497 research outputs found
Evidence of cross-correlation between the CMB lensing and the gamma-ray sky
We report the measurement of the angular power spectrum of cross-correlation
between the unresolved component of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sky-maps and the
CMB lensing potential map reconstructed by the Planck satellite. The matter
distribution in the Universe determines the bending of light coming from the
last scattering surface. At the same time, the matter density drives the growth
history of astrophysical objects, including their capability at generating
non-thermal phenomena, which in turn give rise to gamma-ray emissions. The
Planck lensing map provides information on the integrated distribution of
matter, while the integrated history of gamma-ray emitters is imprinted in the
Fermi-LAT sky maps. We report here the first evidence of their correlation. We
find that the multipole dependence of the cross-correlation measurement is in
agreement with current models of the gamma-ray luminosity function for AGN and
star forming galaxies, with a statistical evidence of 3.0. Moreover,
its amplitude can in general be matched only assuming that these extra-galactic
emitters are also the bulk contribution of the measured isotopic gamma-ray
background (IGRB) intensity. This leaves little room for a big contribution
from galactic sources to the IGRB measured by Fermi-LAT, pointing toward a
direct evidence of the extragalactic origin of the IGRB.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. v2: analysis updated with Planck 2015 lensing map
and 3FGL catalogue, conclusions strengthened; to appear in ApJ Letter
Red Alert: a cognitive countermeasure to mitigate attentional tunneling
Attentional tunneling, that is the inability to detect unexpected changes in the environment, has been shown to have critical consequences in air traffic control. The motivation of this study was to assess the design of a cognitive countermeasure dedicated to mitigate such failure of attention. The Red Alert cognitive countermeasure relies on a brief orange-red flash (300 ms) that masks the entire screen with a 15% opacity. Twenty-two air traffic controllers faced two demanding scenarios, with or without the cognitive countermeasure. The volunteers were not told about the Red Alert so as to assess the intuitiveness of the design without prior knowledge. Behavioral results indicated that the cognitive countermeasure reduced reaction time and improved the detection of the notification when compared to the classical operational design. Further analyses showed this effect was even stronger for half of our participants (91.7% detection rate) who intuitively understood the purpose of this design
Monitoring temporal fluctuations of Culex quinquefasciatus using oviposition traps containing attractant and larvicide in an urban environment in Recife, Brazil
The use of attractants and larvicides in oviposition traps is of practical interest for the surveillance and control of urban mosquitoes. In addition to increasing the safety of the traps, this combination is essential for an attract-and-kill control strategy based on trapping mosquito eggs. The combination of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) and grass infusion (GI) vs. GI alone were tested for their ability to attract in paired BR-OVT traps in the backyards of 10 houses in Recife, Brazil, for a period of 45 days. Results show that females prefer to oviposit in traps containing Bti (363 compared with 251 egg rafts over 45 days). Results from a one-year trial on the efficacy of BR-OVT traps loaded with GI and Bti as a sampling tool to monitor temporal fluctuations in the population densities of Culex quinquefasciatus in an urban environment are also reported. From December 2006-January 2007, one trap per home was installed and maintained for 348 consecutive days in 134-151 houses located in three urban blocks. Throughout the one-year field trial a total of 43,151 Culex egg rafts were collected in the traps. The data show that BR-OVT loaded with GI and Bti is sensitive enough to demonstrate continuous reproductive activity of Cux. quinquefasciatus in the study area throughout the year and to monitor temporal fluctuations in population density
In-beam fast-timing measurements in 103,105,107Cd
Fast-timing measurements were performed recently in the region of the
medium-mass 103,105,107Cd isotopes, produced in fusion evaporation reactions.
