119225428
Cascading gravity and degravitation
We construct a cascading brane model of gravity in which the behavior of the gravitational force law interpolates from (n+4)-dimensional to (n+3)-dimensional all the way down to 4-dimensional from longer to shorter length scales. We show that, at the linearized level, this model exhibits the features necessary for degravitation of the cosmological constant. The model is shown to be ghost free with the addition of suitable brane kinetic operators, and we demonstrate this using a number of independent procedures. Consequently this is a consistent infrared (IR) modification of gravity, providing a promising framework for a dynamical, degravitating solution of the cosmological constant problem.
118464550
Self-protection of massive cosmological gravitons
Relevant deformations of gravity present an exciting window of opportunity to probe the rigidity of gravity on cosmological scales. For a single-graviton theory, the leading relevant deformation constitutes a graviton mass term. In this paper, we investigate the classical and quantum stability of massive cosmological gravitons on generic Friedman backgrounds. For a Universe expanding towards a de Sitter epoch, we find that massive cosmological gravitons are self-protected against unitarity violations by a strong coupling phenomenon.
37247936
Degravitation of the cosmological constant and graviton width
We study the possibility of decoupling gravity from the vacuum energy. This is effectively equivalent to promoting Newton's constant to a high-pass filter that degravitates sources of characteristic wavelength larger than a certain macroscopic (super) horizon scale L. We study the underlying physics and the consistency of this phenomenon. In particular, the absence of ghosts, already at the linear level, implies that in any such theory the graviton should either have a mass 1/L, or be a resonance of similar width. This has profound physical implications for the degravitation idea.
1452681
FORMATION OF SMALL-SCALE STRUCTURE IN SUSY CDM
The lightest supersymmetric particle, most likely the lightest neutralino, is one of the most prominent particle candidates for cold dark matter (CDM). We show that the primordial spectrum of density fluctuations in neutralino CDM has a sharp cut-off, induced by two different damping mechanisms. During the kinetic decoupling of neutralinos, non-equilibrium processes constitute viscosity effects, which damp or even absorb density perturbations in CDM. After the last scattering of neutralinos, free streaming induces neutralino flows from overdense to underdense regions of space. Both damping mechanisms together define a minimal mass scale for perturbations in neutralino CDM, before the inhomogeneities enter the nonlinear epoch of structure formation. We find that the very first gravitationally bound neutralino clouds ought to have masses above 10 −6 M⊙, which is six orders of magnitude above the mass of possible axion miniclusters.
29630378
Cosmological classicalization: maintaining unitarity under relevant deformations of the Einstein-Hilbert action.
Generic relevant deformations of Einstein's gravity theory contain additional degrees of freedom that have a multifaceted stabilization dynamics on curved spacetimes. We show that these relevant degrees of freedom are self-protected against unitarity violations by the formation of classical field lumps that eventually merge to a new background geometry. The transition is heralded by the massive decay of the original vacuum and evolves through a strong coupling regime. This process fits in the recently proposed classicalization mechanism and extends it further to free field dynamics on curved backgrounds.
37255447
A Quantum Bound-State Description of Black Holes
A relativistic framework for the description of bound states consisting of a large number of quantum constituents is presented, and applied to black-hole interiors. At the parton level, the constituent distribution, number and energy density inside black holes are calculated, and gauge corrections are discussed. A simple scaling relation between the black hole mass and constituent number is established.
215715596
UNLAC-UPGRADE PROGRAMME FOR THE HEAVY ELEMENT RESEARCH AT GSI-SHIP
In the field of heavy-element research using the velocity separator SHIP significant achievements were made at GSI during the last 30 years. The experiences obtained of experiments clearly show that superheavyelement research was always based on efforts to extend the limits of technical possibilities of these the increase of beam intensity is one of the major contributions. This paper provides for technical information on the already planned upgrades of the present facility, which results in a significant overall increase of the experimental sensitivity. It is foreseen to build and to investigate a superconducting 28 GHz-ECR ion source, which should increase the primary beam intensities. The beam coming from the new ECR source will be delivered to the GSIHigh Charge State Injector by a second LEBT-system. An upgrade program for the rf-amplifiers and the rf-structures is intended to increase the duty factor from 30 % to 50 %. Besides the ECR-source a new Radio Frequency Quadrupole-accelerator (RFQ) and the IH structure may alternatively serve as an injector for a new advanced stand alone accelerator providing for 100 % duty factor. Two different linac-layouts will be discussed.
43354809
Kaon effective mass and energy from a novel chiral SU(3)-symmetric Lagrangian
A new chiral SU(3) Lagrangian is proposed to describe the properties of kaons and antikaons in the nuclear medium, the ground state of dense matter, and the kaon-nuclear interactions consistently. The saturation properties of nuclear matter are reproduced as well as the results of Dirac-Br\"uckner theory. Our numerical results show that the kaon effective mass might be changed only moderately in the nuclear medium due to highly nonlinear density effects. After taking into account the coupling between the omega meson and the kaon, we obtain similar results for the effective kaon and antikaon energies as calculated in the one-boson-exchange model while in our model the parameters of the kaon-nuclear interactions are constrained by the SU(3) chiral symmetry.
23093560
Signatures of the Z = 82 shell closure in α-decay process.
In recent experiments at the velocity filter Separator for Heavy Ion reaction Products (SHIP) (GSI, Darmstadt), an extended and improved set of α-decay data for more than 20 of the most neutron-deficient isotopes in the region from lead to thorium was obtained. The combined analysis of this newly available α-decay data, of which the (186)Po decay is reported here, allowed us for the first time to clearly show that crossing the Z = 82 shell to higher proton numbers strongly accelerates the α decay. From the experimental data, the α-particle formation probabilities are deduced following the Universal Decay Law approach. The formation probabilities are discussed in the framework of the pairing force acting among the protons and the neutrons forming the α particle. A striking resemblance between the phenomenological pairing gap deduced from experimental binding energies and the formation probabilities is noted. These findings support the conjecture that both the N = 126 and Z = 82 shell closures strongly influence the α-formation probability.
118269320
The Role of Mass Asymmetry and Shell Structure in the Evaporation Residues Production
The effects of the entrance channel and shell structure of reacting nuclei on the experimental evaporation residues have been studied by analysing the 40Ar+176Hf, 86Kr+130,136Xe, 124Sn+92Zr and 48Ca+174Yb reactions leading to the 216Th* and 222Th* compound nuclei. The measured excitation function of evaporation residues for the 124Sn+92Zr reaction was larger than that for the 86Kr+130Xe reaction. The experimental values of evaporation residues in the 86Kr+136Xe reaction were about 500 times larger than that in the 86Kr+130Xe reaction. These results are explained by the initial angular momentum dependence of the fusion excitation functions calculated in framework of the dinuclear system concept and by the differences in survival probabilities calculated in framework of advanced statistical model. The dependencies of the fission barrier and the \Gamma_n / \Gamma_f ratio on the angular momentum of the excited compound nucleus are taken into account.
13153867
Mass measurements of very neutron-deficient Mo and Tc isotopes and their impact on rp process nucleosynthesis.
The masses of ten proton-rich nuclides, including the N=Z+1 nuclides ⁸⁵Mo and ⁸⁷Tc, were measured with the Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP. Compared to the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2003 a systematic shift of the mass surface by up to 1.6 MeV is observed causing significant abundance changes of the ashes of astrophysical x-ray bursts. Surprisingly low α separation energies for neutron-deficient Mo and Tc are found, making the formation of a ZrNb cycle in the rp process possible. Such a cycle would impose an upper temperature limit for the synthesis of elements beyond Nb in the rp process.