641 research outputs found
A Note on Energy-Momentum Conservation in Palatini Formulation of L(R) Gravity
By establishing that Palatini formulation of gravity is equivalent to
Brans-Dicke theory, we show that energy-momentum tensor is
covariantly conserved in this type of modified gravity theory.Comment: 7 page
On the Detection of a Scalar Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves
In the near future we will witness the coming to a full operational regime of
laser interferometers and resonant mass detectors of spherical shape. In this
work we study the sensitivity of pairs of such gravitational wave detectors to
a scalar stochastic background of gravitational waves. Our computations are
carried out both for minimal and non minimal coupling of the scalar fields.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure
Experimental Probes of Localized Gravity: On and Off the Wall
The phenomenology of the Randall-Sundrum model of localized gravity is
analyzed in detail for the two scenarios where the Standard Model (SM) gauge
and matter fields are either confined to a TeV scale 3-brane or may propagate
in a slice of five dimensional anti-deSitter space. In the latter instance, we
derive the interactions of the graviton, gauge, and fermion Kaluza-Klein (KK)
states. The resulting phenomenological signatures are shown to be highly
dependent on the value of the 5-dimensional fermion mass and differ
substantially from the case where the SM fields lie on the TeV-brane. In both
scenarios, we examine the collider signatures for direct production of the
graviton and gauge KK towers as well as their induced contributions to
precision electroweak observables. These direct and indirect signatures are
found to play a complementary role in the exploration of the model parameter
space. In the case where the SM field content resides on the TeV-brane, we show
that the LHC can probe the full parameter space and hence will either discover
or exclude this model if the scale of electroweak physics on the 3-brane is
less than 10 TeV. We also show that spontaneous electroweak symmetry breaking
of the SM must take place on the TeV-brane.Comment: 62 pages, Latex, 22 figure
Entropy and universality of Cardy-Verlinde formula in dark energy universe
We study the entropy of a FRW universe filled with dark energy (cosmological
constant, quintessence or phantom). For general or time-dependent equation of
state the entropy is expressed in terms of energy, Casimir energy,
and . The correspondent expression reminds one about 2d CFT entropy only for
conformal matter. At the same time, the cosmological Cardy-Verlinde formula
relating three typical FRW universe entropies remains to be universal for any
type of matter. The same conclusions hold in modified gravity which represents
gravitational alternative for dark energy and which contains terms growing at
low curvature. It is interesting that BHs in modified gravity are more entropic
than in Einstein gravity. Finally, some hydrodynamical examples testing new
shear viscosity bound, which is expected to be the consequence of the
holographic entropy bound, are presented for the early universe in the plasma
era and for the Kasner metric. It seems that the Kasner metric provides a
counterexample to the new shear viscosity bound.Comment: LaTeX file, 39 pages, references are adde
Gravitational Coupling and Dynamical Reduction of The Cosmological Constant
We introduce a dynamical model to reduce a large cosmological constant to a
sufficiently small value. The basic ingredient in this model is a distinction
which has been made between the two unit systems used in cosmology and particle
physics. We have used a conformal invariant gravitational model to define a
particular conformal frame in terms of large scale properties of the universe.
It is then argued that the contributions of mass scales in particle physics to
the vacuum energy density should be considered in a different conformal frame.
In this manner, a decaying mechanism is presented in which the conformal factor
appears as a dynamical field and plays a key role to relax a large effective
cosmological constant. Moreover, we argue that this model also provides a
possible explanation for the coincidence problem.Comment: To appear in GR
Coupled oscillators as models of phantom and scalar field cosmologies
We study a toy model for phantom cosmology recently introduced in the
literature and consisting of two oscillators, one of which carries negative
kinetic energy. The results are compared with the exact phase space picture
obtained for similar dynamical systems describing, respectively, a massive
canonical scalar field conformally coupled to the spacetime curvature, and a
conformally coupled massive phantom. Finally, the dynamical system describing
exactly a minimally coupled phantom is studied and compared with the toy model.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, to appear in Physical Review
Shrinking a large dataset to identify variables associated with increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Western Kenya
Large datasets are often not amenable to analysis using traditional single-step approaches. Here, our general objective was to apply imputation techniques, principal component analysis (PCA), elastic net and generalized linear models to a large dataset in a systematic approach to extract the most meaningful predictors for a health outcome. We extracted predictors for Plasmodium falciparum infection, from a large covariate dataset while facing limited numbers of observations, using data from the People, Animals, and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project to demonstrate these techniques: data collected from 415 homesteads in western Kenya, contained over 1500 variables that describe the health, environment, and social factors of the humans, livestock, and the homesteads in which they reside. The wide, sparse dataset was simplified to 42 predictors of P. falciparum malaria infection and wealth rankings were produced for all homesteads. The 42 predictors make biological sense and are supported by previous studies. This systematic data-mining approach we used would make many large datasets more manageable and informative for decision-making processes and health policy prioritization
Global Search for New Physics with 2.0/fb at CDF
Data collected in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron are searched for
indications of new electroweak-scale physics. Rather than focusing on
particular new physics scenarios, CDF data are analyzed for discrepancies with
the standard model prediction. A model-independent approach (Vista) considers
gross features of the data, and is sensitive to new large cross-section
physics. Further sensitivity to new physics is provided by two additional
algorithms: a Bump Hunter searches invariant mass distributions for "bumps"
that could indicate resonant production of new particles; and the Sleuth
procedure scans for data excesses at large summed transverse momentum. This
combined global search for new physics in 2.0/fb of ppbar collisions at
sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV reveals no indication of physics beyond the standard model.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Final version which appeared in Physical Review D
Rapid Communication
Observation of Orbitally Excited B_s Mesons
We report the first observation of two narrow resonances consistent with
states of orbitally excited (L=1) B_s mesons using 1 fb^{-1} of ppbar
collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the
Fermilab Tevatron. We use two-body decays into K^- and B^+ mesons reconstructed
as B^+ \to J/\psi K^+, J/\psi \to \mu^+ \mu^- or B^+ \to \bar{D}^0 \pi^+,
\bar{D}^0 \to K^+ \pi^-. We deduce the masses of the two states to be m(B_{s1})
= 5829.4 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2 and m(B_{s2}^*) = 5839.7 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2.Comment: Version accepted and published by Phys. Rev. Let
Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set
We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s
using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays
in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at
production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton
collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment
at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity.
We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the
B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2,
-1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in
agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model
value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by
other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012
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