Dynamics of WIMPs in the solar system and implications for direct and indirect detection

Semi-analytic treatments of the evolution of orbits of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the solar system suggest that the WIMPs bound to the solar system may enhance the direct detection rate relative to that of the unbound population by up to a factor of order unity, and boost the flux of neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Earth by up to two orders of magnitude. To test these important but uncertain results, we perform a suite of numerical orbit integrations to explore the properties of the bound WIMP population as a function of the WIMP mass and the scattering cross section with baryonic matter. For regions of WIMP parameter space presently allowed by experiments, we find that (i) the bound WIMP population enhances the direct detection rate by at most ~1% relative to the rate from unbound halo WIMPs; (ii) it is unlikely that planned km^3-scale neutrino telescopes will detect neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Earth; (iii) the event rate from neutrinos produced by WIMP annihilation in the Sun may be much smaller than implied by the usual calculations, which assume that WIMPs scattered onto bound orbits are rapidly thermalized in the Sun.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the IDM2008 conference proceeding

NMR Probing Spin Excitations in the Ring-Like Structure of a Two-Subband System

Resistively detected nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is observed inside the ring-like structure, with a quantized Hall conductance of 6e^2/h, in the phase diagram of a two subband electron system. The NMR signal persists up to 400 mK and is absent in other states with the same quantized Hall conductance. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time, T1, is found to decrease rapidly towards the ring center. These observations are consistent with the assertion of the ring-like region being a ferromagnetic state that is accompanied by collective spin excitations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Evolutionary dynamics of incubation periods

The incubation period of a disease is the time between an initiating pathologic event and the onset of symptoms. For typhoid fever, polio, measles, leukemia and many other diseases, the incubation period is highly variable. Some affected people take much longer than average to show symptoms, leading to a distribution of incubation periods that is right skewed and often approximately lognormal. Although this statistical pattern was discovered more than sixty years ago, it remains an open question to explain its ubiquity. Here we propose an explanation based on evolutionary dynamics on graphs. For simple models of a mutant or pathogen invading a network-structured population of healthy cells, we show that skewed distributions of incubation periods emerge for a wide range of assumptions about invader fitness, competition dynamics, and network structure. The skewness stems from stochastic mechanisms associated with two classic problems in probability theory: the coupon collector and the random walk. Unlike previous explanations that rely crucially on heterogeneity, our results hold even for homogeneous populations. Thus, we predict that two equally healthy individuals subjected to equal doses of equally pathogenic agents may, by chance alone, show remarkably different time courses of disease.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

A Predictive Model for Convective Flows Induced by Surface Reactivity Contrast

Concentration gradients in a fluid along a reactive surface due to contrast in surface reactivity generate convective flows. These flows result from contributions by electro and diffusio osmotic phenomena. In this study we have analyzed reactive patterns that release and consume protons, analogous to bimetallic catalytic conversion of peroxide. Here, we present a simple analytical model that accurately predicts the induced potentials and consequent velocities in such systems over a wide range of input parameters. Our model is tested against direct numerical solutions to the coupled Poisson, Nernst-Planck, and Navier-Stokes equations. Our analysis can be used to predict enhancement of mass transport and the resulting impact on overall catalytic conversion, and is also applicable to predicting the speed of catalytic nanomotors

Photoionization cross sections of O II, O III, O IV, and O V: benchmarking R-matrix theory and experiments

For crucial tests between theory and experiment, ab initio close coupling calculations are carried out for photoionization of O II, O III, O IV, O V. The relativistic fine structure and resonance effects are studied using the R-matrix and its relativistic variant the Breit Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) approximation. Detailed comparison is made with high resolution experimental measurements carried out in three different set-ups: Advanced Light Source at Berkeley, and synchrotron radiation experiments at University of Aarhus and University of Paris-Sud. The comparisons illustrate physical effects in photoionization such as (i) fine structure, (ii) resolution, and (iii) metastable components. Photoionization cross sections sigma{PI} of the ground and a few low lying excited states of these ions obtained in the experimental spectrum include combined features of these states. Theoretically calculated resonances need to be resolved with extremely fine energy mesh for precise comparison. In addition, prominent resonant features are observed in the measured spectra from transitions allowed with relativistic fine structure, but not in LS coupling. The sigma_{PI} are obtained for ground and metastable (i) 2s^22p^3(^4S^o, ^2D^o, ^2P^o) states of O II, (ii) 2s^22p^2(^3P,^1D,^1S) and 2s2p^3(^5S^o) states of O III, (iii) 2s^22p(^2P^o_J) and 2s2p^2(^4P_J) levels of O IV, and (iv) 2s^2(^1S) and 2s2p(^3P^o,^1P^o) states of O V. It is found that resonances in ground and metastable cross sections can be a diagnostic of experimental beam composition, with potential ap plications to astrophysical and laboratory plasma environments.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figs., submitted to Phys. Rev. A., text with high resolution figures at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pradhan/Oions.p