Reanalysis of the GALLEX solar neutrino flux and source experiments

After the completion of the gallium solar neutrino experiments at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (GALLEX}: 1991-1997; GNO: 1998-2003) we have retrospectively updated the GALLEX results with the help of new technical data that were impossible to acquire for principle reasons before the completion of the low rate measurement phase (that is, before the end of the GNO solar runs). Subsequent high rate experiments have allowed the calibration of absolute internal counter efficiencies and of an advanced pulse shape analysis for counter background discrimination. The updated overall result for GALLEX (only) is (73.4 +7.1 -7.3) SNU. This is 5.3% below the old value of (77.5 + 7.5 -7.8) SNU (PLB 447 (1999) 127-133) with a substantially reduced error. A similar reduction is obtained from the reanalysis of the 51Cr neutrino source experiments of 1994/1995.Comment: Accepted by Physics Letters B January 13, 201

Re-Examination of Possible Bimodality of GALLEX Solar Neutrino Data

The histogram formed from published capture-rate measurements for the GALLEX solar neutrino experiment is bimodal, showing two distinct peaks. On the other hand, the histogram formed from published measurements derived from the similar GNO experiment is unimodal, showing only one peak. However, the two experiments differ in run durations: GALLEX runs are either three weeks or four weeks (approximately) in duration, whereas GNO runs are all about four weeks in duration. When we form 3-week and 4-week subsets of the GALLEX data, we find that the relevant histograms are unimodal. The upper peak arises mainly from the 3-week runs, and the lower peak from the 4-week runs. The 4-week subset of the GALLEX dataset is found to be similar to the GNO dataset. A recent re-analysis of GALLEX data leads to a unimodal histogram.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Results of ultra-low level 71ge counting for application in the Gallex-solar neutrino experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Physics Laboratory

It has been experimentally verified that the Ultra-Low-Level Counting System for the Gallex solar neutrino experiment is capable of measuring the expected solar up silon-flux to plus or minus 12% during two years of operation

Cleaning the USNO-B Catalog through automatic detection of optical artifacts

The USNO-B Catalog contains spurious entries that are caused by diffraction spikes and circular reflection halos around bright stars in the original imaging data. These spurious entries appear in the Catalog as if they were real stars; they are confusing for some scientific tasks. The spurious entries can be identified by simple computer vision techniques because they produce repeatable patterns on the sky. Some techniques employed here are variants of the Hough transform, one of which is sensitive to (two-dimensional) overdensities of faint stars in thin right-angle cross patterns centered on bright (<13 \mag) stars, and one of which is sensitive to thin annular overdensities centered on very bright (<7 \mag) stars. After enforcing conservative statistical requirements on spurious-entry identifications, we find that of the 1,042,618,261 entries in the USNO-B Catalog, 24,148,382 of them (2.3 \percent) are identified as spurious by diffraction-spike criteria and 196,133 (0.02 \percent) are identified as spurious by reflection-halo criteria. The spurious entries are often detected in more than 2 bands and are not overwhelmingly outliers in any photometric properties; they therefore cannot be rejected easily on other grounds, i.e., without the use of computer vision techniques. We demonstrate our method, and return to the community in electronic form a table of spurious entries in the Catalog.Comment: published in A

V2:Performance of the solid deuterium ultra-cold neutron source at the pulsed reactor TRIGA Mainz

The performance of the solid deuterium ultra-cold neutron source at the pulsed reactor TRIGA Mainz with a maximum peak energy of 10 MJ is described. The solid deuterium converter with a volume of V=160 cm3 (8 mol), which is exposed to a thermal neutron fluence of 4.5x10^13 n/cm2, delivers up to 550 000 UCN per pulse outside of the biological shield at the experimental area. UCN densities of ~ 10/cm3 are obtained in stainless steel bottles of V ~ 10 L resulting in a storage efficiency of ~20%. The measured UCN yields compare well with the predictions from a Monte Carlo simulation developed to model the source and to optimize its performance for the upcoming upgrade of the TRIGA Mainz into a user facility for UCN physics.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Symplectic Symmetry of the Neutrino Mass and the See-Saw Mechanism

We investigate the algebraic structure of the most general neutrino mass Hamiltonian and place the see-saw mechanism in an algebraic framework. We show that this Hamiltonian can be written in terms of the generators of an Sp(4) algebra. The Pauli-Gursey transformation is an SU(2) rotation which is embedded in this Sp(4) group. This SU(2) also generates the see-saw mechanism.Comment: 11 pages, REVTE

