12,814 research outputs found
Predictive Pati-Salam theory of fermion masses and mixing
We propose a Pati-Salam extension of the standard model incorporating a
flavor symmetry based on the group. The theory
realizes a realistic Froggatt-Nielsen picture of quark mixing and a predictive
pattern of neutrino oscillations. We find that, for normal neutrino mass
ordering, the atmospheric angle must lie in the higher octant, CP must be
violated in oscillations, and there is a lower bound for the
decay rate. For the case of inverted mass ordering, we find that the lower
atmospheric octant is preferred, and that CP can be conserved in oscillations.
Neutrino masses arise from a low-scale seesaw mechanism, whose messengers can
be produced by a portal at the LHC.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures, published versio
The Effect of Hot Gas in WMAP's First Year Data
By cross-correlating templates constructed from the 2 Micron All Sky Survey
(2MASS) Extended Source (XSC) catalogue with WMAP's first year data, we search
for the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signature induced by hot gas in the local
Universe. Assuming that galaxies trace the distribution of hot gas, we select
regions on the sky with the largest projected density of galaxies. Under
conservative assumptions on the amplitude of foreground residuals, we find a
temperature decrement of -35 7 K ( detection level,
the highest reported so far) in the 26 square degrees of the sky
containing the largest number of galaxies per solid angle. We show that most of
the reported signal is caused by known galaxy clusters which, when convolved
with the average beam of the WMAP W band channel, subtend a typical angular
size of 20--30 arcmins. Finally, after removing from our analyses all pixels
associated with known optical and X-ray galaxy clusters, we still find a tSZ
decrement of -96 37 K in pixels subtending about 0.8 square
degrees on the sky. Most of this signal is coming from five different cluster
candidates in the Zone of Avoidance (ZoA), present in the Clusters In the ZoA
(CIZA) catalogue. We found no evidence that structures less bound than clusters
contribute to the tSZ signal present in the WMAP data.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, matches accepted version in ApJ Letter
The periodic standing-wave approximation: post-Minkowski computation
The periodic standing wave method studies circular orbits of compact objects
coupled to helically symmetric standing wave gravitational fields. From this
solution an approximation is extracted for the strong field, slowly
inspiralling motion of black holes and binary stars. Previous work on this
model has dealt with nonlinear scalar models, and with linearized general
relativity. Here we present the results of the method for the post-Minkowski
(PM) approximation to general relativity, the first step beyond linearized
gravity. We compute the PM approximation in two ways: first, via the standard
approach of computing linearized gravitational fields and constructing from
them quadratic driving sources for second-order fields, and second, by solving
the second-order equations as an ``exact'' nonlinear system. The results of
these computations have two distinct applications: (i) The computational
infrastructure for the ``exact'' PM solution will be directly applicable to
full general relativity. (ii) The results will allow us to begin supplying
initial data to collaborators running general relativistic evolution codes.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, RevTe
Continuous spectra in high-harmonic generation driven by multicycle laser pulses
We present observations of the emission of XUV continua in the 20-37 eV
region by high harmonic generation (HHG) with - pulses
focused onto a Kr gas jet. The underlying mechanism relies on coherent control
of the relative delays and phases between individually generated attosecond
pulse, achievable by adjusting the chirp of the driving pulses and the
interaction geometry. Under adequate negative chirp and phase matching
conditions, the resulting interpulse interference yields a continuum XUV
spectrum, which is due to both microscopic and macroscopic (propagation)
contributions. This technique opens the route for modifying the phase of
individual attosecond pulses and for the coherent synthesis of XUV continua
from multicycle driving laser pulses without the need of an isolated attosecond
burst.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Physical Review
Fabrication and Characterization of Multiband Solar Cells Based on Highly Mismatched Alloys
Multiband solar cells are one type of third generation photovoltaic devices in which an increase of the power conversion efficiency is achieved through the absorption of low energy photons while preserving a large band gap that determines the open circuit voltage. The ability to absorb photons from different parts of the solar spectrum originates from the presence of an intermediate energy band located within the band gap of the material. This intermediate band, acting as a stepping stone allows the absorption of low energy photons to transfer electrons from the valence band to the conduction band by a sequential two photons absorption process. It has been demonstrated that highly mismatched alloys offer a potential to be used as a model material system for practical realization of multiband solar cells. Dilute nitride GaAs1-xNx highly mismatched alloy with low mole fraction of N is a prototypical multiband semiconductor with a well-defined intermediate band. Currently, we are using chemical beam epitaxy to synthesize dilute nitride highly mismatched alloys. The materials are characterized by a variety of structural and optical methods to optimize their properties for multiband photovoltaic devices
Probing the chiral weak Hamiltonian at finite volumes
Non-leptonic kaon decays are often described through an effective chiral weak
Hamiltonian, whose couplings ("low-energy constants") encode all
non-perturbative QCD physics. It has recently been suggested that these
low-energy constants could be determined at finite volumes by matching the
non-perturbatively measured three-point correlation functions between the weak
Hamiltonian and two left-handed flavour currents, to analytic predictions
following from chiral perturbation theory. Here we complete the analytic side
in two respects: by inspecting how small ("epsilon-regime") and intermediate or
large ("p-regime") quark masses connect to each other, and by including in the
discussion the two leading Delta I = 1/2 operators. We show that the
epsilon-regime offers a straightforward strategy for disentangling the
coefficients of the Delta I = 1/2 operators, and that in the p-regime
finite-volume effects are significant in these observables once the
pseudoscalar mass M and the box length L are in the regime ML \lsim 5.0.Comment: 37 pages. v2: some additions and clarifications; published versio
Heavy Quark Spin Symmetry and Heavy Baryons: Electroweak Decays
Heavy quark spin symmetry is discussed in the context of single and doubly
heavy baryons. A special attention is paid to the constraints/simplifications
that this symmetry imposes on the non-relativistic constituent quark model wave
functions and on the b->c semileptonic decays of these hadrons.Comment: Presented at the 21st European Conference on Few-Body Problems in
Physics, Salamanca, Spain, 30 August - 3 September 201
Avaliação de cor e textura de filés de frango in natura embalados em atmosfera modificada gasosa.
Projeto: 11.11.11.111
Basis Functions for Linear-Scaling First-Principles Calculations
In the framework of a recently reported linear-scaling method for
density-functional-pseudopotential calculations, we investigate the use of
localized basis functions for such work. We propose a basis set in which each
local orbital is represented in terms of an array of `blip functions'' on the
points of a grid. We analyze the relation between blip-function basis sets and
the plane-wave basis used in standard pseudopotential methods, derive criteria
for the approximate equivalence of the two, and describe practical tests of
these criteria. Techniques are presented for using blip-function basis sets in
linear-scaling calculations, and numerical tests of these techniques are
reported for Si crystal using both local and non-local pseudopotentials. We
find rapid convergence of the total energy to the values given by standard
plane-wave calculations as the radius of the linear-scaling localized orbitals
is increased.Comment: revtex file, with two encapsulated postscript figures, uses epsf.sty,
submitted to Phys. Rev.
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