333 research outputs found
Study of the dependence of 198Au half-life on source geometry
We report the results of an experiment to determine whether the half-life of
\Au{198} depends on the shape of the source. This study was motivated by recent
suggestions that nuclear decay rates may be affected by solar activity, perhaps
arising from solar neutrinos. If this were the case then the -decay
rates, or half-lives, of a thin foil sample and a spherical sample of gold of
the same mass and activity could be different. We find for \Au{198},
, where
is the mean half-life. The maximum neutrino flux at the sample in our
experiments was several times greater than the flux of solar neutrinos at the
surface of the Earth. We show that this increase in flux leads to a significant
improvement in the limits that can be inferred on a possible solar contribution
to nuclear decays.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Search for Oscillation of the Electron-Capture Decay Probability of Pm
We have searched for time modulation of the electron capture decay
probability of Pm in an attempt to confirm a recent claim from a group
at the Gesellschaft f\"{u}r Schwerionenforschung (GSI). We produced Pm
via the Sn(Na, 5n)Pm reaction at the Berkeley 88-Inch
Cyclotron with a bombardment time short compared to the reported modulation
period. Isotope selection by the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator is followed by
implantation and a long period of monitoring the Nd K x-rays
from the daughter. The decay time spectrum of the x-rays is well-described by a
simple exponential and the measured half-life of 40.68(53) seconds is
consistent with the accepted value. We observed no oscillatory modulation at
the proposed frequency at a level 31 times smaller than that reported by
Litvinov {\it et al.} (Phys. Lett. B 664 (2008) 162; arXiv:0801.2079
[nucl-ex]). A literature search for previous experiments that might have been
sensitive to the reported modulation uncovered another example in Eu
electron-capture decay. A reanalysis of the published data shows no oscillatory
behavior.Comment: 12 pages (double-spaced), 6 figure
Pedestrian flows in bounded domains with obstacles
In this paper we systematically apply the mathematical structures by
time-evolving measures developed in a previous work to the macroscopic modeling
of pedestrian flows. We propose a discrete-time Eulerian model, in which the
space occupancy by pedestrians is described via a sequence of Radon positive
measures generated by a push-forward recursive relation. We assume that two
fundamental aspects of pedestrian behavior rule the dynamics of the system: On
the one hand, the will to reach specific targets, which determines the main
direction of motion of the walkers; on the other hand, the tendency to avoid
crowding, which introduces interactions among the individuals. The resulting
model is able to reproduce several experimental evidences of pedestrian flows
pointed out in the specialized literature, being at the same time much easier
to handle, from both the analytical and the numerical point of view, than other
models relying on nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws. This makes it
suitable to address two-dimensional applications of practical interest, chiefly
the motion of pedestrians in complex domains scattered with obstacles.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure
From Network Structure to Dynamics and Back Again: Relating dynamical stability and connection topology in biological complex systems
The recent discovery of universal principles underlying many complex networks
occurring across a wide range of length scales in the biological world has
spurred physicists in trying to understand such features using techniques from
statistical physics and non-linear dynamics. In this paper, we look at a few
examples of biological networks to see how similar questions can come up in
very different contexts. We review some of our recent work that looks at how
network structure (e.g., its connection topology) can dictate the nature of its
dynamics, and conversely, how dynamical considerations constrain the network
structure. We also see how networks occurring in nature can evolve to modular
configurations as a result of simultaneously trying to satisfy multiple
structural and dynamical constraints. The resulting optimal networks possess
hubs and have heterogeneous degree distribution similar to those seen in
biological systems.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proceedings of "Dynamics On and Of
Complex Networks", ECSS'07 Satellite Workshop, Dresden, Oct 1-5, 200
Charged and Pseudoscalar Higgs production at a Muon Collider
We consider single charged Higgs () and pseudoscalar Higgs ()
production in association with a gauge boson at colliders. We find
that the tree-level t-channel and s-channel contributions to are enhanced for large values of , allowing
sizeable cross-sections whose analogies at colliders would be very
small. These processes provide attractive new ways of producing such particles
