Inhomogeneous Neutrino Degeneracy and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

We examine Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) in the case of inhomogenous neutrino degeneracy, in the limit where the fluctuations are sufficiently small on large length scales that the present-day element abundances are homogeneous. We consider two representive cases: degeneracy of the electron neutrino alone, and equal chemical potentials for all three neutrinos. We use a linear programming method to constrain an arbitrary distribution of the chemical potentials. For the current set of (highly-restrictive) limits on the primordial element abundances, homogeneous neutrino degeneracy barely changes the allowed range of the baryon-to-photon ratio. Inhomogeneous degeneracy allows for little change in the lower bound on the baryon-to-photon ratio, but the upper bound in this case can be as large as 1.1 \times 10^{-8} (only electron neutrino degeneracy) or 1.0 \times 10^{-9} (equal degeneracies for all three neutrinos). For the case of inhomogeneous neutrino degeneracy, we show that there is no BBN upper bound on the neutrino energy density, which is bounded in this case only by limits from structure formation and the cosmic microwave background.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Kang-Redner Anomaly in Cluster-Cluster Aggregation

The large time, small mass, asymptotic behavior of the average mass distribution \pb is studied in a $d$-dimensional system of diffusing aggregating particles for $1\leq d \leq 2$. By means of both a renormalization group computation as well as a direct re-summation of leading terms in the small reaction-rate expansion of the average mass distribution, it is shown that \pb \sim \frac{1}{t^d} (\frac{m^{1/d}}{\sqrt{t}})^{e_{KR}} for $m \ll t^{d/2}$, where $e_{KR}=\epsilon +O(\epsilon ^2)$ and $\epsilon =2-d$. In two dimensions, it is shown that \pb \sim \frac{\ln(m) \ln(t)}{t^2} for $m \ll t/ \ln(t)$. Numerical simulations in two dimensions supporting the analytical results are also presented.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, Revtex

Determination of oxygen stoichiometry in the mixed-valent manganites

The possible redox (oxidation reduction) chemical methods for precisely determining the oxygen content in the perovskite manganites including hole-doped La1-xCaxMnOy and electron-doped La1-xTexMnOy compounds are described. For manganites annealed at different temperatures, the oxygen content of the samples was determined by a redox back titration in which the powder samples taken in a quartz crucible were dissolved in (1+1) sulfuric acid containing an excess of sodium oxalate, and the excess sodium oxalate was titrated with permanganate standard solution. The results indicate that the method is effective and highly reproducible. Moreover, the variation of oxygen content is also reflected in significantly affecting the electrical transport property of the samples, which is mainly considered to be closely related to introduce oxygen vacancies in the Mn-O-Mn network.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. J. Magn. Magn .Mater (accepted

Current constraints on Cosmological Parameters from Microwave Background Anisotropies

We compare the latest observations of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropies with the theoretical predictions of the standard scenario of structure formation. Assuming a primordial power spectrum of adiabatic perturbations we found that the total energy density is constrained to be $\Omega_{tot}=1.03\pm0.06$ while the energy density in baryon and Cold Dark Matter (CDM) are $\Omega_bh^2=0.021\pm0.003$ and $\Omega_{cdm}h^2=0.12\pm0.02$, (all at 68% C.L.) respectively. The primordial spectrum is consistent with scale invariance, ($n_s=0.97\pm0.04$) and the age of the universe is $t_0=14.6\pm0.9$ Gyrs. Adding informations from Large Scale Structure and Supernovae, we found a strong evidence for a cosmological constant $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.70_{-0.05}^{+0.07}$ and a value of the Hubble parameter $h=0.69\pm0.07$. Restricting this combined analysis to flat universes, we put constraints on possible 'extensions' of the standard scenario. A gravity waves contribution to the quadrupole anisotropy is limited to be $r \le 0.42$ (95% c.l.). A constant equation of state for the dark energy component is bound to be $w_Q \le -0.74$ (95% c.l.). We constrain the effective relativistic degrees of freedom $N_\nu \leq 6.2$ and the neutrino chemical potential $-0.01 \leq \xi_e \leq 0.18$ and $|\xi_{\mu,\tau}|\leq 2.3$ (massless neutrinos).Comment: The status of cosmological parameters before WMAP. In press on Phys. Rev. D., Rapid Communication, 6 pages, 5 figure

