Background discrimination capabilities of a heat and ionization germanium cryogenic detector

The discrimination capabilities of a 70 g heat and ionization Ge bolometer are studied. This first prototype has been used by the EDELWEISS Dark Matter experiment, installed in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane, for direct detection of WIMPs. Gamma and neutron calibrations demonstrate that this type of detector is able to reject more than 99.6% of the background while retaining 95% of the signal, provided that the background events distribution is not biased towards the surface of the Ge crystal. However, the 1.17 kg.day of data taken in a relatively important radioactive environment show an extra population slightly overlapping the signal. This background is likely due to interactions of low energy photons or electrons near the surface of the crystal, and is somewhat reduced by applying a higher charge-collecting inverse bias voltage (-6 V instead of -2 V) to the Ge diode. Despite this contamination, more than 98% of the background can be rejected while retaining 50% of the signal. This yields a conservative upper limit of 0.7 event.day^{-1}.kg^{-1}.keV^{-1}_{recoil} at 90% confidence level in the 15-45 keV recoil energy interval; the present sensitivity appears to be limited by the fast ambient neutrons. Upgrades in progress on the installation are summarized.Comment: Submitted to Astroparticle Physics, 14 page

Two-fermion relativistic bound states in Light-Front Dynamics

In the Light-Front Dynamics, the wave function equations and their numerical solutions, for two fermion bound systems, are presented. Analytical expressions for the ladder one-boson exchange interaction kernels corresponding to scalar, pseudoscalar, pseudovector and vector exchanges are given. Different couplings are analyzed separately and each of them is found to exhibit special features. The results are compared with the non relativistic solutions.Comment: 40 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev. C, .tar.gz fil

Event categories in the EDELWEISS WIMP search experiment

Four categories of events have been identified in the EDELWEISS-I dark matter experiment using germanium cryogenic detectors measuring simultaneously charge and heat signals. These categories of events are interpreted as electron and nuclear interactions occurring in the volume of the detector, and electron and nuclear interactions occurring close to the surface of the detectors(10-20 mu-m of the surface). We discuss the hypothesis that low energy surface nuclear recoils,which seem to have been unnoticed by previous WIMP searches, may provide an interpretation of the anomalous events recorded by the UKDMC and Saclay NaI experiments. The present analysis points to the necessity of taking into account surface nuclear and electron recoil interactions for a reliable estimate of background rejection factors.Comment: 11 pages, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Sources of quantum waves

Due to the space and time dependence of the wave function in the time dependent Schroedinger equation, different boundary conditions are possible. The equation is usually solved as an ``initial value problem'', by fixing the value of the wave function in all space at a given instant. We compare this standard approach to "source boundary conditions'' that fix the wave at all times in a given region, in particular at a point in one dimension. In contrast to the well-known physical interpretation of the initial-value-problem approach, the interpretation of the source approach has remained unclear, since it introduces negative energy components, even for ``free motion'', and a time-dependent norm. This work provides physical meaning to the source method by finding the link with equivalent initial value problems.Comment: 12 pages, 7 inlined figures; typos correcte

To dd, or not to dd: Recent developments and comparisons of regularization schemes

We give an introduction to several regularization schemes that deal with ultraviolet and infrared singularities appearing in higher-order computations in quantum field theories. Comparing the computation of simple quantities in the various schemes, we point out similarities and differences between them.Comment: 61 pages, 12 figures; version sent to EPJC, references update

The Nuclear Yukawa Model on a Lattice

We present the results of the quantum field theory approach to nuclear Yukawa model obtained by standard lattice techniques. We have considered the simplest case of two identical fermions interacting via a scalar meson exchange. Calculations have been performed using Wilson fermions in the quenched approximation. We found the existence of a critical coupling constant above which the model cannot be numerically solved. The range of the accessible coupling constants is below the threshold value for producing two-body bound states. Two-body scattering lengths have been obtained and compared to the non relativistic results.Comment: 15 page

Study of relativistic bound states for scalar theories in Bethe-Salpeter and Dyson-Schwinger formalism

The Bethe-Salpeter equation for Wick-Cutkosky like models is solved in dressed ladder approximation. The bare vertex truncation of the Dyson-Schwinger equations for propagators is combined with the dressed ladder Bethe-Salpeter equation for the scalar S-wave bound state amplitudes. With the help of spectral representation the results are obtained directly in Minkowski space. We give a new analytic formula for the resulting equation simplifying the numerical treatment. The bare ladder approximation of Bethe-Salpeter equation is compared with the one with dressed ladder. The elastic electromagnetic form factors is calculated within the relativistic impulse approximation.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The kinetic spherical model in a magnetic field

The long-time kinetics of the spherical model in an external magnetic field and below the equilibrium critical temperature is studied. The solution of the associated stochastic Langevin equation is reduced exactly to a single non-linear Volterra equation. For a sufficiently small external field, the kinetics of the magnetization-reversal transition from the metastable to the ground state is compared to the ageing behaviour of coarsening systems quenched into the low-temperature phase. For an oscillating magnetic field and below the critical temperature, we find evidence for the absence of the frequency-dependent dynamic phase transition, which was observed previously to occur in Ising-like systems.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figure