Emitted gamma-rays were detected by eight HPGe and five LaBr3:Ce detectors
working in coincidence. Results on new and re-evaluated half-lives are
discussed within a systematic of transition rates. The states in
103,105,107Cd are interpreted as arising from a single-particle excitation. The
half-life analysis of the states in 103,105,107Cd shows no change in
the single-particle transition strength as a function of the neutron number
Scalar Bilepton Dark Matter
In this work we show that 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos has a
natural weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark mater candidate. It is
a complex scalar with mass of order of some hundreds of GeV which carries two
units of lepton number, a scalar bilepton. This makes it a very peculiar WIMP,
very distinct from Supersymmetric or Extra-dimension candidates. Besides,
although we have to make some reasonable assumptions concerning the several
parameters in the model, no fine tunning is required in order to get the
correct dark matter abundance. We also analyze the prospects for WIMP direct
detection by considering recent and projected sensitivities for WIMP-nucleon
elastic cross section from CDMS and XENON Collaborations.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, uses iopart.cls, same text as published version
with a small different arrangement of figure
Filter-based stochastic algorithm for global optimization
We propose the general Filter-based Stochastic Algorithm (FbSA) for the global optimization of nonconvex and nonsmooth constrained problems. Under certain conditions on the probability distributions that generate the sample points, almost sure convergence is proved. In order to optimize problems with computationally expensive black-box objective functions, we develop the FbSA-RBF algorithm based on the general FbSA and assisted by Radial Basis Function (RBF) surrogate models to approximate the objective function. At each iteration, the resulting algorithm constructs/updates a surrogate model of the objective function and generates trial points using a dynamic coordinate search strategy similar to the one used in the Dynamically Dimensioned Search method. To identify a promising best trial point, a non-dominance concept based on the values of the surrogate model and the constraint violation at the trial points is used. Theoretical results concerning the sufficient conditions for the almost surely convergence of the algorithm are presented. Preliminary numerical experiments show that the FbSA-RBF is competitive when compared with other known methods in the literature.The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees for their fruitful comments and suggestions.The first and second authors were partially supported by Brazilian Funds through CAPES andCNPq by Grants PDSE 99999.009400/2014-01 and 309303/2017-6. The research of the thirdand fourth authors were partially financed by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia) within the Projects UIDB/00013/2020 and UIDP/00013/2020 of CMAT-UM and UIDB/00319/2020
Gauge-Higgs Dark Matter
When the anti-periodic boundary condition is imposed for a bulk field in
extradimensional theories, independently of the background metric, the lightest
component in the anti-periodic field becomes stable and hence a good candidate
for the dark matter in the effective 4D theory due to the remaining accidental
discrete symmetry. Noting that in the gauge-Higgs unification scenario,
introduction of anti-periodic fermions is well-motivated by a phenomenological
reason, we investigate dark matter physics in the scenario. As an example, we
consider a five-dimensional SO(5)\timesU(1)_X gauge-Higgs unification model
compactified on the with the warped metric. Due to the structure of
the gauge-Higgs unification, interactions between the dark matter particle and
the Standard Model particles are largely controlled by the gauge symmetry, and
hence the model has a strong predictive power for the dark matter physics.
Evaluating the dark matter relic abundance, we identify a parameter region
consistent with the current observations. Furthermore, we calculate the elastic
scattering cross section between the dark matter particle and nucleon and find
that a part of the parameter region is already excluded by the current
experimental results for the direct dark matter search and most of the region
will be explored in future experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Absolute electron and positron fluxes from PAMELA/Fermi and Dark Matter
We extract the positron and electron fluxes in the energy range 10 - 100 GeV
by combining the recent data from PAMELA and Fermi LAT. The {\it absolute
positron and electron} fluxes thus obtained are found to obey the power laws:
and respectively, which can be confirmed by the
upcoming data from PAMELA. The positron flux appears to indicate an excess at
energies E\gsim 50 GeV even if the uncertainty in the secondary positron flux
is added to the Galactic positron background. This leaves enough motivation for
considering new physics, such as annihilation or decay of dark matter, as the
origin of positron excess in the cosmic rays.Comment: Accepted by JCA
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