The Physics of Cluster Mergers

Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Major cluster mergers are the most energetic events in the Universe since the Big Bang. Some of the basic physical properties of mergers will be discussed, with an emphasis on simple analytic arguments rather than numerical simulations. Semi-analytic estimates of merger rates are reviewed, and a simple treatment of the kinematics of binary mergers is given. Mergers drive shocks into the intracluster medium, and these shocks heat the gas and should also accelerate nonthermal relativistic particles. X-ray observations of shocks can be used to determine the geometry and kinematics of the merger. Many clusters contain cooling flow cores; the hydrodynamical interactions of these cores with the hotter, less dense gas during mergers are discussed. As a result of particle acceleration in shocks, clusters of galaxies should contain very large populations of relativistic electrons and ions. Electrons with Lorentz factors gamma~300 (energies E = gamma m_e c^2 ~ 150 MeV) are expected to be particularly common. Observations and models for the radio, extreme ultraviolet, hard X-ray, and gamma-ray emission from nonthermal particles accelerated in these mergers are described.Comment: 38 pages with 9 embedded Postscript figures. To appear in Merging Processes in Clusters of Galaxies, edited by L. Feretti, I. M. Gioia, and G. Giovannini (Dordrecht: Kluwer), in press (2001

Stringent Constraints on Cosmological Neutrino-Antineutrino Asymmetries from Synchronized Flavor Transformation

We assess a mechanism which can transform neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries between flavors in the early universe, and confirm that such transformation is unavoidable in the near bi-maximal framework emerging for the neutrino mixing matrix. We show that the process is a standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein flavor transformation dictated by a synchronization of momentum states. We also show that flavor ``equilibration'' is a special feature of maximal mixing, and carefully examine new constraints placed on neutrino asymmetries. In particular, the big bang nucleosynthesis limit on electron neutrino degeneracy xi_e < 0.04 does not apply directly to all flavors, yet confirmation of the large-mixing-angle solution to the solar neutrino problem will eliminate the possibility of degenerate big bang nucleosynthesis.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; minor changes to match PRD versio

The effect of grain size on electrical transport and magnetic properties of La0.9Te0.1MnO3

The effect of grain size on structural, magnetic and transport properties in electron-doped manganites La0.9Te0.1MnO3 has been investigated. All samples show a rhombohedral structure with the space group at room temperature. It shows that the Mn-O-Mn bond angle decreases and the Mn-O bond length increases with the increase of grain size. All samples undergo paramagnetic (PM)-ferromagnetic (FM) phase transition and an interesting phenomenon that both magnetization and the Curie temperature decrease with increasing grain size is observed, which is suggested to mainly originate from the increase of the Mn-O bond length . Additionally, obviously increases with decreasing grain size due to the increase of both the height and width of tunneling barriers with decreasing the grain size. The results indicate that both the intrinsic colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) and the extrinsic the extrinsic interfacial magnetoresistance (IMR) can be effectively tuned in La0.9Te0.1MnO3 by changing grain size.Comment: 15 pages,4 figures. Solid state communications 132(2004)83-8

Simulation techniques for cosmological simulations

Modern cosmological observations allow us to study in great detail the evolution and history of the large scale structure hierarchy. The fundamental problem of accurate constraints on the cosmological parameters, within a given cosmological model, requires precise modelling of the observed structure. In this paper we briefly review the current most effective techniques of large scale structure simulations, emphasising both their advantages and shortcomings. Starting with basics of the direct N-body simulations appropriate to modelling cold dark matter evolution, we then discuss the direct-sum technique GRAPE, particle-mesh (PM) and hybrid methods, combining the PM and the tree algorithms. Simulations of baryonic matter in the Universe often use hydrodynamic codes based on both particle methods that discretise mass, and grid-based methods. We briefly describe Eulerian grid methods, and also some variants of Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods.Comment: 42 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view", Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 12; work done by an international team at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S. Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke

The effect of oxygen stoichiometry on electrical transport and magnetic properties of La0.9Te0.1MnOy

The effect of the variation of oxygen content on structural, magnetic and transport properties in the electron-doped manganites La0.9Te0.1MnOy has been investigated. All samples show a rhombohedral structure with the space group . The Curie temperature decreases and the paramagnetic-ferromagnetic (PM-FM) transition becomes broader with the reduction of oxygen content. The resistivity of the annealed samples increases slightly with a small reduction of oxygen content. Further reduction in the oxygen content, the resistivity maximum increases by six orders of magnitude compared with that of the as-prepared sample, and the r(T) curves of samples with y = 2.86 and y = 2.83 display the semiconducting behavior () in both high-temperature PM phase and low-temperature FM phase, which is considered to be related to the appearance of superexchange ferromagnetism (SFM) and the localization of carriers. The results are discussed in terms of the combined effects of the increase in the Mn2+/(Mn2++Mn3+) ratio, the partial destruction of double exchange (DE) interaction, and the localization of carriers due to the introduction of oxygen vacancies in the Mn-O-Mn network.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure