Search

The PROSPECT experiment is designed to perform precise searches for antineutrino disappearance at short distances (7 - 9~m) from compact nuclear reactor cores. This Letter reports results from a new neutrino oscillation analysis performed using the complete data sample from the PROSPECT-I detector operated at the High Flux Isotope Reactor in 2018. The analysis uses a multi-period selection of inverse beta decay neutrino interactions with reduced backgrounds and enhanced statistical power to set limits on electron-flavor disappearance caused by mixing with sterile neutrinos with 0.2 - 20 eV$^2$ mass splittings. Inverse beta decay positron energy spectra from six different reactor-detector distance ranges are found to be statistically consistent with one another, as would be expected in the absence of sterile neutrino oscillations. The data excludes at 95% confidence level the existence of sterile neutrinos in regions above 3~eV$^2$ previously unexplored by terrestrial experiments, including all space below 10~eV$^2$ suggested by the recently strengthened Gallium Anomaly. The best-fit point of the Neutrino-4 reactor experiment's claimed observation of short-baseline oscillation is ruled out at more than five standard deviations., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Populations are often subject to catastrophes that cause mass removal of individuals. Many stochastic growth models have been considered to explain such dynamics. Among the results reported, it has been considered whether dispersion strategies, at times of catastrophes, increase the survival probability of the population. In this paper, we contrast dispersion strategies comparing mean extinction times of the population when extinction occurs almost surely. In particular, we consider populations subject to binomial catastrophes, that is, the population size is reduced according to a binomial law when a catastrophe occurs. Our findings delineate the optimal strategy (dispersion or non-dispersion) based on variations in model parameter values., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2109.10997

The discrete time crystal (DTC) is a recently discovered phase of matter that spontaneously breaks time-translation symmetry. Disorder-induced many-body-localization is required to stabilize a DTC to arbitrary times, yet an experimental investigation of this localized regime has proven elusive. Here, we observe the hallmark signatures of a many-body-localized DTC using a novel quantum simulation platform based on individually controllable $^{13}$C nuclear spins in diamond. We demonstrate the characteristic long-lived spatiotemporal order and confirm that it is robust for generic initial states. Our results are consistent with the realization of an out-of-equilibrium Floquet phase of matter and establish a programmable quantum simulator based on solid-state spins for exploring many-body physics.

We report a deterministic 2D material (2DM) transfer method to assemble any-stacking-order heterostructures incorporating suspended ultra-thin 2D materials, such as single-layer graphene (SLG) and bilayer graphene (BLG). The transfer procedure relies on a single-step preparation nitrocellulose micro-stamp, which combines both outstanding adhesion and softness. It permits the dry pick-up of naked 2D crystals (graphene, MoS$_2$, and hBN) directly from a SiO$_2$ substrate, and to precisely transfer them on substrates or trenches. Optical and Raman data show that no significant defect is introduced upon transfer, even in suspended SLG and BLG. The areas transferred range up $\sim$ 1000 $\mu$m$^2$ on substrate. High-yield transfer of suspended ultra-thin 2DM does not require critical point drying for areas up to 15 $\mu$m$^2$ or suspension heights down to 160 nm. To demonstrate the method's capabilities, we assembled on-substrate and suspended optical cavities tuning BLG's Raman scattering intensity by factors of 19 and 4, respectively. This resilient and rapid 2DM transfer procedure will accelerate the fabrication of many heterostructures and permit versatile suspension of 2DMs for research in twistronics, straintronics, and nano-opto-electro-mechanical systems (NOEMS).

Pressure alters the physical, chemical and electronic properties of matter. The development of the diamond anvil cell (DAC) enables tabletop experiments to investigate a diverse landscape of high-pressure phenomena ranging from the properties of planetary interiors to transitions between quantum mechanical phases. In this work, we introduce and utilize a novel nanoscale sensing platform, which integrates nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers directly into the culet (tip) of diamond anvils. We demonstrate the versatility of this platform by performing diffraction-limited imaging (~600 nm) of both stress fields and magnetism, up to pressures ~30 GPa and for temperatures ranging from 25-340 K. For the former, we quantify all six (normal and shear) stress components with accuracy $<0.01$ GPa, offering unique new capabilities for characterizing the strength and effective viscosity of solids and fluids under pressure. For the latter, we demonstrate vector magnetic field imaging with dipole accuracy $<10^{-11}$ emu, enabling us to measure the pressure-driven $\alpha\leftrightarrow\epsilon$ phase transition in iron as well as the complex pressure-temperature phase diagram of gadolinium. In addition to DC vector magnetometry, we highlight a complementary NV-sensing modality using T1 noise spectroscopy; crucially, this demonstrates our ability to characterize phase transitions even in the absence of static magnetic signatures. By integrating an atomic-scale sensor directly into DACs, our platform enables the in situ imaging of elastic, electric and magnetic phenomena at high pressures., Comment: 18 + 50 pages, 4 + 19 figures

