1,569 research outputs found
Neutrino Constraints on Inelastic Dark Matter after CDMS II
We discuss the neutrino constraints from solar and terrestrial dark matter
(DM) annihilations in the inelastic dark matter (iDM) scenario after the recent
CDMS II results. To reconcile the DAMA/LIBRA data with constraints from all
other direct experiments, the iDM needs to be light ( GeV) and
have a large DM-nucleon cross section ( 10 pb in the
spin-independent (SI) scattering and 10 pb in the
spin-dependent (SD) scattering). The dominant contribution to the iDM capture
in the Sun is from scattering off Fe/Al in the SI/SD case. Current bounds from
Super-Kamiokande exclude the hard DM annihilation channels, such as ,
, and . For soft channels such as and
, the limits are loose, but could be tested or further constrained
by future IceCube plus DeepCore. For neutrino constraints from the DM
annihilation in the Earth, due to the weaker gravitational effect of the Earth
and inelastic capture condition, the constraint exists only for small mass
splitting 40 keV and GeV even in the channel.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
Design and Performance of the XENON10 Dark Matter Experiment
XENON10 is the first two-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) developed
within the XENON dark matter search program. The TPC, with an active liquid
xenon (LXe) mass of about 14 kg, was installed at the Gran Sasso underground
laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, and operated for more than one year, with excellent
stability and performance. Results from a dark matter search with XENON10 have
been published elsewhere. In this paper, we summarize the design and
performance of the detector and its subsystems, based on calibration data using
sources of gamma-rays and neutrons as well as background and Monte Carlo
simulations data. The results on the detector's energy threshold, energy and
position resolution, and overall efficiency show a performance that exceeds
design specifications, in view of the very low energy threshold achieved (<10
keVr) and the excellent energy resolution achieved by combining the ionization
and scintillation signals, detected simultaneously
Discrete dark matter
We propose a new motivation for the stability of dark matter (DM). We suggest
that the same non-abelian discrete flavor symmetry which accounts for the
observed pattern of neutrino oscillations, spontaneously breaks to a Z2
subgroup which renders DM stable. The simplest scheme leads to a scalar doublet
DM potentially detectable in nuclear recoil experiments, inverse neutrino mass
hierarchy, hence a neutrinoless double beta decay rate accessible to upcoming
searches, while reactor angle equal to zero gives no CP violation in neutrino
oscillations.Comment: minor changes to match version accepted in PRD, one reference adde
Analysis of the XENON100 Dark Matter Search Data
The XENON100 experiment, situated in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso,
aims at the direct detection of dark matter in the form of weakly interacting
massive particles (WIMPs), based on their interactions with xenon nuclei in an
ultra low background dual-phase time projection chamber. This paper describes
the general methods developed for the analysis of the XENON100 data. These
methods have been used in the 100.9 and 224.6 live days science runs from which
results on spin-independent elastic, spin-dependent elastic and inelastic
WIMP-nucleon cross-sections have already been reported.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, information for the 224.6 live days run
include
The MEGA Advanced Compton Telescope Project
The goal of the Medium Energy Gamma-ray Astronomy (MEGA) telescope is to
improve sensitivity at medium gamma-ray energies (0.4-50 MeV) by at least an
order of magnitude over that of COMPTEL. This will be achieved with a new
compact design that allows for a very wide field of view, permitting a
sensitive all-sky survey and the monitoring of transient and variable sources.
