Low-temperature anomalous specific heat without tunneling modes: a simulation for a-Si with voids

Using empirical potential molecular dynamics we compute dynamical matrix eigenvalues and eigenvectors for a 4096 atom model of amorphous silicon and a set of models with voids of different size based on it. This information is then employed to study the localization properties of the low-energy vibrational states, calculate the specific heat C(T) and examine the low-temperature properties of our models usually attributed to the presence of tunneling states in amorphous silicon. The results of our calculations for C(T) and "excess specific heat bulge" in the C(T)/T^3 vs. T graph for voidless a-Si appear to be in good agreement with experiment; moreover our investigation shows that the presence of localized low-energy excitations in the vibrational spectrum of our models with voids strongly manifests itself as a sharp peak in C(T)/T^3 dependence at T < 3K. To our knowledge this is the first numerical simulation that provides adequate agreement with experiment for the very low-temperature properties of specific heat in disordered systems within the limits of harmonic approximation.Comment: 5 pages with 2 ps figures, submitted to PR

Vector-meson contributions do not explain the rate and spectrum in K_L -> pi0 gamma gamma

We analyze the recent NA48 data for the reaction K_L -> pi0 gamma gamma with and without the assumption of vector meson dominance (VMD). We find that the data is well described by a three-parameter expression inspired by O(p^6) chiral perturbation theory. We also find that it is impossible to fit the shape of the decay distribution and the overall rate simultaneously if one imposes the VMD constraints on the three parameters. We comment on the different fits and their implications for the CP-conserving component of the decay K_L -> pi0 e+ e-.Comment: Version accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. D. 19 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures, uses epsf.st

Exact renormalization group flow equations for non-relativistic fermions: scaling towards the Fermi surface

We construct exact functional renormalization group (RG) flow equations for non-relativistic fermions in arbitrary dimensions, taking into account not only mode elimination but also the rescaling of the momenta, frequencies and the fermionic fields. The complete RG flow of all relevant, marginal and irrelevant couplings can be described by a system of coupled flow equations for the irreducible n-point vertices. Introducing suitable dimensionless variables, we obtain flow equations for generalized scaling functions which are continuous functions of the flow parameter, even if we consider quantities which are dominated by momenta close to the Fermi surface, such as the density-density correlation function at long wavelengths. We also show how the problem of constructing the renormalized Fermi surface can be reduced to the problem of finding the RG fixed point of the irreducible two-point vertex at vanishing momentum and frequency. We argue that only if the degrees of freedom are properly rescaled it is possible to reach scale-invariant non-Fermi liquid fixed points within a truncation of the exact RG flow equations.Comment: 20 Revtex pages, with 4 figures; final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B; references and some explanations adde

Biological Rhythms Workshop I: Introduction to Chronobiology

In this chapter, we present a series of four articles derived from a Introductory Workshop on Biological Rhythms presented at the 72nd Annual Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology: Clocks and Rhythms. A diverse range of species, from cyanobacteria to humans, evolved endogenous biological clocks that allow for the anticipation of daily variations in light and temperature. The ability to anticipate environmental variation promotes optimal performance and survival. In the first article, Introduction to Chronobiology, we present a brief historical timeline of how circadian concepts and terminology have emerged since the early observation of daily leaf movement in plants made by an astronomer in the 1700s. Workshop Part IA provides an overview of the molecular basis for rhythms generation in several key model organisms, Workshop Part IB focuses on how biology built a brain clock capable of coordinating the daily timing of essential brain and physiological processes, and Workshop Part IC gives key insight into how researchers study sleep and rhythms in humans

The Structure and Dynamics of the Upper Chromosphere and Lower Transition Region as Revealed by the Subarcsecond VAULT Observations

The Very high Angular resolution ULtraviolet Telescope (VAULT) is a sounding rocket payload built to study the crucial interface between the solar chromosphere and the corona by observing the strongest line in the solar spectrum, the Ly-a line at 1216 {\AA}. In two flights, VAULT succeeded in obtaining the first ever sub-arcsecond (0.5") images of this region with high sensitivity and cadence. Detailed analyses of those observations have contributed significantly to new ideas about the nature of the transition region. Here, we present a broad overview of the Ly-a atmosphere as revealed by the VAULT observations, and bring together past results and new analyses from the second VAULT flight to create a synthesis of our current knowledge of the high-resolution Ly-a Sun. We hope that this work will serve as a good reference for the design of upcoming Ly-a telescopes and observing plans.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure

