A Mass Matrix for Atmospheric, Solar, and LSND Neutrino Oscillations

We construct a mass matrix for the four neutrino flavors, three active and one sterile, needed to fit oscillations in all three neutrino experiments: atmospheric, solar, and LSND, simultaneously. It organizes the neutrinos into two doublets whose central values are about 1 eV apart, and whose splittings are of the order of 10^(-3) eV. Atmospheric neutrino oscillations are described as maximal mixing within the upper doublet, and solar as the same within the lower doublet. Then LSND is a weak transition from one doublet to the other. We comment on the Majorana versus Dirac nature of the active neutrinos and show that our mass matrix can be derived from an S_2 x S_2 permutation symmetry plus an equal splitting rule.Comment: 4 pages, 0 figures, minor text change

Random Matrix Model for Superconductors in a Magnetic Field

We introduce a random matrix ensemble for bulk type-II superconductors in the mixed state and determine the single-particle excitation spectrum using random matrix theory. The results are compared with planar tunnel junction experiments in PbBi thin films. More low energy states appear than in the Abrikosov-Gor'kov-Maki or Ginzburg-Landau descriptions, consistent with observations.Comment: 4 pages, 1 postscript figure, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Correlation Function of Superclusters of Galaxies

We present a study of the two-point correlation function of superclusters of galaxies. The largest catalogs are used. The results show negligible correlation less than 0.1-0.2 for separations up to 500-600 h^{-1} Mpc. Small correlations are obtained using various estimates and samples. Seemingly there are no structures of superclusters of galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables. To appear in 1998 ApJ, 506, No. 2 (Oct 20

Measuring diffuse neutrino fluxes with IceCube

In this paper the sensitivity of a future kilometer-sized neutrino detector to detect and measure the diffuse flux of high energy neutrinos is evaluated. Event rates in established detection channels, such as muon events from charged current muon neutrino interactions or cascade events from electron neutrino and tau neutrino interactions, are calculated using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation. Neutrino fluxes as expected from prompt charm decay in the atmosphere or from astrophysical sources such as Active Galactic Nuclei are modeled assuming power laws. The ability to measure the normalization and slope of these spectra is then analyzed. It is found that the cascade channel generally has a high sensitivity for the detection and characterization of the diffuse flux, when compared to what is expected for the upgoing- and downgoing-muon channels. A flux at the level of the Waxman-Bahcall upper bound should be detectable in all channels separately while a combination of the information of the different channels will allow detection of a flux more than one order of magnitude lower. Neutrinos from the prompt decay of charmed mesons in the atmosphere should be detectable in future measurements for all but the lowest predictions.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

The Most Massive Distant Clusters: Determining Omega and sigma_8

The existence of the three most massive clusters of galaxies observed so far at z>0.5 is used to constrain the mass density parameter of the universe, Omega, and the amplitude of mass fluctuations, sigma_8. We find Omega=0.2 (+0.3,-0.1), and sigma_8=1.2 (+0.5,-0.4) (95 %). We show that the existence of even the single most distant cluster at z=0.83, MS1054-03, with its large gravitational lensing mass, high temperature, and large velocity dispersion, is sufficient to establish powerful constraints. High-density, Omega=1 (sigma_8 ~ 0.5-0.6) Gaussian models are ruled out by these data (< 10^{-6} probability); the Omega=1 models predict only ~10^{-5} massive clusters at z > 0.65 (~10^{-3} at z > 0.5) instead of the 1 (3) clusters observed.Comment: 14 pages, 4 Postscript figures, ApJ in pres

A neutrino mass matrix with seesaw mechanism and two-loop mass splitting

We propose a model which uses the seesaw mechanism and the lepton number $\bar L = L_e - L_\mu - L_\tau$ to achieve the neutrino mass spectrum $m_1 = m_2$ and $m_3 = 0$, together with a lepton mixing matrix $U$ with $U_{e3} = 0$. In this way, we accommodate atmospheric neutrino oscillations. A small mass splitting $m_1 > m_2$ is generated by breaking $\bar L$ spontaneously and using Babu's two-loop mechanism. This allows us to incorporate ``just so'' solar-neutrino oscillations with maximal mixing into the model. The resulting mass matrix has three parameters only, since $\bar L$ breaking leads exclusively to a non-zero $ee$ matrix element.Comment: 8 pages, Late

A Measurement of Gamow-Teller Strength for 176Yb -> 176Lu and the Efficiency of a Solar Neutrino Detector

We report a 0-degree 176Yb(p,n)176Lu measurement at IUCF where we used 120 and 160 MeV protons and the energy dependence method to determine GT matrix elements relative to the Fermi matrix element which can be calculated model independently. The data show that there is an isolated concentration of GT strength in the low lying 1+ states making the proposed Low Energy Neutrino Spectroscopy (LENS) detector (based on neutrino captures on 176Yb) sensitive to 7Be and pp neutrinos and a promising detector to resolve the solar neutrino problem.Comment: 11 pages, LATEX, 4 eps figure

Reflection and Ducting of Gravity Waves Inside the Sun

Internal gravity waves excited by overshoot at the bottom of the convection zone can be influenced by rotation and by the strong toroidal magnetic field that is likely to be present in the solar tachocline. Using a simple Cartesian model, we show how waves with a vertical component of propagation can be reflected when traveling through a layer containing a horizontal magnetic field with a strength that varies with depth. This interaction can prevent a portion of the downward-traveling wave energy flux from reaching the deep solar interior. If a highly reflecting magnetized layer is located some distance below the convection zone base, a duct or wave guide can be set up, wherein vertical propagation is restricted by successive reflections at the upper and lower boundaries. The presence of both upward- and downward-traveling disturbances inside the duct leads to the existence of a set of horizontally propagating modes that have significantly enhanced amplitudes. We point out that the helical structure of these waves makes them capable of generating an alpha-effect, and briefly consider the possibility that propagation in a shear of sufficient strength could lead to instability, the result of wave growth due to over-reflection.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Can the Lepton Flavor Mixing Matrix Be Symmetric?

Current neutrino oscillation data indicate that the 3x3 lepton flavor mixing matrix V is likely to be symmetric about its V_{e3}-V_{\mu 2}-V_{\tau 1} axis. This off-diagonal symmetry corresponds to three pairs of {\it congruent} unitarity triangles in the complex plane. Terrestrial matter effects can substantially modify the genuine CP-violating parameter and off-diagonal asymmetries of V in realistic long-baseline experiments of neutrino oscillations.Comment: RexTex 14 pages (4 PS figures). More discussions adde

Large Scale Structure Formation with Global Topological Defects. A new Formalism and its implementation by numerical simulations

We investigate cosmological structure formation seeded by topological defects which may form during a phase transition in the early universe. First we derive a partially new, local and gauge invariant system of perturbation equations to treat microwave background and dark matter fluctuations induced by topological defects or any other type of seeds. We then show that this system is well suited for numerical analysis of structure formation by applying it to seeds induced by fluctuations of a global scalar field. Our numerical results are complementary to previous investigations since we use substantially different methods. The resulting microwave background fluctuations are compatible with older simulations. We also obtain a scale invariant spectrum of fluctuations with about the same amplitude. However, our dark matter results yield a smaller bias parameter compatible with $b\sim 2$ on a scale of $20 Mpc$ in contrast to previous work which yielded to large bias factors. Our conclusions are thus more positive. According to the aspects analyzed in this work, global topological defect induced fluctuations yield viable scenarios of structure formation and do better than standard CDM on large scales.Comment: uuencoded, compressed tar-file containing the text in LaTeX and 12 Postscript Figures, 41 page