832 research outputs found
Bose Einstein condensation at reheating
We discuss the possibility that a perturbative reheating stage after
inflation produces a scalar particle gas in a Bose condensate state,
emphasizing the possible cosmological role of this phenomenon for symmetry
restoration.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Revised version, with an improved analysis of the
condensate formatio
Proton-proton bremsstrahlung below and above pion-threshold: the influence of the -isobar
The proton-proton bremsstrahlung is investigated within a coupled-channel
model with the degree of freedom. The model is consistent with the
scattering up to 1 GeV and the vertex determined in the
study of pion photoproduction reactions. It is found that the
excitation can significantly improve the agreements with the at MeV. Predictions at and MeV are
presented for future experimental tests.Comment: 26 pages Revtex, 12 figures are available from the authors upon
request ([email protected]
Sungas : Opportunities and challenges for solar thermos chemical fuels
Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.Displacing petroleum-derived fuels with renewable solar
fuels offers an opportunity to harness the earth’s most abundant
energy resource, to reduce anthropogenic emissions of
greenhouse gases, and to meet an expanding global demand for
fuel. This paper presents near-term and forward looking paths
to produce solar fuels using concentrated solar energy as the
source of process heat to drive thermochemical processes.
Solar gasification of biomass is presented as an important
stepping stone toward the goal of thermochemical metal oxide
redox cycles to split water and carbon dioxide.dc201
The road to deterministic matrices with the restricted isometry property
The restricted isometry property (RIP) is a well-known matrix condition that
provides state-of-the-art reconstruction guarantees for compressed sensing.
While random matrices are known to satisfy this property with high probability,
deterministic constructions have found less success. In this paper, we consider
various techniques for demonstrating RIP deterministically, some popular and
some novel, and we evaluate their performance. In evaluating some techniques,
we apply random matrix theory and inadvertently find a simple alternative proof
that certain random matrices are RIP. Later, we propose a particular class of
matrices as candidates for being RIP, namely, equiangular tight frames (ETFs).
Using the known correspondence between real ETFs and strongly regular graphs,
we investigate certain combinatorial implications of a real ETF being RIP.
Specifically, we give probabilistic intuition for a new bound on the clique
number of Paley graphs of prime order, and we conjecture that the corresponding
ETFs are RIP in a manner similar to random matrices.Comment: 24 page
Leptogenesis and rescattering in supersymmetric models
The observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be due to the
violating decay of heavy right handed (s)neutrinos. The amount of the asymmetry
depends crucially on their number density. If the (s)neutrinos are generated
thermally, in supersymmetric models there is limited parameter space leading to
enough baryons. For this reason, several alternative mechanisms have been
proposed. We discuss the nonperturbative production of sneutrino quanta by a
direct coupling to the inflaton. This production dominates over the
corresponding creation of neutrinos, and it can easily (i.e. even for a rather
small inflaton-sneutrino coupling) lead to a sufficient baryon asymmetry. We
then study the amplification of MSSM degrees of freedom, via their coupling to
the sneutrinos, during the rescattering phase which follows the nonperturbative
production. This process, which mainly influences the (MSSM) flat
directions, is very efficient as long as the sneutrinos quanta are in the
relativistic regime. The rapid amplification of the light degrees of freedom
may potentially lead to a gravitino problem. We estimate the gravitino
production by means of a perturbative calculation, discussing the regime in
which we expect it to be reliable.Comment: (20 pages, 6 figures), references added, typos corrected. Final
version in revte
Baryon number violation, baryogenesis and defects with extra dimensions
In generic models for grand unified theories(GUT), various types of baryon
number violating processes are expected when quarks and leptons propagate in
the background of GUT strings. On the other hand, in models with large extra
dimensions, the baryon number violation in the background of a string is not
trivial because it must depend on the mechanism of the proton stabilization. In
this paper we argue that cosmic strings in models with extra dimensions can
enhance the baryon number violation to a phenomenologically interesting level,
if the proton decay is suppressed by the mechanism of localized wavefunctions.
