Hydrology and climatology at Laguna La Gaiba, lowland Bolivia: complex responses to climatic forcings over the last 25,000 years

Diatom, geochemical and isotopic data provide a record of environmental change in Laguna La Gaiba, lowland Bolivia, over the last ca. 25 000 years. High-resolution diatom analysis around the last glacial–interglacial transition provides new insights into this period of change. The full and late glacial lake was generally quite shallow, but with evidence of periodic flooding. At about 13,100 cal a BP, just before the start of the Younger Dryas chronozone, the diatoms indicate shallower water conditions, but there is a marked change at about 12,200 cal a BP indicating the onset of a period of high variability, with rising water levels punctuated by periodic drying. From ca. 11,800 to 10,000 cal a BP stable, deeper water conditions persisted. There is evidence for drying in the early to middle Holocene, but not as pronounced as that reported from elsewhere in the southern hemisphere tropics of South America. This was followed by the onset of wetter conditions in the late Holocene consistent with insolation forcing. Conditions very similar to present were established about 2,100 cal a BP. A complex response to both insolation forcing and millennial scale events originating in the North Atlantic is noted

Neutrino masses in the Lepton Number Violating MSSM

We consider the most general supersymmetric model with minimal particle content and an additional discrete Z_3 symmetry (instead of R-parity), which allows lepton number violating terms and results in non-zero Majorana neutrino masses. We investigate whether the currently measured values for lepton masses and mixing can be reproduced. We set up a framework in which Lagrangian parameters can be initialised without recourse to assumptions concerning trilinear or bilinear superpotential terms, CP-conservation or intergenerational mixing and analyse in detail the one loop corrections to the neutrino masses. We present scenarios in which the experimental data are reproduced and show the effect varying lepton number violating couplings has on the predicted atmospheric and solar mass^2 differences. We find that with bilinear lepton number violating couplings in the superpotential of the order 1 MeV the atmospheric mass scale can be reproduced. Certain trilinear superpotential couplings, usually, of the order of the electron Yukawa coupling can give rise to either atmospheric or solar mass scales and bilinear supersymmetry breaking terms of the order 0.1 GeV^2 can set the solar mass scale. Further details of our calculation, Lagrangian, Feynman rules and relevant generic loop diagrams, are presented in three Appendices.Comment: 48 pages, 7 figures, v2 references added, typos corrected, published versio

Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory of Relativistic Gases in 2-D Cosmological Models

A kinetic theory of relativistic gases in a two-dimensional space is developed in order to obtain the equilibrium distribution function and the expressions for the fields of energy per particle, pressure, entropy per particle and heat capacities in equilibrium. Furthermore, by using the method of Chapman and Enskog for a kinetic model of the Boltzmann equation the non-equilibrium energy-momentum tensor and the entropy production rate are determined for a universe described by a two-dimensional Robertson-Walker metric. The solutions of the gravitational field equations that consider the non-equilibrium energy-momentum tensor - associated with the coefficient of bulk viscosity - show that opposed to the four-dimensional case, the cosmic scale factor attains a maximum value at a finite time decreasing to a "big crunch" and that there exists a solution of the gravitational field equations corresponding to a "false vacuum". The evolution of the fields of pressure, energy density and entropy production rate with the time is also discussed.Comment: 23 pages, accepted in PR

Propagators and WKB-exactness in the plane wave limit of AdSxS

Green functions for the scalar, spinor and vector fields in a plane wave geometry arising as a Penrose limit of $AdS\times S$ are obtained. The Schwinger-DeWitt technique directly gives the results in the plane wave background, which turns out to be WKB-exact. Therefore the structural similarity with flat space results is unveiled. In addition, based on the local character of the Penrose limit, it is claimed that for getting the correct propagators in the limit one can rely on the first terms of the direct geodesic contribution in the Schwinger-DeWitt expansion of the original propagators . This is explicitly shown for the Einstein Static Universe, which has the same Penrose limit as $AdS\times S$ with equal radii, and for a number of other illustrative cases.Comment: 18 pages, late

Accessing transversity with interference fragmentation functions

We discuss in detail the option to access the transversity distribution function $h_1(x)$ by utilizing the analyzing power of interference fragmentation functions in two-pion production inside the same current jet. The transverse polarization of the fragmenting quark is related to the transverse component of the relative momentum of the hadron pair via a new azimuthal angle. As a specific example, we spell out thoroughly the way to extract $h_1(x)$ from a measured single spin asymmetry in two-pion inclusive lepton-nucleon scattering. To estimate the sizes of observable effects we employ a spectator model for the fragmentation functions. The resulting asymmetry of our example is discussed as arising in different scenarios for the transversity.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures in .eps format included, typesetted in RevTeX and epsfig.sty, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Lepton Flavor Violating Z Decays in the Zee Model

