227 research outputs found
Partner Interference with Health Care: Do We Want One More Piece of a Complex Puzzle?
As I sit down to write, scattered images of former patients fill my mind: a well-educated, elderly woman presenting to the hospital 2 days after having a large myocardial infarction; a young diabetic woman with erratic blood glucose control; one of my colleague’s “frequent flyers” coming in to see me on a Friday afternoon, panicked, asking for yet another early refill of her hydrocodone; a very ill, middle-aged woman whose doting husband kept immaculate notes on her many medical issues and 12 medications. Each of these women has her own, complex story. Each had a partner who negatively interfered with her medical care
Manifestations of Extra Dimensions in a Neutrino Telescope
Theories with large extra dimensions provide the possibility that a flavor
neutrino, localized in a 3+1 brane, can mix with a singlet neutrino living in
the bulk. This mixing leads to unconventional patterns of neutrino matter
oscillations and we examine in details how these oscillations depend upon two
parameters: the brane-bulk coupling and the effective mass of the
flavor neutrino inside matter. We find that high energy GeV)
neutrinos, to be detected by neutrino telescopes, can give signals of
extra dimensions. With a 1 k neutrino telescope extra dimensions with
radius down to can be tested directly, while for smaller radius an
indirect evidence can be established.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, added conclusion
New Physics Potential with a Neutrino Telescope
Active Galactic Nuclei are considered as sources of neutrinos, with neutrino
energies extending up to 10^{18} eV. It is expected that these highly energetic
cosmic neutrinos will be detected by the neutrino telescopes, presently under
construction. The detection process is very sensitive to the total muon
neutrino cross-section. We examine how the total cross section changes at high
energies, by the single production of excited fermions (excited muon and
muon-neutrino). For parameters (masses, couplings) of the excited fermions
allowed by the experimental constraints, we find that for energies of the
incoming muon-neutrino above 100 TeV the cross-section for single production of
(excited muon and muon-neutrino) supersedes the standard total cross-section.Comment: 12 pages and 2 figures; typset using revtex; postscript files for the
figures provide
Second Order Perturbations of a Macroscopic String; Covariant Approach
Using a world-sheet covariant formalism, we derive the equations of motion
for second order perturbations of a generic macroscopic string, thus
generalizing previous results for first order perturbations. We give the
explicit results for the first and second order perturbations of a contracting
near-circular string; these results are relevant for the understanding of the
possible outcome when a cosmic string contracts under its own tension, as
discussed in a series of papers by Vilenkin and Garriga. In particular, second
order perturbations are necessaary for a consistent computation of the energy.
We also quantize the perturbations and derive the mass-formula up to second
order in perturbations for an observer using world-sheet time . The high
frequency modes give the standard Minkowski result while, interestingly enough,
the Hamiltonian turns out to be non-diagonal in oscillators for low-frequency
modes. Using an alternative definition of the vacuum, it is possible to
diagonalize the Hamiltonian, and the standard string mass-spectrum appears for
all frequencies. We finally discuss how our results are also relevant for the
problems concerning string-spreading near a black hole horizon, as originally
discussed by Susskind.Comment: New discussion about the quantum mass-spectrum in chapter
Cosmic Rays and Large Extra Dimensions
We have proposed that the cosmic ray spectrum "knee", the steepening of the
cosmic ray spectrum at energy E \gsim 10^{15.5} eV, is due to "new physics",
namely new interactions at TeV cm energies which produce particles undetected
by the experimental apparatus. In this letter we examine specifically the
possibility that this interaction is low scale gravity. We consider that the
graviton propagates, besides the usual four dimensions, into an additional
, compactified, large dimensions and we estimate the graviton
production in collisions in the high energy approximation where graviton
emission is factorized. We find that the cross section for graviton production
rises as fast as , where is the fundamental
scale of gravity in dimensions, and that the distribution of
radiating a fraction of the initial particle's energy into gravitational
energy (which goes undetected) behaves as . The missing
energy leads to an underestimate of the true energy and generates a break in
the {\sl inferred} cosmic ray spectrum (the "kne"). By fitting the cosmic ray
spectrum data we deduce that the favorite values for the parameters of the
theory are TeV and .Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
A Random Matrix Approach to Language Acquisition
Since language is tied to cognition, we expect the linguistic structures to
reflect patterns we encounter in nature and analyzed by physics. Within this
realm we investigate the process of protolanguage acquisition, using analytical
and tractable methods developed within physics. A protolanguage is a mapping
between sounds and objects (or concepts) of the perceived world. This mapping
is represented by a matrix and the linguistic interaction among individuals is
described by a random matrix model. There are two essential parameters in our
approach. The strength of the linguistic interaction , which following
Chomsky's tradition, we consider as a genetically determined ability, and the
number of employed sounds (the lexicon size). Our model of linguistic
interaction is analytically studied using methods of statistical physics and
simulated by Monte Carlo techniques. The analysis reveals an intricate
relationship between the innate propensity for language acquisition and
the lexicon size , . Thus a small increase of the
genetically determined may lead to an incredible lexical explosion. Our
approximate scheme offers an explanation for the biological affinity of
different species and their simultaneous linguistic disparity.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to JSTA
Enhanced solar anti-neutrino flux in random magnetic fields
We discuss the impact of the recent KamLAND constraint on the solar
anti-neutrino flux on the analysis of solar neutrino data in the presence of
Majorana neutrino transition magnetic moments and solar magnetic fields. We
consider different stationary solar magnetic field models, both regular and
random, highlighting the strong enhancement in the anti-neutrino production
rates that characterize turbulent solar magnetic field models. Moreover, we
show that for such magnetic fields inside the Sun, one can constrain the
intrinsic neutrino magnetic moment down to the level of mu_nu lessthan few
times 10^-12 x mu_B irrespective of details of the underlying turbulence model.