We also make some comments on baryogenesis mediated by cosmological defects. We
show at least two scenarios will be successful in this direction. One is the
scenario of leptogenesis where the required lepton number conversion is
mediated by cosmic strings, and the other is the baryogenesis from the decaying
cosmological domain wall. Both scenarios are new and have not been discussed in
the past.Comment: 20pages, latex2e, comments and references added, to appear in PR
Atomic X-ray Spectroscopy of Accreting Black Holes
Current astrophysical research suggests that the most persistently luminous
objects in the Universe are powered by the flow of matter through accretion
disks onto black holes. Accretion disk systems are observed to emit copious
radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, each energy band providing
access to rather distinct regimes of physical conditions and geometric scale.
X-ray emission probes the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where
relativistic effects prevail. While this has been known for decades, it also
has been acknowledged that inferring physical conditions in the relativistic
regime from the behavior of the X-ray continuum is problematic and not
satisfactorily constraining. With the discovery in the 1990s of iron X-ray
lines bearing signatures of relativistic distortion came the hope that such
emission would more firmly constrain models of disk accretion near black holes,
as well as provide observational criteria by which to test general relativity
in the strong field limit. Here we provide an introduction to this phenomenon.
While the presentation is intended to be primarily tutorial in nature, we aim
also to acquaint the reader with trends in current research. To achieve these
ends, we present the basic applications of general relativity that pertain to
X-ray spectroscopic observations of black hole accretion disk systems, focusing
on the Schwarzschild and Kerr solutions to the Einstein field equations. To
this we add treatments of the fundamental concepts associated with the
theoretical and modeling aspects of accretion disks, as well as relevant topics
from observational and theoretical X-ray spectroscopy.Comment: 63 pages, 21 figures, Einstein Centennial Review Article, Canadian
Journal of Physics, in pres
Turbulent Thermalization
We study, analytically and with lattice simulations, the decay of coherent
field oscillations and the subsequent thermalization of the resulting
stochastic classical wave-field. The problem of reheating of the Universe after
inflation constitutes our prime motivation and application of the results. We
identify three different stages of these processes. During the initial stage of
``parametric resonance'', only a small fraction of the initial inflaton energy
is transferred to fluctuations in the physically relevant case of sufficiently
large couplings. A major fraction is transfered in the prompt regime of driven
turbulence. The subsequent long stage of thermalization classifies as free
turbulence. During the turbulent stages, the evolution of particle distribution
functions is self-similar. We show that wave kinetic theory successfully
describes the late stages of our lattice calculation. Our analytical results
are general and give estimates of reheating time and temperature in terms of
coupling constants and initial inflaton amplitude.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure
Developmental pathways to autism: a review of prospective studies of infants at risk
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and the presence of restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Symptoms of ASD likely emerge from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the child's environment, modified by compensatory skills and protective factors. Prospective studies of infants at high familial risk for ASD (who have an older sibling with a diagnosis) are beginning to characterize these developmental pathways to the emergence of clinical symptoms. Here, we review the range of behavioral and neurocognitive markers for later ASD that have been identified in high-risk infants in the first years of life. We discuss theoretical implications of emerging patterns, and identify key directions for future work, including potential resolutions to several methodological challenges for the field. Mapping how ASD unfolds from birth is critical to our understanding of the developmental mechanisms underlying this disorder. A more nuanced understanding of developmental pathways to ASD will help us not only to identify children who need early intervention, but also to improve the range of interventions available to them
CP Violation in
We consider CP violating effects in the decays where both the resonance, , and
resonance, , can contribute. The interference
between the and resonances can lead to enhanced CP-violating
asymmetries whose magnitudes depend crucially on the decay
constant, . We make an estimate of with a
simplified chiral Lagrangian coupled to a massive pseudoscalar field, and we
compare the estimates from the non-relativistic quark model and from the QCD
sum rule with the estimate from the `mock' meson model. We then estimate
quantitatively the size of CP-violating effects in a multi-Higgs-doublet model
and scalar-leptoquark models. We find that, while CP-violating effects in the
scalar-leptoquark models may require more than leptons,
CP-violating effects from the multi-Higgs-doublet model can be seen at the
level with about leptons using the chiral Lagrangian
estimate of GeV.Comment: Latex, 30 pages, 2 figures (not included). Three compressed
postscript files of the paper available at
ftp://ftp.kek.jp/kek/preprints/TH/TH-419/kekth419.ps.gz, Tau1.ps.gz,
Tau2.ps.g
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