1,263 research outputs found
Searches for solar-influenced radioactive decay anomalies using Spacecraft RTGs
Experiments showing a seasonal variation of the nuclear decay rates of a
number of different nuclei, and decay anomalies apparently related to solar
flares and solar rotation, have suggested that the Sun may somehow be
influencing nuclear decay processes. Recently, Cooper searched for such an
effect in Pu nuclei contained in the radioisotope thermoelectric
generators (RTGs) on board the Cassini spacecraft. In this paper we modify and
extend Cooper's analysis to obtain constraints on anomalous decays of
Pu over a wider range of models, but these limits cannot be applied to
other nuclei if the anomaly is composition-dependent. We also show that it may
require very high sensitivity for terrestrial experiments to discriminate among
some models if such a decay anomaly exists, motivating the consideration of
future spacecraft experiments which would require less precision.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures (to appear in Astroparticle Physics
Constraints on flavor-dependent long range forces from solar neutrinos and KamLAND
Flavor-dependent long range (LR) leptonic forces, like those mediated by the
or gauge bosons, constitute a minimal extension of
the standard model that preserves its renormalizability. We study the impact of
such interactions on the solar neutrino oscillations when the interaction range
is much larger than the Earth-Sun distance. The LR potential can
dominate over the standard charged current potential inside the Sun in spite of
strong constraints on the coupling of the LR force coming from the
atmospheric neutrino data and laboratory search for new forces. We demonstrate
that the solar and atmospheric neutrino mass scales do not get trivially
decoupled even if is vanishingly small. In addition, for \alpha
\gsim 10^{-52} and normal hierarchy, resonant enhancement of
results in nontrivial energy dependent effects on the survival
probability. We perform a complete three generation analysis, and obtain
constraints on through a global fit to the solar neutrino and KamLAND
data. We get the limits and
when is much smaller than our
distance from the galactic center. With larger , the collective LR
potential due to all the electrons in the galaxy becomes significant and the
constraints on become stronger by upto two orders of magnitude.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure
Towards the use of the most massive black hole candidates in AGN to test the Kerr paradigm
The super-massive objects in galactic nuclei are thought to be the Kerr black
holes predicted by General Relativity, although a definite proof of their
actual nature is still lacking. The most massive objects in AGN () seem to have a high radiative efficiency () and a
moderate mass accretion rate (). The high
radiative efficiency could suggest they are very rapidly-rotating black holes.
The moderate luminosity could indicate that their accretion disk is
geometrically thin. If so, these objects could be excellent candidates to test
the Kerr black hole hypothesis. An accurate measurement of the radiative
efficiency of an individual AGN may probe the geometry of the space-time around
the black hole candidate with a precision comparable to the one achievable with
future space-based gravitational-wave detectors like LISA. A robust evidence of
the existence of a black hole candidate with and accreting from a
thin disk may be interpreted as an indication of new physics. For the time
being, there are several issues to address before using AGN to test the Kerr
paradigm, but the approach seems to be promising and capable of providing
interesting results before the advent of gravitational wave astronomy.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. v2: some typos correcte
Constraints on Light Pseudoscalars Implied by Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-Square Law
The exchange of light pseudoscalars between fermions leads to a
spin-independent potential in order g^4, where g is the Yukawa
pseudoscalar-fermion coupling constant. This potential gives rise to detectable
violations of both the weak equivalence principle (WEP) and the gravitational
inverse-square law (ISL), even if g is quite small. We show that when
previously derived WEP constraints are combined with those arisingfrom ISL
tests, a direct experimental limit on the Yukawa coupling of light
pseudoscalars to neutrons can be inferred for the first time (g_n^2/4pi < 1.6
\times 10^-7), along with a new (and significantly improved) limit on the
coupling of light pseudoscalars to protons.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex, with 1 Postscript figure (submitted to Physical
Review Letters
Geometric Random Inner Products: A New Family of Tests for Random Number Generators
We present a new computational scheme, GRIP (Geometric Random Inner
Products), for testing the quality of random number generators. The GRIP
formalism utilizes geometric probability techniques to calculate the average
scalar products of random vectors generated in geometric objects, such as
circles and spheres. We show that these average scalar products define a family
of geometric constants which can be used to evaluate the quality of random
number generators. We explicitly apply the GRIP tests to several random number
generators frequently used in Monte Carlo simulations, and demonstrate a new
statistical property for good random number generators
CC255 Energy Uses in Nebraska Agriculture
Campaign Circular 255: This circular includes information about energy uses in Nebraska Agriculture including machine operations, irrigation, crop drying, and electrical energy use in general
Probing long-range leptonic forces with solar and reactor neutrinos
In this work we study the phenomenological consequences of the existence of
long-range forces coupled to lepton flavour numbers in solar neutrino
oscillations. We study electronic forces mediated by scalar, vector or tensor
neutral bosons and analyze their effect on the propagation of solar neutrinos
as a function of the force strength and range. Under the assumption of one mass
scale dominance, we perform a global analysis of solar and KamLAND neutrino
data which depends on the two standard oscillation parameters, \Delta m^2_{21}
and \tan^2\theta_{12}, the force coupling constant, its range and, for the case
of scalar-mediated interactions, on the neutrino mass scale as well. We find
that, generically, the inclusion of the new interaction does not lead to a very
statistically significant improvement on the description of the data in the
most favored MSW LMA (or LMA-I) region. It does, however, substantially improve
the fit in the high-\Delta m^2 LMA (or LMA-II) region which can be allowed for
vector and scalar lepto-forces (in this last case if neutrinos are very
hierarchical) at 2.5\sigma. Conversely, the analysis allows us to place
stringent constraints on the strength versus range of the leptonic interaction.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure
Super-soft symmetry energy encountering non-Newtonian gravity in neutron stars
Considering the non-Newtonian gravity proposed in the grand unification
theories, we show that the stability and observed global properties of neutron
stars can not rule out the super-soft nuclear symmetry energies at
supra-saturation densities. The degree of possible violation of the
Inverse-Square-Law of gravity in neutron stars is estimated using an Equation
of State (EOS) of neutron-rich nuclear matter consistent with the available
terrestrial laboratory data.Comment: Version accepted by Physical Review Letter
Photon-Neutrino Interactions in Magnetic Field through Neutrino Magnetic Moment
We study the neutrino-photon processes like in
the presence of uniform external magnetic field for the case when neutrinos can
couple to the electromagnetic field directly through their dipole magnetic
moment and obtain the stellar energy loss. The process would be of special
relevance in astrophysical situations where standard left-handed neutrinos are
trapped and the right handed neutrinos produced through the spin flip
interaction induced by neutrino magnetic moment alone can freely stream out.Comment: LaTex2e file, 9 page
- …