Can sterile neutrinos be the dark matter?

We use the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and high-resolution spectroscopy observations in combination with cosmic microwave background and galaxy clustering constraints to place limits on a sterile neutrino as a dark matter candidate in the warm dark matter scenario. Such a neutrino would be created in the early Universe through mixing with an active neutrino and would suppress structure on scales smaller than its free-streaming scale. We ran a series of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations with varying neutrino masses to describe the effect of a sterile neutrino on the Ly-alpha forest power spectrum. We find that the mass limit is m(s) >13 keV at 95% C.L. (9 keV at 99.9%), which is above the upper limit allowed by x-ray constraints, excluding this candidate from being all of the dark matter in this model.     

The neutrinos,massive or massless particles?

Neutrino properties, and specially their masses, are a central problem for the grand-unified theories of particle physics and for cosmology (structure formation and dark matter). After an historical introduction, we review the main experimental efforts on the ν mass determination: direct measurements, search for neutrinoless double β decays, and finally the search for neutrino flavor oscillations, for which some evidences already exist.     

Can gravity distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos?

We show that spin-gravity interaction can distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrino wave packets propagating in a Lense-Thirring background. Using time-independent perturbation theory and the gravitational phase to generate a perturbation Hamiltonian with spin-gravity coupling, we show that the associated matrix element for the Majorana neutrino differs significantly from its Dirac counterpart. This difference can be demonstrated through significant gravitational corrections to the neutrino oscillation length for a two-flavor system, as shown explicitly for SN 1987A.     

Is the “missing mass” really missing?

We have no experimental evidence for the validity of the inverse square law for gravitation at distances significantly larger than the diameter of the solar system. This raises the very real possibility that the missing mass (dark matter) may not exist. Instead, the inverse square law may be breaking down at distances of the order of tens of kiloparsecs. I discuss this possibility within the framework of Scalar-Vector-Tensor (SVT) theories of gravity. It appears to be relatively easy to account for up to approximately 10% of the galactic halo dark matter via SVT theories of gravity. With some fine-tuning of parameters, it is conceivable that all of the dark matter can be accounted for in this way.This essay received an honorable mention from the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 1987.Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant #DE-FG03-84ER-40168.     

Do neutrinos have mass?

Limits on neutrino masses are discussed, both from kinematical considerations (3-body weak decays, etc.) and from dynamical neutrino mass effects (oscillations). The Dirac versus Majorana question is addressed as well and typical limits from neutrinoless double-beta decay are presented.     

Can the cosmological dark sector be modeled by a single scalar field?

In a previous paper it was shown that a minimally coupled scalar field of mass \(M \sim H_0\) can describe both components of the dark sector in a unified way. In the solution found, the dark energy component decays linearly with the Hubble parameter, with a homogeneous creation of dark matter. In the present note we show that a \(\Lambda \)CDM dark sector can also be modeled by such a single field. More generally, we show that the system of Klein–Gordon and Einstein equations admits a uniparametric family of solutions that is equivalent to a non-adiabatic (with zero sound speed) generalised Chaplygin gas.     

Can massive gravitons be an alternative to dark energy?

In this work, we explore some cosmological implications of the model proposed by M. Visser in 1998. In his approach, Visser intends to take into account mass for the graviton by means of an additional bimetric tensor in the Einstein?s field equations. Our study has shown that a consistent cosmological model arises from the Visser?s approach. The most interesting feature is that an accelerated expansion phase naturally emerges from the cosmological model, and we do not need to postulate any kind of dark energy to explain the current observational data for distant type Ia supernovae (SNIa).     

Can Dirac quantization of constrained systems be fulfilled within the intrinsic geometry?

For particles constrained on a curved surface, how to perform quantization within Dirac’s canonical quantization scheme is a long-standing problem. On one hand, Dirac stressed that the Cartesian coordinate system has fundamental importance in passing from the classical Hamiltonian to its quantum mechanical form while preserving the classical algebraic structure between positions, momenta and Hamiltonian to the extent possible. On the other, on the curved surface, we have no exact Cartesian coordinate system within intrinsic geometry. These two facts imply that the three-dimensional Euclidean space in which the curved surface is embedded must be invoked otherwise no proper canonical quantization is attainable. In this paper, we take a minimum surface, helicoid, on which the motion is constrained, to explore whether the intrinsic geometry offers a proper framework in which the quantum theory can be established in a self-consistent way. Results show that not only an inconsistency within Dirac theory occurs, but also an incompatibility with Schrödinger theory happens. In contrast, in three-dimensional Euclidean space, the Dirac quantization turns out to be satisfactory all around, and the resultant geometric momentum and potential are then in agreement with those given by the Schrödinger theory.     

Is the magic texture of Majorana neutrinos immanent in Dirac nature?

Magic textures are successful candidates of the correct texture for Majorana neutrinos. In this study, we demonstrate that several types of magic textures of Majorana neutrinos are approximately immanent in the flavor mass matrix of Dirac neutrinos. In addition, the normal mass ordering of Dirac neutrino masses is slightly preferable to inverted mass ordering in the context of magic textures.     

Can sterile neutrinos be ruled out as warm dark matter candidates?

We present constraints on the mass of warm dark matter (WDM) particles from a combined analysis of the matter power spectrum inferred from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Lyman-alpha flux power spectrum at 2.2相似文献   

Massless or massive graviton?

We show that, in the application of Riemannian geometry to gravity, there exists a superpotentialV _ij of the Riemann-Christoffel tensor which is the tensor generalization of Poisson's classical potential. Leaving open the question of a zero on nonzero rest massk of the graviton we show that, in the latter case,k ² V _ij is an energymomentum density, or Maxwell-like tensor, of the gravity field itself, adding to the material tensor in the right-hand sides of both the (generalized) Poisson equation and the Einstein gravity equation, but that, nevertheless, Einstein's requirement of geodesic motion of a point particle is rigorously preserved. Two interesting possibilities are thus opened: a tentative explanation of the cosmological missing mass and quantization of the Riemannian gravity field along a standard procedure.