Relativistic Cyclotron Radiation Detection of Tritium Decay Electrons as a New Technique for Measuring the Neutrino Mass

The shape of the beta decay energy distribution is sensitive to the mass of the electron neutrino. Attempts to measure the endpoint shape of tritium decay have so far seen no distortion from the zero-mass form, thus placing an upper limit of m_nu_beta < 2.3 eV. Here we show that a new type of electron energy spectroscopy could improve future measurements of this spectrum and therefore of the neutrino mass. We propose to detect the coherent cyclotron radiation emitted by an energetic electron in a magnetic field. For mildly relativistic electrons, like those in tritium decay, the relativistic shift of the cyclotron frequency allows us to extract the electron energy from the emitted radiation. We present calculations for the energy resolution, noise limits, high-rate measurement capability, and systematic errors expected in such an experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Violation of the Leggett-Garg Inequality in Neutrino Oscillations

The Leggett-Garg inequality, an analogue of Bell's inequality involving correlations of measurements on a system at different times, stands as one of the hallmark tests of quantum mechanics against classical predictions. The phenomenon of neutrino oscillations should adhere to quantum-mechanical predictions and provide an observable violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality. We demonstrate how oscillation phenomena can be used to test for violations of the classical bound by performing measurements on an ensemble of neutrinos at distinct energies, as opposed to a single neutrino at distinct times. A study of the MINOS experiment's data shows a greater than $6{\sigma}$ violation over a distance of 735 km, representing the longest distance over which either the Leggett-Garg inequality or Bell's inequality has been tested.Comment: Updated to match published version. 6 pages, 2 figure

Solar Neutrinos from CNO Electron Capture

The neutrino flux from the sun is predicted to have a CNO-cycle contribution as well as the known pp-chain component. Previously, only the fluxes from beta+ decays of 13N, 15O, and 17F have been calculated in detail. Another neutrino component that has not been widely considered is electron capture on these nuclei. We calculate the number of interactions in several solar neutrino detectors due to neutrinos from electron capture on 13N, 15O, and 17F, within the context of the Standard Solar Model. We also discuss possible non-standard models where the CNO flux is increased.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. C; v2 has minor changes including integration over solar volume and addition of missing reference to previous continuum electron capture calculation; v3 has minor changes including addition of references and the correction of a small (about 1%) numerical error in the table

Impacts of Agricultural Expansion on Surface Runoff: A Case Study of a River Basin in the Brazilian Legal Amazon

This work presents an analysis of the Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes of a region in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, and an evaluation of their impacts on the surface runoff regime. This case study took place at the Suiá-Miçu River basin, located in the northeast region of Mato Grosso State. LULC maps were produced for the years 1973, 1984 and 2005 using remote sensing data. After analyzing the agricultural expansion in the study area, the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment Tool (AGWA) was applied in performing the surface runoff modeling for each of the analyzed years using the SCS curve number method. The results showed that by 1984, 13% of the natural vegetation had been replaced by pasture in this drainage basin. These changes were responsible for a 5.7% increase in the annual average surface runoff volume when compared with the baseline values of 1973. In 2005, the agricultural areas increased to around 40% of the drainage basin, being 28% occupied by pasture and 12% by crop fields. In this last scenario, the annual average surface runoff was 37% higher than in 1973

Monitoramento e detecção de desmatamento no bioma Cerrado matogrossense utilizando imagens de multisensores.

