PVLAS experiment, star cooling and BBN constraints: Possible interpretation with temperature dependent gauge symmetry breaking

It is known that the kinetic mixing of photon and another U(1)_ex gauge boson can introduce millicharged particles. Millicharged particles $f$ of mass 0.1 eV can explain the PVLAS experiment. We suggest a temperature dependent gauge symmetry breaking of U(1)_ex for this idea to be consistent with astrophysical and cosmological constraints.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figue

Neutrino oscillations in the Sun probe long-range leptonic forces

Lepton number charges might be the source of long range forces. If one accepts that neutrinos produced in the Sun do indeed oscillate while crossing the interior of the Sun, then the shift in the phase of the neutrino wavefunction caused by an hypothetical potential associated to the leptonic charge of the electrons in the Sun could affect the oscillation pattern beyond what is actually observed. We show that a "fine structure" constant $\alpha_{L}$ in excess of $6.4 \times 10^{-54}$ is incompatible with present observational data. This bound is not valid for forces whose range is shorter than the size of the Sun.Comment: 6 pages, no figures. References adde

Dark Matter and Dark Radiation

We explore the feasibility and astrophysical consequences of a new long-range U(1) gauge field ("dark electromagnetism") that couples only to dark matter, not to the Standard Model. The dark matter consists of an equal number of positive and negative charges under the new force, but annihilations are suppressed if the dark matter mass is sufficiently high and the dark fine-structure constant $\hat\alpha$ is sufficiently small. The correct relic abundance can be obtained if the dark matter also couples to the conventional weak interactions, and we verify that this is consistent with particle-physics constraints. The primary limit on $\hat\alpha$ comes from the demand that the dark matter be effectively collisionless in galactic dynamics, which implies $\hat\alpha \lesssim 10^{-4}$ for TeV-scale dark matter. These values are easily compatible with constraints from structure formation and primordial nucleosynthesis. We raise the prospect of interesting new plasma effects in dark matter dynamics, which remain to be explored.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures Updated equations and figure

Neutrino Spin Flavor Precession and Leptogenesis

We argue that \Delta L=2 neutrino spin flavor precession, induced by the primordial magnetic fields, could have a significant impact on the leptogenesis process that accounts for the baryon asymmetry of the universe. Although the extra galactic magnetic fields is extremely weak at present time (about 10^{-9} Gauss), the primordial magnetic filed at the electroweak scale could be quite strong (of order 10^{17} Gauss). Therefore, at this scale, the effects of the spin flavor precession are not negligible. We show that the lepton asymmetry may be reduced by 50% due to the spin flavor precession. In addition, the leptogenesis will have different feature from the standard scenario of leptogenesis, where the lepton asymmetry continues to oscillate even after the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 5 pages, one figure. References adde

CP violation in unpolarized e^+ e^- to charginos at one loop level

We study CP violation in e^+ e^- to \tilde\chi_i^+\tilde\chi_j^- in the framework of the MSSM. Though the cross section of this process is CP-even at the tree level even for polarized electron-positron beams, we show that it contains a CP-odd part at the one loop order and there are CP-odd observables that can in principle be measured even using unpolarized electron-positron beams. The relevant diagram calculations are briefly discussed and the results of selected (box) diagram computations are shown.Comment: similar to Phys. Rev. D version, but corrected figs. 4, 5, 6 (factor four

Constraints on flavor-dependent long range forces from solar neutrinos and KamLAND

Flavor-dependent long range (LR) leptonic forces, like those mediated by the $L_e-L_\mu$ or $L_e -L_\tau$ gauge bosons, constitute a minimal extension of the standard model that preserves its renormalizability. We study the impact of such interactions on the solar neutrino oscillations when the interaction range $R_{LR}$ is much larger than the Earth-Sun distance. The LR potential can dominate over the standard charged current potential inside the Sun in spite of strong constraints on the coupling $\alpha$ of the LR force coming from the atmospheric neutrino data and laboratory search for new forces. We demonstrate that the solar and atmospheric neutrino mass scales do not get trivially decoupled even if $\theta_{13}$ is vanishingly small. In addition, for \alpha \gsim 10^{-52} and normal hierarchy, resonant enhancement of $\theta_{13}$ results in nontrivial energy dependent effects on the $\nu_e$ survival probability. We perform a complete three generation analysis, and obtain constraints on $\alpha$ through a global fit to the solar neutrino and KamLAND data. We get the $3\sigma$ limits $\alpha_{e\mu} < 3.4 \times 10^{-53}$ and $\alpha_{e\tau} < 2.5 \times 10^{-53}$ when $R_{LR}$ is much smaller than our distance from the galactic center. With larger $R_{LR}$, the collective LR potential due to all the electrons in the galaxy becomes significant and the constraints on $\alpha$ become stronger by upto two orders of magnitude.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

The relationship between hypergender ideology and rape empathy among male and female college students

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between hypergender ideology and rape empathy. A sample of 157 college students completed a questionnaire packet containing demographic variables, the Hypergender Ideology Scale (HOS) and the Rape Empathy Scale (RES). It was predicted that those indicating stronger adherence to extreme stereotypic gender roles would report more empathy for the perpetrator rather than the victim of rape. It was also predicted that men would show stronger adherence to stereotypic gender roles and less victim empathy than women. Results show significant support for all predictions. Discussion involves implications that the link established between these constructs may contribute to the network of beliefs and attitudes that perpetuate rape in society

The decay eta_c^prime -> eta_c pi pi

It is pointed out that the decay of the recently observed charmonium eta_c^prime resonance, eta_c^prime -> eta_c pi pi is simply related to the well studied decay psi^prime -> J/psi pi pi and can thus be used for absolute normalization of other decay modes of the eta_c^prime. The total rate of the discussed decay should be approximately three to four times the corresponding rate for the psi^prime$ resonance making the channel with charged pions the most probable exclusive decay mode of the eta_c^prime with the branching ratio in the range 5-10 %.Comment: 5 pages, references adde

Coulomb's law corrections from a gauge-kinetic mixing

We study the static quantum potential for a gauge theory which includes the mixing between the familiar photon $U(1)_{QED}$ and a second massive gauge field living in the so-called hidden-sector $U(1)_h$. Our discussion is carried out using the gauge-invariant but path-dependent variables formalism, which is alternative to the Wilson loop approach. Our results show that the static potential is a Yukawa correction to the usual static Coulomb potential. Interestingly, when this calculation is done inside a superconducting box, the Coulombic piece disappears leading to a screening phase.Comment: 4 page

B_s(d) - bar B_s(d) mixing constraints on flavor changing decays of t and b quarks

We study those dimension 6 effective operators which generate flavor-changing quark-gluon transitions of the third generation quarks, with t -> g + u(c) and b -> g + d(s), and which could be of interest for LHC experiments. We analyze the contribution of these operators to B_s(d) - bar B_s(d) mixing and derive limits on the corresponding effective couplings from the existing experimental data. The Standard Model gauge invariance relates these couplings to the couplings controlling t -> g + u(c). On this basis we derive upper limits for the branching ratios of these processes. We further show that forthcoming LHC experiments might be able to probe the studied operators and the physics beyond the Standard Model related to them.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur