304 research outputs found
Parity Violating Gravitational Coupling Of Electromagnetic Fields
A manifestly gauge invariant formulation of the coupling of the Maxwell
theory with an Einstein Cartan geometry is given, where the space time torsion
originates from a massless Kalb-Ramond field augmented by suitable U(1) Chern
Simons terms.We focus on the situation where the torsion violates parity, and
relate it to earlier proposals for gravitational parity violation.Comment: 7 Pages, Latex . no figures, Replaced with Revtex version, many
references added and typos correcte
Toward High-Precision Measures of Large-Scale Structure
I review some results of estimation of the power spectrum of density
fluctuations from galaxy redshift surveys and discuss advances that may be
possible with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I then examine the realities of
power spectrum estimation in the presence of Galactic extinction, photometric
errors, galaxy evolution, clustering evolution, and uncertainty about the
background cosmology.Comment: 24 pages, including 11 postscript figures. Uses crckapb.sty (included
in submission). To appear in ``Ringberg Workshop on Large-Scale Structure,''
ed D. Hamilton (Kluwer, Amsterdam), p. 39
Cosmological Birefringence: an Astrophysical test of Fundamental Physics
We review the methods used to test for the existence of cosmological
birefringence, i.e. a rotation of the plane of linear polarization for
electromagnetic radiation traveling over cosmological distances, which might
arise in a number of important contexts involving the violation of fundamental
physical principles. The main methods use: (1) the radio polarization of radio
galaxies and quasars, (2) the ultraviolet polarization of radio galaxies, and
(3) the cosmic microwave background polarization. We discuss the main results
obtained so far, the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and future
prospects.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the JENAM 2010 Symposium "From
Varying Couplings to Fundamental Physics", held in Lisbon, 6-10 Sept. 201
Density of States of Landau Levels from Activated Transport and Capacitance Experiments
An Electron Fixed Target Experiment to Search for a New Vector Boson A' Decaying to e+e-
We describe an experiment to search for a new vector boson A' with weak
coupling alpha' > 6 x 10^{-8} alpha to electrons (alpha=e^2/4pi) in the mass
range 65 MeV < m_A' < 550 MeV. New vector bosons with such small couplings
arise naturally from a small kinetic mixing of the "dark photon" A' with the
photon -- one of the very few ways in which new forces can couple to the
Standard Model -- and have received considerable attention as an explanation of
various dark matter related anomalies. A' bosons are produced by radiation off
an electron beam, and could appear as narrow resonances with small production
cross-section in the trident e+e- spectrum. We summarize the experimental
approach described in a proposal submitted to Jefferson Laboratory's PAC35,
PR-10-009. This experiment, the A' Experiment (APEX), uses the electron beam of
the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at Jefferson Laboratory
(CEBAF) at energies of ~1-4 GeV incident on 0.5-10% radiation length Tungsten
wire mesh targets, and measures the resulting e+e- pairs to search for the A'
using the High Resolution Spectrometer and the septum magnet in Hall A. With a
~1 month run, APEX will achieve very good sensitivity because the statistics of
e+e- pairs will be ~10,000 times larger in the explored mass range than any
previous search for the A' boson. These statistics and the excellent mass
resolution of the spectrometers allow sensitivity to alpha'/alpha one to three
orders of magnitude below current limits, in a region of parameter space of
great theoretical and phenomenological interest. Similar experiments could also
be performed at other facilities, such as the Mainz Microtron.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 2 table
Large Scale Structure of the Universe
Galaxies are not uniformly distributed in space. On large scales the Universe
displays coherent structure, with galaxies residing in groups and clusters on
scales of ~1-3 Mpc/h, which lie at the intersections of long filaments of
galaxies that are >10 Mpc/h in length. Vast regions of relatively empty space,
known as voids, contain very few galaxies and span the volume in between these
structures. This observed large scale structure depends both on cosmological
parameters and on the formation and evolution of galaxies. Using the two-point
correlation function, one can trace the dependence of large scale structure on
