Prompt atmospheric neutrinos and muons: dependence on the gluon distribution function

We compute the next-to-leading order QCD predictions for the vertical flux of atmospheric muons and neutrinos from decays of charmed particles, for different PDF's (MRS-R1, MRS-R2, CTEQ-4M and MRST) and different extrapolations of these at small partonic momentum fraction x. We find that the predicted fluxes vary up to almost two orders of magnitude at the largest energies studied, depending on the chosen extrapolation of the PDF's. We show that the spectral index of the atmospheric leptonic fluxes depends linearly on the slope of the gluon distribution function at very small x. This suggests the possibility of obtaining some bounds on this slope in ``neutrino telescopes'', at values of x not reachable at colliders, provided the spectral index of atmospheric leptonic fluxes could be determined.Comment: 20 pages including 8 figure

Measurement of the gluon PDF at small x with neutrino telescopes

We analyze the possibility that neutrino telescopes may provide an experimental determination of the slope lambda of the gluon distribution in the proton at momentum fractions x smaller than the accelerator reach. The method is based on a linear relation between lambda and the spectral index (slope) of the down-going atmospheric muon flux above 100 TeV, for which there is no background. Considering the uncertainties in the charm production cross section and in the cosmic ray composition, we estimate the error on the measurement of lambda through this method, excluding the experimental error of the telescopes, to be ~ +/- 0.2Comment: 16 pages with 16 figures - new version, comments added, same results and figure

FORTE satellite constraints on ultra-high energy cosmic particle fluxes

The FORTE (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events) satellite records bursts of electromagnetic waves arising from near the Earth's surface in the radio frequency (RF) range of 30 to 300 MHz with a dual polarization antenna. We investigate the possible RF signature of ultra-high energy cosmic-ray particles in the form of coherent Cherenkov radiation from cascades in ice. We calculate the sensitivity of the FORTE satellite to ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrino fluxes at different energies beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff. Some constraints on supersymmetry model parameters are also estimated due to the limits that FORTE sets on the UHE neutralino flux. The FORTE database consists of over 4 million recorded events to date, including in principle some events associated with UHE neutrinos. We search for candidate FORTE events in the period from September 1997 to December 1999. The candidate production mechanism is via coherent VHF radiation from a UHE neutrino shower in the Greenland ice sheet. We demonstrate a high efficiency for selection against lightning and anthropogenic backgrounds. A single candidate out of several thousand raw triggers survives all cuts, and we set limits on the corresponding particle fluxes assuming this event represents our background level.Comment: added a table, updated references and Figure 8, this version is submitted to Phys. Rev.

TeV-scale bileptons, see-saw type II and lepton flavor violation in core-collapse supernova

Electrons and electron neutrinos in the inner core of the core-collapse supernova are highly degenerate and therefore numerous during a few seconds of explosion. In contrast, leptons of other flavors are non-degenerate and therefore relatively scarce. This is due to lepton flavor conservation. If this conservation law is broken by some non-standard interactions, electron neutrinos are converted to muon and tau-neutrinos, and electrons - to muons. This affects the supernova dynamics and the supernova neutrino signal. We consider lepton flavor violating interactions mediated by scalar bileptons, i.e. heavy scalars with lepton number 2. It is shown that in case of TeV-mass bileptons the electron fermi gas is equilibrated with non-electron species inside the inner supernova core at a time-scale of order of (1-100) ms. In particular, a scalar triplet which generates neutrino masses through the see-saw type II mechanism is considered. It is found that supernova core is sensitive to yet unprobed values of masses and couplings of the triplet.Comment: accepted to Eur.Phys.J.

Resistência de Bidens subalternans aos herbicidas inibidores da enzima acetolactato sintase utilizados na cultura da soja

O uso contínuo e prolongado de produtos com o mesmo mecanismo de ação pode provocar a manifestação de biótipos resistentes. Para verificar possíveis novos casos de resistência, bem como alternativas para prevenção e manejo, foram coletadas sementes de Bidens subalternans na região de São Gabriel D' Oeste-MS, em plantas que sobreviveram a tratamentos em que inibidores da ALS foram sistematicamente utilizados. Em experimento conduzido em vasos em casa de vegetação, o biótipo com histórico de resistente foi comparado ao suscetível quando submetido aos diversos herbicidas com diferentes mecanismos de ação usados em pós-emergência, os quais foram aplicados nas doses de zero, uma, duas, quatro e oito vezes a recomendada. Decorridos 20 dias, foram avaliadas a porcentagem de controle e a produção da fitomassa verde, visando estabelecimento de curvas de dose-resposta e obtenção dos fatores de resistência. O biótipo oriundo de área com histórico de aplicações repetidas de inibidores da ALS apresentou elevado nível de resistência aos herbicidas chlorimuron-ethyl e imazethapyr, demonstrando ser portador de resistência cruzada aos inibidores da ALS dos grupos das sulfoniluréias e imidazolinonas. Entretanto, esse biótipo foi eficientemente controlado pelos herbicidas fomesafen, lactofen, bentazon, glufosinato de amônio e glyphosate