Thermo-refractive noise in gravitational wave antennae

Thermodynamical fluctuations of temperature in mirrors of gravitational wave antennae may be transformed into additional noise not only through thermal expansion coefficient but also through temperature dependence of refraction index. The intensity of this noise is comparable with other known noises and must be taken into account in future steps of the antennas.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, the paper is revised as compared to one accepted in Phys.Letts.A (new numerical estimates

Thermodynamical fluctuations and photo-thermal shot noise in gravitational wave antennae

Thermodynamical fluctuations of temperature in mirrors of gravitational wave antennae are transformed through thermal expansion coefficient into additional noise. This source of noise, which may also be interpreted as fluctuations due to thermoelastic damping, may not be neglected and leads to the necessity to reexamine the choice of materials for the mirrors. Additional source of noise are fluctuations of the mirrors' surfaces caused by optical power absorbed in dielectrical reflective layers.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Thermodynamical fluctuations in optical mirror coatings

Thermodynamical fluctuations of temperature in mirrors may produce surface fluctuations not only through thermal expansion in mirror body but also through thermal expansion in mirror coating. We analyze the last "surface" effect which can be larger than the first "volume" one due to larger thermal expansion coefficient of coating material and smaller effective volume. In particular, these fluctuations may be important in laser interferometric gravitational antennae.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex, 3 figure

The Simplest Resonant Spin--Flavour Solution to the Solar Neutrino Problem

We re-analyse the resonant spin-flavour (RSF) solutions to the solar neutrino problem in the framework of analytic solutions to the solar magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) equations. By substantially eliminating the arbitrariness associated to the magnetic field profile due to both mathematical consistency and physical requirements we propose the simplest scheme (MHD-RSF, for short) for solar neutrino conversion using realistic static MHD solutions. Using such effective two-parameter scheme we perform the first global fit of the recent solar neutrino data, including event rates as well as zenith angle distributions and recoil electron spectra induced by solar neutrino interactions in Superkamiokande. We compare quantitatively our simplest MHD-RSF fit with vacuum oscillation (VAC) and MSW-type (SMA, LMA and LOW) solutions to the solar neutrino problem using a common well-calibrated theoretical calculation and fit procedure. We find our MHD-RSF fit to be somewhat better than those obtained for the favored neutrino oscillation solutions, though not in a statistically significant way. We briefly discuss the prospects to disentangle our MHD-RSF scenario at future solar neutrino experiments, giving some predictions for the SNO experiment.Comment: 26 pages with 6 postscript figures included. Improved presentation and misprints corrected. Final version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Optomechanical characterization of acoustic modes in a mirror

We present an experimental study of the internal mechanical vibration modes of a mirror. We determine the frequency repartition of acoustic resonances via a spectral analysis of the Brownian motion of the mirror, and the spatial profile of the acoustic modes by monitoring their mechanical response to a resonant radiation pressure force swept across the mirror surface. We have applied this technique to mirrors with cylindrical and plano-convex geometries, and compared the experimental results to theoretical predictions. We have in particular observed the gaussian modes predicted for plano-convex mirrors.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, RevTe

Solar neutrino problem accounting for self-consistent magnetohydrodynamics solution for solar magnetic fields

The analysis of the resonant spin-flavour (RSF) solutions to the solar neutrino problem in the framework of simplest analytic solutions to the solar magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) equations is presented. We performed the global fit of the recent solar neutrino data, including event rates as well as day and night recoil electron spectra induced by solar neutrino interactions in SuperKamiokande. We compare quantitatively our simplest MHD-RSF fit with vacuum oscillation (VAC) and MSW--type (SMA, LMA and LOW) solutions to the solar neutrino problem using a common well-calibrated theoretical calculation and fit procedure and find MHD-RSF fit to be somewhat better than those obtained for the favored neutrino oscillation solutions. We made the predictions for future experiments to disentangle the MHD-RSF scenario from other scenarios

Stability analysis of agegraphic dark energy in Brans-Dicke cosmology

Stability analysis of agegraphic dark energy in Brans-Dicke theory is presented in this paper. We constrain the model parameters with the observational data and thus the results become broadly consistent with those expected from experiment. Stability analysis of the model without best fitting shows that universe may begin from an unstable state passing a saddle point and finally become stable in future. However, with the best fitted model, There is no saddle intermediate state. The agegraphic dark energy in the model by itself exhibits a phantom behavior. However, contribution of cold dark matter on the effective energy density modifies the state of teh universe from phantom phase to quintessence one. The statefinder diagnosis also indicates that the universe leaves an unstable state in the past, passes the LCDM state and finally approaches the sable state in future.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV

We present the first measurement of directed flow ($v_1$) at RHIC. $v_1$ is found to be consistent with zero at pseudorapidities $\eta$ from -1.2 to 1.2, then rises to the level of a couple of percent over the range $2.4 < |\eta| < 4$. The latter observation is similar to data from NA49 if the SPS rapidities are shifted by the difference in beam rapidity between RHIC and SPS. Back-to-back jets emitted out-of-plane are found to be suppressed more if compared to those emitted in-plane, which is consistent with {\it jet quenching}. Using the scalar product method, we systematically compared azimuthal correlations from p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions. Flow and non-flow from these three different collision systems are discussed.Comment: Quark Matter 2004 proceeding, 4 pages, 3 figure

Azimuthal anisotropy: the higher harmonics

We report the first observations of the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the azimuthal distribution of particles at RHIC. The measurement was done taking advantage of the large elliptic flow generated at RHIC. The integrated v_4 is about a factor of 10 smaller than v_2. For the sixth (v_6) and eighth (v_8) harmonics upper limits on the magnitudes are reported.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, contribution to the Quark Matter 2004 proceeding