Limit on sterile neutrino contribution from the Mainz Neutrino Mass Experiment

The recent analysis of the normalization of reactor antineutrino data, the calibration data of solar neutrino experiments using gallium targets, and the results from the neutrino oscillation experiment MiniBooNE suggest the existence of a fourth light neutrino mass state with a mass of O(eV), which contributes to the electron neutrino with a sizable mixing angle. Since we know from measurements of the width of the Z0 resonance that there are only three active neutrinos, a fourth neutrino should be sterile (i.e., interact only via gravity). The corresponding fourth neutrino mass state should be visible as an additional kink in beta-decay spectra. In this work the phase II data of the Mainz Neutrino Mass Experiment have been analyzed searching for a possible contribution of a fourth light neutrino mass state. No signature of such a fourth mass state has been found and limits on the mass and the mixing of this fourth mass states are derived

Strong CP, Up-Quark Mass, and the Randall-Sundrum Microscope

In the Randall-Sundrum model, setting the ratio of up and down quark masses $m_u/m_d << 1$, relevant to the strong CP problem, does not require chiral symmetry or fine-tuning, due to exponential bulk fermion profiles. We point out that such geometric suppression of the mass of a fermion magnifies the masses of its corresponding Kaluza-Klein (KK) states. In this sense, these KK states act as "microscopes" for probing light quark and lepton masses. In simple realizations, this hypothesis can be testable at future colliders, like the LHC, by measuring the spectrum of level-1 KK fermions. The microscope can then provide an experimental test for the vanishing of $m_u$ in the ultraviolet, independently of non-perturbative determinations, by lattice simulations or other means, at hadronic scales. We also briefly comment on application of our microscope idea to other fermions, such as the electron and neutrinos.Comment: 7 pages. New discussions and references added. Main previous conclusions unchange

Phantom Subspecies: The Wood Bison, Bison bison "athabascae" Rhoads 1897 Is Not a Valid Taxon, but an Ecotype

The proposal that the "hybrid bison" of Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP) be exterminated and replaced with "wood bison" has no taxonomic justification. The subspecies Bison bison athabascae Rhoads 1897 is based on the inadequate descriptions and taxonomically invalid criteria - i.e., body size and morphometrics. Its accepted pelage features are based on studies of the same herd of Nyarling River (NR) bison from Elk Island National Park (EINP). These pelage features, assumed to be genetically fixed, are ecotypic confinement effects, which NR bison share with EINP bull elk and moose. In bison the display hair acts analogous to deer antlers, which reflect their bearers' access to high-quality food during their growth. NR bison in captivity, in the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary (MBS), and the original wood bison are "northern plains bison." Nor are WBNP bison distinguishable from MBS bison. A "wood bison" phenotype was also described as diagnostic for southern plains bison (B.b. bison Linnaeus 1958); the northern plains bison was named B.b. montanae Krumbiegel 1980. Consequently, B.b. athabascae = B.b. bison, as the latter has priority. Yet captive and introduced NR athabascae = montanae. Some WBNP bison resemble B. priscus, supporting the view that B. bison evolved as a hybrid between American and Siberian large-horned bison. Hybridization in large mammals need not be a tragedy for conservation.Key words: wood bison, plains bison, taxonomy, phenotype plasticity, ecotype, display organs, morphometry, subspecies, conservationMots cl&eacute;s: bison des bois, bison des plaines, taxonomie, plasticit&eacute; des ph&eacute;notypes, &eacute;cotype, organes de parade, morphom&eacute;trie, sous-esp&egrave;ce, conservatio

Of reindeer and man, modern and Neanderthal: A creation story founded on a historic perspective on how to conserve wildlife, woodland caribou in particular

