Nuclear constraints on the age of the universe

A review is made of how one can use nuclear physics to put rather stringent limits on the age of the universe and thus the cosmic distance scale. The age can be estimated to a fair degree of accuracy. No single measurement of the time since the Big Bang gives a specific, unambiguous age. There are several methods that together fix the age with surprising precision. In particular, there are three totally independent techniques for estimating an age and a fourth technique which involves finding consistency of the other three in the framework of the standard Big Bang cosmological model. The three independent methods are: cosmological dynamics, the age of the oldest stars, and radioactive dating. This paper concentrates on the third of the three methods, and the consistency technique

Impact of baryon resonances on the chiral phase transition at finite temperature and density

We study the phase diagram of a generalized chiral SU(3)-flavor model in mean-field approximation. In particular, the influence of the baryon resonances, and their couplings to the scalar and vector fields, on the characteristics of the chiral phase transition as a function of temperature and baryon-chemical potential is investigated. Present and future finite-density lattice calculations might constrain the couplings of the fields to the baryons. The results are compared to recent lattice QCD calculations and it is shown that it is non-trivial to obtain, simultaneously, stable cold nuclear matter.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Lower bound on e+e- decay of massive neutrinos

Astronomical observations of SN1987A, such as the light curve, spectral intensities of lines, the X-ray emissions, etc., constrain the lifetime for the decay of a heavy neutrino 1 MeV less than or equivalent to m sub nu H less than or equal to 50 MeV through nu sub H yields nu sub 1+e(+)+e(-) exceeds 4 x 10 to the 15th exp(-m sub nuH/5MeV) seconds. Otherwise. resulting ionization energy deposits and stronger X-ray emission would have been observed. This coupled with traditional cosmological considerations argues that the lifetime of tau-neutrinos probably exceeds the age of the universe. This in turn would imply the standard cosmological mass bound does apply to nu sub tau, namely m sub nu sub tau less than or equivalent to 100 h squared eV (where h is the Hubble constant in units of 100 km/sec/mpc). The only significant loophole for these latter arguments would be if nu sub tau primarily decays rapidly into particles having very weak interactions

In-medium vector meson masses in a Chiral SU(3) model

A significant drop of the vector meson masses in nuclear matter is observed in a chiral SU(3) model due to the effects of the baryon Dirac sea. This is taken into account through the summation of baryonic tadpole diagrams in the relativistic Hartree approximation. The appreciable decrease of the in-medium vector meson masses is due to the vacuum polarisation effects from the nucleon sector and is not observed in the mean field approximation.Comment: 26 pages including 10 figures; the text has been modified for clarit

Cosmic microwave background constraints on the epoch of reionization

We use a compilation of cosmic microwave anisotropy data to constrain the epoch of reionization in the Universe, as a function of cosmological parameters. We consider spatially-flat cosmologies, varying the matter density $\Omega_0$ (the flatness being restored by a cosmological constant), the Hubble parameter $h$ and the spectral index $n$ of the primordial power spectrum. Our results are quoted both in terms of the maximum permitted optical depth to the last-scattering surface, and in terms of the highest allowed reionization redshift assuming instantaneous reionization. For critical-density models, significantly-tilted power spectra are excluded as they cannot fit the current data for any amount of reionization, and even scale-invariant models must have an optical depth to last scattering of below 0.3. For the currently-favoured low-density model with $\Omega_0 = 0.3$ and a cosmological constant, the earliest reionization permitted to occur is at around redshift 35, which roughly coincides with the highest estimate in the literature. We provide general fitting functions for the maximum permitted optical depth, as a function of cosmological parameters. We do not consider the inclusion of tensor perturbations, but if present they would strengthen the upper limits we quote.Comment: 9 pages LaTeX file with ten figures incorporated (uses mn.sty and epsf). Corrects some equation typos, superseding published versio

The Structure and Clustering of Lyman Break Galaxies

The number density and clustering properties of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) are consistent with them being the central galaxies of the most massive dark halos present at z~3. This conclusion holds in all currently popular hierarchical models for structure formation, and is almost independent of the global cosmological parameters. We examine whether the sizes, luminosities, kinematics and star-formation rates of LBGs are also consistent with this identification. Simple formation models tuned to give good fits to low redshift galaxies can predict the distribution of these quantities in the LBG population. The LBGs should be small (with typical half-light radii of 0.6-2 kpc/h), should inhabit haloes of moderately high circular velocity (180-290 km/s) but have low stellar velocity dispersions (70-120 km/s) and should have substantial star formation rates (15-100 Msun/yr). The numbers here refer to the predicted median values in the LBG sample of Adelberger et al. (1998); the first assumes an Omega=1 universe and the second a flat universe with Omega=0.3. For either cosmology these predictions are consistent with the current (rather limited) observational data. Following the work of Kennicutt (1998) we assume stars to form more rapidly in gas of higher surface density. This predicts that LBG samples should preferentially contain objects with low angular momentum, and so small size, for their mass. In contrast, samples of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLSs), should be biased towards objects with large angular momentum. Bright LBGs and DLSs may therefore form distinct populations, with very different sizes and star formation rates, LBGs being smaller and more metal-rich than DLSs of similar mass and redshift.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS submitte

Electron capture to continuum in collisions of bare projectiles with Ne targets

Abstract. We have investigated the cusp resulting from electron capture to the continuum of 1.25-5 MeV m u- ' fully stripped hydrogen and oxygen as a function of the collision energy and the detector angular resolution B o. It is revealed that the characteristic cusp shape parameters depend strongly on the experimental resolution. Our experimental data are "pared with the second-order Born theory and the impulse approximation. Both theories mnhrm the 8, dependence of the shape parameters and gjve a reasonable descrip-lion of the cusp asymmetry. However, theory tends to overestimate the absolute cross sections, in particular in the case of oxygen. 1

Delivery of Academic Vocabulary in Third Grade Mathematics Instruction

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of vocabulary theorist R.J. Marzano’s Six Step Process when teaching academic vocabulary words in mathematics. Academic Vocabulary is defined as vocabulary that is specific to the content being taught in the classroom in order for the students to be successful. Fifteen, third grade students (nine girls, six boys) in an inclusive classroom participated in the action research study. The effectiveness of Marzano’s Six Step Process to teaching mathematical academic vocabulary instruction was measured with biweekly pre and post assessments of word definitions and content usage. The assessments were used to measure the students’ understanding of the academic mathematic vocabulary words selected. From the findings, it was concluded that students did benefit from R.J. Marzano’s Six Step Process to academic vocabulary instruction and demonstrated greater understanding of mathematical academic vocabulary words through assessments