Four-neutrino mixing and Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis

We investigate the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints on the elements of the neutrino mixing matrix which connect sterile with massive neutrino fields, in the framework of the two four-neutrino schemes that are favored by the results of neutrino oscillation experiments. We discuss the implications of these constraints for terrestrial short and long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and we present several possibilities of testing them in these experiments. In particular, we show that from the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints it follows that the transition is severely suppressed in short-baseline experiments, whereas its oscillation amplitude in long-baseline experiments is of order 1. We also propose a new parameterization of the four-neutrino mixing matrix U which is appropriate for the schemes under consideration.     

The matter in the Big-Bang model is dust and not any arbitrary perfect fluid!

We consider a spherically symmetric general relativistic perfect fluid in its comoving frame. It is found that, by integrating the local energy momentum conservation equation, a general form of g ₀₀ can be obtained. During this study, we get a cue that an adiabatically evolving uniform density isolated sphere having ρ(r,t)=ρ ₀(t), should comprise “dust” having p ₀(t)=0; as recently suggested by Durgapal and Fuloria (J. Mod. Phys. 1:143, 2010) In fact, we offer here an independent proof to this effect. But much more importantly, we find that for the homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric having p(r,t)=p ₀(t) and ρ(r,t)=ρ ₀(t), \(g_{00} = e^{-2p_{0}/(p_{0} +\rho_{0})}\). But in general relativity (GR), one can choose an arbitrary t→t _?=f(t) without any loss of generality, and thus set g ₀₀(t _?)=1. And since pressure is a scalar, this implies that p ₀(t _?)=p ₀(t)=0 in the Big-Bang model based on the FRW metric. This result gets confirmed by the fact the homogeneous dust metric having p(r,t)=p ₀(t)=0 and ρ(r,t)=ρ ₀(t) and the FRW metric are exactly identical. In other words, both the cases correspond to the same Einstein tensor \(G^{a}_{b}\) because they intrinsically have the same energy momentum tensor \(T^{a}_{b}=\operatorname {diag}[\rho_{0}(t), 0,0, 0]\).     

The origin of the Flora family

Evidence is presented indicating that the Flora family is of common origin. The distribution of proper elements and physical properties of Flora-family asteroids are compared with those of families believed to have formed from the catastrophic disruption of parent bodies. Differences in these orbital and physical properties suggest that the creation of the Flora family was more complex. Available evidence concerning the Flora family, together with recent models for the collisional evolution of the asteroids, suggests that this family may have originated from a binary or multiple asteroid. A mechanism in which the Flora family may have been produced by the disruption of a former major satellite of 8 Flora is presented and compared with other possible modes of formation.     

The origin of gravity

It has been shown by Atkinson (1965) that there is a rigorously exact euclidean interpretation of the general relativity field equations if certain arbitrary definitions of mass (m0 and the velocity of light (c) are invoked. With a preferred (euclidean) frame postulatedab initio, a particularly simple explanation in terms of classical physics may be found for very similar definitions ofm andc. It is not unexpected that with this scheme, all the usual tests of general relativity (light deflexion, perihelion motion, gravitational redshift, and radar delay time) are immediately satisfield. The preferred frame is however identified with a real aether and this requires a return to the Lorentzian interpretation of the special relativistic transformations of space and time variables. It is shown that gravity may be attributed to the action of a temperature gradient in the aether and an explanation of its origin in terms of an ideal relativistic gas is proposed. The temperature gradients are thermodynamically stable and do not diffuse if the relativistic aether ( _A ) is effectively adiabatic and matter is fundamentally a species of aether with instantaneous motion at high (> _A ) relative to the aethereal reast frame. To be consistent with such a picture, it is necessary to assume aether particles are capable of forming temporary associations (not recognized as matter) which take on some of the properties of crystalline solids and thereby become the means of transmitting electromagnetic radiation through space. The aether is essentially treated as a virtually incompressible fluid in which the pressure at any point arises from both random (temperature) and bulk (high ) motions. A number of specific predictions arising from this theory of gravity are indicated and these may serve to discriminate it from general relativity.     

The origin of the solar five-minute oscillation

Two absorption lines formed in the lower photosphere were used to study simultaneous velocity and intensity fluctuations. No significant correspondence was found between the locations of granules and those of oscillation, even when a time lag was included. This result supports the explanation of the origin of the oscillations as a self-excited sound wave rather than the local response to a granule excitation.     

The possible origin of the spiral-arm instability

Physical arguments suggest the spiral arms may be manifestations of the galaxy not being in dynamical equilibrium — in the sense that the kinetic energy of tis stars and gas is less relative to its binding energy than that dictated by the virial theorem. Without constant cooling of the galactic disk (i.e., a progressive increase in the binding energy of the galaxy) such a departure from dynamical equilibrium would be corrected and the spiral arms destroyed in about 10⁹ yr due to an increase in the velocity dispersion of the stars in the disk resulting from their interacting with the spiral arms. The rate of cooling required to maintain the spiral arms, about 6×10⁴ L , may be provided by mass loss from stars in the disk population. The cooling arises from the average scale-heights and velocities of these stars being larger than that of the gas in the disk, so that there is a net loss of kinetic energy and an increase in the binding energy of the galaxy due to the ejected gas settling down to a lower terminal velocity and scale-height in the galactic disk.     