We calculate lepton flavor violating (LFV) Z decays Z \to {{e_i^\pm}}e_j^\mp (i, j = e, \mu, \tau ; i\neq j) in the Zee model keeping in view the radiative leptonic decays e_i\to e_j\gamma (i = \mu, \tau ; j = e, \mu ; i\neq j), \mu decay and anomalous muon magnetic moment (\mu AMM). We investigate three different cases of Zee f_{ij} coupling (A) f_{e\mu}^2 = f_{\mu\tau}^2= f_{\tau e}^2, (B) f_{e\mu}^2 \gg f_{\tau e}^2 \gg f_{\mu\tau}^2, and (C) f_{\mu\tau}^2 \gg f_{e\mu}^2 \gg f_{\tau e}^2 subject to the neutrino phenomenology. Interestingly, we find that, although the case (C) satisfies the large excess value of \mu AMM, however, it is unable to explain the solar neutrino experimental result, whereas the case (B) satisfies the bi-maximal neutrino mixing scenario, but confronts with the result of \mu AMM experiment. We also find that among all the three cases, only the case (C) gives rise to largest contribution to the ratio B(Z\to e^\pm\tau^\mp)/B(Z\to \mu^\pm \mu^\mp) \simeq {10}^{-8} which is still two order less than the accessible value to be probed by the future linear colliders, whereas for the other two cases, this ratio is too low to be observed even in the near future for all possible LFV Z decay modes.Comment: 12 pages, RevTex, 2 figures, 3 Tables, typos corrected, reference added, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Examining Periodic Solar Wind Density Structures Observed in the SECCHI Heliospheric Imagers

We present an analysis of small-scale, periodic, solar-wind density enhancements (length-scales as small as \approx 1000 Mm) observed in images from the Heliospheric Imager (HI) aboard STEREO A. We discuss their possible relationship to periodic fluctuations of the proton density that have been identified at 1 AU using in-situ plasma measurements. Specifically, Viall, Kepko, and Spence (2008) examined 11 years of in-situ solar-wind density measurements at 1 AU and demonstrated that not only turbulent structures, but also non-turbulent periodic density structures exist in the solar wind with scale sizes of hundreds to one thousand Mm. In a subsequent paper, Viall, Spence, and Kasper (2009) analyzed the {\alpha} to proton solar-wind abundance ratio measured during one such event of periodic density structures, demonstrating that the plasma behavior was highly suggestive that either temporally or spatially varying coronal source plasma created those density structures. Large periodic density structures observed at 1 AU, which were generated in the corona, can be observable in coronal and heliospheric white-light images if they possess sufficiently high density contrast. Indeed, we identify such periodic density structures as they enter the HI field of view and follow them as they advect with the solar wind through the images. The smaller periodic density structures that we identify in the images are comparable in size to the larger structures analyzed in-situ at 1 AU, yielding further evidence that periodic density enhancements are a consequence of coronal activity as the solar wind is formed.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Radio Bursts Associated with Flare and Ejecta in the 13 July 2004 Event

We investigate coronal transients associated with a GOES M6.7 class flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 13 July 2004. During the rising phase of the flare, a filament eruption, loop expansion, a Moreton wave, and an ejecta were observed. An EIT wave was detected later on. The main features in the radio dynamic spectrum were a frequency-drifting continuum and two type II bursts. Our analysis shows that if the first type II burst was formed in the low corona, the burst heights and speed are close to the projected distances and speed of the Moreton wave (a chromospheric shock wave signature). The frequency-drifting radio continuum, starting above 1 GHz, was formed almost two minutes prior to any shock features becoming visible, and a fast-expanding piston (visible as the continuum) could have launched another shock wave. A possible scenario is that a flare blast overtook the earlier transient, and ignited the first type II burst. The second type II burst may have been formed by the same shock, but only if the shock was propagating at a constant speed. This interpretation also requires that the shock-producing regions were located at different parts of the propagating structure, or that the shock was passing through regions with highly different atmospheric densities. This complex event, with a multitude of radio features and transients at other wavelengths, presents evidence for both blast-wave-related and CME-related radio emissions.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; Solar Physics Topical Issue, in pres

Comments on the Boundary Scattering Phase

We present a simple solution to the crossing equation for an open string worldsheet reflection matrix, with boundaries preserving a SU(1|2)^2 residual symmetry, which constrains the boundary dressing factor. In addition, we also propose an analogous crossing equation for the dressing factor where extra boundary degrees of freedom preserve a SU(2|2)^2 residual symmetry.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures; v2: affiliation correcte

Probing Left-handed Slepton Flavor Mixing at Future Lepton Colliders

It has been argued in the literature that the search for the slepton oscillation phenomenon can be a powerful probe of intergenerational mixing between sleptons, once sleptons are found at future colliders. In this article we estimate possible reach of future lepton colliders in probing left-handed slepton flavor mixing, especially mixing between the first and third generations, on which constraints imposed by other processes like $\tau \to e \gamma$ are very weak. $e^+e^-$ collider is suitable for this purpose, since it can produce, if kinematically allowed, sleptons of the first generation via t-channel, in addition to s-channel. Utilizing e^+e^- \to \tau e + 4jets + \E signal at $e^+e^-$ linear collider with integrated luminosity L=50 fb^{-1}(500 fb^{-1}) it may be possible to reach mixing angle $\sin 2\theta_{\tilde{\nu}} \gtrsim 0.06 (0.04)$ and mass difference $\Delta m_{\tilde{\nu}} \gtrsim 0.07 (0.04)$ GeV for sneutrinos in the first and third generations at the statistical significance of 5 \sigma.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures. A new section added. Conclusion unchanged. To appear in Phys. Rev.