698 research outputs found
On some singularities of the correlation functions that determine neutrino opacities
Certain perturbation graphs in the calculation of the effects of the medium
on neutrino scattering in supernova matter have a nonintegrable singularity in
a physical region. A number of papers have addressed the apparent pathology
through an ansatz that invokes higher order (rescattering) effects. Taking the
Gamow-Teller terms as an example, we display an expression for the spin-spin
correlation function that determines the cross-sections. It is clear from the
form that there are no pathologies in the order by order perturbation
expansion. Explicit formulae are given for a simple case, leading to an answer
that is very different from one given by other authors.Comment: 8 page
Red giant bound on the axion-electron coupling reexamined
If axions or other low-mass pseudoscalars couple to electrons (``fine
structure constant'' ) they are emitted from red giant stars by the
Compton process and by bremsstrahlung .
We construct a simple analytic expression for the energy-loss rate for all
conditions relevant for a red giant and include axion losses in evolutionary
calculations from the main sequence to the helium flash. We find that
\alpha_a\lapprox0.5\mn(-26) or m_a\lapprox 9\,\meV/\cos^2\beta lest the red
giant core at helium ignition exceed its standard mass by more than
0.025\,\MM_\odot, in conflict with observational evidence. Our bound is the
most restrictive limit on , but it does not exclude the possibility
that axion emission contributes significantly to the cooling of ZZ~Ceti stars
such as G117--B15A for which the period decrease was recently measured.Comment: 11 pages, uuencoded and compressed postscript fil
Lepton asymmetry and primordial nucleosynthesis in the era of precision cosmology
We calculate and display the primordial light-element abundances as a
function of a neutrino degeneracy parameter \xi common to all flavors. It is
the only unknown parameter characterizing the thermal medium at the primordial
nucleosynthesis epoch. The observed primordial helium abundance Y_p is the most
sensitive cosmic ``leptometer.'' Adopting the conservative Y_p error analysis
of Olive and Skillman implies -0.04 \alt \xi \alt 0.07 whereas the errors
stated by Izotov and Thuan imply \xi=0.0245+-0.0092 (1 sigma). Improved
determinations of the baryon abundance have no significant impact on this
situation. A determination of Y_p that reliably distinguishes between a
vanishing or nonvanishing \xi is a crucial test of the cosmological standard
assumption that sphaleron effects equilibrate the cosmic lepton and baryon
asymmetries.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; minor changes, references added, replaced to
match the published version in PRD (Brief Reports
Decoherence - Fluctuation Relation and Measurement Noise
We discuss fluctuations in the measurement process and how these fluctuations
are related to the dissipational parameter characterising quantum damping or
decoherence. On the example of the measuring current of the variable-barrier or
QPC problem we show there is an extra noise or fluctuation connected with the
possible different outcomes of a measurement. This noise has an enhanced short
time component which could be interpreted as due to ``telegraph noise'' or
``wavefunction collapses''. Furthermore the parameter giving the the strength
of this noise is related to the parameter giving the rate of damping or
decoherence.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, for Okun Festschrift, Physics Report
Compatibility of CAST search with axion-like interpretation of PVLAS results
The PVLAS collaboration has results that may be interpreted in terms of a
light axion-like particle, while the CAST collaboration has not found any
signal of such particles. We propose a particle physics model with paraphotons
and with a low energy scale in which this apparent inconsistency is
circumvented.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in Physical
Review Letter
Electron-, Mu-, and Tau-Number Conservation in a Supernova Core
We study if the neutrino mixing parameters suggested by the atmospheric
neutrino anomaly imply chemical equilibrium between mu- and tau-flavored
leptons in a supernova (SN) core. The initial flavor-conversion rate would
indeed be fast if the nu_mu-nu_tau-mixing angle were not suppressed by
second-order refractive effects. The neutrino diffusion coefficients are
different for nu_mu, anti-nu_mu, nu_tau and anti-nu_tau so that neutrino
transport will create a net mu and tau lepton number density. This will
typically lead to a situation where the usual first-order refractive effects
dominate, further suppressing the rate of flavor conversion. Altogether,
neutrino refraction has the nontrivial consequence of guaranteeing the separate
conservation of e, mu, and tau lepton number in a SN core on the infall and
cooling time scales, even when neutrino mixing angles are large.Comment: Slightly expanded version with improved presentation, no changes of
substanc
Adiabatic Faraday effect in a two-level Hamiltonian formalism
The helicity of a photon traversing a magnetized plasma can flip when the
B-field along the trajectory slowly reverses. Broderick and Blandford have
recently shown that this intriguing effect can profoundly change the usual
Faraday effect for radio waves. We study this phenomenon in a formalism
analogous to neutrino flavor oscillations: the evolution is governed by a
Schroedinger equation for a two-level system consisting of the two photon
helicities. Our treatment allows for a transparent physical understanding of
this system and its dynamics. In particular, it allows us to investigate the
nature of transitions at intermediate adiabaticities.Comment: 8 pages, 2 eps figures, and a note added. Title changed. Matches
published versio
A Self-Consistent Approach to Neutral-Current Processes in Supernova Cores
The problem of neutral-current processes (neutrino scattering, pair emission,
pair absorption, axion emission, \etc) in a nuclear medium can be separated
into an expression representing the phase space of the weakly interacting
probe, and a set of dynamic structure functions of the medium. For a
non-relativistic medium we reduce the description to two structure functions
S_A(\o) and S_V(\o) of the energy transfer, representing the axial-vector
and vector interactions. is well determined by the single-nucleon
approximation while may be dominated by multiply interacting nucleons.
Unless the shape of S_A(\o) changes dramatically at high densities,
scattering processes always dominate over pair processes for neutrino transport
or the emission of right-handed states. Because the emission of right-handed
neutrinos and axions is controlled by the same medium response functions, a
consistent constraint on their properties from consideration of supernova
cooling should use the same structure functions for both neutrino transport and
exotic cooling mechanisms.Comment: 33 pages, Te
Pulsar Bound on the Photon Electric Charge Reexamined
If photons had a small electric charge their path in the galactic
magnetic field would be curved, leading to a time delay between photons of
different frequency from a distant source. Cocconi's previous application of
this argument led to a limit which is too restrictive by a factor of about 200;
the corrected bound is Q_\gamma/e\lapprox10^{-29}.Comment: 3 pages, LaTe
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