The dual origin of the terrestrial atmosphere

The origin of the terrestrial atmosphere is one of the most puzzling enigmas in the planetary sciences. It is suggested here that two sources contributed to its formation, fractionated nebular gases and accreted cometary volatiles. During terrestrial growth, a transient gas envelope was fractionated from nebular composition. This transient atmosphere was mixed with cometary material. The fractionation stage resulted in a high Xe/Kr ratio, with xenon being more isotopically fractionated than krypton. Comets delivered volatiles having low Xe/Kr ratios and solar isotopic compositions. The resulting atmosphere had a near-solar Xe/Kr ratio, almost unfractionated krypton delivered by comets, and fractionated xenon inherited from the fractionation episode. The dual origin therefore provides an elegant solution to the long-standing “missing xenon” paradox. It is demonstrated that such a model could explain the isotopic and elemental abundances of Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe in the terrestrial atmosphere.     

The origin of the Martian moons revisited

The origin of the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, is still an open issue: either they are asteroids captured by Mars or they formed in situ from a circum-Mars debris disk. The capture scenario mainly relies on the remote-sensing observations of their surfaces, which suggest that the moon material is similar to outer-belt asteroid material. This scenario, however, requires high tidal dissipation rates inside the moons to account for their current orbits around Mars. Although the in situ formation scenarios have not been studied in great details, no observational constraints argue against them. Little attention has been paid to the internal structure of the moons, yet it is pertinent for explaining their origin. The low density of the moons indicates that their interior contains significant amounts of porous material and/or water ice. The porous content is estimated to be in the range of 30?C60% of the volume for both moons. This high porosity enhances the tidal dissipation rate but not sufficiently to meet the requirement of the capture scenario. On the other hand, a large porosity is a natural consequence of re-accretion of debris at Mars?? orbit, thus providing support to the in situ formation scenarios. The low density also allows for abundant water ice inside the moons, which might significantly increase the tidal dissipation rate in their interiors, possibly to a sufficient level for the capture scenario. Precise measurements of the rotation and gravity field of the moons are needed to tightly constrain their internal structure in order to help answering the question of the origin.     

The origin of the shapes of lunar globules

This paper considers three hypotheses for the origin of the shapes of the regular elongated prolate and dumbbell-shaped lunar glass globules. These are the break-up of a jet, the vibration-freezing hypothesis and the rotational hypothesis. It is concluded that there are many results favouring the latter hypothesis so that its validity now appears conclusive. Applications of the hypothesis as a tool in lunar science are briefly discussed.     

The moon as the origin of the Earth's continents

Paleontological data and celestial mechanics suggest that the Moon may have stayed in a geosynchronous corotation around the Earth as a geostationary satellite. Excess energy may have slowly been released as heat, transferred as movement around the Sund or lost with matter ejected into space.The radial segregation process which was responsible for the formation of the Earth's iron core also brought water and lithophile elements dissolved in the water towards the surface. These elements were deposited in the area facing the Moon for several reasons, and a single continent was formed. Its level continuously matched the sea level, so the continent was formed under shallow water. When the geosynchronous corotation of the Moon became impossible, the tides become important, the Moon receded and the Earth slowed down and became more and more spherical; the variation of its oblateness from about 8% to 0.3% was incompatible with the shape of the continent, that broke into pieces.Almost all the data were have on the Earth's age, the composition of the continents, sea water and the atmosphere fit this approach as does lunar data.Paper presented at the European Workshop on Planetary Sciences, organised by the Laboratorio di Astrofisica Spaziale di Frascati, and held between April 23–27, 1979, at the Accademia Nazionale del Lincei in Rome, Italy.     

The origin of the Kuiper Belt high-inclination population

I simulate the orbital evolution of the four major planets and a massive primordial planetesimal disk composed of 10⁴ objects, which perturb the planets but not themselves. As Neptune migrates by energy and angular momentum exchange with the planetesimals, a large number of primordial Neptune-scattered objects are formed. These objects may experience secular, Kozai, and mean motion resonances that induce temporary decrease of their eccentricities. Because planets are migrating, some planetesimals can escape those resonances while in a low-eccentricity incursion, thus avoiding the return path to Neptune close encounter dynamics. In the end, this mechanism produces stable orbits with high inclination and moderate eccentricities. The population so formed together with the objects coming from the classical resonance sweeping process, originates a bimodal distribution for the Kuiper Belt orbits. The inclinations obtained by the simulations can attain values above 30° and their distribution resembles a debiased distribution for the high-inclination population coming from the real classical Kuiper Belt.     

