Superluminal neutrinos at OPERA confront pion decay kinematics

Violation of Lorentz invariance (VLI) has been suggested as an explanation of the superluminal velocities of muon neutrinos reported by OPERA. In this Letter, we show that the amount of VLI required to explain this result poses severe difficulties with the kinematics of the pion decay, extending its lifetime and reducing the momentum carried away by the neutrinos. We show that the OPERA experiment limits α=(ν(ν)-c)/c<4×10(-6). We then take recourse to cosmic-ray data on the spectrum of muons and neutrinos generated in Earth's atmosphere to provide a stronger bound on VLI: (ν-c)/c<10(-12).     

Undetectable quantum transfer through a continuum

We demonstrate that a quantum particle, initially prepared in a quantum well, can propagate through a reservoir with a continuous spectrum and reappear in a distant well without being registered in the reservoir. It is shown that such a passage through the reservoir takes place even if the latter is continuously monitored. We discuss a possible experimental realization of such a teleportation phenomenon in mesoscopic systems.     

The Number of Singular Vector Tuples and Uniqueness of Best Rank-One Approximation of Tensors

In this paper we discuss the notion of singular vector tuples of a complex-valued \(d\) -mode tensor of dimension \(m_1\times \cdots \times m_d\) . We show that a generic tensor has a finite number of singular vector tuples, viewed as points in the corresponding Segre product. We give the formula for the number of singular vector tuples. We show similar results for tensors with partial symmetry. We give analogous results for the homogeneous pencil eigenvalue problem for cubic tensors, i.e., \(m_1=\cdots =m_d\) . We show the uniqueness of best approximations for almost all real tensors in the following cases: rank-one approximation; rank-one approximation for partially symmetric tensors (this approximation is also partially symmetric); rank- \((r_1,\ldots ,r_d)\) approximation for \(d\) -mode tensors.     

Quasi-Affinity in certain Classes of Operators

The family of operators S + V (, C, Re > 0), where V isan injective S-Volterra operator (that is, [S, V[ = V²) and— A — V^–1 generates a uniformly bounded C₀-semigroup,is studied in the context of similarity and of the weaker quasi-affinityrelation. It is shown that S is similar to S + V for all , C,Re > 1, and is a quasi-affine transform of S + tV for allt 0 and 0 < < 1.     

Similarity of operators associated with the Volterra relation

The “Volterra relation” is the commutation relation [S,V]⊂V ², where S is a not necessarily bounded operator, V is a bounded operator leaving D(S) invariant, and [⋅,⋅] is the Lie product. When S,V are so related, and in addition iS generates a bounded C ₀-group of operators and V has some general property, it is known that S+α V (α∈ℂ) is similar to S if and only if ℜ α=0 (cf. Theorem 11.17 in Kantorovitz, Spectral Theory of Banach Space Operators, Springer, Berlin, 1983). In particular, S−V is not similar to S. However, it is shown in this note that (without any restriction on V and on the group S(⋅) generated by iS), the perturbations (S−V)+P are similar to S for all P in the similarity sub-orbit {S(a)VS(−a);a∈ℝ} of V. When S is bounded, the above perturbations are similar to S for all P in the wider similarity sub-orbit {e ^aS Ve ^−aS ;a∈ℂ}.     

Scaling and universality of the complexity of analog computation

We apply a probabilistic approach to study the computational complexity of analog computers which solve linear programming problems. We numerically analyze various ensembles of linear programming problems and obtain, for each of these ensembles, the probability distribution functions of certain quantities which measure the computational complexity, known as the convergence rate, the barrier and the computation time. We find that in the limit of very large problems these probability distributions are universal scaling functions. In other words, the probability distribution function for each of these three quantities becomes, in the limit of large problem size, a function of a single scaling variable, which is a certain composition of the quantity in question and the size of the system. Moreover, various ensembles studied seem to lead essentially to the same scaling functions, which depend only on the variance of the ensemble. These results extend analytical and numerical results obtained recently for the Gaussian ensemble, and support the conjecture that these scaling functions are universal.     

R-parity breaking via type II seesaw,decaying gravitino dark matter and PAMELA positron excess

We propose a new class of R-parity violating extension of MSSM with type II seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses where an unstable gravitino is the dark matter of the Universe. It decays predominantly into three leptons final states, thereby providing a natural explanation of the positron excess but no antiproton excess in the PAMELA experiment. The model can explain neutrino masses without invoking any high scale physics while keeping the pre-existing baryon asymmetry of the universe in tact.     

Solitaire Lattices

 One of the classical problems concerning the peg solitaire game is the feasibility issue. Tools used to show the infeasibility of various peg games include valid inequalities, known as pagoda-functions, and the so-called rule-of-three. Here we introduce and study another necessary condition: the solitaire lattice criterion. While the lattice criterion is shown to be equivalent to the rule-of-three for the classical English 33-board and French 37-board as well as for any m×n board, the lattice criterion is stronger than the rule-of-three for games played on more complex boards. In fact, for a wide family of boards presented in this paper, the lattice criterion exponentially outperforms the rule-of-three. Received: February 22, 1999?Final version received: June 19, 2000     

The chemical ionization mass spectrometry of RDX

The fragmentation pathways of RDX in chemical ionization mass spectrometry have been rationalized, using data from different reagent gases, including CD₄ and iso-C₄D₁₀. The dependence of spectra taken with different gases on the acid strength of the reactant ions in the gases is accounted for.