Solar Neutrinos

The study of solar neutrinos has given since ever a fundamental contribution both to astroparticle and to elementary particle physics, offering an ideal test of solar models and offering at the same time relevant indications on the fundamental interactions among particles. After reviewing the striking results of the last two decades, which were determinant to solve the long standing solar neutrino puzzle and refine the Standard Solar Model, we focus our attention on the more recent results in this field and on the experiments presently running or planned for the near future. The main focus at the moment is to improve the knowledge of the mass and mixing pattern and especially to study in detail the lowest energy part of the spectrum, which represents most of solar neutrino spectrum but is still a partially unexplored realm. We discuss this research project and the way in which present and future experiments could contribute to make the theoretical framemork more complete and stable, understanding the origin of some "anomalies" that seem to emerge from the data and contributing to answer some present questions, like the exact mechanism of the vacuum to matter transition and the solution of the so called solar metallicity problem.Comment: 51 pages, to be published in Special Issue on Neutrino Physics, Advances in High Energy Physics Hindawi Publishing Corporation 201

Quasi-normal mode analysis in BEC acoustic black holes

We perform a quasi-normal mode analysis of black hole configurations in Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). In this analysis we use the full Bogoliubov dispersion relation, not just the hydrodynamic or geometric approximation. We restrict our attention to one-dimensional flows in BEC with step-like discontinuities. For this case we show that in the hydrodynamic approximation quasi-normal modes do not exist. The full dispersion relation, however, allows the existence of quasi-normal modes. Remarkably, the spectrum of these modes is not discrete but continuous.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Wormholes as Basis for the Hilbert Space in Lorentzian Gravity

We carry out to completion the quantization of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model provided with a conformal scalar field, and of a Kantowski-Sachs spacetime minimally coupled to a massless scalar field. We prove that the Hilbert space determined by the reality conditions that correspond to Lorentzian gravity admits a basis of wormhole wave functions. This result implies that the vector space spanned by the quantum wormholes can be equipped with an unique inner product by demanding an adequate set of Lorentzian reality conditions, and that the Hilbert space of wormholes obtained in this way can be identified with the whole Hilbert space of physical states for Lorentzian gravity. In particular, all the normalizable quantum states can then be interpreted as superpositions of wormholes. For each of the models considered here, we finally show that the physical Hilbert space is separable by constructing a discrete orthonormal basis of wormhole solutions.Comment: 23 pages (Latex), Preprint IMAFF-RC-04-94, CGPG-94/5-

Pure States, Mixed States and Hawking Problem in Generalized Quantum Mechanics

This paper is the continuation of a study into the information paradox problem started by the author in his earlier works. As previously, the key instrument is a deformed density matrix in quantum mechanics of the early universe. It is assumed that the latter represents quantum mechanics with fundamental length. It is demonstrated that the obtained results agree well with the canonical viewpoint that in the processes involving black holes pure states go to the mixed ones in the assumption that all measurements are performed by the observer in a well-known quantum mechanics. Also it is shown that high entropy for Planck remnants of black holes appearing in the assumption of the Generalized Uncertainty Relations may be explained within the scope of the density matrix entropy introduced by the author previously. It is noted that the suggested paradigm is consistent with the Holographic Principle. Because of this, a conjecture is made about the possibility for obtaining the Generalized Uncertainty Relations from the covariant entropy bound at high energies in the same way as R. Bousso has derived Heisenberg uncertainty principle for the flat space.Comment: 12 pages,no figures,some corrections,new reference

Inhomogeneous Loop Quantum Cosmology: Hybrid Quantization of the Gowdy Model

The Gowdy cosmologies provide a suitable arena to further develop Loop Quantum Cosmology, allowing the presence of inhomogeneities. For the particular case of Gowdy spacetimes with the spatial topology of a three-torus and a content of linearly polarized gravitational waves, we detail a hybrid quantum theory in which we combine a loop quantization of the degrees of freedom that parametrize the subfamily of homogeneous solutions, which represent Bianchi I spacetimes, and a Fock quantization of the inhomogeneities. Two different theories are constructed and compared, corresponding to two different schemes for the quantization of the Bianchi I model within the {\sl improved dynamics} formalism of Loop Quantum Cosmology. One of these schemes has been recently put forward by Ashtekar and Wilson-Ewing. We address several issues including the quantum resolution of the cosmological singularity, the structure of the superselection sectors in the quantum system, or the construction of the Hilbert space of physical states.Comment: 16 pages, version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Assessing molecular outflows and turbulence in the protostellar cluster Serpens South

