Screening of Dirac flavor structure in the seesaw and neutrino mixing

We consider the mechanism of screening of the Dirac flavor structure in the context of the double seesaw mechanism. As a consequence of screening, the structure of the light neutrino mass matrix, m_\nu, is determined essentially by the structure of the (Majorana) mass matrix, M_S, of new super-heavy (Planck scale) neutral fermions S. We calculate effects of the renormalization group running in order to investigate the stability of the screening mechanism with respect to radiative corrections. We find that screening is stable in the supersymmetric case, whereas in the standard model it is unstable for certain structures of M_S. The screening mechanism allows us to reconcile the (approximate) quark-lepton symmetry and the strong difference of the mixing patterns in the quark and lepton sectors. It opens new possibilities to explain a quasi-degenerate neutrino mass spectrum, special ``neutrino'' symmetries and quark-lepton complementarity. Screening can emerge from certain flavor symmetries or Grand Unification.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures; references added, discussion of the E6 model modifie

Can Measurements of Electric Dipole Moments Determine the Seesaw Parameters?

In the context of the supersymmetrized seesaw mechanism embedded in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), complex neutrino Yukawa couplings can induce Electric Dipole Moments (EDMs) for the charged leptons, providing an additional route to seesaw parameters. However, the complex neutrino Yukawa matrix is not the only possible source of CP violation. Even in the framework of Constrained MSSM (CMSSM), there are additional sources, usually attributed to the phases of the trilinear soft supersymmetry breaking couplings and the mu-term, which contribute not only to the electron EDM but also to the EDMs of neutron and heavy nuclei. In this work, by combining bounds on various EDMs, we analyze how the sources of CP violation can be discriminated by the present and planned EDM experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; added reference

An exploding glass ?

We propose a connection between self-similar, focusing dynamics in nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) and macroscopic dynamic features of the glass transition. In particular, we explore the divergence of the appropriate relaxation times in the case of hard spheres as the limit of random close packing is approached. We illustrate the analogy in the critical case, and suggest a ``normal form'' that can capture the onset of dynamic self-similarity in both phenomena.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Geodesics in the space of measure-preserving maps and plans

We study Brenier's variational models for incompressible Euler equations. These models give rise to a relaxation of the Arnold distance in the space of measure-preserving maps and, more generally, measure-preserving plans. We analyze the properties of the relaxed distance, we show a close link between the Lagrangian and the Eulerian model, and we derive necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for minimizers. These conditions take into account a modified Lagrangian induced by the pressure field. Moreover, adapting some ideas of Shnirelman, we show that, even for non-deterministic final conditions, generalized flows can be approximated in energy by flows associated to measure-preserving maps

Percolation in random environment

We consider bond percolation on the square lattice with perfectly correlated random probabilities. According to scaling considerations, mapping to a random walk problem and the results of Monte Carlo simulations the critical behavior of the system with varying degree of disorder is governed by new, random fixed points with anisotropic scaling properties. For weaker disorder both the magnetization and the anisotropy exponents are non-universal, whereas for strong enough disorder the system scales into an {\it infinite randomness fixed point} in which the critical exponents are exactly known.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Effects of a magnetic field on the one-dimensional spin-orbital model

We study the effects of a uniform magnetic field on the one-dimensional spin-orbital model in terms of effective field theories. Two regions are examined: one around the SU(4) point (J=K/4) and the other with K<<J. We found that when $J\leq K/4$, the spin and orbital correlation functions exhibit power-law decay with nonuniversal exponents. In the region with J>K/4, the excitation spectrum has a gap. When the magnetic field is beyond some critical value, a quantum phase transition occurs. However, the correlation functions around the SU(4) point and the region with K<<J exhibit distinct behavior. This results from different structures of excitation spectra in both regime.Comment: 22 pages, no figure