Minimal Noncanonical Cosmologies

We demonstrate how much it is possible to deviate from the standard cosmological paradigm of inflation-assisted LambdaCDM, keeping within current observational constraints, and without adding to or modifying any theoretical assumptions. We show that within a minimal framework there are many new possibilities, some of them wildly different from the standard picture. We present three illustrative examples of new models, described phenomenologically by a noncanonical scalar field coupled to radiation and matter. These models have interesting implications for inflation, quintessence, reheating, electroweak baryogenesis, and the relic densities of WIMPs and other exotics.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Gamma-ray and radio tests of the e+e- excess from DM annihilations

PAMELA and ATIC recently reported an excess in e+e- cosmic rays. We show that if it is due to Dark Matter annihilations, the associated gamma-ray flux and the synchrotron emission produced by e+e- in the galactic magnetic field violate HESS and radio observations of the galactic center and HESS observations of dwarf Spheroidals, unless the DM density profile is significantly less steep than the benchmark NFW and Einasto profiles.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; v2: normalizations fixed in Table 2 and typos corrected (no changes in the analysis nor the results), some references and comments added; v3: minor additions, matches published versio

B physics and extra dimensions

We compute the dominant new physics contributions to the processes Z -> b b and B - B in the context of two representative models with extra dimensions. The main thrust of the calculations focuses on how to control the effects of the infinite tower of Kaluza-Klein modes inside the relevant one-loop diagrams. By comparing the results with the existing experimental data, most importantly those for Rb, we show that one may derive interesting lower bounds on the size of the compactification scale Mc

Probing mSUGRA via the Extreme Universe Space Observatory

An analysis is carried out within mSUGRA of the estimated number of events originating from upward moving ultra-high energy neutralinos that could be detected by the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO). The analysis exploits a recently proposed technique that differentiates ultra-high energy neutralinos from ultra-high energy neutrinos using their different absorption lengths in the Earth's crust. It is shown that for a significant part of the parameter space, where the neutralino is mostly a Bino and with squark mass $\sim 1$ TeV, EUSO could see ultra-high energy neutralino events with essentially no background. In the energy range 10^9 GeV < E < 10^11 GeV, the unprecedented aperture of EUSO makes the telescope sensitive to neutralino fluxes as low as 1.1 \times 10^{-6} (E/GeV)^{-1.3} GeV^{-1} cm^{-2} yr^{-1} sr^{-1}, at the 95% CL. Such a hard spectrum is characteristic of supermassive particles' $N$-body hadronic decay. The case in which the flux of ultra-high energy neutralinos is produced via decay of metastable heavy particles with uniform distribution throughout the universe is analyzed in detail. The normalization of the ratio of the relics' density to their lifetime has been fixed so that the baryon flux produced in the supermassive particle decays contributes to about 1/3 of the events reported by the AGASA Collaboration below 10^{11} GeV, and hence the associated GeV gamma-ray flux is in complete agreement with EGRET data. For this particular case, EUSO will collect between 4 and 5 neutralino events (with 0.3 of background) in ~ 3 yr of running. NASA's planned mission, the Orbiting Wide-angle Light-collectors (OWL), is also briefly discussed in this context.Comment: Some discussion added, final version to be published in Physical Review

Interaction of quasilocal harmonic modes and boson peak in glasses

The direct proportionality relation between the boson peak maximum in glasses, $\omega_b$, and the Ioffe-Regel crossover frequency for phonons, $\omega_d$, is established. For several investigated materials $\omega_b = (1.5\pm 0.1)\omega_d$. At the frequency $\omega_d$ the mean free path of the phonons $l$ becomes equal to their wavelength because of strong resonant scattering on quasilocal harmonic oscillators. Above this frequency phonons cease to exist. We prove that the established correlation between $\omega_b$ and $\omega_d$ holds in the general case and is a direct consequence of bilinear coupling of quasilocal oscillators with the strain field.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 1 figur