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Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abreu, P. et al), & Pastor, S. (2011). The Pierre Auger Observatory scaler mode for the study of solar activity modulation of galactic cosmic rays. J. Instrum., 6, P01003–16pp.
Abstract: Since data-taking began in January 2004, the Pierre Auger Observatory has been recording the count rates of low energy secondary cosmic ray particles for the self-calibration of the ground detectors of its surface detector array. After correcting for atmospheric effects, modulations of galactic cosmic rays due to solar activity and transient events are observed. Temporal variations related with the activity of the heliosphere can be determined with high accuracy due to the high total count rates. In this study, the available data are presented together with an analysis focused on the observation of Forbush decreases, where a strong correlation with neutron monitor data is found.
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Branz, T., Molina, R., & Oset, E. (2011). Radiative decays of the Y(3940), Z(3930), and the X(4160) as dynamically generated resonances. Phys. Rev. D, 83(11), 114015–9pp.
Abstract: We study the radiative decay properties of the charmoniumlike X, Y, and Z mesons generated dynamically from vector-meson-vector-meson interaction in the framework of a unitarized hidden-gauge formalism. In the present work, we calculate the one-and two-photon decay widths of the hidden-charm Y(3940), Z(3930) [or X(3915)], and X(4160) mesons in the framework of the vector-meson dominance formalism. We obtain good agreement with the experiment in case of the two-photon width of the X(3915), which we associate to the 2(+) resonance that we find at 3922 MeV. However, in view of discrepancies with a different approach that also considers the resonances as molecular states, we urge independent calculations along the same lines to further clarify the issue.
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Kaneko, S., Saito, H., Sato, J., Shimomura, T., Vives, O., & Yamanaka, M. (2011). Correlation between flavor-violating decay of long-lived slepton and tau in the coannihilation scenario with the seesaw mechanism. Phys. Rev. D, 83(11), 115005–10pp.
Abstract: We investigate flavor violating decays of the long-lived lightest slepton and the tau lepton in the coannihilation region of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with a seesaw mechanism to generate neutrino masses. We consider a situation where the mass difference between the lightest neutralino, as the lightest supersymmetric particle, and the lightest slepton, as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, is smaller than the mass of tau lepton. In this situation, the lifetime of the lightest slepton is very long and it is determined by lepton flavor violating (LFV) couplings because the slepton mainly consists of the lighter stau and the flavor conserving 2-body decay is kinematically forbidden. We show that the lifetime can change many orders of magnitude by varying the Yukawa couplings entering the seesaw mechanism. We also show that the branching ratios of LFV tau decays are strongly correlated with the lightest slepton lifetime. Therefore the branching ratios of LFV tau decays can be determined or constrained by measuring the slepton lifetime at the LHC experiment.
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Mangano, G., Miele, G., Pastor, S., Pisanti, O., & Sarikas, S. (2011). Constraining the cosmic radiation density due to lepton number with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 035–18pp.
Abstract: The cosmic energy density in the form of radiation before and during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is typically parameterized in terms of the effective number of neutrinos N-eff. This quantity, in case of no extra degrees of freedom, depends upon the chemical potential and the temperature characterizing the three active neutrino distributions, as well as by their possible non-thermal features. In the present analysis we determine the upper bounds that BBN places on N-eff from primordial neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries, with a careful treatment of the dynamics of neutrino oscillations. We consider quite a wide range for the total lepton number in the neutrino sector, eta(nu) = eta(nu e) + eta(nu mu) + eta(nu tau) and the initial electron neutrino asymmetry eta(in)(nu e), solving the corresponding kinetic equations which rule the dynamics of neutrino (antineutrino) distributions in phase space due to collisions, pair processes and flavor oscillations. New bounds on both the total lepton number in the neutrino sector and the nu(e)-(nu) over bar (e) asymmetry at the onset of BBN are obtained fully exploiting the time evolution of neutrino distributions, as well as the most recent determinations of primordial H-2/H density ratio and He-4 mass fraction. Note that taking the baryon fraction as measured by WMAP, the H-2/H abundance plays a relevant role in constraining the allowed regions in the eta(nu)-eta(in)(nu e) plane. These bounds fix the maximum contribution of neutrinos with primordial asymmetries to N-eff as a function of the mixing parameter theta(13), and point out the upper bound N-eff less than or similar to 3.4. Comparing these results with the forthcoming measurement of N-eff by the Planck satellite will likely provide insight on the nature of the radiation content of the universe.
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Villaescusa-Navarro, F., & Dalal, N. (2011). Cores and cusps in warm dark matter halos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 024–16pp.
Abstract: The apparent presence of large core radii in Low Surface Brightness galaxies has been claimed as evidence in favor of warm dark matter. Here we show that WDM halos do not have cores that are large fractions of the halo size: typically, r(core)/r(200) less than or similar to 10(-3). This suggests an astrophysical origin for the large cores observed in these galaxies, as has been argued by other authors.
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