Charged Current Neutrino Cross Section and Tau Energy Loss at Ultra-High Energies

We evaluate both the tau lepton energy loss produced by photonuclear interactions and the neutrino charged current cross section at ultra-high energies, relevant to neutrino bounds with Earth-skimming tau neutrinos, using different theoretical and phenomenological models for nucleon and nucleus structure functions. The theoretical uncertainty is estimated by taking different extrapolations of the structure function F2 to very low values of x, in the low and moderate Q2 range for the tau lepton interaction and at high Q2 for the neutrino-nucleus inelastic cross section. It is at these extremely low values of x where nuclear shadowing and parton saturation effects are unknown and could be stronger than usually considered. For tau and neutrino energies E=10^9 GeV we find uncertainties of a factor 4 for the tau energy loss and of a factor 2 for the charged current neutrino-nucleus cross section.Comment: 20 pages and 11 figure

On Inflation with Non-minimal Coupling

A simple realization of inflation consists of adding the following operators to the Einstein-Hilbert action: (partial phi)^2, lambda phi^4, and xi phi^2 R, with xi a large non-minimal coupling. Recently there has been much discussion as to whether such theories make sense quantum mechanically and if the inflaton phi can also be the Standard Model Higgs. In this note we answer these questions. Firstly, for a single scalar phi, we show that the quantum field theory is well behaved in the pure gravity and kinetic sectors, since the quantum generated corrections are small. However, the theory likely breaks down at ~ m_pl / xi due to scattering provided by the self-interacting potential lambda phi^4. Secondly, we show that the theory changes for multiple scalars phi with non-minimal coupling xi phi dot phi R, since this introduces qualitatively new interactions which manifestly generate large quantum corrections even in the gravity and kinetic sectors, spoiling the theory for energies > m_pl / xi. Since the Higgs doublet of the Standard Model includes the Higgs boson and 3 Goldstone bosons, it falls into the latter category and therefore its validity is manifestly spoiled. We show that these conclusions hold in both the Jordan and Einstein frames and describe an intuitive analogy in the form of the pion Lagrangian. We also examine the recent claim that curvature-squared inflation models fail quantum mechanically. Our work appears to go beyond the recent discussions.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. Version 2: Clarified findings and improved wording. Elaborated important sections and removed an unnecessary section. Added references. Version 3: Updated towards JHEP version. Version 4: Final JHEP versio

Performances and stability of a 2.4 ton Gd organic liquid scintillator target for antineutrino detection

In this work we report the performances and the chemical and physical properties of a (2 x 1.2) ton organic liquid scintillator target doped with Gd up to ~0.1%, and the results of a 2 year long stability survey. In particular we have monitored the amount of both Gd and primary fluor actually in solution, the optical and fluorescent properties of the Gd-doped liquid scintillator (GdLS) and its performances as a neutron detector, namely neutron capture efficiency and average capture time. The experimental survey is ongoing, the target being continuously monitored. After two years from the doping time the performances of the Gd-doped liquid scintillator do not show any hint of degradation and instability; this conclusion comes both from the laboratory measurements and from the "in-tank" measurements. This is the largest stable Gd-doped organic liquid scintillator target ever produced and continuously operated for a long period

Tau energy losses at ultra-high energy: continuous versus stochastic treatment

We study the energy losses of the tau lepton in matter through electromagnetic processes at ultra-high energy (UHE). We use both a stochastic and a continuous framework to treat these interactions and compare the flux of tau leptons propagated after some amount of matter. We discuss the accuracy of the approximation of continuous energy losses by studying the propagation in standard rock of taus with both mono-energetic and power law injection spectra.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Comment on Higgs Inflation and Naturalness

We rebut the recent claim (arXiv:0912.5463) that Einstein-frame scattering in the Higgs inflation model is unitary above the cut-off energy Lambda ~ Mp/xi. We show explicitly how unitarity problems arise in both the Einstein and Jordan frames of the theory. In a covariant gauge they arise from non-minimal Higgs self-couplings, which cannot be removed by field redefinitions because the target space is not flat. In unitary gauge, where there is only a single scalar which can be redefined to achieve canonical kinetic terms, the unitarity problems arise through non-minimal Higgs-gauge couplings.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure V3: Journal Versio

Embedding (R+R^2)-Inflation into Supergravity

We find the natural embedding of the (R+R^2)-inflationary model into the recently constructed N=1 F(\cal R)-supergravity. It gives a simple and viable realization of chaotic inflation in supergravity. The only requirement for a slow-roll inflation is the existence of the (\cal R)^3-term with an anomalously large coefficient in Taylor expansion of the F(\cal R) function, where \cal R is the covariantly-chiral scalar supercurvature superfield.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, no figures (very minor additions, a reference added

The Cosmic Ray Muon Flux at WIPP

In this work a measurement of the muon intensity at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, NM, USA is presented. WIPP is a salt mine with a depth of 655 m. The vertical muon flux was measured with a two panels scintillator coincidence setup to Phi_{vert}=3.10(+0.05/-0.07)*10^(-7)s^(-1)cm^(-2)sr^(-1).Comment: 18 pages, p figure

Implication of Compensator Field and Local Scale Invariance in the Standard Model

We introduce Weyl's scale symmetry into the standard model (SM) as a local symmetry. This necessarily introduces gravitational interactions in addition to the local scale invariance group \tilde U(1) and the SM groups SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1). The only other new ingredients are a new scalar field \sigma and the gauge field for \tilde U(1) we call the Weylon. A noteworthy feature is that the system admits the St\" uckelberg-type compensator. The \sigma couples to the scalar curvature as (-\zeta/2) \sigma^2 R, and is in turn related to a St\" uckelberg-type compensator \varphi by \sigma \equiv M_P e^{-\varphi/M_P} with the Planck mass M_P. The particular gauge \varphi = 0 in the St\" uckelberg formalism corresponds to \sigma = M_P, and the Hilbert action is induced automatically. In this sense, our model presents yet another mechanism for breaking scale invariance at the classical level. We show that our model naturally accommodates the chaotic inflation scenario with no extra field.Comment: This work is to be read in conjunction with our recent comments hep-th/0702080, arXiv:0704.1836 [hep-ph] and arXiv:0712.2487 [hep-ph]. The necessary ingredients for describing chaotic inflation in the SM as entertained by Bezrukov and Shaposhnikov [17] have been provided by our original model [8]. We regret their omission in citing our original model [8

Muon-Induced Background Study for Underground Laboratories

We provide a comprehensive study of the cosmic-ray muon flux and induced activity as a function of overburden along with a convenient parameterization of the salient fluxes and differential distributions for a suite of underground laboratories ranging in depth from $\sim$1 to 8 km.w.e.. Particular attention is given to the muon-induced fast neutron activity for the underground sites and we develop a Depth-Sensitivity-Relation to characterize the effect of such background in experiments searching for WIMP dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay.Comment: 18 pages, 28 figure