Semi-classical stability of AdS NUT instantons

The semi-classical stability of several AdS NUT instantons is studied. Throughout, the notion of stability is that of stability at the one-loop level of Euclidean Quantum Gravity. Instabilities manifest themselves as negative eigenmodes of a modified Lichnerowicz Laplacian acting on the transverse traceless perturbations. An instability is found for one branch of the AdS-Taub-Bolt family of metrics and it is argued that the other branch is stable. It is also argued that the AdS-Taub-NUT family of metrics are stable. A component of the continuous spectrum of the modified Lichnerowicz operator on all three families of metrics is found.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures; references adde

Three loop MSbar renormalization of QED in the 't~Hooft-Veltman gauge

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) fixed in the 't~Hooft-Veltman gauge is renormalized to three loops in the MSbar scheme. The beta-functions and anomalous dimensions are computed as functions of the usual QED coupling and the additional coupling, xi, which is introduced as part of the nonlinear gauge fixing condition. Similar to the maximal abelian gauge of quantum chromodynamics, the renormalization of the gauge parameter is singular.Comment: 8 latex page

The EEE Project

The new experiment ``Extreme Energy Events'' (EEE) to detect extensive air showers through muon detection is starting in Italy. The use of particle detectors based on Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) will allow to determine with a very high accuracy the direction of the axis of cosmic ray showers initiated by primaries of ultra-high energy, together with a high temporal resolution. The installation of many of such 'telescopes' in numerous High Schools scattered all over the Italian territory will also allow to investigate coincidences between multiple primaries producing distant showers. Here we present the experimental apparatus and its tasks.Comment: 4 pages, 29th ICRC 2005, Pune, Indi

The AMS-02 Time of Flight System. Final Design

The AMS-02 detector is a superconducting magnetic spectrometer that will operate on the International Space Station. The time of flight (TOF) system of AMS-02 is composed by four scintillator planes with 8, 8, 10, 8 counters each, read at both ends by a total of 144 phototubes. This paper describes the new design, the expected performances, and shows preliminary results of the ion beam test carried on at CERN on October 2002.Comment: 4 pages, 6 EPS figures. Proc. of the 28th ICRC (2003

A fundamental test of the Higgs Yukawa coupling at RHIC in A+A collisions

Searches for the intermediate boson, $W^{\pm}$, the heavy quantum of the Weak Interaction, via its semi-leptonic decay, $W\to e +\nu$, in the 1970's instead discovered unexpectedly large hadron production at high $p_T$, notably $\pi^0$, which provided a huge background of $e^{\pm}$ from internal and external conversions. Methods developed at the CERN ISR which led to the discovery of direct-single-$e^{\pm}$ in 1974, later determined to be from the semi-leptonic decay of charm which had not yet been discovered, were used by PHENIX at RHIC to make precision measurements of heavy quark production in p-p and Au+Au collisions, leading to the puzzle of apparent equal suppression of light and heavy quarks in the QGP. If the Higgs mechanism gives mass to gauge bosons but not to fermions, then a proposal that all 6 quarks are nearly massless in a QGP, which would resolve the puzzle, can not be excluded. This proposal can be tested with future measurements of heavy quark correlations in A+A collisionsComment: 12 pages, 16 figures, 26th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Ocho Rios, Jamaica WI, January 2-9, 2010. Corrected citation of 1974 direct single lepton discover

Proton-antiproton annihilation into massive leptons

We extend previous calculations of polarization observables for the annihilation reaction $\bar p +p\to \ell^{-}+\ell^{+}$ to the case of heavy leptons, such as the $\tau$-lepton. We consider the case when the beam and/or the target are polarized, as well as the polarization of the outgoing leptons. We give the dependence of the unpolarized cross section, angular asymmetry, and various polarization observables on the relevant kinematical variables in the center of mass and in the laboratory system, with particular attention to the effect of the mass induced terms.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

First CNGS events detected by LVD

The CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso (CNGS) project aims to produce a high energy, wide band $\nu_{\mu}$ beam at CERN and send it toward the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), 732 km away. Its main goal is the observation of the $\nu_{\tau}$ appearance, through neutrino flavour oscillation. The beam started its operation in August 2006 for about 12 days: a total amount of $7.6~10^{17}$ protons were delivered to the target. The LVD detector, installed in hall A of the LNGS and mainly dedicated to the study of supernova neutrinos, was fully operating during the whole CNGS running time. A total number of 569 events were detected in coincidence with the beam spill time. This is in good agreement with the expected number of events from Montecarlo simulations.Comment: Accepted for publication by the European Physical Journal C ; 7 pages, 11 figure

Study of the effect of neutrino oscillation on the supernova neutrino signal with the LVD detector

We present an update of our previous study (astro-ph/0112312) on how $\nu$ oscillations affect the signal from a supernova core collapse observed in the LVD detector at LNGS. In this paper we use a recent, more precise determination of the cross section (astro-ph/0302055) to calculate the expected number of inverse beta decay events, we introduce in the simulation also the $\nu$-{\rm Fe} interactions, we include the Earth matter effects and, finally, we study also the inverted mass hierarchy case.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of ICRC 200

On-line recognition of supernova neutrino bursts in the LVD detector

In this paper we show the capabilities of the Large Volume Detector (INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory) to identify a neutrino burst associated to a supernova explosion, in the absence of an "external trigger", e.g., an optical observation. We describe how the detector trigger and event selection have been optimized for this purpose, and we detail the algorithm used for the on-line burst recognition. The on-line sensitivity of the detector is defined and discussed in terms of supernova distance and electron anti-neutrino intensity at the source.Comment: Accepted for pubblication on Astroparticle Physics. 13 pages, 10 figure