Black holes and Higgs stability

We study the effect of primordial black holes on the classical rate of nucleation of AdS regions within the standard electroweak vacuum. We find that the energy barrier for transitions to the new vacuum, which characterizes the exponential suppression of the nucleation rate, can be reduced significantly in the black-hole background. A precise analysis is required in order to determine whether the the existence of primordial black holes is compatible with the form of the Higgs potential at high temperature or density in the Standard Model or its extensions.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, conclusions expanded, to appear in JCA

Determination of the freeze-out temperature by the isospin thermometer

The high-resolution spectrometer FRS at GSI Darmstadt provides the full isotopic and kinematical identification of fragmentation residues in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Recent measurements of the isotopic distribution of heavy projectile fragments led to a very surprising new physical finding: the residue production does not lose the memory of the N/Z of the projectile ending up in a universal de-excitation corridor; an ordering of the residues in relation to the neutron excess of the projectile has been observed. These unexpected features can be interpreted as a new manifestation of multifragmentation. We have found that at the last stage of the reaction the temperature of the big clusters subjected to evaporation is limited to a universal value. The thermometer to measure this limiting temperature is the neutron excess of the residues.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, corrected some misprints in the abstract, to be published in "Yadernaya Fizika" as a proceeding of the "VII International School Seminar on Heavy-Ion Phyics", Dubna (Russia), May 27 - June 1, 200

Neutrino propagation in a random magnetic field

The active-sterile neutrino conversion probability is calculated for neutrino propagating in a medium in the presence of random magnetic field fluctuations. Necessary condition for the probability to be positive definite is obtained. Using this necessary condition we put constraint on the neutrino magnetic moment from active-sterile electron neutrino conversion in the early universe hot plasma and in supernova.Comment: 11 page

On the sign of the neutrino asymmetry induced by active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early Universe

We deal with the problem of the final sign of the neutrino asymmetry generated by active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the Early Universe solving the full momentum dependent quantum kinetic equations. We study the parameter region $10^{-2} \stackrel{<}{\sim} |\delta m^2|/eV^2\le 10^3$. For a large range of $\sin^2 2\theta_0$ values the sign of the neutrino asymmetry is fixed and does not oscillate. For values of mixing parameters in the region $10^{-6}\stackrel{<}{\sim}\sin^{2}2\theta_{0}\stackrel{<}{\sim} 3\times 10^{-4} ({\rm eV}^{2}/|\delta m^{2}|)$, the neutrino asymmetry appears to undergo rapid oscillations during the period where the exponential growth occurs. Our numerical results indicate that the oscillations are able to change the neutrino asymmetry sign. The sensitivity of the solutions and in particular of the final sign of lepton number to small changes in the initial conditions depends whether the number of oscillations is high enough. It is however not possible to conclude whether this effect is induced by the presence of a numerical error or is an intrinsic feature. As the amplitude of the statistical fluctuations is much lower than the numerical error, our numerical analysis cannot demonstrate the possibility of a chaotical generation of lepton domains. In any case this possibility is confined to a special region in the space of mixing parameters and it cannot spoil the compatibility of the $\nu_{\mu}\leftrightarrow\nu_{s}$ solution to the neutrino atmospheric data obtained assuming a small mixing of the $\nu_{s}$ with an ${\rm eV}-\tau$ neutrino.Comment: Typo's corrected, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

A non-Gaussian landscape

Primordial perturbations with wavelengths greater than the observable universe shift the effective background fields in our observable patch from their global averages over the inflating space. This leads to a landscape picture where the properties of our observable patch depend on its location and may significantly differ from the expectation values predicted by the underlying fundamental inflationary model. We show that if multiple fields are present during inflation, this may happen even if our horizon exit would be preceded by only a few e-foldings of inflation. Non-Gaussian statistics are especially affected: for example models of local non-Gaussianity predicting |f_NL|>> 10 over the entire inflating volume can have a probability up to a few tens of percent to generate a non-detectable bispectrum in our observable patch |fNL^{obs.}|<10. In this work we establish systematic connections between the observable local properties of primordial perturbations and the global properties of the inflating space which reflect the underlying high energy physics. We study in detail the implications of both a detection and non-detection of primordial non-Gaussianity by Planck, and discover novel ways of characterising the naturalness of different observational configurations

Transient effects in fission evidenced from new experimental signatures

A new experimental approach is introduced to investigate the relaxation of the nuclear deformation degrees of freedom. Highly excited fissioning systems with compact shapes and low angular momenta are produced in peripheral relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Both fission fragments are identified in atomic number. Fission cross sections and fission-fragment element distributions are determined as a function of the fissioning element. From the comparison of these new observables with a nuclear-reaction code a value for the transient time is deduced.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, background information at http://www-w2k.gsi.de/kschmidt

Measurement of nuclide cross-sections of spallation residues in 1 A GeV 238U + proton collisions

The production of heavy nuclides from the spallation-evaporation reaction of 238U induced by 1 GeV protons was studied in inverse kinematics. The evaporation residues from tungsten to uranium were identified in-flight in mass and atomic number. Their production cross-sections and their momentum distributions were determined. The data are compared with empirical systematics. A comparison with previous results from the spallation of 208Pb and 197Au reveals the strong influence of fission in the spallation of 238U.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, background information at http://www-wnt.gsi.de/kschmidt

Sterile Neutrinos as Dark Matter

The simplest model that can accomodate a viable nonbaryonic dark matter candidate is the standard electroweak theory with the addition of right-handed or sterile neutrinos. We reexamine this model and find that the sterile neutrinos can be either hot, warm, or cold dark matter. Since their only direct coupling is to left-handed or active neutrinos, the most efficient production mechanism is via neutrino oscillations. If the production rate is always less than the expansion rate, then these neutrinos will never be in thermal equilibrium. However, enough of them may be produced so that they provide the missing mass necessary for closure. We consider a single generation of neutrino fields $\left (\nu_L,\,\nu_R\right )$ with a Dirac mass, $\mu$, and a Majorana mass for the right-handed components only, $M$. For $M\gg \mu$ we show that the number density of sterile neutrinos is proportional to $\mu^2/M$ so that the energy density today is {\it independent of} $M$. However $M$ is crucial in determining the large scale structure of the Universe. In particular, $M\simeq 0.1-1.0 {\rm ~keV}$ leads to warm dark matter and a structure formation scenario that may have some advantages over both the standard hot and cold dark matter scenarios.Comment: 10 pages (1 figure available upon request) phyzzx, FERMILAB-Pub-93/057-