32 research outputs found
Neutrino masses: From fantasy to facts
Theory suggests the existence of neutrino masses, but little more. Facts are
coming close to reveal our fantasy: solar and atmospheric neutrino data
strongly indicate the need for neutrino conversions, while LSND provides an
intriguing hint. The simplest ways to reconcile these data in terms of neutrino
oscillations invoke a light sterile neutrino in addition to the three active
ones. Out of the four neutrinos, two are maximally-mixed and lie at the LSND
scale, while the others are at the solar mass scale. These schemes can be
distinguished at neutral-current-sensitive solar & atmospheric neutrino
experiments. I discuss the simplest theoretical scenarios, where the lightness
of the sterile neutrino, the nearly maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing, and
the generation of & all follow
naturally from the assumed lepton-number symmetry and its breaking. Although
the most likely interpretation of the present data is in terms of
neutrino-mass-induced oscillations, one still has room for alternative
explanations, such as flavour changing neutrino interactions, with no need for
neutrino mass or mixing. Such flavour violating transitions arise in theories
with strictly massless neutrinos, and may lead to other sizeable flavour
non-conservation effects, such as , conversion in
nuclei, unaccompanied by neutrino-less double beta decay.Comment: 33 pages, latex, 16 figures. Invited Talk at Ioannina Conference,
Symmetries in Intermediate High Energy Physics and its Applications, Oct.
1998, to be published by Springer Tracts in Modern Physics. Festschrift in
Honour of John Vergados' 60th Birthda
Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV
We report on the first measurement of the triangular , quadrangular
, and pentagonal charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76
TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show
that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial
anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its
origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow and
have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal
correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to
fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the
measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387
Possible solar cycle variations in the convection zone
Using data from the Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG) that covers the period from 1995 to 1998 we study the change in frequencies of solar oscillations with solar activity. From these frequencies we attempt to determine any possible variation in solar structure with solar activity. We do not find any evidence of a change in the convection zone depth or extent of overshoot below the convection zone during the solar cycle
Production of pions, kaons and protons in pp collisions at root s=900 GeV with ALICE at the LHC
The production of pi(+), pi(-), K+, K-, p, and (p) over bar at
mid-rapidity has been measured in proton-proton collisions at root s =
900 GeV with the ALICE detector. Particle identification is performed
using the specific energy loss in the inner tracking silicon detector
and the time projection chamber. In addition, time-of-flight information
is used to identify hadrons at higher momenta. Finally, the distinctive
kink topology of the weak decay of charged kaons is used for an
alternative measurement of the kaon transverse momentum (p(t)) spectra.
Since these various particle identification tools give the best
separation capabilities over different momentum ranges, the results are
combined to extract spectra from p(t) = 100 MeV/c to 2.5 GeV/c. The
measured spectra are further compared with QCD-inspired models which
yield a poor description. The total yields and the mean pt are compared
with previous measurements, and the trends as a function of collision
energy are discussed