The Effects of Inlet Flow Modification on Cavitating Inducer Performance

This paper explores the effect of inlet flow modification on the cavitating and noncavitating performance of two cavitating inducers, one of simple helical design and the other a model of the low-pressure LOX pump in the Space Shuttle Main Engine. The modifications were generated by sections of honeycomb, both uniform and nonuniform. Significant improvement in the performance over a wide range of flow coefficients resulted from the use of either honeycomb section. Measurements of the axial and swirl velocity profiles of the flows entering the inducers were made in order to try to understand the nature of the inlet flow and the manner in which it is modified by the honeycomb sections

Global status of neutrino oscillation parameters after Neutrino-2012

Here we update the global fit of neutrino oscillations in arXiv:1103.0734 and arXiv:1108.1376 including the recent measurements of reactor antineutrino disappearance reported by the Double Chooz, Daya Bay and RENO experiments, together with latest MINOS and T2K appearance and disappearance results, as presented at the Neutrino-2012 conference. We find that the preferred global fit value of $\theta_{13}$ is quite large: $\sin^2\theta_{13} \simeq 0.025$ for normal and inverted neutrino mass ordering, with $\theta_{13} = 0$ now excluded at more than 10$\sigma$. The impact of the new $\theta_{13}$ measurements over the other neutrino oscillation parameters is discussed as well as the role of the new long-baseline neutrino data and the atmospheric neutrino analysis in the determination of a non-maximal atmospheric angle $\theta_{23}$.Comment: Note added, matches published version in Physical Review

Neutrino oscillations refitted

Here we update our previous global fit of neutrino oscillations by including the recent results which have appeared since the Neutrino-2012 conference. These include the measurements of reactor anti-neutrino disappearance reported by Daya Bay and RENO, together with latest T2K and MINOS data including both disappearance and appearance channels. We also include the revised results from the third solar phase of Super-Kamiokande, SK-III, as well as new solar results from the fourth phase of Super-Kamiokande, SK-IV. We find that the preferred global determination of the atmospheric angle $\theta_{23}$ is consistent with maximal mixing. We also determine the impact of the new data upon all the other neutrino oscillation parameters with emphasis on the increasing sensitivity to the CP phase, thanks to the interplay between accelerator and reactor data. In the appendix we present the updated results obtained after the inclusion of new reactor data presented at the Neutrino 2014 conference. We discuss their impact on the global neutrino analysis.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. An appendix providing updated results after Neutrino-2014 Conference is added. Matches published version in Physical Review

Lepton Flavour Violation in a Left-Right Symmetric Model

We consider in this paper a Left-Right symmetric gauge model in which a global lepton-number-like symmetry is introduced and broken spontaneously at a scale that could be as low as 10^4 GeV or so. The corresponding physical Nambu-Goldstone boson, which we call majoron and denote J, can have tree-level flavour-violating couplings to the charged fermions, leading to sizeable majoron-emitting lepton-flavour-violating weak decays. We consider explicitly a leptonic variant of the model and show that the branching ratios for \mu -> e+J, \tau -> e + J and \tau -> \mu + J decays can be large enough to fall within the sensitivities of future \mu and \tau factories. On the other hand the left-right gauge symmetry breaking scale may be as low as few TeV.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages, 3 PS figures, uses JHEP.cls, published versio

A Radial Velocity Survey for LMC Microlensed Sources

We propose a radial velocity survey with the aim to resolve the current dispute on the LMC lensing: in the pro-macho hypothesis the lenses are halo white dwarfs or machos in general; in the pro-star hypothesis both the lenses and the sources are stars in various observed or hypothesized structures of the Magellanic Clouds and the Galaxy. Star-star lensing should prefer sources at the backside or behind the LMC disc because lensing is most efficient if the source is located a few kpc behind a dense screen of stars, here the thin disc of the LMC. This signature of self-lensing can be looked for by a radial velocity survey since kinematics of the stars at the back can be markedly different from that of the majority of stars in the cold, rapidly rotating disc of the LMC. Detailed simulations of effect together with optimal strategies of carrying out the proposed survey are reported here. Assuming that the existing 30 or so alerted stars in the LMC are truely microlensed stars, their kinematics can test the two lensing scenarios; the confidence level varies with the still very uncertain structure of the LMC. Spectroscopy of the existing sample and future events requires about two or three good-seeing nights per year at a 4m-8m class southern telescope, either during the amplification phase or long after.Comment: minor changes of text, ApJ accepte

Bound-state dark matter with Majorana neutrinos

We propose a simple scenario in which dark matter (DM) emerges as a stable neutral hadronic thermal relics, its stability following from an exact $\operatorname{U}(1)_D$ symmetry. Neutrinos pick up radiatively induced Majorana masses from the exchange of colored DM constituents. There is a common origin for both dark matter and neutrino mass, with a lower bound for neutrinoless double beta decay. Direct DM searches at nuclear recoil experiments will test the proposal, which may also lead to other phenomenological signals at future hadron collider and lepton flavour violation experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1803.0852

Hydrodynamic fluctuations in relativistic superfluids

The Hamiltonian formulation of superfluids based on noncanonical Poisson brackets is studied in detail. The assumption that the momentum density is proportional to the flow of the conserved energy is shown to lead to the covariant relativistic theory previously suggested by Khalatnikov, Lebedev and Carter, and some potentials in this theory are given explicitly. We discuss hydrodynamic fluctuations in the presence of dissipative effects and we derive the corresponding set of hydrodynamic correlation functions. Kubo relations for the transport coefficients are obtained.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, two references adde

Calculable inverse-seesaw neutrino masses in supersymmetry

We provide a scenario where naturally small and calculable neutrino masses arise from a supersymmetry breaking renormalization-group-induced vacuum expectation value. We adopt a minimal supergravity scenario without ad hoc supersymmetric mass parameters. The lightest supersymmetric particle can be an isosinglet scalar neutrino state, potentially viable as WIMP dark matter through its Higgs new boson coupling. The scenario leads to a plethora of new phenomenological implications at accelerators including the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 4 figures. Comments and references added. Final version to appear in PR

Lepton flavor violation and non-unitary lepton mixing in low-scale type-I seesaw

Within low-scale seesaw mechanisms, such as the inverse and linear seesaw, one expects (i) potentially large lepton flavor violation (LFV) and (ii) sizeable non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI). We consider the interplay between the magnitude of non-unitarity effects in the lepton mixing matrix, and the constraints that follow from LFV searches in the laboratory. We find that NSI parameters can be sizeable, up to percent level in some cases, while LFV rates, such as that for \mu -> e \gamma, lie within current limits, including the recent one set by the MEG collaboration. As a result the upcoming long baseline neutrino experiments offer a window of opportunity for complementary LFV and weak universality tests.Comment: 14 pages, 14 composite figures and 1 table. v2: minor changes, references added. Accepted for publication in JHE