1,127 research outputs found
Thermal detection of single e-h pairs in a biased silicon crystal detector
We demonstrate that individual electron-hole pairs are resolved in a 1 cm
by 4 mm thick silicon crystal (0.93 g) operated at 35 mK. One side of the
detector is patterned with two quasiparticle-trap-assisted
electro-thermal-feedback transition edge sensor (QET) arrays held near ground
potential. The other side contains a bias grid with 20\% coverage. Bias
potentials up to 160 V were used in the work reported here. A fiber optic
provides 650~nm (1.9 eV) photons that each produce an electron-hole () pair in the crystal near the grid. The energy of the drifting charges
is measured with a phonon sensor noise 0.09 pair.
The observed charge quantization is nearly identical for 's or 's
transported across the crystal.Comment: 4 journal pages, 5 figure
On the complexity of strongly connected components in directed hypergraphs
We study the complexity of some algorithmic problems on directed hypergraphs
and their strongly connected components (SCCs). The main contribution is an
almost linear time algorithm computing the terminal strongly connected
components (i.e. SCCs which do not reach any components but themselves).
"Almost linear" here means that the complexity of the algorithm is linear in
the size of the hypergraph up to a factor alpha(n), where alpha is the inverse
of Ackermann function, and n is the number of vertices. Our motivation to study
this problem arises from a recent application of directed hypergraphs to
computational tropical geometry.
We also discuss the problem of computing all SCCs. We establish a superlinear
lower bound on the size of the transitive reduction of the reachability
relation in directed hypergraphs, showing that it is combinatorially more
complex than in directed graphs. Besides, we prove a linear time reduction from
the well-studied problem of finding all minimal sets among a given family to
the problem of computing the SCCs. Only subquadratic time algorithms are known
for the former problem. These results strongly suggest that the problem of
computing the SCCs is harder in directed hypergraphs than in directed graphs.Comment: v1: 32 pages, 7 figures; v2: revised version, 34 pages, 7 figure
Large Extra Dimensions, Sterile neutrinos and Solar Neutrino Data
Solar, atmospheric and LSND neutrino oscillation results require a light
sterile neutrino, , which can exist in the bulk of extra dimensions.
Solar , confined to the brane, can oscillate in the vacuum to the zero
mode of and via successive MSW transitions to Kaluza-Klein states of
. This new way to fit solar data is provided by both low and
intermediate string scale models. From average rates seen in the three types of
solar experiments, the Super-Kamiokande spectrum is predicted with 73%
probability, but dips characteristic of the 0.06 mm extra dimension should be
seen in the SNO spectrum.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Neutrino Oscillations via the Bulk
We investigate the possibility that the large mixing of neutrinos is induced
by their large coupling to a five-dimensional bulk neutrino. In the strong
coupling limit the model is exactly soluble. It gives rise to an oscillation
amplitude whose squared-mass difference is independent of the channel, thus
making it impossible to explain both the solar and the atmospheric neutrino
oscillations simultaneously.Comment: References added and rearranged, typos corrected, a graph added, and
more detailed explanations provided. To appear in Physical Review
New Results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Experiment
Using improved Ge and Si detectors, better neutron shielding, and increased
counting time, the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment has obtained
stricter limits on the cross section of weakly interacting massive particles
(WIMPs) elastically scattering from nuclei. Increased discrimination against
electromagnetic backgrounds and reduction of neutron flux confirm
WIMP-candidate events previously detected by CDMS were consistent with neutrons
and give limits on spin-independent WIMP interactions which are >2X lower than
previous CDMS results for high WIMP mass, and which exclude new parameter space
for WIMPs with mass between 8-20 GeV/c^2.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross-section from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) employs low-temperature Ge and Si
detectors to search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their
elastic-scattering interactions with nuclei while discriminating against
interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events
due to background photons are rejected with >99.9% efficiency, and surface
events are rejected with >95% efficiency. The estimate of the background due to
neutrons is based primarily on the observation of multiple-scatter events that
should all be neutrons. Data selection is determined primarily by examining
calibration data and vetoed events. Resulting efficiencies should be accurate
to about 10%. Results of CDMS data from 1998 and 1999 with a relaxed
fiducial-volume cut (resulting in 15.8 kg-days exposure on Ge) are consistent
with an earlier analysis with a more restrictive fiducial-volume cut.
Twenty-three WIMP candidate events are observed, but these events are
consistent with a background from neutrons in all ways tested. Resulting limits
on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross-section exclude
unexplored parameter space for WIMPs with masses between 10-70 GeV c^{-2}.
These limits border, but do not exclude, parameter space allowed by
supersymmetry models and accelerator constraints. Results are compatible with
some regions reported as allowed at 3-sigma by the annual-modulation
measurement of the DAMA collaboration. However, under the assumptions of
standard WIMP interactions and a standard halo, the results are incompatible
with the DAMA most likely value at >99.9% CL, and are incompatible with the
model-independent annual-modulation signal of DAMA at 99.99% CL in the
asymptotic limit.Comment: 40 pages, 49 figures (4 in color), submitted to Phys. Rev. D;
v.2:clarified conclusions, added content and references based on referee's
and readers' comments; v.3: clarified introductory sections, added figure
based on referee's comment
A Search for WIMPs with the First Five-Tower Data from CDMS
We report first results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II)
experiment running with its full complement of 30 cryogenic particle detectors
at the Soudan Underground Laboratory. This report is based on the analysis of
data acquired between October 2006 and July 2007 from 15 Ge detectors (3.75
kg), giving an effective exposure of 121.3 kg-d (averaged over recoil energies
10--100 keV, weighted for a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) mass of
60 \gev). A blind analysis, incorporating improved techniques for event
reconstruction and data quality monitoring, resulted in zero observed events.
This analysis sets an upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross
section of 6.6 cm (4.6 cm when combined
with previous CDMS Soudan data) at the 90% confidence level for a WIMP mass of
60 \gev. By providing the best sensitivity for dark matter WIMPs with masses
above 42 GeV/c, this work significantly restricts the parameter space for
some of the favored supersymmetric models.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL 28 March 200
Tau Be or not Tau Be? - A Perspective on Service Compatibility and Substitutability
One of the main open research issues in Service Oriented Computing is to
propose automated techniques to analyse service interfaces. A first problem,
called compatibility, aims at determining whether a set of services (two in
this paper) can be composed together and interact with each other as expected.
Another related problem is to check the substitutability of one service with
another. These problems are especially difficult when behavioural descriptions
(i.e., message calls and their ordering) are taken into account in service
interfaces. Interfaces should capture as faithfully as possible the service
behaviour to make their automated analysis possible while not exhibiting
implementation details. In this position paper, we choose Labelled Transition
Systems to specify the behavioural part of service interfaces. In particular,
we show that internal behaviours (tau transitions) are necessary in these
transition systems in order to detect subtle errors that may occur when
composing a set of services together. We also show that tau transitions should
be handled differently in the compatibility and substitutability problem: the
former problem requires to check if the compatibility is preserved every time a
tau transition is traversed in one interface, whereas the latter requires a
precise analysis of tau branchings in order to make the substitution preserve
the properties (e.g., a compatibility notion) which were ensured before
replacement.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233
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