The Archaeology of Appetites

Through use of examining how food is produced, stored, distributed and consumed, one can take a glimpse into the past, present and even future of this planet–to better understand the complexity of human identity and the social practices or roles that define an individual, community or society. So this begins an exploration of the archaeology of food as a gendered commodity throughout our evolutionary past, emphasizing the infinite ways in which foodway practices exceeds the nutritional value of what our ancestors, family, friends and ourselves consume(d) on a daily basis. Foodways practices is an invaluable tool in any archaeologists’ tool belt, for it illuminates a very integral part of human identity; gender. A foodways approach examines gendered identity by incorporating an intersectional view of food in culture, tradition and history–food is a communication tool to understanding the beliefs of past peoples, an area that gender plays an active role in. This paper will argue that food is never a purely biological activity, rather, the foods eaten have histories associated with the pasts of those who eat them; its consumption is always determined by meaning and these meanings are always symbolic. An engendered foodways approach to interpreting the archaeological record–and therefore our species history–will replace the focus on the remains of history with a focus on the people of history, by demonstrating that gendered consumption is a dynamic interplay between communities and cultures

Cryogenic silicon detectors with implanted contacts for the detection of visible photons using the Neganov-Luke Effect

There is a common need in astroparticle experiments such as direct dark matter detection, 0{\nu}\b{eta}\b{eta} (double beta decay without emission of neutrinos) and Coherent Neutrino Nucleus Scattering experiments for light detectors with a very low energy threshold. By employing the Neganov-Luke Effect, the thermal signal of particle interactions in a semiconductor absorber operated at cryogenic temperatures, can be amplified by drifting the photogenerated electrons and holes in an electric field. This technology is not used in current experiments, in particular because of a reduction of the signal amplitude with time which is due to trapping of the charges within the absorber. We present here the first results of a novel type of Neganov-Luke Effect detector with an electric field configuration designed to improve the charge collection within the semiconductor.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Journal of Low Temperature Physic

Characterization of ZnSe scintillating bolometers for Double Beta Decay

ZnSe scintillating bolometers are good candidates for future Double Beta Decay searches, because of the 82Se high Q-value and thanks to the possibility of alpha background rejection on the basis of the scintillation signal. In this paper we report the characteristics and the anomalies observed in an extensive study of these devices. Among them, an unexpected high emission from alpha particles, accompanied with an unusual pattern of the light vs. heat scatter plot. The perspectives for the application of this kind of detectors to search for the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay of 82Se are presented.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

On the Quantitative Impact of the Schechter-Valle Theorem

We evaluate the Schechter-Valle (Black Box) theorem quantitatively by considering the most general Lorentz invariant Lagrangian consisting of point-like operators for neutrinoless double beta decay. It is well known that the Black Box operators induce Majorana neutrino masses at four-loop level. This warrants the statement that an observation of neutrinoless double beta decay guarantees the Majorana nature of neutrinos. We calculate these radiatively generated masses and find that they are many orders of magnitude smaller than the observed neutrino masses and splittings. Thus, some lepton number violating New Physics (which may at tree-level not be related to neutrino masses) may induce Black Box operators which can explain an observed rate of neutrinoless double beta decay. Although these operators guarantee finite Majorana neutrino masses, the smallness of the Black Box contributions implies that other neutrino mass terms (Dirac or Majorana) must exist. If neutrino masses have a significant Majorana contribution then this will become the dominant part of the Black Box operator. However, neutrinos might also be predominantly Dirac particles, while other lepton number violating New Physics dominates neutrinoless double beta decay. Translating an observed rate of neutrinoless double beta decay into neutrino masses would then be completely misleading. Although the principal statement of the Schechter-Valle theorem remains valid, we conclude that the Black Box diagram itself generates radiatively only mass terms which are many orders of magnitude too small to explain neutrino masses. Therefore, other operators must give the leading contributions to neutrino masses, which could be of Dirac or Majorana nature.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor corrections, reference added, matches journal version; v3: typo corrected, physics result and conclusions unchange

Photon, Neutrino and Charged Particle Spectra from R-violating Gravitino Decays

We study photonic, neutrino and charged particle signatures from slow decays of gravitino dark matter in supersymmetric theories where R-parity is explicitly broken by trilinear operators. Photons and (anti-)fermions from loop and tree-level processes give rise to spectra with distinct features, which, if observed, can give crucial input on the possible mass of the gravitino and the magnitude and flavour structure of R-violating operators. Within this framework, we make detailed comparisons of the theoretical predictions to the recent experimental data from PAMELA, ATIC and Fermi LAT.Comment: Version published in Phys. Lett.