The key science objectives for MEGA include the investigation of cosmic
high-energy particle accelerators, studies of nucleosynthesis sites using
gamma-ray lines, and determination of the large-scale structure of galactic and
cosmic diffuse background emission. MEGA records and images gamma-ray events by
completely tracking both Compton and pair creation interactions in a tracker of
double-sided silicon strip detectors and a calorimeter of CsI crystals able to
resolve in three dimensions. We present initial laboratory calibration results
from a small prototype MEGA telescope.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX, 5 figures, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews
(Proceedings of the Ringberg Workshop "Astronomy with Radioactivities III"
Sterile neutrino dark matter, CDMS-II and a light Higgs boson
We add a singlet right handed neutrino plus a charged and a neutral singlet
scalars to the standard model. This extension includes a discrete symmetry such
that we obtain a heavy sterile neutrino which couples only to the electron and
the new scalars. In this sense the singlet neutrino does not mix with ordinary
ones and thus has no effect on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. However, such sterile
neutrino can be in equilibrium with electroweak particles in the early Universe
due to its couplings to electrons and also because the Higgs boson mixes with
the singlet scalars. We obtain that the sterile neutrino constitutes a dark
matter candidate and analyze its direct detection in the light of current
experiments. Our results show that if such a sterile neutrino is realized in
nature, and CDMS-II experiment confirms its positive signal, dark matter
demands a rather light Higgs boson with new Physics at some 500 GeV scale.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, uses axodraw.st
Holographic Superconductors in a Cohesive Phase
We consider a four-dimensional N=2 gauged supergravity coupled to matter
fields. The model is obtained by a U(1) gauging of a charged hypermultiplet and
therefore it is suitable for the study of holographic superconductivity. The
potential has a topologically flat direction and the parameter running on this
"moduli space" labels the new superconducting black holes. Zero temperature
solutions are constructed and the phase diagram of the theory is studied. The
model has rich dynamics. The retrograde condensate is just a special case in
the new class of black holes. The calculation of the entanglement entropy makes
manifest the properties of a generic solution and the superconductor at zero
temperature is in a confined cohesive phase. The parameter running on the
topologically flat direction is a marginal coupling in the dual field theory.
We prove this statement by considering the way double trace deformations are
treated in the AdS/CFT correspondence. Finally, we comment on a possible
connection, in the context of gauge/gravity dualities, between the geometry of
the scalar manifold in N=2 supergravity models and the space of marginal
deformations of the dual field theory.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures. Introduction rewritten and clarified, comments
and details on section 4 added, acknowledgements rectified. To appear in JHE
Quantum Gravity from Conformal Field Theory
We bootstrap loop corrections to AdS5 supergravity amplitudes by enforcing the consistency of the known classical results with the operator product expansion of NN = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. In particular this yields much new information on the spectrum of double-trace operators which can then be used, in combination with superconformal symmetry and crossing symmetry, to obtain a prediction for the one-loop amplitude for four graviton multiplets in AdS. This in turn yields further new results on subleading O(1/N 4) corrections to certain double-trace anomalous dimensions
A chemical mutagenesis approach to insert post-translational modifications in aggregation-prone proteins
Neurodegenerative diseases are a class of disorders linked to the formation in the nervous system of fibrillar protein aggregates called amyloids. This aggregation process is affected by a variety of post-translational modifications, whose specific mechanisms are not fully understood yet. Emerging chemical mutagenesis technology is currently striving to address the challenge of introducing protein post-translational modifications, while maintaining the stability and solubility of the proteins during the modification reaction. Several amyloidogenic proteins are highly aggregation-prone, and current modification procedures can lead to unexpected precipitation of these proteins, affecting their yield and downstream characterization. Here, we present a method for maintaining amyloidogenic protein solubility during chemical mutagenesis. As proof-of-principle, we applied our method to mimic the phosphorylation of serine-26 and the acetylation of lysine-28 of the 40-residue long variant of amyloid-β peptide, whose aggregation is linked to Alzheimer’s disease
p-wave Holographic Superconductors and five-dimensional gauged Supergravity
We explore five-dimensional and
SO(6) gauged supergravities as frameworks for condensed matter applications.
These theories contain charged (dilatonic) black holes and 2-forms which have
non-trivial quantum numbers with respect to U(1) subgroups of SO(6). A question
of interest is whether they also contain black holes with two-form hair with
the required asymptotic to give rise to holographic superconductivity. We first
consider the case, which contains a complex two-form potential
which has U(1) charge . We find that a slight
generalization, where the two-form potential has an arbitrary charge , leads
to a five-dimensional model that exhibits second-order superconducting
transitions of p-wave type where the role of order parameter is played by
, provided . We identify the operator that condenses
in the dual CFT, which is closely related to Super Yang-Mills
theory with chemical potentials. Similar phase transitions between R-charged
black holes and black holes with 2-form hair are found in a generalized version
of the gauged supergravity Lagrangian where the two-forms have
charge .Comment: 35 pages, 14 figure
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