Fogli, G. L., Lisi, E., Palazzo, A., & Rotunno, A. M. (2010). Combined analysis of KamLAND and Borexino neutrino signals from Th and U decays in the Earth's interior. Phys. Rev. D, 82(9), 093006–9pp.
Abstract: The KamLAND and Borexino experiments have detected electron antineutrinos produced in the decay chains of natural thorium and uranium (Th and U geoneutrinos). We analyze the energy spectra of current geoneutrino data in combination with solar and long-baseline reactor neutrino data, with marginalized three-neutrino oscillation parameters. We consider the case with unconstrained Th and U event rates in KamLAND and Borexino, as well as cases with fewer degrees of freedom, as obtained by successively assuming for both experiments a common Th/U ratio, a common scaling of Th + U event rates, and a chondritic Th/U value. In combination, KamLAND and Borexino can reject the null hypothesis (no geoneutrino signal) at 5 sigma. Interesting bounds or indications emerge on the Th + U geoneutrino rates and on the Th/U ratio, in broad agreement with typical Earth model expectations. Conversely, the results disfavor the hypothesis of a georeactor in the Earth's core, if its power exceeds a few TW. The interplay of KamLAND and Borexino geoneutrino data is highlighted.
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de Vega, I., Bañuls, M. C., & Perez, A. (2010). Effects of dissipation on an adiabatic quantum search algorithm. New J. Phys., 12, 123010–19pp.
Abstract: According to recent studies (Amin et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 060503), the effect of a thermal bath may improve the performance of a quantum adiabatic search algorithm. In this paper, we compare the effects of such a thermal environment on the algorithm performance with those of a structured environment similar to the one encountered in systems coupled to an electromagnetic field that exists within a photonic crystal. Whereas for all the parameter regimes explored here, the algorithm performance is worsened by contact with a thermal environment, the picture appears to be different when one considers a structured environment. In this case we show that by tuning the environment parameters to certain regimes, the algorithm performance can actually be improved with respect to the closed system case. Additionally, the relevance of considering the dissipation rates as complex quantities is discussed in both cases. More specifically, we find that the imaginary part of the rates cannot be neglected with the usual argument that it simply amounts to an energy shift and in fact influences crucially the system dynamics.
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Taoso, M., Iocco, F., Meynet, G., Bertone, G., & Eggenberger, P. (2010). Effect of low mass dark matter particles on the Sun. Phys. Rev. D, 82(8), 083509–14pp.
Abstract: We study the effect of dark matter (DM) particles in the Sun, focusing, in particular, on the possible reduction of the solar neutrinos flux due to the energy carried away by DM particles from the innermost regions of the Sun, and to the consequent reduction of the temperature of the solar core. We find that in the very low-mass range between 4 and 10 GeV, recently advocated to explain the findings of the DAMA and CoGent experiments, the effects on neutrino fluxes are detectable only for DM models with a very small, or vanishing, self-annihilation cross section, such as the so-called asymmetric DM models, and we study the combination of DM masses and spin-dependent cross sections which can be excluded with current solar neutrino data. Finally, we revisit the recent claim that DM models with large self-interacting cross sections can lead to a modification of the position of the convective zone, alleviating or solving the solar composition problem. We show that when the "geometric'' upper limit on the capture rate is correctly taken into account, the effects of DM are reduced by orders of magnitude, and the position of the convective zone remains unchanged.
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Aguilar-Saavedra, J. A., & Bernabeu, J. (2010). W polarisation beyond helicity fractions in top quark decays. Nucl. Phys. B, 840(1-2), 349–378.
Abstract: We calculate the density matrix for the decay of a polarised top quark into a polarised W boson and a massive 17 quark, for the most general Wth vertex arising from dimension-six gauge-invariant effective operators. We show that, in addition to the well-known W helicity fractions, for polarised top decays it is worth defining and studying the transverse and normal W polarisation fractions, that is, the W polarisation alone two directions orthogonal to its momentum. In particular, a rather simple forward-backward asymmetry in the normal direction is found to be very sensitive to complex phases in one of the Wth anomalous couplings. This asymmetry, which indicates a normal W polarisation, can be generated for example by a P-odd. T-odd transition electric dipole moment. We also investigate the angular distribution of decay products in the top quark rest frame, calculating the spin analysing powers for a general Wth vertex. Finally we show that, using a combined fit to top decay observables and the t W cross section, at LHC it will be possible to obtain model-independent measurements of all the (complex) Wth couplings as well as the single top polarisation. Implications for spin correlations in top pair production are also discussed.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amoros, G., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Escobar, C., et al. (2010). Performance of the ATLAS detector using first collision data. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 056–66pp.
Abstract: More than half a million minimum-bias events of LHC collision data were collected by the ATLAS experiment in December 2009 at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 TeV and 2.36 TeV. This paper reports on studies of the initial performance of the ATLAS detector from these data. Comparisons between data and Monte Carlo predictions are shown for distributions of several track- and calorimeter-based quantities. The good performance of the ATLAS detector in these first data gives confidence for successful running at higher energies.
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