14101191
The μ - d capture rate in effective field theory
Muon capture on the deuteron is studied in a framework that essentially incorporates heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBχ PT). It is found that by far the dominant contribution to µd capture comes from a region of the final three-body phasespace in which the energy of the two neutrons is sufficiently small for HB χ PT to be applicable. The single unknown low-energy constant having been fixed from the tritium beta decay rate, our calculation contains no free parameter. Our estimate of the µd capture rate is consistent with the existing data. The relation between µd capture and the νd reactions, which are important for the SNO experiments, is briefly discussed.  2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
16520608
Parity-violating nucleon-nucleon interaction from different approaches
Two-pion exchange parity-violating nucleon-nucleon interactions from recent effective field theories and earlier fully covariant approaches are investigated. The potentials are compared with the goal of obtaining better insight into the role of low-energy constants appearing in the effective field theory approach and its convergence in terms of a perturbative series. The results are illustrated by considering the longitudinal asymmetry of polarized protons scattering off protons, p-vector+p{yields}p+p, and the asymmetry of the photon emission in radiative capture of polarized neutrons by protons, n-vector+p{yields}d+{gamma}.
119111184
Effective range corrections from effective field theory with di-baryon fields and perturbative pions
Contributions of perturbative pions around a non-trivial fixed point are studied by utilizing di-baryon fields. We calculate ${}^1S_0$ and ${}^3S_1$ phase shifts for the $np$ scattering at low energies up to one-pion-exchange contributions. We also calculate effective range parameters, $v_2$, $v_3$ and $v_4$ in the higher order of the effective range expansion, and obtain corrections of the effective range to the expressions previously reported by Cohen and Hansen. After the scattering length and the effective range are renormalized, we study the role of renormailzation scale parameter $\mu$ and discuss the range of validity of the theory.
55936228
Effective field theory of 3He
We examine the effects of the long range Coulomb force on the three-body contact interaction in a pionless effective theory of 3He. The corresponding interaction in 3H exhibits limit-cycle behavior and we show that this is not altered by the 1/r singularity of the potential.
639846
Neutrino-deuteron reactions at solar neutrino energies
Abstract In interpreting the SNO experiments, accurate estimates of the νd reaction cross sections are of great importance. We improve the previous estimates of our group by updating some of its inputs and by taking into account the results of a recent effective-field-theoretical calculation. The new cross sections are slightly (∼1%) larger than the previously reported values. It is shown to be reasonable to assign 1% uncertainty to the νd cross sections reported here; this error estimate does not include radiative corrections, for which we refer to the literature.
118449544
Spin Observables in the Two-Nucleon Capture and Dissociation Processes at Low Energies
Spin observables in radiative neutron capture on a proton and its inverse process, photodisintegration of the deuteron are calculated using a pionless effective field theory with di-baryon fields. Good agreement with the results of existing standard nuclear physics approach (SNPA) is obtained at very low energies. As energy increases, however, the discrepancy between the effective field theory and the SNPA becomes substantial. We discuss the origin of the difference.
43795767
Interactions of keV sterile neutrinos with matter
A sterile neutrino with mass of several keV is a well-motivated dark-matter candidate, and it can also explain the observed velocities of pulsars via anisotropic emission of sterile neutrinos from a cooling neutron star. We discuss the interactions of such relic particles with matter and comment on the prospects of future direct detection experiments. A relic sterile neutrino can interact, via sterile-active mixing, with matter fermions by means of electroweak currents, with the final state containing a relativistic active neutrino. The recoil momentum impacted onto a matter fermion is determined by the sterile neutrino mass and is enough to ionize atoms and flip the spins of nuclei. While this suggests a possibility of direct experimental detection, we calculate the rates and show that building a realistic detector of the required size would be a daunting challenge.
3104882
Can proper motions of dark-matter subhalos be detected?
One of the goals of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) will be the detection of gamma rays from dark-matter annihilation in the Galactic halo. Theoretical arguments suggest that dark matter may be bound into subhalos with masses as small as 10^-4–10^2M⊕. If so, it may be possible to detect individual subhalos as point sources in the Fermi Telescope. It has further been argued that some of these point sources may exhibit proper motions. Here we show that upper limits to the diffuse gamma-ray background constrain the number of subhalos close enough to exhibit proper motions to be less than one.
43135563
High-energy neutrinos from reverse shocks in choked and successful relativistic jets
Highly relativistic jets are a key element of current gamma-ray burst models, where the jet kinetic energy is converted to radiation energy at optically thin shocks. High-energy neutrinos are also expected, from interactions of protons accelerated in the same shocks. Here we revisit the early evolution of a relativistic jet, while the jet is still inside the star, and investigate its neutrino emission. In particular we study propagation of mildly relativistic and ultrarelativistic jets through a type Ib progenitor, and follow reverse shocks as the jets cross the star. We show that protons can be accelerated to 10^4–10^5 GeV at reverse shocks, and efficiently produce mesons. The mesons experience significant cooling, suppressing subsequent neutrino emission. We show, however, that the neutrino yield from the reverse shock is still reasonably large, especially for low-luminosity and long-duration jets, where meson cooling is less severe. We discuss implications of our results in the context of neutrinos from choked jets, which are completely shock heated and do not break out of the star. From a choked jet with isotropic equivalent energy of 10^53 erg at 10 Mpc, we expect ~20 neutrino events at IceCube.
119101268
Short gamma-ray bursts as a possible probe of binary neutron star mergers
We study the properties of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), based on the assumption that they are all connected to binary neutron star mergers, whose mechanism contains a large amount of uncertainty. In particular, the merger time distribution, which is essential for short GRB rate estimation, is focused on; we parametrize it simply as Pm(t)t? with a lower cut-off timescale ?. The short GRB rate, calculated using such a parametrization with a specific model of the cosmic star formation rate, is found to be quite insensitive to the value of ?, but very sensitive to ?. With such formation rate models, the peak flux distribution observed by BATSE is fitted. In the fitting process, the local short GRB rate ?0 is treated as one of the free parameters, giving the best fit when ?0 = 0.1?2?yr?1?Gpc?3, depending on the other free parameters as well as the formation rate model represented by (?,?). We also discuss several implications for the intrinsic properties of possible sources of short GRBs, such as jet structure, intrinsic luminosity function, and intrinsic duration distribution.
10232856
Detectability of the supernova relic neutrinos and neutrino oscillation
Abstract We investigate the flux and the event rate of the supernova relic neutrino (SRN) background at the SuperKamiokande (SK) detector for various neutrino oscillation models with parameters inferred from recent experimental results. A realistic model of neutrino emission from supernova explosions and several models of the cosmic star formation history are adopted in the calculation. The number flux over entire energy range is found to be 11–15 cm −2  s −1 . We discuss the detection possibility of SRN at SK, comparing this SRN flux with other background neutrinos in more detail than previous studies. Even though there is no energy window in which SRN is dominant, we might detect it as the distortion of the other background event. We found in the energy range 17–25 MeV the expected event rate at SK 0.4–0.8 yr −1 . In this range, ten-year observation might enable us to detect SRN signal (at one sigma level) in the case of LMA solar neutrino solution. We also investigate event rate at Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and KamLAND. Although we can find energy window, the expected event rate is rather small (0.03 yr −1 for SNO, 0.1 yr −1 for KamLAND).