Search for a Lorentz invariance violation in atmospheric neutrino oscillations using MACRO data

The energy spectrum of neutrino-induced upward-going muons in MACRO was analysed in terms of special relativity principles violating effects, keeping standard mass-induced atmospheric neutrino oscillations as the dominant source of nu_mu nu_tau transitions. The data disfavour these exotic possibilities even at a sub-dominant level, and stringent 90% C.L. limits are placed on the Lorentz invariance violation parameters. These limits can also be re-interpreted as upper bounds on the parameters describing violation of the Equivalence Principle.Comment: 8 pages, 5 EPS figures, uses article.sty. Invited talk at C2CR 2005, From Colliders to Cosmic Rays, Prague, Czech Republic, 7-13 September 200

Search for a Lorentz invariance violation contribution in atmospheric neutrino oscillations using MACRO data

Neutrino-induced upward-going muons in MACRO have been analysed in terms of relativity principles violating effects, keeping standard mass-induced atmospheric neutrino oscillations as the dominant source of nu_mu -> nu_tau transitions. The data disfavor these exotic possibilities even at a sub-dominant level, and stringent 90% C.L. limits are placed on the Lorentz invariance violation parameter |Delta v| < 6 * 10^(-24) at sin2theta_v = 0 and |Delta v| < 2.5--5 * 10^(-26) at sin2theta_v = +/-1. These limits can also be re-interpreted as upper bounds on the parameters describing violation of the Equivalence Principle.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physics Letters

Search for exotic contributions to atmospheric neutrino oscillations

The energy spectrum of neutrino-induced upward-going muons in MACRO was analysed in terms of relativity principles violating effects, keeping standard mass-induced atmospheric neutrino oscillations as the dominant effect. The data disfavor these possibilities even at a sub-dominant level; stringent 90% C.L. limits are placed on the Lorentz invariance violation parameter $|\Delta v| < 6 \times 10^{-24}$ at $\sin 2{\theta}_v$ = 0 and $|\Delta v| < 2.5 \div 5 \times 10^{-26}$ at $\sin 2{\theta}_v$ = $\pm$1. The limits can be re-interpreted as bounds on the Equivalence Principle violation parameters.Comment: Presented at the 29th I.C.R.C., Pune, India (2005

Monte Carlo simulation of an experiment looking for radiative solar neutrino decays

We analyse the possibility of detecting visible photons from a hypothetical radiative decay of solar neutrinos. Our study is focused on the simulation of such measurements during total solar eclipses and it is based on the BP2000 Standard Solar Model and on the most recent experimental information concerning the neutrino properties.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Astropart. Phy

Geodesics in the space of measure-preserving maps and plans

We study Brenier's variational models for incompressible Euler equations. These models give rise to a relaxation of the Arnold distance in the space of measure-preserving maps and, more generally, measure-preserving plans. We analyze the properties of the relaxed distance, we show a close link between the Lagrangian and the Eulerian model, and we derive necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for minimizers. These conditions take into account a modified Lagrangian induced by the pressure field. Moreover, adapting some ideas of Shnirelman, we show that, even for non-deterministic final conditions, generalized flows can be approximated in energy by flows associated to measure-preserving maps

Time correlations of high energy muons in an underground detector

We present the result of a search for correlations in the arrival times of high energy muons collected from 1995 till 2000 with the streamer tube system of the complete MACRO detector at the underground Gran Sasso Lab. Large samples of single muons (8.6 million), double muons (0.46 million) and multiple muons with multiplicities from 3 to 6 (0.08 million) were selected. These samples were used to search for time correlations of cosmic ray particles coming from the whole upper hemisphere or from selected space cones. The results of our analyses confirm with high statistics a random arrival time distribution of high energy cosmic rays.Comment: (12 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

BV functions and sets of finite perimeters in sub-Riemannian manifolds

We give a notion of BV function on an oriented manifold where a volume form and a family of lower semicontinuous quadratic forms are given. When we consider sub-Riemannian manifolds, our definition coincides with the one given in the more general context of metric measure spaces which are doubling and support a Poincaré inequality. We focus on finite perimeter sets, i.e., sets whose characteristic function is BV, in sub-Riemannian manifolds. Under an assumption on the nilpotent approximation, we prove a blowup theorem, generalizing the one obtained for step-2 Carnot groups

Fokker-Planck type equations with Sobolev diffusion coefficients and BV drift coefficients

In this paper we give an affirmative answer to an open question mentioned in [Le Bris and Lions, Comm. Partial Differential Equations 33 (2008), 1272--1317], that is, we prove the well-posedness of the Fokker-Planck type equations with Sobolev diffusion coefficients and BV drift coefficients.Comment: 11 pages. The proof has been modifie