A review of successful systems of wildlife conservation, the North American included, suggests that broad public support and determined effort by volunteers is essential for wildlife conservation. Since North American wildlife conservation is the only large-scale system of sustainable natural resource use, and exemplifies the great economic and cultural benefits of a renewable resource held in common, its lessons may be profitably applied to Rangifer conservation. Animals that have value are surrounded by myths that tell of their relationship to humans. In our Anglo-American culture reindeer and caribou are rather deficient in this respect. However, reindeer feature prominently in the rise of modern humans and the demise of Neanderthal man early in the Upper Paleolithic. The colonization by humans of the periglacial environments during the last glaciation depended on the rich periglacial megafauna, Rangifer included. Archeological sites of the European Upper Paleolithic show that reindeer were the most important food source. The Upper Paleolithic, characterized by exceptional physical development and health of people, as well as by the first flowering of art, extended from Spain to Crimea with surprisingly little cultural change for some 25 000 years. While the cave paintings express an infatuation with dangerous game (woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, steppe wisent, giant deer, cave lions, bears etc), the archeological sites indicate that reindeer was the staple food. Reindeer play a minor role in cave art. Neither this art, nor archeological sites, show any evidence of warfare. It is hypothesized that during a mid-glacial interstadial modern people entered Europe having developed a highly successful system of hunting reindeer using interception based on the discovery of chronologic time. This led to a first flowering of culture based on a rich economy, but also to additional hunting mortality of the periglacial mega-herbivores that Neanderthal people depended on. That would explain the slow decline into extinction of the previously invincible Neanderthal people. Therefore, modern humans owe much of what they are to reindeer. We need to reciprocate. What is urgently required is a foundation formed by volunteers for the conservation of caribou, similar to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, focusing on the severely endangered wood&not;land caribou

Meta-Epistemological Nature of Mathematics and Its Implication to the Empirical Learning Process in Mathematics: An Extension of Plato’s Thoughts

Mathematics philosophers do not have a common agreed understanding about the nature of Mathematics. An attempt to describe the nature of Mathematics begun in the 4th C, BC, when Plato conceived that, Mathematics is constituted by abstract objects existing beyond the mind; and its mathematical knowledge is acquired empirically. Aristotle (Plato’s student) extended the ideas of Plato by conceiving that mathematical knowledge can be acquired with or without senses.Since then up to 17th C, AD, debates continued, experimentalists standing on one side and rationalist on the other side, instead of focusing on the fundamental nature of Mathematics, they focused on whether mathematical knowledge is a an empirical knowledge or rational knowledge. However, from 17th C, AD, debates moved from experimentalist versus rationalist to an attempt in resolving paradoxes in real number and set theories. The focus in describing precisely nature of Mathematics was completely lost.In respect to the reviews of Plato’s thoughts and related literature, it is concluded that, thoughts of Plato’s thoughts are correct and consistent. Metaphysically, Mathematics is built upon a set of mathematical objects that exist beyond the mind. The mathematical objects possess six attributes: shape, qualities, form, structure, properties and applicability. Also, epistemologically, the attributes of mathematical objects build the body of mathematical empirical knowledge. The empirical mathematical knowledge is acquired in a cycle of five stages: perception, exposition, execution, assimilation and rationalization stages. Keywords: Nature of Mathematics, Metaphysical objects, Mathematical space, Mathematical objects, Meta-Epistemological attributes. DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/56-02 Publication date:March 31st 202

COMPARATISM AND ORGANICISM IN THE CRUCIBLE OF THE EUROPEAN JURISPRUDENCES. A JUSNATURALIST UROBOROS ON AN ENDLESS COLIMASON

MOTTO:1. Le comparatisme est véritablement analytique seulement sur le terrain fondamental des sources sapientogenes de tous les systèmes de droit (Valerius M.C.)2. Ignea quin etiam superum pater arma recondit, / Et Ganimedeae repetens convivia mensae / Pocula sumit ea qua gessit fulmina dextra. In memoriam Prof.dr.doc. Marțian Cotrău, son of Bihor County, an outstanding personality of Iaș