Molecular outflows driven by protostellar cluster members likely impact their surroundings and contribute to turbulence, affecting subsequent star formation. The very young Serpens South cluster consists of a particularly high density and fraction of protostars, yielding a relevant case study for protostellar outflows and their impact on the cluster environment. We combined CO $J=1-0$ observations of this region using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) and the Institut de Radioastronomie Millim\'{e}trique (IRAM) 30 m single dish telescope. The combined map allows us to probe CO outflows within the central, most active region at size scales of 0.01 pc to 0.8 pc. We account for effects of line opacity and excitation temperature variations by incorporating $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO data for the $J=1-0$ and $J=3-2$ transitions (using Atacama Pathfinder Experiment and Caltech Submillimeter Observatory observations for the higher CO transitions), and we calculate mass, momentum, and energy of the molecular outflows in this region. The outflow mass loss rate, force, and luminosity, compared with diagnostics of turbulence and gravity, suggest that outflows drive a sufficient amount of energy to sustain turbulence, but not enough energy to substantially counter the gravitational potential energy and disrupt the clump. Further, we compare Serpens South with the slightly more evolved cluster NGC 1333, and we propose an empirical scenario for outflow-cluster interaction at different evolutionary stages.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Noether charge formalism for Weyl invariant theories of gravity

Gravitational theories invariant under transverse diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations have the same classical solutions as the corresponding fully diffeomorphism invariant theories. However, they solve some of the problems related to the cosmological constant and in principle allow local energy non-conservation. In the present work, we obtain the Noether charge formalism for these theories. We first derive expressions for the Noether currents and charges corresponding to transverse diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations, showing that the latter vanish identically. We then use these results to obtain an expression for a perturbation of a Hamiltonian corresponding to evolution along a transverse diffeomorphism generator. From this expression, we derive the first law of black hole mechanics, identifying the total energy, the total angular momentum, the Wald entropy, and the contributions of the cosmological constant perturbations and energy non-conservation. Lastly, we extend our formalism to derive the first law of causal diamonds

Deformed Density Matrix and Generalized Uncertainty Relation in Thermodynamics

A generalization of the thermodynamic uncertainty relations is proposed. It is done by introducing of an additional term proportional to the interior energy into the standard thermodynamic uncertainty relation that leads to existence of the lower limit of inverse temperature. The authors are of the opinion that the approach proposed may lead to proof of these relations. To this end, the statistical mechanics deformation at Planck scale. The statistical mechanics deformation is constructed by analogy to the earlier quantum mechanical results. As previously, the primary object is a density matrix, but now the statistical one. The obtained deformed object is referred to as a statistical density pro-matrix. This object is explicitly described, and it is demonstrated that there is a complete analogy in the construction and properties of quantum mechanics and statistical density matrices at Plank scale (i.e. density pro-matrices). It is shown that an ordinary statistical density matrix occurs in the low-temperature limit at temperatures much lower than the Plank's. The associated deformation of a canonical Gibbs distribution is given explicitly.Comment: 15 pages,no figure

Circular strings, wormholes and minimum size

The quantization of circular strings in an anti-de Sitter background spacetime is performed, obtaining a discrete spectrum for the string mass. A comparison with a four-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic spacetime coupled to a conformal scalar field shows that the string radius and the scale factor have the same classical solutions and that the quantum theories of these two models are formally equivalent. However, the physically relevant observables of these two systems have different spectra, although they are related to each other by a specific one-to-one transformation. We finally obtain a discrete spectrum for the spacetime size of both systems, which presents a nonvanishing lower bound.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX2e, minor change

Quantum Electromagnetic Wormholes and Geometrical Description of the Electric Charge

I present and discuss a class of solutions of the Wheeler-de Witt equation describing wormholes generated by coupling of gravity to the electromagnetic field for Kantowski-Sachs and Bianchi I spacetimes. Since the electric charge can be viewed as electric lines of force trapped in a finite region of spacetime, these solutions can be interpreted as the quantum corresponding of the Ein\-stein\--Ro\-sen\--Mis\-ner\--Whee\-ler electromagnetic geon.Comment: 13 pages, PLAIN TEX, Report No: SISSA 92/94/A (to appear in Phys. Rev. D15