Gluon mass generation is investigated for 4-dimensional $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills in conventional covariant and in background field gauges within an effective description that, through a parameterization, can be regarded as a massive gluon model, or as a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio-like expansion around a massive leading order while preserving the Yang-Mills Lagrangian. We employ a renormalization scheme that introduces the ratio of the gluon mass parameter $m$ to the saturation value of the gluon propagator. This, along with the mass $m(\mu)$ and the strong coupling $\alpha_s(\mu)$, provided the fit parameters for comparison with $SU(3)$ lattice results renormalized at the scale $\mu$. We obtain two types of solutions with satisfactory fits. Within the proposed expansion, we show the conditions under which it is possible to obtain an exactly vanishing longitudinal self energy for any gauge parameter $\xi$ in the background field case. However, such a result in conventional covariant gauges is unattainable by the given expansion as it is, indicating that more sophisticated versions with dressed vertices are likely necessary. We argue that the conditions under which transversality takes place are consistent with Schwinger-Dyson results for the ghost dressing function also., Comment: 14pages. Minor alterations

The last few years have been witness to a proliferation of new results concerning heavy exotic hadrons. Experimentally, many new signals have been discovered that could be pointing towards the existence of tetraquarks, pentaquarks, and other exotic configurations of quarks and gluons. Theoretically, advances in lattice field theory techniques place us at the cusp of understanding complex coupled-channel phenomena, modelling grows more sophisticated, and effective field theories are being applied to an ever greater range of situations. It is thus an opportune time to evaluate the status of the field. In the following, a series of high priority experimental and theoretical issues concerning heavy exotic hadrons is presented., Comment: White paper from INT workshop, "Modern Exotic Hadrons". References added. Version to appear in Chinese Physics C

Confinement has been introduced into the quark gap equation, as proposed by Cornwall, as a possible solution to the problem of chiral symmetry breaking in QCD with dynamically massive gluons. We argue that the same mechanism can be applied for technicolor with dynamically massive technigluons. Within this approach both theories develop a hard self-energy dynamics, resulting from an effective four-fermion interaction, which does not lead to the known technicolor phenomenological problems. We outline a quite general type of technicolor model within this proposal that may naturally explain the masses of different fermion generations., Comment: Substantially extended version, new references added. 15 pages

Chiral symmetry breaking in QCD is studied introducing a confining effective propagator, as proposed recently by Cornwall, and considering the effect of dynamically massive gluons. The effective confining propagator has the form $1/(k^2+m^2)^2$ and we study the bifurcation equation finding limits on the parameter $m$ below which a satisfactory fermion mass solution is generated. Since the coupling constant and gluon propagator are damped in the infrared, due to the presence of a dynamical gluon mass, the major part of the chiral breaking is only due to the confining propagator and related to the low momentum region of the gap equation. We study the asymptotic behavior of the gap equation containing this confinement effect and massive gluon exchange, and find that the symmetry breaking can be approximated by an effective four-fermion interaction generated by the confining propagator. We compute some QCD chiral parameters as a function of $m$, finding values compatible with the experimental data. We find a simple approximate relation between the fermion condensate and dynamical mass for a given representation as a function of the parameters appearing in the effective confining propagator., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. Talk presented at the International Workshop on QCD Green's Functions, Confinement, and Phenomenology - QCD-TNT II, September 05-09 2011, ECT* Trento, Italy; ANN.PHYS.(NY, 2011)

We study chiral symmetry breaking in QCD-like gauge theories introducing a confining effective propagator, as proposed recently by Cornwall, and considering the effect of dynamical gauge boson mass generation. The effective confining propagator has the form $1/(k^2+m^2)^2$ and we study the bifurcation equation finding limits on $m$ below which a satisfactory fermion mass solution is generated. Since the coupling constant and gauge boson propagator are damped in the infrared, due to the presence of dynamically massive gauge bosons, the major part of the chiral breaking is only due to the confining propagator. We study the asymptotic behavior of the gap equation containing confinement and massive gauge boson exchange, and find that the symmetry breaking can be approximated at some extent by an effective four-fermion interaction generated by the confining propagator. We compute some QCD chiral parameters as a function of $m$, finding values compatible with the experimental data. Within this approach we expect that lattice simulations should not see large differences between the confinement and chiral symmetry breaking scales independent of the fermionic representation and we find a simple approximate relation between the fermion condensate and dynamical mass for a given representation as a function of the parameters appearing in the effective confining propagator., Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures, new references added, matchs published version

We prove a Central Limit Theorem for the proportion of infected individuals for an epidemic model by dealing with a discrete time system of simple random walks on a complete graph with n vertices. Each random walk makes a role of a virus. Individuals are all connected as vertices in a complete graph. A virus duplicates each time it hits a susceptible individual, dying as soon as it hits an already infected individual. The process stops as soon as there is no more viruses. This model is closely related to some epidemiologial models like those for virus dissemination in a computer network.

