31,153 research outputs found
Dark Matter, Modified Gravity and the Mass of the Neutrino
It has been suggested that Einstein's theory of General Relativity can be
modified to accomodate mismatches between the gravitational field and luminous
matter on a wide range of scales. Covariant theories of modified gravity
generically predict the existence of extra degrees of freedom which may be
interpreted as dark matter. We study a subclass of these theories where the
overall energy density in these extra degrees of freedom is subdominant
relative to the baryon density and show that they favour the presence of
massive neutrinos. For some specific cases (such as a flat Universes with a
cosmological constant) one finds a conservative lower bound on the neutrinos
mass of eV.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Global-String and Vortex Superfluids in a Supersymmetric Scenario
The main goal of this work is to investigate the possibility of finding the
supersymmetric version of the U(1)-global string model which behaves as a
vortex-superfluid. To describe the superfluid phase, we introduce a
Lorentz-symmetry breaking background that, in an approach based on
supersymmetry, leads to a discussion on the relation between the violation of
Lorentz symmetry and explicit soft supersymmetry breakings. We also study the
relation between the string configuration and the vortex-superfluid phase. In
the framework we settle down in terms of superspace and superfields, we
actually establish a duality between the vortex degrees of freedom and the
component fields of the Kalb-Ramond superfield. We make also considerations
about the fermionic excitations that may appear in connection with the vortex
formation.Comment: 9 pages. This version presented the relation between Lorentz symmetry
violation by the background and the appearance of terms that explicitly break
SUS
On the origins of scaling corrections in ballistic growth models
We study the ballistic deposition and the grain deposition models on
two-dimensional substrates. Using the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) ansatz for
height fluctuations, we show that the main contribution to the intrinsic width,
which causes strong corrections to the scaling, comes from the fluctuations in
the height increments along deposition events. Accounting for this correction
in the scaling analysis, we obtained scaling exponents in excellent agreement
with the KPZ class. We also propose a method to suppress these corrections,
which consists in divide the surface in bins of size and use only
the maximal height inside each bin to do the statistics. Again, scaling
exponents in remarkable agreement with the KPZ class were found. The binning
method allowed the accurate determination of the height distributions of the
ballistic models in both growth and steady state regimes, providing the
universal underlying fluctuations foreseen for KPZ class in 2+1 dimensions. Our
results provide complete and conclusive evidences that the ballistic model
belongs to the KPZ universality class in dimensions. Potential
applications of the methods developed here, in both numerics and experiments,
are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
A Bayesian estimate of the skewness of the Cosmic Microwave Background
We propose a formalism for estimating the skewness and angular power spectrum
of a general Cosmic Microwave Background data set. We use the Edgeworth
Expansion to define a non-Gaussian likelihood function that takes into account
the anisotropic nature of the noise and the incompleteness of the sky coverage.
The formalism is then applied to estimate the skewness of the publicly
available 4 year Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Differential Microwave
Radiometer data. We find that the data is consistent with a Gaussian skewness,
and with isotropy. Inclusion of non Gaussian degrees of freedom has essentially
no effect on estimates of the power spectrum, if each is regarded as a
separate parameter or if the angular power spectrum is parametrized in terms of
an amplitude (Q) and spectral index (n). Fixing the value of the angular power
spectrum at its maxiumum likelihood estimate, the best fit skewness is
S=6.5\pm6.0\times10^4(\muK)^3; marginalizing over Q the estimate of the
skewness is S=6.5\pm8.4\times10^4(\muK)^3 and marginalizing over n one has
S=6.5\pm8.5\times10^4(\muK)^3.Comment: submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letter
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