Abstract: We construct a neutrino model of three twin neutrinos in light of the neutrino appearance excesses at LSND and MiniBooNE. The model, which includes a twin parity, naturally predicts identical lepton Yukawa structures in the Standard Model and the twin sectors. As a result, a universal mixing angle controls all three twin neutrino couplings to the Standard Model charged leptons. This mixing angle is predicted to be the ratio of the electroweak scale over the composite scale of the Higgs boson and has the right order of magnitude to fit the data. The heavy twin neutrinos decay within the experimental lengths into active neutrinos plus a long-lived Majoron and can provide a good fit, at around the 4 sigma confidence level, to the LSND and MiniBooNE appearance data while simultaneously satisfying the disappearance constraints. For the Majorana neutrino case, the fact that neutrinos have a larger scattering cross section than antineutrinos provides a natural explanation to MiniBooNE's observation of a larger antineutrino appearance excess.

Abstract: In analogy to the f(0)(500), which appears as a pi pi resonance in chiral unitary theory, and the f(0)(980), which appears as a quasibound K (K) over bar state, the extension of this approach to the charm sector also predicts a quasibound D (D) over bar state with mass around 3720 MeV, named as X(3700), for which some experimental support is seen in the e(+)e(-) -> J/psi D (D) over bar reaction close to the D (D) over bar threshold. In the present work we propose three different experiments to observe it as a clear peak. The first one is the radiative decay of the psi(3770), psi(3770) -> gamma X(3700) -> gamma eta eta'. The second one proposes the analogous reaction psi(4040) -> gamma X(3700) -> gamma eta eta' and the third reaction is the e(+)e(-) -> J/psi X(3700) -> J/psi eta eta'. Neat peaks are predicted for all the reactions and the calculated rates are found within measurable range in present facilities.

Abstract: Accurate power spectrum (or correlation function) covariance matrices are a crucial requirement for cosmological parameter estimation from large scale structure surveys. In order to minimize reliance on computationally expensive mock catalogs, it is important to have a solid analytic understanding of the different components that make up a covariance matrix. Considering the matter power spectrum covariance matrix, it has recently been found that there is a potentially dominant effect on mildly non-linear scales due to power in modes of size equal to and larger than the survey volume. This beat coupling effect has been derived analytically in perturbation theory and while it has been tested with simulations, some questions remain unanswered. Moreover, there is an additional effect of these large modes, which has so far not been included in analytic studies, namely the effect on the estimated average density which enters the power spectrum estimate. In this article, we work out analytic, perturbation theory based expressions including both the beat coupling and this local average effect and we show that while, when isolated, beat coupling indeed causes large excess covariance in agreement with the literature, in a realistic scenario this is compensated almost entirely by the local average effect, leaving only similar to 10% of the excess. We test our analytic expressions by comparison to a suite of large N-body simulations, using both full simulation boxes and subboxes thereof to study cases without beat coupling, with beat coupling and with both beat coupling and the local average effect. For the variances, we find excellent agreement with the analytic expressions for k < 0.2 hMpc(-1) at z = 0.5, while the correlation coefficients agree to beyond k = 0.4 hMpc(-1). As expected, the range of agreement increases towards higher redshift and decreases slightly towards z = 0. We finish by including the large-mode effects in a full covariance matrix description for arbitrary survey geometry and confirming its validity using simulations. This may be useful as a stepping stone towards building an actual galaxy (or other tracer's) power spectrum covariance matrix.

Abstract: The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to accelerate and bring into collision high-energy protons as well as heavy ions. Accidents involving direct beam impacts on collimators can happen in both cases. The LHC collimation system is designed to handle the demanding requirements of high-intensity proton beams. Although proton beams have 100 times higher beam power than the nominal LHC lead ion beams, specific problems might arise in case of ion losses due to different particle-collimator interaction mechanisms when compared to protons. This paper investigates and compares direct ion and proton beam impacts on collimators, in particular tertiary collimators (TCTs), made of the tungsten heavy alloy INERMET (R) 180. Recent measurements of the mechanical behavior of this alloy under static and dynamic loading conditions at different temperatures have been done and used for realistic estimates of the collimator response to beam impact. Using these new measurements, a numerical finite element method (FEM) approach is presented in this paper. Sequential fast-transient thermostructural analyses are performed in the elastic-plastic domain in order to evaluate and compare the thermomechanical response of TCTs in case of critical beam load cases involving proton and heavy ion beam impacts.

Abstract: This work is devoted to study the behavior of massless particles within the context of curved spacetime. In essence, we investigate the consequences of the scale factor C(?) of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric in the Einstein-aether formalism to study photon-like particles. To do so, we consider the system within the canonical ensemble formalism in order to derive the following thermodynamic state quantities: spectral radiance, Helmholtz free energy, pressure, entropy, mean energy and the heat capacity. Moreover, the correction to the Stefan-Boltzmann law and the equation of states are also provided. Particularly, we separate our study within three distinct cases, i.e. s = 0, p = 0; s = 1, p = 1; s = 2, p = 1. In the first one, the results are derived numerically. Nevertheless, for the rest of the cases, all the calculations are accomplished analytically showing explicitly the dependence of the scale factor C(?) and the Riemann zeta function ?(s). Furthermore, our analyses are accomplished in general taking into account three different regimes of temperature of the universe, i.e. the inflationary era (T = 10(13)GeV), the electroweak epoch (T = 10(3)GeV) and the cosmic microwave background (T = 10(-13)GeV).