Minimally Allowed Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Rates From Approximate Flavor Symmetries

Neutrinoless double beta decay ($\beta\beta0\nu$) is among the only realistic probes of Majorana neutrinos. In the standard scenario, dominated by light neutrino exchange, the process amplitude is proportional to $m_{ee}$, the $e-e$ element of the Majorana mass matrix. Naively, current data allows for vanishing $m_{ee}$, but this should be protected by an appropriate flavor symmetry. All such symmetries lead to mass matrices inconsistent with oscillation phenomenology. I perform a spurion analysis to break all possible Abelian symmetries that guarantee vanishing $\beta\beta0\nu$ rates and search for minimally allowed values. I survey 230 broken structures to yield $m_{ee}$ values and current phenomenological constraints under a variety of scenarios. This analysis also extracts predictions for both neutrino oscillation parameters and kinematic quantities. Assuming reasonable tuning levels, I find that $m_{ee}>4\times 10^{-6}$ eV at 99% confidence. Bounds below this value might indicate the Dirac neutrino nature or the existence of new light (eV-MeV scale) degrees of freedom that can potentially be probed elsewhere.Comment: 19 Pages, 4 .eps Figures, 3 Table

Minimally Allowed Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Rates Within an Anarchical Framework

Neutrinoless double beta decay is the only realistic probe of the Majorana nature of the neutrino. In the standard picture, its rate is proportional to $m_{ee}$, the e-e element of the Majorana neutrino mass matrix in the flavor basis. I explore minimally allowed $m_{ee}$ values within the framework of mass matrix anarchy where neutrino parameters are defined statistically at low energies. Distributions of mixing angles are well defined by the Haar integration measure, but masses are dependent on arbitrary weighting functions and boundary conditions. I survey the integration measure parameter space and find that for sufficiently convergent weightings, $m_{ee}$ is constrained between (0.01-0.4) eV at 90% confidence. Constraints from neutrino mixing data lower these bounds. Singular integration measures allow for arbitrarily small $m_{ee}$ values with the remaining elements ill-defined, but this condition constrains the flavor structure of the model's ultraviolet completion. Bounds below $m_{ee} \sim 5\times10^{-3}$ eV should indicate symmetry in the lepton sector, new light degrees of freedom or the Dirac nature of the neutrino.Comment: BibTeX, 7 pages, 1 .eps Figure, Modified to match content of published paper: References added, table added, clarified discussion. Results are unchange

Enskog Theory for Polydisperse Granular Mixtures II. Sonine Polynomial Approximation

The linear integral equations defining the Navier-Stokes (NS) transport coefficients for polydisperse granular mixtures of smooth inelastic hard disks or spheres are solved by using the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. Explicit expressions for all the NS transport coefficients are given in terms of the sizes, masses, compositions, density and restitution coefficients. In addition, the cooling rate is also evaluated to first order in the gradients. The results hold for arbitrary degree of inelasticity and are not limited to specific values of the parameters of the mixture. Finally, a detailed comparison between the derivation of the current theory and previous theories for mixtures is made, with attention paid to the implication of the various treatments employed to date.Comment: 26 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Effects of Prior Acute Exercise on Circulating Cytokine Concentration Responses to a High-fat Meal

High-fat meal consumption alters the circulating cytokine profile and contributes to cardiometabolic diseases. A prior bout of exercise can ameliorate the triglyceride response to a high-fat meal, but the interactive effects of exercise and high-fat meals on cytokines that mediate cardiometabolic risk are not fully understood. We investigated the effects of prior exercise on the responses of circulating tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8, leptin, retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), placental growth factor (PlGF), and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) to a high-fat meal. Ten healthy men were studied before and 4 h after ingestion of a high-fat meal either with or without ~50 min of endurance exercise at 70% of VO2 max on the preceding day. In response to the high-fat meal, lower leptin and higher VEGF, bFGF, IL-6, and IL-8 concentrations were evident (P \u3c 0.05 for all). There was no effect of the high-fat meal on PlGF, TNF-a, or RBP4 concentrations. We found lower leptin concentrations with prior exercise (P \u3c 0.05) and interactive effects of prior exercise and the high-fat meal on sFlt-1 (P \u3c 0.05). The high-fat meal increased IL-6 by 59% without prior exercise and 218% with prior exercise (P \u3c 0.05). In conclusion, a prior bout of endurance exercise does not affect all high-fat meal–induced changes in circulating cytokines, but does affect fasting or postprandial concentrations of IL-6, leptin, and sFlt-1. These data may reflect a salutary effect of prior exercise on metabolic responses to a high-fat meal

