Charged Current Neutrino Cross Section and Tau Energy Loss at Ultra-High Energies

We evaluate both the tau lepton energy loss produced by photonuclear interactions and the neutrino charged current cross section at ultra-high energies, relevant to neutrino bounds with Earth-skimming tau neutrinos, using different theoretical and phenomenological models for nucleon and nucleus structure functions. The theoretical uncertainty is estimated by taking different extrapolations of the structure function F2 to very low values of x, in the low and moderate Q2 range for the tau lepton interaction and at high Q2 for the neutrino-nucleus inelastic cross section. It is at these extremely low values of x where nuclear shadowing and parton saturation effects are unknown and could be stronger than usually considered. For tau and neutrino energies E=10^9 GeV we find uncertainties of a factor 4 for the tau energy loss and of a factor 2 for the charged current neutrino-nucleus cross section.Comment: 20 pages and 11 figure

Charged lepton-nucleus inelastic scattering at high energies

The composite model is constructed to describe inelastic high-energy scattering of muons and taus in standard rock. It involves photonuclear interactions at low $Q^2$ as well as moderate $Q^2$ processes and the deep inelastic scattering (DIS). In the DIS region the neutral current contribution is taken into consideration. Approximation formulas both for the muons and tau energy loss in standard rock are presented for wide energy range.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Presented at 19th European Cosmic Ray Symposium (ECRS 2004), Florence, Italy, 30 Aug - 3 Sep 2004. Submitted to Int.J.Mod.Phys.

Muon-Induced Background Study for Underground Laboratories

We provide a comprehensive study of the cosmic-ray muon flux and induced activity as a function of overburden along with a convenient parameterization of the salient fluxes and differential distributions for a suite of underground laboratories ranging in depth from $\sim$1 to 8 km.w.e.. Particular attention is given to the muon-induced fast neutron activity for the underground sites and we develop a Depth-Sensitivity-Relation to characterize the effect of such background in experiments searching for WIMP dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay.Comment: 18 pages, 28 figure

Graph Partitioning Induced Phase Transitions

We study the percolation properties of graph partitioning on random regular graphs with N vertices of degree $k$. Optimal graph partitioning is directly related to optimal attack and immunization of complex networks. We find that for any partitioning process (even if non-optimal) that partitions the graph into equal sized connected components (clusters), the system undergoes a percolation phase transition at $f=f_c=1-2/k$ where $f$ is the fraction of edges removed to partition the graph. For optimal partitioning, at the percolation threshold, we find $S \sim N^{0.4}$ where $S$ is the size of the clusters and $\ell\sim N^{0.25}$ where $\ell$ is their diameter. Additionally, we find that $S$ undergoes multiple non-percolation transitions for $f<f_c$

Neutron production by cosmic-ray muons at shallow depth

The yield of neutrons produced by cosmic ray muons at a shallow depth of 32 meters of water equivalent has been measured. The Palo Verde neutrino detector, containing 11.3 tons of Gd loaded liquid scintillator and 3.5 tons of acrylic served as a target. The rate of one and two neutron captures was determined. Modeling the neutron capture efficiency allowed us to deduce the total yield of neutrons $Y_{tot} = (3.60 \pm 0.09 \pm 0.31) \times 10^{-5}$ neutrons per muon and g/cm$^2$. This yield is consistent with previous measurements at similar depths.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Implication of Compensator Field and Local Scale Invariance in the Standard Model

We introduce Weyl's scale symmetry into the standard model (SM) as a local symmetry. This necessarily introduces gravitational interactions in addition to the local scale invariance group \tilde U(1) and the SM groups SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1). The only other new ingredients are a new scalar field \sigma and the gauge field for \tilde U(1) we call the Weylon. A noteworthy feature is that the system admits the St\" uckelberg-type compensator. The \sigma couples to the scalar curvature as (-\zeta/2) \sigma^2 R, and is in turn related to a St\" uckelberg-type compensator \varphi by \sigma \equiv M_P e^{-\varphi/M_P} with the Planck mass M_P. The particular gauge \varphi = 0 in the St\" uckelberg formalism corresponds to \sigma = M_P, and the Hilbert action is induced automatically. In this sense, our model presents yet another mechanism for breaking scale invariance at the classical level. We show that our model naturally accommodates the chaotic inflation scenario with no extra field.Comment: This work is to be read in conjunction with our recent comments hep-th/0702080, arXiv:0704.1836 [hep-ph] and arXiv:0712.2487 [hep-ph]. The necessary ingredients for describing chaotic inflation in the SM as entertained by Bezrukov and Shaposhnikov [17] have been provided by our original model [8]. We regret their omission in citing our original model [8

Performances and stability of a 2.4 ton Gd organic liquid scintillator target for antineutrino detection

In this work we report the performances and the chemical and physical properties of a (2 x 1.2) ton organic liquid scintillator target doped with Gd up to ~0.1%, and the results of a 2 year long stability survey. In particular we have monitored the amount of both Gd and primary fluor actually in solution, the optical and fluorescent properties of the Gd-doped liquid scintillator (GdLS) and its performances as a neutron detector, namely neutron capture efficiency and average capture time. The experimental survey is ongoing, the target being continuously monitored. After two years from the doping time the performances of the Gd-doped liquid scintillator do not show any hint of degradation and instability; this conclusion comes both from the laboratory measurements and from the "in-tank" measurements. This is the largest stable Gd-doped organic liquid scintillator target ever produced and continuously operated for a long period