Band Symmetries and Singularities in Twisted Multilayer Graphene

The electronic spectra of rotationally faulted graphene bilayers are calculated using a continuum formulation for small fault angles that identifies two distinct electronic states of the coupled system. The low energy spectra of one state features a Fermi velocity reduction which ultimately leads to pairwise annihilation and regeneration of its low energy Dirac nodes. The physics in the complementary state is controlled by pseudospin selection rules that prevent a Fermi velocity renormalization and produce second generation symmetry-protected Dirac singularities in the spectrum. These results are compared with previous theoretical analyses and with experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Carbon Nanotubes in Helically Modulated Potentials

We calculate effects of an applied helically symmetric potential on the low energy electronic spectrum of a carbon nanotube in the continuum approximation. The spectrum depends on the strength of this potential and on a dimensionless geometrical parameter, P, which is the ratio of the circumference of the nanotube to the pitch of the helix. We find that the minimum band gap of a semiconducting nanotube is reduced by an arbitrarily weak helical potential, and for a given field strength there is an optimal P which produces the biggest change in the band gap. For metallic nanotubes the Fermi velocity is reduced by this potential and for strong fields two small gaps appear at the Fermi surface in addition to the gapless Dirac point. A simple model is developed to estimate the magnitude of the field strength and its effect on DNA-CNT complexes in an aqueous solution. We find that under typical experimental conditions the predicted effects of a helical potential are likely to be small and we discuss several methods for increasing the size of these effects.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B. Image quality reduced to comply with arxiv size limitation

Ultrahigh energy neutrino scattering onto relic light neutrinos in galactic halo as a possible source of highest energy extragalactic cosmic rays

The diffuse relic neutrinos with light mass are transparent to Ultrahigh energy (UHE) neutrinos at thousands EeV, born by photoproduction of pions by UHE protons on relic 2.73 K BBR radiation and originated in AGNs at cosmic distances. However these UHE $\nu$s may interact with those (mainly heaviest $\nu_{\mu_r}$, $\nu_{\tau_r}$ and respective antineutrinos) clustered into HDM galactic halos. UHE photons or protons, secondaries of $\nu\nu_r$ scattering, might be the final observed signature of such high-energy chain reactions and may be responsible of the highest extragalactic cosmic-ray (CR) events. The chain-reactions conversion efficiency, ramifications and energetics are considered for the October 1991 CR event at 320 EeV observed by the Fly's Eye detector in Utah. These quantities seem compatible with the distance, direction and power (observed at MeV gamma energies) of the Seyfert galaxy MCG 8-11-11. The $\nu\nu_r$ interaction probability is favoured by at least three order of magnitude with respect to a direct $\nu$ scattering onto the Earth atmosphere. Therefore, it may better explain the extragalactic origin of the puzzling 320 EeV event, while offering indirect evidence of a hot dark galactic halo of light (i.e., $m_\nu\sim$ tens eV) neutrinos, probably of tau flavour.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure minor corrections, updated references. In press in AP

Neutral top-pion and the rare top decays t→cliljt\to c l_{i} l_{j}

We study the rare top decays $t\to c l_{i} l_{j}(l=\tau,\mu,or e)$ in the framework of topcolor-assisted technicolor($TC2$) models. We find that the neutral top-pion $\pi_{t}^{0}$ can produce significant contributions to these processes via the flavor changing couplings $\pi_{t}^{0} \bar{t} c$ and $\pi_{t}^{0} l_{i} l_{j}$. For the $\pi_{t}^{0}$ mass $m_{\pi_{t}}=150 GeV$ and the parameter $\epsilon=0.08$, the branching ratio $Br$(t$\to c \tau \tau)$ can reach $7.1\times10^{-7}$. Taking into account the constraints of the present experimental limit of the process $\mu\to e \gamma$ on the free parameters of $TC2$ models, we find that the value of $Br$($t\to c \tau \mu$)$\approx$$Br$($t\to c \tau e$) is in the range of 1.8$\times10^{-10}\sim1.7\times10^{-8}$.Comment: To be published in Phys.

Mechanical properties of polyethylene terephthalate under selected conditions and methods of preparation Semiannual progress report, period ending 31 Oct. 1967

Mechanical properties of polyethylene terephthalate under selected conditions and methods of preparatio

A completeness analysis of the national seismic network of Italy

We present the first detailed study of earthquake detection capabilities of the Italian National Seismic Network and of the completeness threshold of its earthquake catalog. The network in its present form started operating on 16 April 2005 and is a significant improvement over the previous networks. For our analysis, we employed the PMC method as introduced by Schorlemmer and Woessner (2008). This method does not estimate completeness from earthquakes samples as traditional methods, mostly based on the linearity of earthquake-size distributions. It derives detection capabilities for each station of the network and synthesizes them into maps of detection probabilities for earthquakes of a given magnitude. Thus, this method avoids the many assumptions about earthquake distributions that traditional methods make. The results show that the Italian National Seismic Network is complete at M=2.9 for the entire territory excluding the islands of Sardinia, Pantelleria, and Lampedusa. At the M=2.5 level, which is the reporting threshold level of the Italian Civil Protection, the network may miss events in southern parts of Apulia and the western part of Sicily. The stations are connected through many different telemetry links to the operational datacenter in Rome. Scenario computations show that no significant drop in completeness occurs if one of the three major links fail, indicating a well-balanced network setup