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Song, N. Q., Garcia, R. B., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Gonzalez-Garcia, M. C., Conde, A. P., & Taron, J. (2016). Conditions for statistical determination of the neutrino mass spectrum in radiative emission of neutrino pairs in atoms. Phys. Rev. D, 93(1), 013020–10pp.
Abstract: The photon spectrum in macrocoherent atomic deexcitation via radiative emission of neutrino pairs has been proposed as a sensitive probe of the neutrino mass spectrum, capable of competing with conventional neutrino experiments. In this paper we revisit this interesting proposal in order to quantify the requirements for statistical determination of some of the properties of the neutrino spectrum, in particular, the neutrino mass scale and the mass ordering. Our results are shown as the product of the experimental lifetime, the target volume, and the number density of atoms which have to be set in a coherence state with a given electric field in the target, needed for determination of these properties with a given confidence level.
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Gonzalez, M., Kovalenko, S. G., & Hirsch, M. (2016). QCD running in neutrinoless double beta decay: Short-range mechanisms. Phys. Rev. D, 93(1), 013017–11pp.
Abstract: The decay rate of neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay contains terms from heavy particle exchange, which lead to dimension-9 (d = 9) six fermion operators at low energies. Limits on the coefficients of these operators have been derived previously neglecting the running of the operators between the high scale, where they are generated, and the energy scale of 0 nu beta beta decay, where they are measured. Here we calculate the leading-order QCD corrections to all possible d = 9 operators contributing to the 0 nu beta beta amplitude and use renormalization group running to calculate 1-loop improved limits. Numerically, QCD running dramatically changes some limits by factors of the order of or larger than typical uncertainties in nuclear matrix element calculations. For some specific cases, operator mixing in the running changes limits even by up to 3 orders of magnitude. Our results can be straightforwardly combined with new experimental limits or improved nuclear matrix element calculations to rederive updated limits on all short-range contributions to 0 nu beta beta decay.
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Caballero-Folch, R. et al, Domingo-Pardo, C., Agramunt, J., Algora, A., Rubio, B., & Tain, J. L. (2016). First Measurement of Several beta-Delayed Neutron Emitting Isotopes Beyond N=126. Phys. Rev. Lett., 117(1), 012501–6pp.
Abstract: The beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities of neutron rich Hg and Tl nuclei have been measured together with beta-decay half-lives for 20 isotopes of Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, and Bi in the mass region N greater than or similar to 126. These are the heaviest species where neutron emission has been observed so far. These measurements provide key information to evaluate the performance of nuclear microscopic and phenomenological models in reproducing the high-energy part of the beta-decay strength distribution. This provides important constraints on global theoretical models currently used in r-process nucleosynthesis.
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Arnault, P., Di Molfetta, G., Brachet, M., & Debbasch, F. (2016). Quantum walks and non-Abelian discrete gauge theory. Phys. Rev. A, 94(1), 012335–6pp.
Abstract: A family of discrete-time quantum walks (DTQWs) on the line with an exact discrete U(N) gauge invariance is introduced. It is shown that the continuous limit of these DTQWs, when it exists, coincides with the dynamics of a Dirac fermion coupled to usual U(N) gauge fields in two-dimensional spacetime. A discrete generalization of the usual U(N) curvature is also constructed. An alternate interpretation of these results in terms of superimposed U(1) Maxwell fields and SU(N) gauge fields is discussed in the Appendix. Numerical simulations are also presented, which explore the convergence of the DTQWs towards their continuous limit and which also compare the DTQWs with classical (i.e., nonquantum) motions in classical SU(2) fields. The results presented in this paper constitute a first step towards quantum simulations of generic Yang-Mills gauge theories through DTQWs.
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Perez, A. (2016). Asymptotic properties of the Dirac quantum cellular automaton. Phys. Rev. A, 93(1), 012328–10pp.
Abstract: We show that the Dirac quantum cellular automaton [A. Bisio, G. M. D'Ariano, and A. Tosini, Ann. Phys. (N. Y.) 354, 244 (2015)] shares many properties in common with the discrete-time quantum walk. These similarities can be exploited to study the automaton as a unitary process that takes place at regular time steps on a one-dimensional lattice, in the spirit of general quantum cellular automata. In this way, it becomes an alternative to the quantum walk, with a dispersion relation that can be controlled by a parameter that plays a similar role to the coin angle in the quantum walk. The Dirac Hamiltonian is recovered under a suitable limit. We provide two independent analytical approximations to the long-term probability distribution. It is shown that, starting from localized conditions, the asymptotic value of the entropy of entanglement between internal and motional degrees of freedom overcomes the known limit that is approached by the quantum walk for the same initial conditions and is similar to the ones achieved by highly localized states of the Dirac equation.
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