Vortex density models for superconductivity and superfluidity

We study some functionals that describe the density of vortex lines in superconductors subject to an applied magnetic field, and in Bose-Einstein condensates subject to rotational forcing, in quite general domains in 3 dimensions. These functionals are derived from more basic models via Gamma-convergence, here and in a companion paper. In our main results, we use these functionals to obtain descriptions of the critical applied magnetic field (for superconductors) and forcing (for Bose-Einstein), above which ground states exhibit nontrivial vorticity, as well as a characterization of the vortex density in terms of a non local vector-valued generalization of the classical obstacle problem.Comment: 34 page

Effect of wind speed on aerosol optical depth over remote oceans, based on data from the Maritime Aerosol Network

The Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN) has been collecting data over the oceans since November 2006. The MAN archive provides a valuable resource for aerosol studies in maritime environments. In the current paper we investigate correlations between ship-borne aerosol optical depth (AOD) and near-surface wind speed, either measured (onboard or from satellite) or modeled (NCEP). According to our analysis, wind speed influences columnar aerosol optical depth, although the slope of the linear regression between AOD and wind speed is not steep (~0.004–0.005), even for strong winds over 10 m s−1. The relationships show significant scatter (correlation coefficients typically in the range 0.3–0.5); the majority of this scatter can be explained by the uncertainty on the input data. The various wind speed sources considered yield similar patterns. Results are in good agreement with the majority of previously published relationships between surface wind speed and ship-based or satellite-based AOD measurements. The basic relationships are similar for all the wind speed sources considered; however, the gradient of the relationship varies by around a factor of two depending on the wind data used

Optimized Two-Baseline Beta-Beam Experiment

We propose a realistic Beta-Beam experiment with four source ions and two baselines for the best possible sensitivity to theta_{13}, CP violation and mass hierarchy. Neutrinos from 18Ne and 6He with Lorentz boost gamma=350 are detected in a 500 kton water Cerenkov detector at a distance L=650 km (first oscillation peak) from the source. Neutrinos from 8B and 8Li are detected in a 50 kton magnetized iron detector at a distance L=7000 km (magic baseline) from the source. Since the decay ring requires a tilt angle of 34.5 degrees to send the beam to the magic baseline, the far end of the ring has a maximum depth of d=2132 m for magnetic field strength of 8.3 T, if one demands that the fraction of ions that decay along the straight sections of the racetrack geometry decay ring (called livetime) is 0.3. We alleviate this problem by proposing to trade reduction of the livetime of the decay ring with the increase in the boost factor of the ions, such that the number of events at the detector remains almost the same. This allows to substantially reduce the maximum depth of the decay ring at the far end, without significantly compromising the sensitivity of the experiment to the oscillation parameters. We take 8B and 8Li with gamma=390 and 656 respectively, as these are the largest possible boost factors possible with the envisaged upgrades of the SPS at CERN. This allows us to reduce d of the decay ring by a factor of 1.7 for 8.3 T magnetic field. Increase of magnetic field to 15 T would further reduce d to 738 m only. We study the sensitivity reach of this two baseline two storage ring Beta-Beam experiment, and compare it with the corresponding reach of the other proposed facilities.Comment: 17 pages, 3 eps figures. Minor changes, matches version accepted in JHE

Virtual Compton Scattering and Neutral Pion Electroproduction in the Resonance Region up to the Deep Inelastic Region at Backward Angles

We have made the first measurements of the virtual Compton scattering (VCS) process via the H$(e,e'p)\gamma$ exclusive reaction in the nucleon resonance region, at backward angles. Results are presented for the $W$-dependence at fixed $Q^2=1$ GeV$^2$, and for the $Q^2$-dependence at fixed $W$ near 1.5 GeV. The VCS data show resonant structures in the first and second resonance regions. The observed $Q^2$-dependence is smooth. The measured ratio of H$(e,e'p)\gamma$ to H$(e,e'p)\pi^0$ cross sections emphasizes the different sensitivity of these two reactions to the various nucleon resonances. Finally, when compared to Real Compton Scattering (RCS) at high energy and large angles, our VCS data at the highest $W$ (1.8-1.9 GeV) show a striking $Q^2$- independence, which may suggest a transition to a perturbative scattering mechanism at the quark level.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Phys.Rev.