Precision Neutrino Oscillation Physics with an Intermediate Baseline Reactor Neutrino Experiment

We discuss the physics potential of intermediate $L \sim 20 \div 30$ km baseline experiments at reactor facilities, assuming that the solar neutrino oscillation parameters $\Delta m^2_{\odot}$ and $\theta_{\odot}$ lie in the high-LMA solution region. We show that such an intermediate baseline reactor experiment can determine both $\Delta m^2_{\odot}$ and $\theta_{\odot}$ with a remarkably high precision. We perform also a detailed study of the sensitivity of the indicated experiment to $\Delta m^2_{\rm atm}$, which drives the dominant atmospheric $\nu_{\mu}$ ($\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$) oscillations, and to $\theta$ - the neutrino mixing angle limited by the data from the CHOOZ and Palo Verde experiments. We find that this experiment can improve the bounds on $\sin^2\theta$. If the value of $\sin^2\theta$ is large enough, \sin^2\theta \gtap 0.02, the energy resolution of the detector is sufficiently good and if the statistics is relatively high, it can determine with extremely high precision the value of $\Delta m^2_{\rm atm}$. We also explore the potential of the intermediate baseline reactor neutrino experiment for determining the type of the neutrino mass spectrum, which can be with normal or inverted hierarchy. We show that the conditions under which the type of neutrino mass hierarchy can be determined are quite challenging, but are within the reach of the experiment under discussion.Comment: 25 page

Associations between school readiness and student wellbeing: a six-year follow up study

Published online: 06 August 2020It is well established that children’s school readiness is associated with their later academic achievement, but less is known about whether school readiness is also associated with other measures of school success, such as students’ social and emotional wellbeing. While some previous research has shown a link between early social and emotional development and student wellbeing, results are mixed and the strength of these relationships vary depending on whether data is based on child, teachers or parents ratings and which specific student wellbeing outcomes are measured. The present study explored the association between teacher-rated school readiness (Mage = 5.6 years) across five developmental domains (physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive, and communication and general knowledge) and four aspects of student wellbeing (life satisfaction, optimism, sadness and worries) in Grade 6 (Mage = 11.9 years) in a sample of 3906 Australian children. After adjustment for background child and family-level factors, children’s early physical, social and emotional development were associated with all four wellbeing outcomes in Grade 6, but early language and cognitive skills and communication and general knowledge skills were only associated with internalising behaviours (sadness and worries). Mechanisms through which these different aspects of development might influence later wellbeing are discussed, as well as ways that schools and governments can support students’ social and emotional wellbeing.T. Gregory, E. Dal Grande, M. Brushe, D. Engelhardt, S. Luddy and M. Guhn ... et al

The Main Results of the Borexino Experiment

The main physical results on the registration of solar neutrinos and the search for rare processes obtained by the Borexino collaboration to date are presented.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figgures, To be published as Proceedings of the Third Annual Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia, 201

New limits on heavy sterile neutrino mixing in 8B{^{8}\rm{B}}-decay obtained with the Borexino detector

If heavy neutrinos with mass $m_{\nu_{H}}\geq$2$m_e$ are produced in the Sun via the decay ${^8\rm{B}} \rightarrow {^8\rm{Be}} + e^+ + \nu_H$ in a side branch of pp-chain, they would undergo the observable decay into an electron, a positron and a light neutrino $\nu_{H}\rightarrow\nu_{L}+e^++e^-$. In the present work Borexino data are used to set a bound on the existence of such decays. We constrain the mixing of a heavy neutrino with mass 1.5 MeV $\leq m_{\nu_{H}} \le$ 14 MeV to be $|U_{eH}|^2\leq (10^{-3}-4\times10^{-6})$ respectively. These are tighter limits on the mixing parameters than obtained in previous experiments at nuclear reactors and accelerators.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure