5,281 research outputs found
Primordial Black Holes, Hawking Radiation and the Early Universe
The 511 keV gamma emission from the galactic core may originate from a high
concentration () of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the core
each of whose Hawking radiation includes positrons per second.
The PBHs we consider are taken as near the lightest with longevity greater than
the age of the universe (mass kg; Schwarzschild radius
fm). These PBHs contribute only a small fraction of cold dark matter,
. This speculative hypothesis, if confirmed implies
the simultaneous discovery of Hawking radiation and an early universe phase
transition.Comment: 4 Page
Human Factors of Flight-deck Automation: NASA/Industry Workshop
The scope of automation, the benefits of automation, and automation-induced problems were discussed at a workshop held to determine whether those functions previously performed manually on the flight deck of commercial aircraft should always be automated in view of various human factors. Issues which require research for resolution were identified. The research questions developed are presented
Torn between legal claiming and privatized remedy: rights mobilization against gold mining in Chile
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this recordMany academic authors, policymakers, NGOs and corporations have focused on top-down human rights global norm-making, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). What is often missing are contextual and substantive analyses that interrogate rights mobilization and linkages between voluntary transnational rules and domestic governance. Deploying a socio-legal approach and using a combination of longitudinal field and archival data, this article investigates how a local, indigenous community in Northern Chile mobilized their rights over a period of almost two decades. We found that rights mobilization was largely shaped by tensions between the different logics of legality and the business organization. In our case, the UNGP implementation process has been ineffective in giving rightsholders access to genuine remedy. On the contrary, it has led to weakened rights mobilization, dividing the local community. We conclude that greater attention to rights mobilization and domestic governance dynamics should be given in the Business and Human Rights debate.European Union Horizon 202
On Evidence-based Risk Management in Requirements Engineering
Background: The sensitivity of Requirements Engineering (RE) to the context
makes it difficult to efficiently control problems therein, thus, hampering an
effective risk management devoted to allow for early corrective or even
preventive measures. Problem: There is still little empirical knowledge about
context-specific RE phenomena which would be necessary for an effective
context- sensitive risk management in RE. Goal: We propose and validate an
evidence-based approach to assess risks in RE using cross-company data about
problems, causes and effects. Research Method: We use survey data from 228
companies and build a probabilistic network that supports the forecast of
context-specific RE phenomena. We implement this approach using spreadsheets to
support a light-weight risk assessment. Results: Our results from an initial
validation in 6 companies strengthen our confidence that the approach increases
the awareness for individual risk factors in RE, and the feedback further
allows for disseminating our approach into practice.Comment: 20 pages, submitted to 10th Software Quality Days conference, 201
Resolution of puzzles from the LSND, KARMEN, and MiniBooNE experiments
This work has attempted to reconcile puzzling neutrino oscillation results
from the LSND, KARMEN and MiniBooNE experiments. We show that the LSND evidence
for oscillations, its long-standing
disagreement with the results from KARMEN, and the anomalous event excess
observed by MiniBooNE in and data could all be
explained by the existence of a heavy sterile neutrino (). All these
results are found to be consistent with each other assuming that the is
created in neutral-current interactions and decays radiatively into a
photon and a light neutrino. Assuming the is produced through mixing
with , the combined analysis of the LSND and MiniBooNe excess events
suggests that the mass is in the range from 40 to 80 MeV, the mixing
strength is , and the lifetime is
s. Surprisingly, this LSND-MiniBooNE parameters
window is found to be unconstrained by the results from the most sensitive
experiments searching for heavy neutrino. We set new limits on
for the LSND-MiniBooNE favorable mass region from the precision measurements of
the Michel spectrum by the TWIST experiment. The results obtained provide a
strong motivation for a sensitive search for the in a near future
decay or neutrino experiments, which fit well in the existing/planned
experimental programs at CERN or FNAL. The question of whether the heavy
neutrino is Dirac or Majorana particle is briefly discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 28 figures, version to appear in PR
A high-reflectivity high-Q micromechanical Bragg-mirror
We report on the fabrication and characterization of a micromechanical
oscillator consisting only of a free-standing dielectric Bragg mirror with high
optical reflectivity and high mechanical quality. The fabrication technique is
a hybrid approach involving laser ablation and dry etching. The mirror has a
reflectivity of 99.6%, a mass of 400ng, and a mechanical quality factor Q of
approximately 10^4. Using this micromirror in a Fabry Perot cavity, a finesse
of 500 has been achieved. This is an important step towards designing tunable
high-Q high-finesse cavities on chip.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure
Gamow-Teller transitions and deformation in the proton-neutron random phase approximation
We investigate reliability of Gamow-Teller transition strengths computed in
the proton-neutron random phase approximation, comparing with exact results
from diagonalization in full shell-model spaces. By allowing the
Hartree-Fock state to be deformed, we obtain good results for a wide variety of
nuclides, even though we do not project onto good angular momentum. We suggest
that deformation is as important or more so than pairing for Gamow-Teller
transitions.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; added references, clarified discussion with
regards to stabilit
MeV-mass dark matter and primordial nucleosynthesis
The annihilation of new dark matter candidates with masses in the MeV
range may account for the galactic positrons that are required to explain the
511 keV -ray flux from the galactic bulge. We study the impact of
MeV-mass thermal relic particles on the primordial synthesis of H, He,
and Li. If the new particles are in thermal equilibrium with neutrinos
during the nucleosynthesis epoch they increase the helium mass fraction for
m_X\alt 10 MeV and are thus disfavored. If they couple primarily to the
electromagnetic plasma they can have the opposite effect of lowering both
helium and deuterium. For --10 MeV they can even improve the overall
agreement between the predicted and observed H and He abundances.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, references and two appendices added,
conclusions unchanged; accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
Self-cooling of a micro-mirror by radiation pressure
We demonstrate passive feedback cooling of a mechanical resonator based on
radiation pressure forces and assisted by photothermal forces in a high-finesse
optical cavity. The resonator is a free-standing high-reflectance micro-mirror
(of mass m=400ng and mechanical quality factor Q=10^4) that is used as
back-mirror in a detuned Fabry-Perot cavity of optical finesse F=500. We
observe an increased damping in the dynamics of the mechanical oscillator by a
factor of 30 and a corresponding cooling of the oscillator modes below 10 K
starting from room temperature. This effect is an important ingredient for
recently proposed schemes to prepare quantum entanglement of macroscopic
mechanical oscillators.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, minor correction
Glutamate receptor exocytosis and spine enlargement during chemically induced long-term potentiation
The changes in synaptic morphology and receptor content that underlie neural plasticity are poorly understood. Here, we use a pH-sensitive green fluorescent protein to tag recombinant glutamate receptors and monitor their dynamics onto dendritic spine surfaces. We show that chemically induced long-term potentiation (chemLTP) drives robust exocytosis of AMPA receptors. In contrast, the same stimulus produces a small reduction of NMDA receptors from the spine surface. chemLTP produces similar modification of small and large spines. Interestingly, during chemLTP induction, spines increase in volume before accumulation of AMPA receptors on their surface, indicating that distinct mechanisms underlie changes in morphology and receptor content
- …