Experimental results on mass-thickness distribution in spacecraft equipment

A technique is described for evaluating the shielding properties of spacecraft equipment with respect to cosmic radiation. A gamma-ray source is used in conjunction with a scintillation detector to determine mass-thickness distribution both in plane geometry for equipment units, and in spherical geometry for given points within the spacecraft. Equations are presented for calculating mass-thickness distribution functions, and the results are compared with experimental measurements

Gravitational waves from first order phase transitions during inflation

We study the production, spectrum and detectability of gravitational waves in models of the early Universe where first order phase transitions occur during inflation. We consider all relevant sources. The self-consistency of the scenario strongly affects the features of the waves. The spectrum appears to be mainly sourced by collisions of bubble of the new phases, while plasma dynamics (turbulence) and the primordial gauge fields connected to the physics of the transitions are generally subdominant. The amplitude and frequency dependence of the spectrum for modes that exit the horizon during inflation are different from those of the waves produced by quantum vacuum oscillations of the metric or by first order phase transitions not occurring during inflation. A moderate number of slow (but still successful) phase transitions can leave detectable marks in the CMBR, but the signal weakens rapidly for faster transitions. When the number of phase transitions is instead large, the primordial gravitational waves can be observed both in the CMBR or with LISA (marginally) and especially DECIGO. We also discuss the nucleosynthesis bound and the constraints it places on the parameters of the models.Comment: minor changes in the text and the references to match the published versio

Information-preserving black holes still do not preserve baryon number and other effective global quantum numbers

It has been claimed recently that the black hole information-loss paradox has been resolved: the evolution of quantum states in the presence of a black hole is unitary and information preserving. We point out that, contrary to some claims in literature, information-preserving black holes still violate baryon number and any other quantum number which follows from an effective (and thus approximate) or anomalous symmetry.Comment: Honorable Mention on Gravity Essay Competition 2005; Published in the special Essay issue of Int.J.Mod.Phy

Leptonic CP violation studies at MiniBooNE in the (3+2) sterile neutrino oscillation hypothesis

We investigate the extent to which leptonic CP-violation in (3+2) sterile neutrino models leads to different oscillation probabilities for $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}\to\bar{\nu}_e$ and $\nu_{\mu}\to\nu_e$ oscillations at MiniBooNE. We are using a combined analysis of short-baseline (SBL) oscillation results, including the LSND and null SBL results, to which we impose additional constraints from atmospheric oscillation data. We obtain the favored regions in MiniBooNE oscillation probability space for both (3+2) CP-conserving and (3+2) CP-violating models. We further investigate the allowed CP-violation phase values and the MiniBooNE reach for such a CP violation measurement. The analysis shows that the oscillation probabilities in MiniBooNE neutrino and antineutrino running modes can differ significantly, with the latter possibly being as much as three times larger than the first. In addition, we also show that all possible values of the single CP-violation phase measurable at short baselines in (3+2) models are allowed within 99% CL by existing data.Comment: Fixed a typo following PRD Erratum. 8 pages, 5 figure

A gamma-ray testing technique for spacecraft

The simulated cosmic radiation effect on a spacecraft structure is evaluated by gamma ray testing in relation to structural thickness. A drawing of the test set-up is provided and measurement errors are discussed

Squeezed States and Affleck Dine Baryogenesis

Quantum fluctuations in the post inflationary Affleck-Dine baryogenesis model are studied. The squeezed states formalism is used to give evolution equations for the particle and anti-particle modes in the early universe. The role of expansion and parametric amplification of the quantum fluctuations on the baryon asymmetry produced is investigated.Comment: 8 pages 9 figure

Resonant Relaxation in Electroweak Baryogenesis

We compute the leading, chiral charge-changing relaxation term in the quantum transport equations that govern electroweak baryogenesis using the closed time path formulation of non-equilibrium quantum field theory. We show that the relaxation transport coefficients may be resonantly enhanced under appropriate conditions on electroweak model parameters and that such enhancements can mitigate the impact of similar enhancements in the CP-violating source terms. We also develop a power counting in the time and energy scales entering electroweak baryogenesis and include effects through second order in ratios $\epsilon$ of the small and large scales. We illustrate the implications of the resonantly enhanced ${\cal O}(\epsilon^2)$ terms using the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, focusing on the interplay between the requirements of baryogenesis and constraints obtained from collider studies, precision electroweak data, and electric dipole moment searches.Comment: 30 pages plus appendices, 7 figure

Effective potential at finite temperature in a constant hypermagnetic field: Ring diagrams in the Standard Model

We study the symmetry breaking phenomenon in the standard model during the electroweak phase transition in the presence of a constant hypermagnetic field. We compute the finite temperature effective potential up to the contribution of ring diagrams in the weak field, high temperature limit and show that under these conditions, the phase transition becomes stronger first order.Comment: 15 pages, 8 Postscript figure