Reply to the "Comment on 'Piezonuclear decay of thorium' [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956]" [Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 3795] by G. Ericsson et al

In a paper appearing in this issue of Physics Letters A, Ericsson et al. raise some critical comments on the experiment [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] we carried out by cavitating a solution of thorium-228, which evidenced its anomalous decay behaviour, thus confirming the results previously obtained by Urutskoev et al. by explosion of titanium foils in solutions. In this Letter, we reply to these comments. In our opinion, the main shortcomings of the criticism by the Swedish authors are due to their omitting of inserting our experiment in the wider research stream of piezonuclear reactions, and to the statistical analysis they used, which does not comply with the rules generally accepted for samples with small numbers. However, apart from any possible theoretical speculation, there is the basic fact that two different experiments (ours and that by Urutskoev et al.), carried out independently and by different means, highlight an analogous anomaly in the decay of thorium subjected to pressure waves. Such a convergence of results shows that it is worth to further carry on experimental investigations, in order to get either a confirmation or a disproof of the induced-pressure anomalous behaviour of radioactive nuclides even different from thorium.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Geometrical Lorentz Violation and Quantum Mechanical Physics

On the basis of the results of some experiments dealing with the violation of Local Lorentz Invariance (LLI) and on the formalism of the Deformed Special Relativity (DSR), we examine the connections between the local geometrical structure of space-time and the foundation of Quantum Mechanics. We show that Quantum Mechanics, beside being an axiomatic theory, can be considered also a deductive physical theory, deducted from the primary physical principle of Relativistic Correlation. This principle is synonym of LLI and of a rigid and at minkowskian space-time. The results of the experiments mentioned above show the breakdown of LLI and hence the violation of the principle of Relativistic Correlation. The formalism of DSR allows to highlight the deep meaning of LLI breakdown in terms of the geometrical structure of local space-time which, far from being rigid and at, is deformed by the energy of the physical phenomena that take place and in this sense it has an active part in the dynamics of the whole physical process. This perspective has a far reaching physical meaning that extends its consequences to the foundations of Quantum Mechanics according to the interpretation of Copenhagen. It provides a 'real' explanation and description of quantum phenomena enriching, by the concept of deformed space-time, the realistic interpretation in terms of pilot wave and hence it uncovers the reality hidden below the probabilistic interpretation and dualistic nature of quantum objects.Comment: 4 figures, 15 page

Possible Experimental Evidence for Violation of Standard Electrodynamics, de Broglie Pilot Wave and Spacetime Deformation

We report and discuss the results of double-slit-like experiments in the infrared range, which evidence an anomalous behaviour of photon systems under particular (energy and space) constraints. These outcomes apparently disagree both with standard quantum mechanics (Copenhagen interpretation) and with classical and quantum electrodynamics. Possible interpretations can be given in terms of either the existence of de Broglie-Bohm pilot waves associated to photons, and/or the breakdown of local Lorentz invariance (LLI). We put forward an intriguing hypothesis about the possible connection between these seemingly unrelated points of view by assuming that the pilot wave of a photon is, in the framework of LLI breakdown, a local deformation of the flat minkowskian spacetime.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, presented at CASYS'09 - International Conference on COMPUTING ANTICIPATORY SYSTEMS - HEC Management School - University of Liege, LIEGE, Belgium, August 3-8, 2009. The paper was peer reviewed as explicitely stated on page x in the AIP CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS 1303 - Computing Anticipatory Systems - CASYS'09 Ninth International Conference, Li\`ege Belgium, August 3-8, 200

Hints for families of GRBs improving the Hubble diagram

As soon as their extragalactic origins were established, the hope to make Gamma - Ray Bursts (GRBs) standardizeable candles to probe the very high - z universe has opened the search for scaling relations between redshift independent observable quantities and distance dependent ones. Although some remarkable success has been achieved, the empirical correlations thus found are still affected by a significant intrinsic scatter which downgrades the precision in the inferred GRBs Hubble diagram. We investigate here whether this scatter may come from fitting together objects belonging to intrinsically different classes. To this end, we rely on a cladistics analysis to partition GRBs in homogenous families according to their rest frame properties. Although the poor statistics prevent us from drawing a definitive answer, we find that both the intrinsic scatter and the coefficients of the $E_{peak}$\,-\,$E_{iso}$ and $E_{peak}$\,-\,$L$ correlations significantly change depending on which subsample is fitted. It turns out that the fit to the full sample leads to a scaling relation which approximately follows the diagonal of the region delimited by the fits to each homogenous class. We therefore argue that a preliminary identification of the class a GRB belongs to is necessary in order to select the right scaling relation to be used in order to not bias the distance determination and hence the Hubble diagram.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication on MNRA

Cosmological parameters from lenses distance ratio

Strong lensing provides popular techniques to investigate the mass distribution of intermediate redshift galaxies, testing galaxy evolution and formation scenarios. It especially probes the background cosmic expansion, hence constraining cosmological parameters. The measurement of Einstein radii and central velocity dispersions indeed allows to trace the ratio D_s/D_ls between the distance D_s from the observer to the source and the distance D_ls from the lens to the source. We present an improved method to explicitly include the two - component structure in the galaxy lens modeling, in order to analyze the role played by the redshift and the model dependence on a nuisance parameter, F_E, which is usually marginalized in the cosmological applications. We show how to deal with these problems and carry on a Fisher matrix analysis to infer the accuracy on cosmological parameters achieved by this method.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication on Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Societ