Neutrino Mass and Oscillations

Current evidence for neutrino oscillation is reviewed, some areas for closer investigation are suggested, and a plausible future experimental program is summarized.Comment: Text of talk presented at Lepton-Photon 99 Conference, Stanford, Aug. 9-14, 1999; to be published in the Proceedings. LaTeX, 22 pages, 4 figures, 6 Postscript file

High purith low defect FZ silicon

The most common intrinsic defects in dislocation-free float zone (FZ) silicon crystals are the A- and B-type swirl defects. The mechanisms of their formation and annihilation have been extensively studied. Another type of defect in dislocation-free FZ crystals is referred to as a D-type defect. Concentrations of these defects can be minimized by optimizing the growth conditions, and the residual swirls can be reduced by the post-growth extrinsic gettering process. Czochralski (Cz) silicon wafers are known to exhibit higher resistance to slip and warpage due to thermal stress than do FZ wafers. The Cz crystals containing dislocations are more resistant to dislocation movement than dislocated FZ crystals because of the locking of dislocations by oxygen atoms present in the Cz crystals. Recently a transverse magnetic field was applied during the FZ growth of extrinsic silicon. Resultant flow patterns, as revealed by striation etching and spreading resistance in Ga-doped silicon crystals, indicate strong effects of the transverse magnetic field on the circulation within the melt. At fields of 5500 gauss, the fluid flow in the melt volume is so altered as to affect the morphology of the growing crystal

Wakes in stratified flow past a hot or cold two-dimensional body

This paper considers the general problem of laminar, steady, horizontal, Oseen flow at large distances upstream and downstream of a two-dimensional body which is represented as a line source of horizontal or vertical momentum, or as a line heat source or heat dipole. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible, diffusive, viscous and stably stratified. The analysis is focused on the general properties of the horizontal velocity component, as well as on explicit calculation of the horizontal velocity profiles and disturbance stream-function fields for varying degrees of stratification. For stable stratifications, the flow fields for all four types of singularities exhibit the common feature of multiple recirculating rotors of finite thicknesses, which leads to an alternating jet structure both upstream and downstream for the horizontal velocity component and to leewaves downstream in the overall flow. The self-similar formulae for the velocity, temperature and pressure at very large distances upstream and downstream are also derived and compared with the Oseen solutions

Importance of Mild Hyperoxaluria in the Pathogenesis of Urolithiasis - New Evidence from Studies in the Arabian Peninsula

The hypothesis that mild hyperoxaluria is more important than hypercalciuria in the pathogenesis of urolithiasis is re-examined in the light of new evidence. Small increments in urinary oxalate in the normal to high-normal range are much more critical than similar rises in urinary calcium for increasing the relative supersaturation of urine with respect to calcium oxalate, the oxalate/calcium ratio in urine, the total volume of calcium oxalate crystals excreted, the proportion of abnormally large crystals and aggregates of calcium oxalate and the severity of the disorder as defined by the recurrence rate of stone-formation. Data from the Arabian Peninsula, where the prevalence of calcium-containing stones is considerably higher than in the West, have shown that this occurs in spite of the almost complete absence of hypercalciuria. On the other hand, there is a strong association between stone-formation and the occurrence of mild hyperoxaluria. The life-time expectancy of stone-formation in men from various countries is strongly correlated with the average daily excretion of oxalate in the urine of the normal men in these countries. This relationship extends to include patients with enteric and hereditary hyperoxaluria. There is no such relationship, however, between the life-time expectancy of stones and urinary calcium excretion in the same populations. Studies on the regulation of urinary oxalate indicate that it is largely controlled by the quantity of free dietary oxalate available for absorption in the lower intestine. This can be calculated from the intakes of calcium and oxalate and the urinary excretion of calcium

Direct Measurement of Neutrino Mass

The sum of the masses of the three neutrino mass eigenstates is now constrained both from above and below, and lies between 55 and 6900 meV. The lower limit is set by neutrino oscillations and the fact that masses are non-negative. The upper limit is set by laboratory measurements on the beta decay of tritium. These determinations share a common characteristic of being essentially model independent, or "direct." The clustering on large scales in the universe depends on this quantity, and, within the framework of Lambda-CDM cosmology, favors a mass sum below about 600 meV. In this article, the laboratory approach to neutrino mass via beta decay is emphasized, particularly an experiment now under construction, KATRIN, on the beta decay of tritium. Another candidate beta-active nuclide, Re-187, offers an advantage in phase space but calls for a very different experimental approach.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, for Proceedings of Carolina International Symposium on Neutrino Physics, Columbia, SC, May 15-17, 2008. To be published in J.Phys.: Conf. Serie

Transport theory yields renormalization group equations

We show that dissipative transport and renormalization can be described in a single theoretical framework. The appropriate mathematical tool is the Nakajima-Zwanzig projection technique. We illustrate our result in the case of interacting quantum gases, where we use the Nakajima-Zwanzig approach to investigate the renormalization group flow of the effective two-body interaction.Comment: 11 pages REVTeX, twocolumn, no figures; revised version with additional examples, to appear in Phys. Rev.