159 research outputs found
Effects of quantum space time foam in the neutrino sector
We discuss violations of CPT and quantum mechanics due to interactions of
neutrinos with space-time quantum foam. Neutrinoless double beta decay and
oscillations of neutrinos from astrophysical sources (supernovae, active
galactic nuclei) are analysed. It is found that the propagation distance is the
crucial quantity entering any bounds on EHNS parameters. Thus, while the bounds
from neutrinoless double beta decay are not significant, the data of the
supernova 1987a imply a bound being several orders of magnitude more stringent
than the ones known from the literature. Even more stringent limits may be
obtained from the investigation of neutrino oscillations from active galactic
nuclei sources, which have an impressive potential for the search of quantum
foam interactions in the neutrino sector.Comment: 5 page
Thermodynamics Inducing Massive Particles' Tunneling and Cosmic Censorship
By calculating the change of entropy, we prove that the first law of black
hole thermodynamics leads to the tunneling probability of massive particles
through the horizon, including the tunneling probability of massive charged
particles from the Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole and the Kerr-Newman black
hole. Novelly, we find the trajectories of massive particles are close to that
of massless particles near the horizon, although the trajectories of massive
charged particles may be affected by electromagnetic forces. We show that
Hawking radiation as massive particles tunneling does not lead to violation of
the weak cosmic-censorship conjecture
Exciton-polariton gap solitons in two-dimensional lattices
We report on the two-dimensional gap-soliton nature of exciton-polariton macroscopic coherent phases (PMCP) in a square lattice with a tunable amplitude. The resonantly excited PMCP forms close to the negative mass M point of the lattice band structure with energy within the lattice band gap and its wave function localized within a few lattice periods. The PMCPs are well described as gap solitons resulting from the interplay between repulsive polariton-polariton interactions and effective attractive forces due to the negative mass. The solitonic nature accounts for the reduction of the PMCP coherence length and optical excitation threshold with increasing lattice amplitude
Primordial black holes in braneworld cosmologies: astrophysical constraints
In two recent papers we explored the modifications to primordial black hole
physics when one moves to the simplest braneworld model, Randall--Sundrum type
II. Both the evaporation law and the cosmological evolution of the population
can be modified, and additionally accretion of energy from the background can
be dominant over evaporation at high energies. In this paper we present a
detailed study of how this impacts upon various astrophysical constraints,
analyzing constraints from the present density, from the present high-energy
photon background radiation, from distortion of the microwave background
spectrum, and from processes affecting light element abundances both during and
after nucleosynthesis. Typically, the constraints on the formation rate of
primordial black holes weaken as compared to the standard cosmology if black
hole accretion is unimportant at high energies, but can be strengthened in the
case of efficient accretion.Comment: 17 pages RevTeX4 file with three figures incorporated; final paper in
series astro-ph/0205149 and astro-ph/0208299. Minor changes to match version
accepted by Physical Review
Implications of Space-Time foam for Entanglement Correlations of Neutral Kaons
The role of invariance and consequences for bipartite entanglement of
neutral (K) mesons are discussed. A relaxation of leads to a modification
of the entanglement which is known as the effect. The relaxation of
assumptions required to prove the theorem are examined within the context
of models of space-time foam. It is shown that the evasion of the EPR type
entanglement implied by (which is connected with spin statistics) is
rather elusive. Relaxation of locality (through non-commutative geometry) or
the introduction of decoherence by themselves do not lead to a destruction of
the entanglement. So far we find only one model which is based on non-critical
strings and D-particle capture and recoil that leads to a stochastic
contribution to the space-time metric and consequent change in the neutral
meson bipartite entanglement. The lack of an omega effect is demonstrated for a
class of models based on thermal like baths which are generally considered as
generic models of decoherence
Glassy Phase Transition and Stability in Black Holes
Black hole thermodynamics, confined to the semi-classical regime, cannot
address the thermodynamic stability of a black hole in flat space. Here we show
that inclusion of correction beyond the semi-classical approximation makes a
black hole thermodynamically stable. This stability is reached through a phase
transition. By using Ehrenfest's scheme we further prove that this is a glassy
phase transition with a Prigogine-Defay ratio close to 3. This value is well
placed within the desired bound (2 to 5) for a glassy phase transition. Thus
our analysis indicates a very close connection between the phase transition
phenomena of a black hole and glass forming systems. Finally, we discuss the
robustness of our results by considering different normalisations for the
correction term.Comment: v3, minor changes over v2, references added, LaTeX-2e, 18 pages, 3 ps
figures, to appear in Eour. Phys. Jour.
Precision Primordial He Measurement with CMB Experiments
Big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are
two major pillars of cosmology. Standard BBN accurately predicts the primordial
light element abundances (He, D, He and Li), depending on one
parameter, the baryon density. Light element observations are used as a
baryometers. The CMB anisotropies also contain information about the content of
the universe which allows an important consistency check on the Big Bang model.
In addition CMB observations now have sufficient accuracy to not only determine
the total baryon density, but also resolve its principal constituents, H and
He. We present a global analysis of all recent CMB data, with special
emphasis on the concordance with BBN theory and light element observations. We
find and
(fraction of baryon mass as He) using CMB data alone, in agreement with
He abundance observations. With this concordance established we show that
the inclusion of BBN theory priors significantly reduces the volume of
parameter space. In this case, we find
and . We also find that the inclusion of deuterium
abundance observations reduces the and ranges by a factor
of 2. Further light element observations and CMB anisotropy experiments
will refine this concordance and sharpen BBN and the CMB as tools for precision
cosmology.Comment: 7 pages, 3 color figures made minor changes to bring inline with
journal versio
Probing mSUGRA via the Extreme Universe Space Observatory
An analysis is carried out within mSUGRA of the estimated number of events
originating from upward moving ultra-high energy neutralinos that could be
detected by the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO). The analysis
exploits a recently proposed technique that differentiates ultra-high energy
neutralinos from ultra-high energy neutrinos using their different absorption
lengths in the Earth's crust. It is shown that for a significant part of the
parameter space, where the neutralino is mostly a Bino and with squark mass
TeV, EUSO could see ultra-high energy neutralino events with
essentially no background. In the energy range 10^9 GeV < E < 10^11 GeV, the
unprecedented aperture of EUSO makes the telescope sensitive to neutralino
fluxes as low as 1.1 \times 10^{-6} (E/GeV)^{-1.3} GeV^{-1} cm^{-2} yr^{-1}
sr^{-1}, at the 95% CL. Such a hard spectrum is characteristic of supermassive
particles' -body hadronic decay. The case in which the flux of ultra-high
energy neutralinos is produced via decay of metastable heavy particles with
uniform distribution throughout the universe is analyzed in detail. The
normalization of the ratio of the relics' density to their lifetime has been
fixed so that the baryon flux produced in the supermassive particle decays
contributes to about 1/3 of the events reported by the AGASA Collaboration
below 10^{11} GeV, and hence the associated GeV gamma-ray flux is in complete
agreement with EGRET data. For this particular case, EUSO will collect between
4 and 5 neutralino events (with 0.3 of background) in ~ 3 yr of running. NASA's
planned mission, the Orbiting Wide-angle Light-collectors (OWL), is also
briefly discussed in this context.Comment: Some discussion added, final version to be published in Physical
Review
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