(3+2) Neutrino Scheme From A Singular Double See-Saw Mechanism

We obtain a 3+2 neutrino spectrum within a left-right symmetric framework by invoking a singular double see-saw mechanism. Higgs doublets are employed to break $SU_{R}(2)$ and three additional fermions, singlets under the left-right symmetric gauge group, are included. The introduction of a singularity into the singlet fermion Majorana mass matrix results in a light neutrino sector of three neutrinos containing predominantly $\nu_{\alpha L}$, $\alpha=e,\mu,\tau$, separated from two neutrinos containing a small $\nu_{\alpha L}$ component. The resulting active-sterile mixing in the $5\times 5$ mixing matrix is specified once the mass eigenvalues and the $3\times3$ submatrix corresponding to the MNS mixing matrix are known.Comment: 5 pages, matches published versio

Age-dependent differences in human brain activity using a face- and location-matching task: An fMRI study

Purpose: To evaluate the differences of cortical activation patterns in young and elderly healthy subjects for object and spatial visual processing using a face- and location-matching task. Materials and Methods: We performed a face- and a location-matching task in 15 young (mean age: 28 +/- 9 years) and 19 elderly (mean age: 71 +/- 6 years) subjects. Each experiment consisted of 7 blocks alternating between activation and control condition. For face matching, the subjects had to indicate whether two displayed faces were identical or different. For location matching, the subjects had to press a button whenever two objects had an identical position. For control condition, we used a perception task with abstract images. Functional imaging was performed on a 1.5-tesla scanner using an EPI sequence. Results: In the face-matching task, the young subjects showed bilateral (right 1 left) activation in the occipito-temporal pathway (occipital gyrus, inferior and middle temporal gyrus). Predominantly right hemispheric activations were found in the fusiform gyrus, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (inferior and middle frontal gyrus) and the superior parietal gyrus. In the elderly subjects, the activated areas in the right fronto-lateral cortex increased. An additional activated area could be found in the medial frontal gyrus (right > left). In the location-matching task, young subjects presented increased bilateral (right > left) activation in the superior parietal lobe and precuneus compared with face matching. The activations in the occipito-temporal pathway, in the right fronto-lateral cortex and the fusiform gyrus were similar to the activations found in the face-matching task. In the elderly subjects, we detected similar activation patterns compared to the young subjects with additional activations in the medial frontal gyrus. Conclusion: Activation patterns for object-based and spatial visual processing were established in the young and elderly healthy subjects. Differences between the elderly and young subjects could be evaluated, especially by using a face-matching task. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

Establishing a nu_{mu,tau} Component in the Solar Neutrino Flux

We point out that the recoil electron kinetic energy spectra in the nu-e elastic scattering are different for incident nu_{e} or nu_{mu,tau}, and hence one can in principle establish the existence of the nu_{mu,tau} component in the solar neutrino flux by fitting the shape of the spectrum. This would be a new model-independent test of the solar neutrino oscillation in a single experiment, free from astrophysical and nuclear physics uncertainties. For the ^7Be neutrinos, it is possible to determine the nu_{mu,tau} component at BOREXINO or KamLAND, if the background is sufficiently low. Note that this effect is different from the distortion in the incident neutrino energy spectrum, which has been discussed in the literature.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, uses psfig. Figures reorganized, one corrected, conclusions unchange

Complete results for five years of GNO solar neutrino observations

We report the complete GNO solar neutrino results for the measuring periods GNO III, GNO II, and GNO I. The result for GNO III (last 15 solar runs) is [54.3 + 9.9 - 9.3 (stat.)+- 2.3 (syst.)] SNU (1 sigma) or [54.3 + 10.2 - 9.6 (incl. syst.)] SNU (1 sigma) with errors combined. The GNO experiment is now terminated after altogether 58 solar exposure runs that were performed between May 20, 1998 and April 9, 2003. The combined result for GNO (I+II+III) is [62.9 + 5.5 - 5.3 (stat.) +- 2.5 (syst.)] SNU (1 sigma) or [62.9 + 6.0 - 5.9] SNU (1 sigma) with errors combined in quadrature. Overall, gallium based solar observations at LNGS (first in GALLEX, later in GNO) lasted from May 14, 1991 through April 9, 2003. The joint result from 123 runs in GNO and GALLEX is [69.3 +- 5.5 (incl. syst.)] SNU (1 sigma). The distribution of the individual run results is consistent with the hypothesis of a neutrino flux that is constant in time. Implications from the data in particle- and astrophysics are reiterated.Comment: 22 pages incl. 9 Figures and 8 Tables. to appear in: Physics Letters B (accepted April 13, 2005) PACS: 26.65.+t ; 14.60.P