One pion events by atmospheric neutrinos: A three flavor analysis

We study the one-pion events produced via neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) interactions by the atmospheric neutrinos. We analyze the ratios of these events in the framework of oscillations between three neutrino flavors. The ratios of the CC events induced by $\nu_e$ to that of the NC events and a similar ratio defined with $\nu_\mu$ help us in distinguishing the different regions of the neutrino parameter space.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures (separate postscript files

Linear response formula for open systems

An exact expression for the finite frequency response of open classical systems coupled to reservoirs is obtained. The result is valid for any conserved current. No assumption is made about the reservoirs apart from thermodynamic equilibrium. At non-zero frequencies, the expression involves correlation functions of boundary currents and cannot be put in the standard Green-Kubo form involving currents inside the system

Testing LSND at long-baseline neutrino experiments

Recently it was suggested that two very different mass-squared differences play a role in atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The larger of these also accounts for the LSND result and the smaller of these also drives the solar neutrino oscillations. We consider the predictions of this scheme for long-baseline experiments. We find that high statistics experiments, such as MINOS, can observe a clean signal for this scheme, which is clearly distinguishable from the usual scheme of atmospheric neutrino oscillations driven by a single mass-squared difference.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Biodegradable and compostable alternatives to conventional plastics

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2009 The Royal Society.Packaging waste forms a significant part of municipal solid waste and has caused increasing environmental concerns, resulting in a strengthening of various regulations aimed at reducing the amounts generated. Among other materials, a wide range of oil-based polymers is currently used in packaging applications. These are virtually all non-biodegradable, and some are difficult to recycle or reuse due to being complex composites having varying levels of contamination. Recently, significant progress has been made in the development of biodegradable plastics, largely from renewable natural resources, to produce biodegradable materials with similar functionality to that of oil-based polymers. The expansion in these bio-based materials has several potential benefits for greenhouse gas balances and other environmental impacts over whole life cycles and in the use of renewable, rather than finite resources. It is intended that use of biodegradable materials will contribute to sustainability and reduction in the environmental impact associated with disposal of oil-based polymers. The diversity of biodegradable materials and their varying properties makes it difficult to make simple, generic assessments such as biodegradable products are all ‘good’ or petrochemical-based products are all ‘bad’. This paper discusses the potential impacts of biodegradable packaging materials and their waste management, particularly via composting. It presents the key issues that inform judgements of the benefits these materials have in relation to conventional, petrochemical-based counterparts. Specific examples are given from new research on biodegradability in simulated ‘home’ composting systems. It is the view of the authors that biodegradable packaging materials are most suitable for single-use disposable applications where the post-consumer waste can be locally composted.EPSR

Localized tachyons in C^3/Z_N

We study the condensation of localized closed string tachyons in C^3/Z_N nonsupersymmetric noncompact orbifold singularities via renormalization group flows that preserve supersymmetry in the worldsheet conformal field theory and their interrelations with the toric geometry of these orbifolds. We show that for worldsheet supersymmetric tachyons, the endpoint of tachyon condensation generically includes ``geometric'' terminal singularities (orbifolds that do not have any marginal or relevant Kahler blowup modes) as well as singularities in codimension two. Some of the various possible distinct geometric resolutions are related by flip transitions. For Type II theories, we show that the residual singularities that arise under tachyon condensation in various classes of Type II theories also admit a Type II GSO projection. We further show that Type II orbifolds entirely devoid of marginal or relevant blowup modes (Kahler or otherwise) cannot exist, which thus implies that the endpoints of tachyon condensation in Type II theories are always smooth spaces.Comment: Latex, 50 pgs incl. appendices, 5 eps figs; v2. refs+minor textual editions adde

Energy-aware dynamic pricing model for cloud environments

Energy consumption is a critical operational cost for Cloud providers. However, as commercial providers typically use fixed pricing schemes that are oblivious about the energy costs of running virtual machines, clients are not charged according to their actual energy impact. Some works have proposed energy-aware cost models that are able to capture each client’s real energy usage. However, those models cannot be naturally used for pricing Cloud services, as the energy cost is calculated after the termination of the service, and it depends on decisions taken by the provider, such as the actual placement of the client’s virtual machines. For those reasons, a client cannot estimate in advance how much it will pay. This paper presents a pricing model for virtualized Cloud providers that dynamically derives the energy costs per allocation unit and per work unit for each time period. They account for the energy costs of the provider’s static and dynamic energy consumption by sharing out them according to the virtual resource allocation and the real resource usage of running virtual machines for the corresponding time period. Newly arrived clients during that period can use these costs as a baseline to calculate their expenses in advance as a function of the number of requested allocation and work units. Our results show that providers can get comparable revenue to traditional pricing schemes, while offering to the clients more proportional prices than fixed-price models.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

On Lifshitz scaling and hyperscaling violation in string theory

We explore string/M-theory constructions of holographic theories with Lifshitz scaling exponent $z$ and hyperscaling violation exponent $\theta$, finding a range of $z,\theta$-values. Some of these arise as effective metrics from dimensional reduction of certain kinds of null deformations of $AdS$ spacetimes appearing in the near horizon geometries of extremal D3-, M2- and M5-brane theories. The $AdS_5$ solution in particular gives rise to $\theta=1$ in $d=2$ (boundary) space dimensions. Other solutions arise as the IIA D2- and D4-brane solutions with appropriate null deformations, and we discuss the phase structure of these systems.Comment: Latex, 15pgs, v2: references, minor clarifications adde