The thermal one- and two-graviton Green's function are computed using a temporal gauge. In order to handle the extra poles which are present in the propagator, we employ an ambiguity-free technique in the imaginary-time formalism. For temperatures T high compared with the external momentum, we obtain the leading T^4 as well as the subleading T^2 and log(T) contributions to the graviton self-energy. The gauge fixing independence of the leading T^4 terms as well as the Ward identity relating the self-energy with the one-point function are explicitly verified. We also verify the 't Hooft identities for the subleading T^2 terms and show that the logarithmic part has the same structure as the residue of the ultraviolet pole of the zero temperature graviton self-energy. We explicitly compute the extra terms generated by the prescription poles and verify that they do not change the behavior of the leading and sub-leading contributions from the hard thermal loop region. We discuss the modification of the solutions of the dispersion relations in the graviton plasma induced by the subleading T^2 contributions., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Revised version to be published in Phys. Rev. D

We derive the complete five-gluon scattering amplitude at tree level, within the context of Open Superstring theory. We find the general expression in terms of kinematic factors, and also find its complete expansion up to ${\cal O}({\alpha'}^3)$ terms. We use our scattering amplitude to test three non-equivalent ${\cal O}({\alpha'}^3)$ effective lagrangians that have recently been matter of some controversy., Comment: 41 pages. Submitted to JHEP on June 07. Accepted on July 31

We prove a shape theorem for a growing set of simple random walks on Z^d, known as frog model. The dynamics of this process is described as follows: There are active particles, which perform independent discrete time SRWs, and sleeping particles, which do not move. When a sleeping particle is hit by an active particle, the former becomes active as well. Initially, a random number of particles is placed into each site. At time 0 all particles are sleeping, except for those placed at the origin. We prove that the set of all sites visited by active particles, rescaled by the elapsed time, converges to a compact convex set.

We study a system of simple random walks on graphs, known as frog model. This model can be described as follows: There are active and sleeping particles living on some graph G. Each active particle performs a simple random walk with discrete time and at each moment it may disappear with probability 1-p. When an active particle hits a sleeping particle, the latter becomes active. Phase transition results and asymptotic values for critical parameters are presented for Z^d and regular trees.

In this work we prove a shape theorem for a growing set of Simple Random Walks (SRWs), known as frog model. The dynamics of this process is described as follows: There are some active particles, which perform independent SRWs, and sleeping particles, which do not move. When a sleeping particle is hit by an active particle, it becomes active too. We prove that the set of the original positions of all the active particles, rescaled by the elapsed time, converges to some compact convex set. In some specific cases we are able to identify (at least partially) this set., Comment: 23 pages

We employ the thermal forward scattering amplitudes technique in order to compute the gluon self-energy in a class of temporal gauges. The leading T^2 and the sub-leading ln(T) contributions are obtained for temperatures high compared with the external momentum. The logarithmic contributions have the same structure as the ultraviolet pole terms which occur at zero temperature (we have recently extended this result to the Coulomb gauge). We also show that the prescription poles, characteristic of temporal gauges, do not modify the leading and sub-leading high-temperature behavior. The one-loop calculation shows that the thermal self-energy is transverse. This result has also been extended to higher orders, using the BRS identities., Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure. Talk given by F. T. Brandt at ICHEP 2000, Osaka, Japan, 27 July - 2 August 2000. To appear in the Proceedings

The approach which relates thermal Green functions to forward scattering amplitudes of on-shell thermal particles is applied to the calculation of the gluon self-energy, in a class of temporal gauges. We show to all orders that, unlike the case of covariant gauges, the exact self-energy of the gluon is transverse at finite temperature. The leading T^2 and the sub-leading ln(T) contributions are obtained for temperatures T high compared with the external momentum. The logarithmic contributions have the same structure as the ultraviolet pole terms which occur at zero temperature., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures (Revised version to be published in Phys. Rev. D)

We report the magnetoresistance measurements of a highly oriented La0.55Ho0.15Sr0.3MnOz film on LaAlO3 substrate. The film has a metal-insulator transition around 200 K and shows pronounced thermomagnetic history effect in its transport properties below 45 K at 7 Tesla. The irreversibility temperature shifts to lower temperatures when the field is reduced. This behaviour is opposite to the thermomagnetic history effect observed in the magnetisation. At 2.8 K one also observes a significant hysteresis in the resistance versus field curve. We propose a qualitative explanation for these observations., Comment: 8 pages+3 figures (submitted to Solid State Commun.)