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 $\xi$ and the effective mass $\mu$ of the flavor neutrino inside matter. We find that high energy $(E \ge 50$ GeV) $\nu_\mu$ neutrinos, to be detected by neutrino telescopes, can give signals of extra dimensions. With a 1 k$m^{3}$ neutrino telescope extra dimensions with radius down to $1\mu m$ 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 $\tau$. 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 $\delta$, compactified, large dimensions and we estimate the graviton production in $p p$ collisions in the high energy approximation where graviton emission is factorized. We find that the cross section for graviton production rises as fast as $(\sqrt{s}/M_f)^{2+\delta}$, where $M_f$ is the fundamental scale of gravity in $4+\delta$ dimensions, and that the distribution of radiating a fraction $y$ of the initial particle's energy into gravitational energy (which goes undetected) behaves as $\delta y^{\delta -1}$. 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 $M_f \sim 8$ TeV and $\delta =4$.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 $\beta$, which following Chomsky's tradition, we consider as a genetically determined ability, and the number $N$ 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 $\beta$ and the lexicon size $N$, $N \sim \exp(\beta)$. Thus a small increase of the genetically determined $\beta$ 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 $T_{0}$ as a small perturbation. The expansion parameter is the worldsheet speed of light c, which is proportional to $T_{0}$ . We examine carefully the interplay between a null (tensionless) string and a tensionful string which includes orders $c^{2}$ and higher. The conformal algebra generated by the constraints is considered. At the quantum level the normal ordering provides a central charge proportional to $c^{2}$. 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 ν~e\tilde{\nu}_e 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 $\times$ two helicities in the presence of a neutrino transition magnetic moment and nonzero neutrino mixing we analyze the displacement of the allowed ($\Delta m^2- \sin^22\theta$)-parameter region reconciled for the SuperKamiokande(SK) and radiochemical (GALLEX, SAGE, Homestake) experiments in dependence on the r.m.s. magnetic field value $b$, or more precisely, on a value $\mu b$ assuming the transition magnetic moment $\mu = 10^{-11}\mu_B$. 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 $\nu_{eL}\to \nu_{\mu L}\to \tilde{\nu}_{eR}$, $\nu_{eL}\to \nu_{\mu R}\to \tilde{\nu}_{eR}$ in a random magnetic field that would be a signature of the Majorana nature of neutrino if $\tilde{\nu}_{eR}$ will be registered. Basing on the present SK bound on electron antineutrinos we have also found an excluded area in the same $\Delta m^2,~\sin^22\theta$-plane and revealed a strong sensitivity to the random magnetic field correlation length $L_0$.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 $\Delta m^2$ and $sin^22\theta_{V}$ from the ``conservative'' regions of the MSW solution, derived by taking into account possible relatively large uncertainties in the values of the $^{8}$B and $^{7}$Be neutrino fluxes. Our results show that the one-year averaged D-N asymmetry in the $\nu_e$ survival probability for neutrinos crossing the Earth core can be, in the case of $sin^22 \theta_{V} \leq 0.13$, 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 $sin^22\theta_{V} \leq 0.01$ 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