressing correlated systematic uncertainties.Comment: As published in PRD; 13 pages, 7 figure

Non-standard interactions of solar neutrinos in dark matter experiments

Non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) affect both their propagation through matter and their detection, with bounds on NSI parameters coming from various astrophysical and terrestrial neutrino experiments. In this paper, we show that NSI can be probed in future direct dark matter detection experiments through both elastic neutrino-electron scattering and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering, and that these channels provide complementary probes of NSI. We show NSI can increase the event rate due to solar neutrinos, with a sharp increase for lower nuclear recoil energy thresholds that are within reach for upcoming detectors. We also identify an interference range of NSI parameters for which the rate is reduced by approximately 40\%. Finally, we show that the "dark side" solution for the solar neutrino mixing angle may be discovered at forthcoming direct detection experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

The Leptoquark Implication from the CMS and IceCube Experiments

The recent excess in the CMS measurements of $eejj$ and $e\nu jj$ channels and the emergence of PeV comsic neutrino events at the IceCube experiment share an intriguing implication for a leptoquark with a 600-650 GeV mass. We investigate the CMS constraints on the flavor structure of a scenario with the minimal leptoquark Yukawa couplings and correlate such a scenario to the resonant enhancement in the very high energy shower event rates at the IceCube. We find for a single leptoquark, the CMS signals require large couplings to the third generation leptons. This leads to an enhancement in the $\nu_\tau$-nucleon scattering cross-section and subsequently more $\nu_\tau$ events at PeV energies. However, a visible enhancement above the Standard Model scattering would require a leptoquark Yukawa coupling larger than one that can be easily tested at the upcoming LHC runs.Comment: PRD version. Meson decay constraints and additional citations are added. 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Atomistic Simulations of Magnetic Amorphous Solids: Magnetostriction, Barkhausen noise and novel singularities

We present results of atomistic simulations of a new model of a magnetic amorphous solid subjected to external mechanical strains and magnetic fields. The model employed offers new perspectives on important effects like Barkhausen noise and magnetostriction. It is shown that the plastic response in such systems exhibit singularities characterized by unexpected exponents requiring careful theoretical reasoning. The spatial structure of the plastic events requires a new coarse grained elasto-magnetic theory which is provided here

No ν\nu floors: Effective field theory treatment of the neutrino background in direct dark matter detection experiments

Distinguishing a dark matter interaction from an astrophysical neutrino-induced interaction will be major challenge for future direct dark matter searches. In this paper, we consider this issue within non-relativistic Effective Field Theory (EFT), which provides a well-motivated theoretical framework for determining nuclear responses to dark matter scattering events. We analyze the nuclear energy recoil spectra from the different dark matter-nucleon EFT operators, and compare to the nuclear recoil energy spectra that is predicted to be induced by astrophysical neutrino sources. We determine that for 11 of the 14 possible operators, the dark matter-induced recoil spectra can be cleanly distinguished from the corresponding neutrino-induced recoil spectra with moderate size detector technologies that are now being pursued, e.g., these operators would require 0.5 tonne years to be distinguished from the neutrino background for low mass dark matter. Our results imply that in most models detectors with good energy resolution will be able to distinguish a dark matter signal from a neutrino signal, without the need for much larger detectors that must rely on additional information from timing or direction