at colliders and are superior to the conventional methods in
regions of parameter space.Comment: 11 pages Latex, 5 figures, formulae added in sections 2.2 and 2.3,
extra discussion in section 2.3, references adde
Heavy mass expansion, light-by-light scattering and the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon
Contributions from light-by-light scattering to (g_\mu-2)/2, the anomalous
magnetic moment of the muon, are mediated by the exchange of charged fermions
or scalar bosons. Assuming large masses M for the virtual particles and
employing the technique of large mass expansion, analytical results are
obtained for virtual fermions and scalars in the form of a series in (m_\mu
/M)^2. This series is well convergent even for the case M=m_\mu. For virtual
fermions, the expansion confirms published analytical formulae. For virtual
scalars, the result can be used to evaluate the contribution from charged
pions. In this case our result confirms already available numerical
evaluations, however, it is significantly more precise.Comment: revtex4, eps figure
Supersymmetric Electroweak Corrections to Charged Higgs Boson Production in Association with a Top Quark at Hadron Colliders
We calculate the and supersymmetric electroweak corrections to the cross section
for the charged Higgs boson production in association with a top quark at the
Tevatron and the LHC. These corrections arise from the quantum effects which
are induced by potentially large Yukawa couplings from the Higgs sector and the
chargino-top(bottom)-sbottom(stop) couplings,
neutralino-top(bottom)-stop(sbottom) couplings and charged Higgs-stop-sbottom
couplings. They can decrease or increase the cross section depending on
but are not very sensitive to the mass of the charged Higgs boson
for high . At low the corrections decrease the total
cross sections significantly, which exceed -12% for below
at both the Tevatron and the LHC, but for the
corrections can become very small at the LHC. For high
these corrections can decrease or increase the total cross sections, and the
magnitude of the corrections are at most a few percent at both the Tevatron and
the LHC.Comment: 28 pages including 4 eps figure
Dynamics of Warped Flux Compactifications
We discuss the four dimensional effective action for type IIB flux
compactifications, and obtain the quadratic terms taking warp effects into
account. The analysis includes both the 4-d zero modes and their KK
excitations, which become light at large warping. We identify an `axial' type
gauge for the supergravity fluctuations, which makes the four dimensional
degrees of freedom manifest. The other key ingredient is the existence of
constraints coming from the ten dimensional equations of motion. Applying these
conditions leads to considerable simplifications, enabling us to obtain the low
energy lagrangian explicitly. In particular, the warped K\"ahler potential for
metric moduli is computed and it is shown that there are no mixings with the KK
fluctuations and the result differs from previous proposals. The four
dimensional potential contains a generalization of the Gukov-Vafa-Witten term,
plus usual mass terms for KK modes.Comment: 37 pages. v2. References added, typos corrected. v3. Matches JHEP
versio
Higgs-Boson Production Induced by Bottom Quarks
Bottom quark-induced processes are responsible for a large fraction of the
LHC discovery potential, in particular for supersymmetric Higgs bosons.
Recently, the discrepancy between exclusive and inclusive Higgs boson
production rates has been linked to the choice of an appropriate bottom
factorization scale. We investigate the process kinematics at hadron colliders
and show that it leads to a considerable decrease in the bottom factorization
scale. This effect is the missing piece needed to understand the corresponding
higher order results. Our results hold generally for charged and for neutral
Higgs boson production at the LHC as well as at the Tevatron. The situation is
different for single top quark production, where we find no sizeable
suppression of the factorization scale. Turning the argument around, we can
specify how large the collinear logarithms are, which can be resummed using the
bottom parton picture.Comment: 18 page
Charged Higgs Boson Production in Bottom-Gluon Fusion
We compute the complete next-to-leading order SUSY-QCD corrections for the
associated production of a charged Higgs boson with a top quark via
bottom-gluon fusion. We investigate the applicability of the bottom parton
description in detail. The higher order corrections can be split into real and
virtual corrections for a general two Higgs doublet model and into additional
massive supersymmetric loop contributions. We find that the perturbative
behavior is well under control. The supersymmetric contributions consist of the
universal bottom Yukawa coupling corrections and non-factorizable diagrams.
Over most of the relevant supersymmetric parameter space the Yukawa coupling
corrections are sizeable, while the remaining supersymmetric loop contributions
are negligible.Comment: 18 pages, v2: some discussions added, v3: published versio
- …