5,734 research outputs found
WMAP 5-year constraints on lepton asymmetry and radiation energy density: Implications for Planck
In this paper we set bounds on the radiation content of the Universe and
neutrino properties by using the WMAP-5 year CMB measurements complemented with
most of the existing CMB and LSS data (WMAP5+All),imposing also self-consistent
BBN constraints on the primordial helium abundance. We consider lepton
asymmetric cosmological models parametrized by the neutrino degeneracy
parameter and the variation of the relativistic degrees of freedom, due to
possible other physical processes occurred between BBN and structure formation
epochs. We find that WMAP5+All data provides strong bounds on helium mass
fraction and neutrino degeneracy parameter that rivals the similar bounds
obtained from the conservative analysis of the present data on helium
abundance. We also find a strong correlation between the matter energy density
and the redshift of matter-radiation equality, z_re, showing that we observe
non-zero equivalent number of relativistic neutrinos mainly via the change of
the of z_re, rather than via neutrino anisotropic stress claimed by the WMAP
team. We forecast that the CMB temperature and polarization measurements
observed with high angular resolutions and sensitivities by the future Planck
satellite will reduce the errors on these parameters down to values fully
consistent with the BBN bounds
Signature of smooth transition from diabatic to adiabatic states in heavy-ion fusion reactions at deep subbarrier energies
We propose a novel extension of the standard coupled-channels framework for
heavy-ion reactions in order to analyze fusion reactions at deep subbarrier
incident energies. This extension simulates a smooth transition between the
diabatic two-body and the adiabatic one-body states. To this end, we damp
gradually the off-diagonal part of the coupling potential, for which the
position of the onset of the damping varies for each eigen channel. We show
that this model accounts well for the steep falloff of the fusion cross
sections for the O+Pb, Ni+Ni, and
Ni+Ni reactions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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