In the last decades, Brazil has become a global agricultural power and the Cerrado biome (Brazilian savanna) has been playing an important role in the Brazilian agriculture growth. To better analyze the biome human disturbance dynamics, it is necessary to develop and adopt effective methods of assessment and monitoring of land use and land cover changes. The goal is to provide adequate land cover classifications and implement an operational monitoring system in the Cerrado biome, since there is only a few attempts to control the degradation of this biome. This monitoring system can be accomplished using MODIS images, as this sensor has great potential for studies about the seasonal dynamics of Cerrado vegetation phytophysiognomies. Due to this new dynamics, the main objective of this work was to apply the PRODES and DETER like methodologies to detect and map deforestation in the Cerrado biome of Mato Grosso State, Brazil, using Landsat and MODIS data. The proposed methodology was able to detect correctly 65% of all MODIS detected polygons; this represented 74% of estimated area of deforestation. Also, it showed suitability to identify new deforested areas in both shrubland and forestland areas with a tendency to misclassify smaller polygons (< 50 ha) of deforestation

Improving photoelectron counting and particle identification in scintillation detectors with Bayesian techniques

Many current and future dark matter and neutrino detectors are designed to measure scintillation light with a large array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The energy resolution and particle identification capabilities of these detectors depend in part on the ability to accurately identify individual photoelectrons in PMT waveforms despite large variability in pulse amplitudes and pulse pileup. We describe a Bayesian technique that can identify the times of individual photoelectrons in a sampled PMT waveform without deconvolution, even when pileup is present. To demonstrate the technique, we apply it to the general problem of particle identification in single-phase liquid argon dark matter detectors. Using the output of the Bayesian photoelectron counting algorithm described in this paper, we construct several test statistics for rejection of backgrounds for dark matter searches in argon. Compared to simpler methods based on either observed charge or peak finding, the photoelectron counting technique improves both energy resolution and particle identification of low energy events in calibration data from the DEAP-1 detector and simulation of the larger MiniCLEAN dark matter detector

Dinâmica e distribuição das áreas alteradas por ação antrópica no Cerrado matogrossense no período de 2002 a 2008.

The Cerrado biome has approximately two million square kilometers, which represents 23% of the country extension. With a large territory, it is considered one of the hotspots of the Planet, ie, a priority area for conservation. However, with favorable soil and climate characteristics, this biome has become the subject of great affluence for agricultural purposes since the 1970s. With government incentives, conditions for the expansion of agriculture were created. All these factors were decisive to the expansion of so-called "agricultural frontier?, which provided important positive impacts on the Brazilian economy. However, concomitantly, increasing environmental changes are observed in this biome. The anthropogenic occupation has as the first action the deforestation and the reduction of native vegetation, and much of this occupation is linked to agricultural activity. Among several States which compose this biome, Mato Grosso has a prominent place in national agricultural production, primarily due to soybean and corn plantations. Thus, this study aims to determine the dynamics and the spatial distribution changes due to anthropogenic activities in the Cerrado of Mato Grosso state in the 2002 to 2008 time period. The deforested data from the analyzed period were obtained from ?Projeto de Monitoramento do Desmatamento dos Biomas Brasileiros por Satélite? (PMDBBS). These information were intersected with mesoregions, soil, vegetation and geomorphological maps of the study area. The results showed that highest conversions occurred in North mesoregion. The predominant vegetation type deforested was the wooded savanna and according to the soil and geomorphological maps, the results demonstrated a preference for deep soils and plan relief

Potencial das áreas disponíveis ao cultivo de biomassa para produção de energia, nas Microrregiões Sulriograndenses de Cerro Largo, Santa Rosa e Santo Ângelo.

Despite a kind of euphoria represented by the biomass farming to energy and its transformation into biofuels, it must weigh up the suitability and the convenience of the conversion of arable land and the new agricultural frontiers in areas intended for agroenergy, not only in economic and agronomic terms, but also considering the commitments of environmental and social sustainability. In this scenario, the agroenergy planning has a great importance for the tropical developing countries, like Brazil. Thus, this article aims to present an objective and semiautomatic method, based on geotechnologies, which could be applied to a given region of interest to return the available areas with potential to energy crops. As a result, is presented a map of three micro regions of Rio Grande do Sul state (Brazil), where this approach was tested, for identifying and quantifying the territories at different levels of agroenergetic potential