Warm dark matter sterile neutrinos in electron capture and beta decay spectra

We briefly review the motivation to search for sterile neutrinos in the keV mass scale, as dark matter candidates, and the prospects to find them in beta decay or electron capture spectra, with a global perspective. We describe the fundamentals of the neutrino flavor-mass eigenstate mismatch that opens the possibility of detecting sterile neutrinos in such ordinary nuclear processes. Results are shown and discussed for the effect of heavy neutrino emission in electron capture in Holmium 163 and in two isotopes of Lead, 202 and 205, as well as in the beta decay of Tritium. We study the de-excitation spectrum in the considered cases of electron capture and the charged lepton spectrum in the case of Tritium beta decay. For each of these cases, we define ratios of integrated transition rates over different regions of the spectrum under study, and give new results that may guide and facilitate the analysis of possible future measurements, paying particular attention to forbidden transitions in Lead isotopes.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Ground-state properties and symmetry energy of neutron-rich and neutron-deficient Mg isotopes

A comprehensive study of various ground-state properties of neutron-rich and neutron-deficient Mg isotopes with $A$=20-36 is performed in the framework of the self-consistent deformed Skyrme-Hartree-Fock plus BCS method. The correlation between the skin thickness and the characteristics related with the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy is investigated for this isotopic chain following the theoretical approach based on the coherent density fluctuation model and using the Brueckner energy-density functional. The results of the calculations show that the behavior of the nuclear charge radii and the nuclear symmetry energy in the Mg isotopic chain is closely related to the nuclear deformation. We also study, within our theoretical scheme, the emergence of an "island of inversion" at neutron-rich $^{32}$Mg nucleus, that was recently proposed from the analyses of spectroscopic measurements of $^{32}$Mg low-lying energy spectrum and the charge rms radii of all magnesium isotopes in the $sd$ shell.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Physical Review

A(e⃗,e′p⃗)(\vec{e},e'\vec{p})B responses: from bare nucleons to complex nuclei

We study the occurrence of factorization in polarized and unpolarized observables in coincidence quasi-elastic electron scattering. Starting with the relativistic distorted wave impulse approximation, we reformulate the effective momentum approximation and show that the latter leads to observables which factorize under some specific conditions. Within this framework, the role played by final state interactions and, in particular, by the spin-orbit term is explored. Connection with the nonrelativistic formalism is studied in depth. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the analytical derivations and to quantify the differences between factorized and unfactorized approaches.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures. Improved and extended version. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Spin dependent Momentum Distributions in Deformed Nuclei

We study the properties of the spin dependent one body density in momentum space for odd--A polarized deformed nuclei within the mean field approximation. We derive analytic expressions connecting intrinsic and laboratory momentum distributions. The latter are related to observable transition densities in {\bf p}--space that can be probed in one nucleon knock--out reactions from polarized targets. It is shown that most of the information contained in the intrinsic spin dependent momentum distribution is lost when the nucleus is not polarized. Results are presented and discussed for two prolate nuclei, $^{21}$Ne and $^{25}$Mg, and for one oblate nucleus, $^{37}$Ar. The effects of deformation are highlighted by comparison to the case of odd--A nuclei in the spherical model.Comment: Latex 2.09. 25 pages and 6 figures (available from [email protected]), to appear in Ann. of Phy

Nuclear skin emergence in Skyrme deformed Hartree-Fock calculations

A study of the charge and matter densities and the corresponding rms radii for even-even isotopes of Ni, Kr, and Sn has been performed in the framework of deformed self-consistent mean field Skyrme HF+BCS method. The resulting charge radii and neutron skin thicknesses of these nuclei are compared with available experimental data, as well as with other theoretical predictions. The formation of a neutron skin, which manifests itself in an excess of neutrons at distances greater than the radius of the proton distribution, is analyzed in terms of various definitions. Formation of a proton skin is shown to be unlikely. The effects of deformation on the neutron skins in even-even deformed nuclei far from the stability line are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, to be published in Physical Review

Hints on the quadrupole deformation of the Δ\Delta(1232)

The E2/M1 ratio (EMR) of the $\Delta$(1232) is extracted from the world data in pion photoproduction by means of an Effective Lagrangian Approach (ELA).This quantity has been derived within a crossing symmetric, gauge invariant, and chiral symmetric Lagrangian model which also contains a consistent modern treatment of the $\Delta$(1232) resonance. The \textit{bare} s-channel $\Delta$(1232) contribution is well isolated and Final State Interactions (FSI) are effectively taken into account fulfilling Watson's theorem. The obtained EMR value, EMR$=(-1.30\pm0.52)$%, is in good agreement with the latest lattice QCD calculations [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 021601 (2005)] and disagrees with results of current quark model calculations.Comment: Enlarged conclusions and explanations on the E2/M1 ratio. Figure 3 improved. References updated. 5 pages. 3 figures. 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Coherent delocalization: Views of entanglement in different scenarios

The concept of entanglement was originally introduced to explain correlations existing between two spatially separated systems, that cannot be described using classical ideas. Interestingly, in recent years, it has been shown that similar correlations can be observed when considering different degrees of freedom of a single system, even a classical one. Surprisingly, it has also been suggested that entanglement might be playing a relevant role in certain biological processes, such as the functioning of pigment-proteins that constitute light-harvesting complexes of photosynthetic bacteria. The aim of this work is to show that the presence of entanglement in all of these different scenarios should not be unexpected, once it is realized that the very same mathematical structure can describe all of them. We show this by considering three different, realistic cases in which the only condition for entanglement to exist is that a single excitation is coherently delocalized between the different subsystems that compose the system of interest