This limit is more stringent than all current experimental sensitivities, and
similar to the most stringent bounds obtained from stellar cooling. We also
comment on the robustness of this limit and show that at most it might be
weakened by one order of magnitude, under very unlikely circumstances.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures; final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
String Tension and the Generation of the Conformal Anomaly
The origin of the string conformal anomaly is studied in detail. We use a
reformulated string Lagrangian which allows to consider the string tension
as a small perturbation. The expansion parameter is the worldsheet
speed of light c, which is proportional to . We examine carefully the
interplay between a null (tensionless) string and a tensionful string which
includes orders and higher. The conformal algebra generated by the
constraints is considered. At the quantum level the normal ordering provides a
central charge proportional to . Thus it is clear that quantum null
strings respect conformal invariance and it is the string tension which
generates the conformal anomaly.Comment: More references are included. Final version, to appear in Phys.Rev.D.
6 pages, LaTex, no figure
Neutrino conversions in random magnetic fields and from the Sun
The magnetic field in the convective zone of the Sun has a random small-scale
component with the r.m.s. value substantially exceeding the strength of a
regular large-scale field. For two Majorana neutrino flavors two
helicities in the presence of a neutrino transition magnetic moment and nonzero
neutrino mixing we analyze the displacement of the allowed ()-parameter region reconciled for the SuperKamiokande(SK) and
radiochemical (GALLEX, SAGE, Homestake) experiments in dependence on the r.m.s.
magnetic field value , or more precisely, on a value assuming the
transition magnetic moment . In contrast to RSFP in
regular magnetic fields we find an effective production of electron
antineutrinos in the Sun even for small neutrino mixing through cascade
conversions , in a random magnetic field that would be a
signature of the Majorana nature of neutrino if will be
registered. Basing on the present SK bound on electron antineutrinos we have
also found an excluded area in the same -plane and
revealed a strong sensitivity to the random magnetic field correlation length
.Comment: LaTex 36 pages including 14 PostScript figure
A Study of the Day - Night Effect for the Super - Kamiokande Detector: I. Time Averaged Solar Neutrino Survival Probability
This is the first of two articles aimed at providing comprehensive
predictions for the day-night (D-N) effect for the Super-Kamiokande detector in
the case of the MSW \nu_e \to \numt transition solution of the solar neutrino
problem. The one-year averaged probability of survival of the solar \nue
crossing the Earth mantle, the core, the inner 2/3 of the core, and the (core +
mantle) is calculated with high precision (better than 1%) using the elliptical
orbit approximation (EOA) to describe the Earth motion around the Sun. Results
for the survival probability in the indicated cases are obtained for a large
set of values of the MSW transition parameters and
from the ``conservative'' regions of the MSW solution,
derived by taking into account possible relatively large uncertainties in the
values of the B and Be neutrino fluxes. Our results show that the
one-year averaged D-N asymmetry in the survival probability for
neutrinos crossing the Earth core can be, in the case of , larger than the asymmetry in the probability for (only mantle
crossing + core crossing) neutrinos by a factor of up to six. The enhancement
is larger in the case of neutrinos crossing the inner 2/3 of the core. This
indicates that the Super-Kamiokande experiment might be able to test the
region of the MSW solution of the solar neutrino
problem by performing selective D-N asymmetry measurements.Comment: LaTeX2e - 18 Text Pages + 21 figures = 39 Pages. - Figures in PS +
text file sk1b14.tex requires two auxiliary files (included
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