The origin of scaling in the galaxy distribution

I present an analytic model for non‐linear clustering of the luminous (baryonic) material in a universe in which the gravitational field is dominated by dark matter. The model is based on a two-component generalization of the adhesion approximation in which the gravitational potential of the dark component is determined by the standard Zel'dovich approximation or one of its variants, or by an N ‐body simulation. The baryonic matter flow is dissipative and is driven by this dark matter gravitational potential. The velocity potential of the matter is described by a generalization of the Burgers equation: the random heat equation ('RH equation') with a spatially correlated Gaussian driving potential.
The properties of the RH equation are well understood: it is closely related to the equation for the Anderson model and to Brownian motion in a random potential: the solution can be expressed in terms of path integrals. Using this it is possible to derive the scaling properties of the solution and, in particular, those of the resultant velocity field. Even though the flow is non‐linear, the velocity field remains Gaussian and inherits its scaling properties from the gravitational potential. This provides an underlying dynamical reason why the density field in the baryonic component is lognormally distributed and manifests multifractal scaling.
By explicitly putting dark and luminous matter on different footings, the model provides an improved framework for considering the growth of large‐scale cosmic structure. It provides a solution for the velocity potential of the baryonic component in closed form (albeit a path integral) from which the statistical properties of the baryonic flow can be derived.     

The origin of sinuous rilles

This report describes the distribution and morphology of sinuous rilles and presents data on rille geometry. Examples of the relation between sinuous rilles and the regional structure are given. Leading theories for the origin of sinuous rilles are discussed and evaluated. It is concluded that the general weight of evidence is against water erosion. The ash flow theory is not excluded, but evidence in its favor is weak. The best explanations involve lava tube formation for certain sinuous rilles, and faulting for others. In some cases, a gradation between faulting and igneous activity is noted.     

The characteristics and origin of the Gould's Belt

Some statistical studies on the nearby early-type stars proposed for observations by HIPPARCOS are presented. Results on spatial orientation and kinematics are in agreement with those found in the literature. An age estimate based on non-kinematical hypothesis is found to be somewhat smaller than expansion ages derives by some authors.Finally, it is suggested that Gould's Belt may have formed as a result of high-velocity cloud impact on the galactic disk, and some estimations are presented.     

The origin and distribution of the Centaur population

We analyze the Centaur population as a group of objects with perihelion distances (q) of less than 30 AU and heliocentric distances outside the orbit of Jupiter, formed by objects entering this region from the Scattered Disk (SD). We perform a numerical integration of 95 real Scattered Disk Objects (SDOs) extracted from the Minor Planet Center database and of 905 synthetic SDOs compensating for observational biases. SDOs have in the Centaur zone a mean lifetime of 72 Myr, though this number falls with a decrease of q. After this incursion, 30% of them enter the zone interior to Jupiter's orbit. We find that the contribution to the Centaur population from the SD gives a total of ∼2.8×¹⁰⁸ Centaurs with a radius R>1 km. We also propose a model for the intrinsic distribution of orbital elements of Centaurs and their distance and apparent magnitude distribution.     

The origin of pulsar glitches

It is usually assumed that pulsar glitches are caused by the large-scale unpinning of superfluid neutron vortices in the solid crust of a neutron star and that vortex motion relative to the crust is highly dissipative at low velocities, owing to the excitation of long-wavelength Kelvin waves. The force per unit length acting on a vortex as a result of Kelvin wave excitation has been calculated for a polycrystalline structure using the free-vortex Green function. An approximate upper limit for the maximum pinning force has been obtained which, for the form of structure anticipated, is many orders of magnitude too small for consistency with the observed size and frequency of glitches. The corollary is that glitches do not originate in the crust: the necessary pinning may be given by the interaction between neutron and proton vortices in the liquid core of the star.     

The origin of Segue 1

We apply the optimal filter technique to Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry around Segue 1 and find that the outer parts of the cluster are distorted. There is strong evidence for  ∼1°  elongations of extra-tidal stars, extending both eastwards and southwestwards of the cluster. The extensions have similar differential Hess diagrams to Segue 1. A Kolmogorov–Smirnov test suggests a high probability that both come from the same parent distribution. The location of Segue 1 is close to crossings of the tidal wraps of the Sagittarius stream. By extracting blue horizontal branch stars from Sloan's spectral data base, two kinematic features are isolated and identified with different wraps of the Sagittarius stream. We show that Segue 1 is moving with a velocity that is close to one of the wraps. At this location, we estimate that there are enough Sagittarius stars, indistinguishable from Segue 1 stars, to inflate the velocity dispersion and hence the mass-to-light ratio. All the available evidence is consistent with the interpretation that Segue 1 is a star cluster, originally from the Sagittarius galaxy, and now dissolving in the Milky Way.     

The satellites of Neptune and the origin of Pluto

Pluto and the chaotic satellite system of Neptune may have originated from a single encounter of Neptune with a massive solar system body. A series of numerical experiments has been carried out to try to set limits on the circumstances of such an encounter. These experiments show that orbits very much like those of Pluto, Triton, and Nereid can result from a single close encounter of such a body with Neptune. The implied mass range and encounter velocities limit the source of the encountering body to a former trans-Neptunian planet in the 2- to 5-Earth-mass range.