4,034 research outputs found
Lorentz violation in neutron and allowed nuclear beta decay
We explore the possibility that the weak interaction violates Lorentz, and in
particular rotational, invariance in neutron and allowed nuclear beta decay. A
broad class of Lorentz-violating effects is considered, in which the standard
propagator of the W-boson acquires an additional Lorentz-violating tensor. The
general decay rate for allowed beta decay that incorporates such a modified
propagator is derived. The resulting Lorentz-violating signals are discussed
for the different types of beta-decay transitions, Fermi, Gamow-Teller, and
mixed. We study the implications of our formalism for dedicated beta-decay
experiments. We give a short overview of the few relevant experiments that have
been performed or are ongoing.Comment: 23 pages; added reference
Nuclear beta decay with Lorentz violation
We consider the possibility of Lorentz-invariance violation in weak-decay
processes. We present a general approach that entails modifying the W-boson
propagator by adding a Lorentz-violating tensor to it. We describe the effects
of Lorentz violation on nuclear beta decay in this scenario. In particular we
show the expression for a first-forbidden transition with a spin change of two.
Using data from an old experiment on the rotational invariance of yttrium-90,
we derive several bounds on the Lorentz-violating parameters of the order of
10^(-6)-10^(-8).Comment: 4 pages; presented at the Sixth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry,
Bloomington, Indiana, June 17-21, 2013; Added reference
Exploration of Lorentz violation in neutral-kaon decay
The KLOE collaboration recently reported bounds on the directional dependence
of the lifetime of the short-lived neutral kaon with respect to the
dipole anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background. We interpret their
results in an effective field theory framework developed to probe the violation
of Lorentz invariance in the weak interaction and previously applied to
semileptonic processes, in particular decay. In this approach a general
Lorentz-violating tensor is added to the standard propagator of
the boson. We perform an exploratory study of the prospects to search for
Lorentz violation in nonleptonic decays. For the kaon, we find that the
sensitivity to Lorentz violation is limited by the velocity of the kaons and by
the extent to which hadronic effects can be calculated. In a simple model we
derive the decay rate and calculate the asymmetry for the lifetime.
Using the KLOE data, limits on the values of are determined.Comment: accepted for publication in Physics Letters
Cosmic rays studied with a hybrid high school detector array
The LORUN/NAHSA system is a pathfinder for hybrid cosmic ray research
combined with education and outreach in the field of astro-particle physics.
Particle detectors and radio antennae were mainly setup by students and placed
on public buildings. After fully digital data acquisition, coincidence
detections were selected. Three candidate events confirmed a working prototype,
which can be multiplied to extend further particle detector arrays on high
schools.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Nigl, A., Timmermans, C., Schellart, P.,
Kuijpers, J., Falcke, H., Horneffer, A., de Vos, C. M., Koopman, Y., Pepping,
H. J., Schoonderbeek, G., Cosmic rays studied with a hybrid high school
detector array, Europhysics News (EPN), Vol. 38, No. 5, accepted on
22/08/200
Degenerate fermion gas heating by hole creation
Loss processes that remove particles from an atom trap leave holes behind in
the single particle distribution if the trapped gas is a degenerate fermion
system. The appearance of holes increases the temperature and we show that the
heating is (i) significant if the initial temperature is well below the Fermi
temperature , and (ii) increases the temperature to
after half of the system's lifetime, regardless of the initial temperature. The
hole heating has important consequences for the prospect of observing
Cooper-pairing in atom traps.Comment: to be published in PR
Bulk de novo mitogenome assembly from pooled total DNA elucidates the phylogeny of weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea)
Complete mitochondrial genomes have been shown to be reliable markers for phylogeny reconstruction among diverse animal groups. However, the relative difficulty and high cost associated with obtaining de novo full mitogenomes have frequently led to conspicuously low taxon sampling in ensuing studies. Here, we report the successful use of an economical and accessible method for assembling complete or near-complete mitogenomes through shot-gun next-generation sequencing of a single library made from pooled total DNA extracts of numerous target species. To avoid the use of separate indexed libraries for each specimen, and an associated increase in cost, we incorporate standard polymerase chain reaction-based “bait” sequences to identify the assembled mitogenomes. The method was applied to study the higher level phylogenetic relationships in the weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea), producing 92 newly assembled mitogenomes obtained in a single Illumina MiSeq run. The analysis supported a separate origin of wood-boring behavior by the subfamilies Scolytinae, Platypodinae, and Cossoninae. This finding contradicts morphological hypotheses proposing a close relationship between the first two of these but is congruent with previous molecular studies, reinforcing the utility of mitogenomes in phylogeny reconstruction. Our methodology provides a technically simple procedure for generating densely sampled trees from whole mitogenomes and is widely applicable to groups of animals for which bait sequences are the only required prior genome knowledge
Performance of a GridPix detector based on the Timepix3 chip
A GridPix readout for a TPC based on the Timepix3 chip is developed for
future applications at a linear collider. The GridPix detector consists of a
gaseous drift volume read out by a single Timepix3 chip with an integrated
amplification grid. Its performance is studied in a test beam with 2.5 GeV
electrons. The GridPix detector detects single ionization electrons with high
efficiency. The Timepix3 chip allowed for high sample rates and time walk
corrections. Diffusion is found to be the dominating error on the track
position measurement both in the pixel plane and in the drift direction, and
systematic distortions in the pixel plane are below 10 m. Using a
truncated sum, an energy loss (dE/dx) resolution of 4.1% is found for an
effective track length of 1 m.Comment: To be published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section
Social inhibition and emotional distress in patients with coronary artery disease:The type D personality construct
We examined the validity of the social inhibition component of Type D, its distinctiveness from negative affectivity, and value regarding emotional distress as measured with the DS14 in 173 coronary artery disease patients. In dimensional analysis, social inhibition and negative affectivity emerged as distinct traits. Analysis of continuous negative affectivity and social inhibition measures showed main effects for several emotional and inhibition markers and an interaction effect for social anxiety. Categorical analysis indicated that Type D patients reported more depression, negative mood, social anxiety, and less positive mood. Social inhibition is not a redundant trait, but has additional conceptual valu
Effective interaction between molecules in the BEC regime of a superfluid Fermi gas
We investigate the effective interaction between Cooper-pair molecules in the
st rong-coupling BEC regime of a superfluid Fermi gas with a Feshbach
resonance. Our work uses a path integral formulation and a renormalization
group (RG) analy sis of fluctuations in a single-channel model. We show that a
physical cutoff en ergy originating from the finite molecular
binding energy is the key to understanding the interaction between molecules in
the BEC regime. Our work t hus clarifies recent results by showing that is a {\it ba re} molecular scattering length while is the low energy molecular scattering length
renormalized to include high-energy scat tering up to (here is the scattering length between Fermi atoms). We also include many-body
effects at finite temperatures. We find that is strongly dependent
on temperature, vanishing at , consistent with the earlier Bose gas
results of Bijlsma and Stoof.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
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