Collaborative Agreements: A ‘how to’ guide

Partnerships can be an extremely effective way to harness additional skills and resources and minimize costs. Collaboration allows scientists (and other partners) to access a broad range of expertise and fosters a multi-disciplinary approach, both of which are often required when tackling complex research issues. However, it may be difficult to make the most of collaborative agreements, since different partners may have different objectives and approaches and misunderstandings can occur.partnership, Collaboration, agreements, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Double-Chooz: a search for Theta13

The Double-Chooz experiment goal is to search for a non-vanishing value of the Theta13 neutrino mixing angle. This is the last step to accomplish prior moving towards a new era of precision measurements in the lepton sector. The current best constraint on the third mixing angle comes from the CHOOZ reactor neutrino experiment $\sin(2\theta_{13})^{2}<0.2$ (90% C.L., $\Delta m_{atm}^{2}=2.0$ eV$^{2}$). Double-Chooz will explore the range of $\sin(2\theta_{13})^{2}$ from 0.2 to 0.03-0.02, within three years of data taking. The improvement of the CHOOZ result requires an increase in the statistics, a reduction of the systematic error below one percent, and a careful control of the backgrounds. Therefore, Double-Chooz will use two identical detectors, one at 150 m and another at 1.05 km distance from the Chooz nuclear cores. In addition, we will to use the near detector as a ``state of the art'' prototype to investigate the potential of neutrinos for monitoring the civil nuclear power plants. The plan is to start operation with two detectors in 2008, and to reach a sensitivity sin$^{2}$$(2\theta_{13})$ of 0.05 in 2009, and 0.03-0.02 in 2011.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of Nufact'04, July 26 - August 01 2004, Osak

Future Reactor Neutrino Oscillation Experiments at Krasnoyarsk

Recent studies of atmospheric neutrinos and the results from CHOOZ and Palo-Verde experiment call for new and more sensitive searches for neutrino oscillations at reactors. The main goal of the project considered here is to look for very small mixing angle oscillations of electron neutrinos in the atmospheric neutrino mass parameter region around \Delta m^2 ~3 10^-3 eV^2 and to define the element U_{e3} of the neutrino mixing matrix (U_{e3}is the contribution of the mass-3 state to the electron neutrino flavor state). The practical goal of the project is to decrease, relative to the CHOOZ, the statistic and systematic errors as much as possible. To achieve this we plan to use two identical antineutrino detectors each with a ~50-ton liquid scintillator target located at ~1100 m and ~250 m from the underground reactor (~600 mwe). Much attention is given to the detector calibration and monitoring procedures. As a first step we consider two much smaller pilot detectors each of ~ a 3 ton target mass stationed at ~20 m and 35-60 m from the reactor. The goals of this first stage are: (i) to accumulate necessary experience and (ii) to investigate with electron neutrinos the LSND mass parameter region.Comment: LaTeX file, 4 pages and 4 ps figure

Cabibbo Haze in Lepton Mixing

Quark-lepton unification suggests Cabibbo-sized effects in lepton mixings, which we call Cabibbo haze. We give simple examples and explore possible Wolfenstein-like parametrizations of the MNSP matrix which incorporate leptonic Cabibbo shifts. We find that the size of the CHOOZ angle is not always correlated with the observability of CP violation.Comment: 10 page

Effects and influences on neutrino oscillations due to a thin density layer perturbation added to a matter density profile

In this paper, we show the effects on the transition probabilities for neutrino oscillations due to a thin constant density layer perturbation added to an arbitrary matter density profile. In the case of two neutrino flavors, we calculate the effects both analytically and numerically, whereas in the case of three neutrino flavors, we perform the studies purely numerically. As an realistic example we consider the effects of the Earth's atmosphere when added to the Earth's matter density profile on the neutrino oscillation transition probabilities for atmospheric neutrinos.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX. Final version to be published in Phys. Lett.

Scenarios approach to the electromagnetic exposure. The case study of a train compartment

Previous studies identified the train compartment as the place where people can experience the highest exposure levels (still below the international guideline limits) to electromagnetic fields in the radiofrequency range. Here a possible scenario of a train compartment has been reproduced and characterized, both numerically and experimentally. A good agreement between the simulated electric field distributions and measurements has been found. Results indicate that the higher values of exposure in specific positions inside the train compartment depend on the number of active cell phones, the bad coverage condition, the cell orientation, and the presence of metallic walls. This study shows that the proposed approach, based on the scenarios characterization, may efficiently support the assessment of the individual electromagnetic exposure

Quark-Lepton Mass Matrices with U(1)×Z2×Z2′U(1)\times Z_2 \times Z_2' Flavor Symmetry

The U(1) flavor symmetry explains the large mixing of neutrinos while it leads to the unique texture for the quark mass matrices. It is remarked that U(1) symmetric mass matrices have the phenomenological defects. In the quark sector, the mixing $V_{ub}$ is predicted to be large compared with the expected value \l^4 at the GUT scale. In the lepton sector, U(1) charges, which give a large mixing in the neutrino sector, also lead to the large one in the charged lepton sector. In the viewpoint of the flavor symmetry, this is an unpleasant feature because the neutrino mass hierarchy is determined only by unknown coefficients of ${\cal O}(1)$, and the near-maximal flavor mixing is not guaranteed in the case of both large angle rotations. These defects disappear by introducing additional discrete symmetries $Z_2\times Z_2'$. The $U(1)\times Z_2\times Z_2'$ quark-lepton mass matrices are presented by taking account of the recent data of atmospheric neutrinos and solar neutrinos.Comment: 19 pages, LaTex file, no figure

Effects of temperature on the biology of the northern shrimp, Pandalus borealis, in the Gulf of Maine

Length-frequency data collected from inshore and offshore locations in the Gulf of Maine in 1966-1968 indicated that ovigerous female northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) first appeared offshore in August and September and migrated inshore in the fall and winter. Once eggs hatched, surviving females returned offshore. Juveniles and males migrated offshore during their first two years of life. Sex transition occurred in both inshore and oll'shore waters, but most males changed sex offshore during their third and fourth years. Most shrimp changed sex and matured as females for the first time in their fourth year. Smaller females and females exposed to colder bottom temperatures spawned first. The incidence of egg parasitism peaked in January and was higher for shrimp exposed to warmer bottom temperatures. Accelerated growth at higher temperatures appeared to result in earlier or more rapid sex transition. Males and non-ovigerous females were observed to make diurnal vertical migrations, but were not found in near- surface waters where the temperature exceeded 6°C. Ovigerous females fed more heavily on benthic molluscs in inshore waters in the winter, presumably because the egg masses they were carrying prevented them from migrating vertically at night. Northern shrimp were more abundant in the southwestern region of the Gulf of Maine where bottom temperatures remain low throughout the year. Bottom trawl catch rates were highest in Jeffreys Basin where bottom temperatures were lower than at any other sampling location. Catch rates throughout the study area were inversely related to bottom temperature and reached a maximum at 3°C. An increase of 40% in fecundity between 1973 and 1979 was associated with a decline of 2-3°C in April-July offshore bottom temperatures. Furthermore, a decrease in mean fecundity per 25 mm female between 1965 and 1970 was linearly related to reduced landings between 1969 and 1974. It is hypothesized that temperature-induced changes in fecundity and, possibly, in the extent of egg mortality due to parasitism, may provide a mechanism which could partially account for changes in the size of the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp population during the last thirty years. (PDF file contains 28 pages.