galaxy properties such as luminosity, color, stellar mass, and track its
evolution with redshift. Comparison of the observed galaxy clustering
signatures with dark matter simulations allows one to model and understand the
clustering of galaxies and their formation and evolution within their parent
dark matter halos. Clustering measurements can determine the parent dark matter
halo mass of a given galaxy population, connect observed galaxy populations at
different epochs, and constrain cosmological parameters and galaxy evolution
models. This chapter describes the methods used to measure the two-point
correlation function in both redshift and real space, presents the current
results of how the clustering amplitude depends on various galaxy properties,
and discusses quantitative measurements of the structures of voids and
filaments. The interpretation of these results with current theoretical models
is also presented.Comment: Invited contribution to be published in Vol. 8 of book "Planets,
Stars, and Stellar Systems", Springer, series editor T. D. Oswalt, volume
editor W. C. Keel, v2 includes additional references, updated to match
published versio
Gravitational Waves from Gravitational Collapse
Gravitational wave emission from the gravitational collapse of massive stars
has been studied for more than three decades. Current state of the art
numerical investigations of collapse include those that use progenitors with
realistic angular momentum profiles, properly treat microphysics issues,
account for general relativity, and examine non--axisymmetric effects in three
dimensions. Such simulations predict that gravitational waves from various
phenomena associated with gravitational collapse could be detectable with
advanced ground--based and future space--based interferometric observatories.Comment: 68 pages including 13 figures; revised version accepted for
publication in Living Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org
Measurement of Exclusive B Decays to Final States Containing a Charmed Baryon
Using data collected by the CLEO detector in the Upsilon(4S) region, we
report new measurements of the exclusive decays of B mesons into final states
of the type Lambda_c^+ p-bar n(pi), where n=0,1,2,3. We find signals in modes
with one, two and three pions and an upper limit for the two body decay
Lambda_c^+ pbar. We also make the first measurements of exclusive decays of B
mesons to Sigma_c p-bar n(pi), where n=0,1,2. We find signals in modes with one
and two pions and an upper limit for the two body decay Sigma_c p-bar.
Measurements of these modes shed light on the mechanisms involved in B decays
to baryons.Comment: 11 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, submitted to PR
Formation of Supermassive Black Holes
Evidence shows that massive black holes reside in most local galaxies.
Studies have also established a number of relations between the MBH mass and
properties of the host galaxy such as bulge mass and velocity dispersion. These
results suggest that central MBHs, while much less massive than the host (~
0.1%), are linked to the evolution of galactic structure. In hierarchical
cosmologies, a single big galaxy today can be traced back to the stage when it
was split up in hundreds of smaller components. Did MBH seeds form with the
same efficiency in small proto-galaxies, or did their formation had to await
the buildup of substantial galaxies with deeper potential wells? I briefly
review here some of the physical processes that are conducive to the evolution
of the massive black hole population. I will discuss black hole formation
processes for `seed' black holes that are likely to place at early cosmic
epochs, and possible observational tests of these scenarios.Comment: To appear in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. The final
publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co
Measurement of the Masses and Widths of the Sigma_c^++ and Sigma_c^0 Charmed Baryons
Using data recorded by the CLEO II and CLEO II.V detector configurations at
CESR, we report new measurements of the masses of the Sigma_c^{++} and
Sigma_c^0 charmed baryons, and the first measurements of their intrinsic
widths. We find M(Sigma_c^{++}) - M(Lambda_c^+) = 167.4 +- 0.1 +- 0.2 MeV,
Gamma(Sigma_c^{++}) = 2.3 +- 0.2 +- 0.3 MeV, and M(Sigma_c^0) - M(Lambda_c^+) =
167.2 +- 0.1 +- 0.2 MeV, Gamma(Sigma_c^0) = 2.5 +- 0.2 +- 0.3 MeV, where the
uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: 9 pages postscript, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, submitted to PRD, Rapid
Communications. Reference [13] correcte
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