A method for rapidly evaluating the linearity of calibration data

Simple technique determines whether or not a set of five data points lies within a specified close tolerance of a linear fit

Neutrino oscillations and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

We outline how relic neutrino asymmetries may be generated in the early universe via active-sterile neutrino oscillations. We discuss possible consequences for big bang nucleosynthesis, within the context of a particular 4-neutrino model.Comment: 6 pages. Talk given at NuFACT'01 workshop, Tsukuba, Japan (May 2001

Dark Radiation or Warm Dark Matter from long lived particle decays in the light of Planck

Although Planck data supports the standard \Lambda CDM model, it still allows for the presence of Dark Radiation corresponding up to about half an extra standard neutrino species. We propose a scenario for obtaining a fractional "effective neutrino species" from a thermally produced particle which decays into a much lighter stable relic plus standard fermions. At lifetimes much longer than 1 sec, both the relic particles and the non-thermal neutrino component contribute to Dark Radiation. By increasing the stable-to-unstable particle mass ratio, the relic particle no longer acts as Dark Radiation but instead becomes a candidate for Warm Dark Matter with mass O(1keV - 100GeV). In both cases it is possible to address the lithium problem.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures; v3 matches version to be published in PL

Leptogenesis within a generalized quark-lepton symmetry

Quark-lepton symmetry has been shown to be inconsistent with baryogenesis via leptogenesis in natural schemes of the see-saw mechanism. Within the phenomenological approach of textures, we relax this strict symmetry and propose weaker conditions, namely models of the neutrino Dirac mass matrix $M_D$ which have the same hierarchy as the matrix elements of $M_u$. We call this guide-line generalized $hierarchical$ quark-lepton symmetry. We consider in detail particular cases in which the moduli of the matrix elements of $M_D$ are equal to those of $M_u$. Within the phenomenological approach of textures, we try for the heavy Majorana mass matrix diagonal and off-diagonal forms. We find that an ansatz for $M_D$ preserving the hierarchy, together with an off-diagonal model for the heavy Majorana neutrino mass, is consistent with neutrino masses, neutrino mixing and baryogenesis via leptogenesis for an intermediate mass scale $m_R \sim 10^{12}$ GeV. The preservation of the hierarchical structure could come from a possible symmetry scheme.Comment: 12 pages, RevTex4. Title and abstract changed. Revised and enlarged versio

Leptogenesis in the two right-handed neutrino model revisited

We revisit leptogenesis in the minimal non-supersymmetric type I see-saw mechanism with two right-handed (RH) neutrinos, including flavour effects and allowing both RH neutrinos N_1 and N_2 to contribute, rather than just the lightest RH neutrino N_1 that has hitherto been considered. By performing scans over parameter space in terms of the single complex angle z of the orthogonal matrix R, for a range of PMNS parameters, we find that in regions around z \sim \pm \pi/2, for the case of a normal mass hierarchy, the N_2 contribution can dominate the contribution to leptogenesis, allowing the lightest RH neutrino mass to be decreased by about an order of magnitude in these regions, down to M_1 \sim 1.3*10^11 GeV for vanishing initial N_2-abundance, with the numerical results supported by analytic estimates. We show that the regions around z \sim \pm \pi /2 correspond to light sequential dominance, so the new results in this paper may be relevant to unified model building.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figures; v2 matches published version in PR

Corticotropin-releasing hormone interacts with interleukin-1 to regulate prostaglandin H synthase-2 expression in human myometrium during pregnancy and labor

Context: The onset of labor appears to involve the activation of myometrial inflammatory pathways, and transcription factors such as nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) control expression of the contraction-associated proteins required to induce a procontractile phenotype. These responses might involve CRH, which integrates immune and neuroendocrine systems. Objectives: In human myometrium we investigated cyclooxygenase 2 (PGHS2) expression and regulation by CRH and the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β before and after labor. Design: Myometrial tissues obtained from pregnant women at term before (n = 12) or during labor (n = 10) and pathological cases of choriamnionitis-associated term labor (n = 5) were used to isolate primary myocytes and investigate in vitro, CRH effects on basal and IL-1β regulated p65 activation and PGHS2 expression. Results: In nonlaboring myometrial cells, CRH was unable to induce NF-κB nuclear translocation; however, it altered the temporal dynamics of IL-1β-driven NF-κB nuclear entry by initially delaying entry and subsequently prolonging retention. These CRH-R1-driven effects were associated with a modest inhibitory action in the early phase (within 2 hours) of IL-1β stimulated PGHS2 mRNA expression, whereas prolonged stimulation for 6–18 hours augmented the IL-1β effects. The early-phase effect required intact protein kinase A activity and was diminished after the onset of labor. The presence of chorioamnionitis led to exaggerated PGHS2 mRNA responses to IL-1β but diminished effects of CRH. Conclusions: CRH is involved in the inflammatory regulation of PGHS2 expression before and during labor; these actions might be important in priming and preparing the myometrium for labor and cellular adaptive responses to inflammatory mediator

A fuller flavour treatment of N_2-dominated leptogenesis

We discuss N_2-dominated leptogenesis in the presence of flavour dependent effects that have hitherto been neglected, in particular the off-diagonal entries of the flavour coupling matrix that connects the total flavour asymmetries, distributed in different particle species, to the lepton and Higgs doublet asymmetries. We derive analytical formulae for the final asymmetry including the flavour coupling at the N_2-decay stage as well as at the stage of washout by the lightest right-handed neutrino N_1. We point out that in general part of the electron and muon asymmetries can completely escape the wash-out at the production and a total B-L asymmetry can be generated by the lightest RH neutrino wash-out yielding so called phantom leptogenesis. Taking of all these new effects into account can enhance the final asymmetry produced by the decays of the next-to-lightest RH neutrinos by orders of magnitude, opening up new interesting possibilities for N_2-dominated thermal eptogenesis. We illustrate these effects for two models which describe realistic neutrino masses and mixing based on sequential dominance