Epistemic consequentialism, truth fairies and worse fairies

Direct Epistemic Consequentialism faces the Truth Fairy. Indirect Epistemic Consequentialism promises to avoid this issue. But there are worse fairies than the Truth Fairy. There is the Worse Fairy. The case of the Worse Fairy helps demonstrate that epistemic consequentialists who would solve problems like the Truth Fairy by ‘going indirect’ face a dilemma

The Calan-Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet Search

The detailed study of the exoplanetary systems HD189733 and HD209458 has given rise to a wealth of exciting information on the physics of exoplanetary atmospheres. To further our understanding of the make-up and processes within these atmospheres we require a larger sample of bright transiting planets. We have began a project to detect more bright transiting planets in the southern hemisphere by utilising precision radial-velocity measurements. We have observed a constrained sample of bright, inactive and metal-rich stars using the HARPS instrument and here we present the current status of this project, along with our first discoveries which include a brown dwarf/extreme-Jovian exoplanet found in the brown dwarf desert region around the star HD191760 and improved orbits for three other exoplanetary systems HD48265, HD143361 and HD154672. Finally, we briefly discuss the future of this project and the current prospects we have for discovering more bright transiting planets.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the conference proceedings "New Technologies for Probing the Diversity of Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets" Shanghai 200

Epidemiology of glenohumeral dislocation and subsequent instability in an urban population

Background: Glenohumeral dislocation is the most commonly encountered adult joint instability. The epidemiology in the United Kingdom and worldwide is unclear and often limited to young, active groups that are not representative of general populations. Information regarding epidemiology and outcome from a first dislocation is useful for trauma service planning and patient counseling. We calculated the incidence of shoulder instability after a first dislocation in our urban population and investigated predictors of recurrent instability. Methods: A prospectively collected trauma database was retrospectively examined to identify patients with a first-time dislocation. Demographics, subsequent dislocation, and instability details were collected from electronic patient records. Results: In a 38-month study period, 329 first dislocations occurred in a population of 475,147 with mean follow-up 28.5 months (range, 10-50 months). The overall incidence for first-time dislocations in this population was 21.9 per 100,000 population, of which 7.9% sustained a redislocation and 6.1% had further symptomatic instability. There were 18.8% with associated greater tuberosity fractures, 8.8% sustained a nerve injury, and 2.7% were posterior dislocations. A bimodal distribution was observed for males (peak incidence per 100,000 of 42.1 and 50.9 in 15-24 and ≥85 age groups, respectively), and unimodal for females (peak 45.7 in the 65-74 age group). Conclusion: We demonstrate a previously unreported burden of dislocation in older age groups and suggest a rate of recurrence lower than previously reported in the United Kingdom. The group aged 15 to 19 years was at the highest risk of recurrent dislocation and instability. Gender was not a significant predictor of instability

Decadal ocean forcing and Antarctic ice sheet response: Lessons from the Amundsen Sea

Mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is driven by changes at the marine margins. In the Amundsen Sea, thinning of the ice shelves has allowed the outlet glaciers to accelerate and thin, resulting in inland migration of their grounding lines. The ultimate driver is often assumed to be ocean warming, but the recent record of ocean temperature is dominated by decadal variability rather than a trend. The distribution of water masses on the Amundsen Sea continental shelf is particularly sensitive to atmospheric forcing, while the regional atmospheric circulation is highly variable, at least in part because of the impact of tropical variability. Changes in atmospheric circulation force changes in ice shelf melting, which drive step-wise movement of the grounding line between localized high points on the bed. When the grounding line is located on a high point, outlet glacier flow is sensitive to atmosphere-ocean variability, but once retreat or advance to the next high point has been triggered, ocean circulation and melt rate changes associated with the evolution in geometry of the sub-ice-shelf cavity dominate, and the sensitivity to atmospheric forcing is greatly reduced

Inherent Rheology of a Granular Fluid in Uniform Shear Flow

In contrast to normal fluids, a granular fluid under shear supports a steady state with uniform temperature and density since the collisional cooling can compensate locally for viscous heating. It is shown that the hydrodynamic description of this steady state is inherently non-Newtonian. As a consequence, the Newtonian shear viscosity cannot be determined from experiments or simulation of uniform shear flow. For a given degree of inelasticity, the complete nonlinear dependence of the shear viscosity on the shear rate requires the analysis of the unsteady hydrodynamic behavior. The relationship to the Chapman-Enskog method to derive hydrodynamics is clarified using an approximate Grad's solution of the Boltzmann kinetic equationComment: 10 pages, 4 figures; substantially enlarged version; to be published in PR