Tracking of flare-generated interplanetary shock waves, responsible for Forbush decreases, by observing type-II radio bursts

Summary New possibilities are pointed out of a more accurate identification of solar flares, responsible for Forbush decreases of galactic cosmic rays, caused by flare-generated interplanetary shock waves, based on tracking type-II radio bursts. Nine solar flares, observed between September 1978 and December 1979, generated shock waves which produced intensive type-II radio bursts observed in the hectometric and kilometric wave range by the ISEE-3 satellite. All the type-II shocks were responsible for Forbush decreases. Since the observation of type-II radio bursts enables us to follow the propagation of shock waves practically from the place where they are generated deep in the solar corona, through interplanetary space as far as the Earth, these observations provide the possibility of exact identification of Forbush decreases with the corresponding flares. These observations have also supplied a further dimension for analysing interplanetary disturbances and forecasting Forbush decreases.

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Riassunto Sono messe in evidenza nuove possibilità per una piú accurata identificazione dei brillamenti solari responsabili delle diminuzioni di Forbush, nell’intensità dei raggi cosmici galattici, dovute ad onde d’urto interplanetarie. Tali possibilità sono basate sull’osservazione dello sviluppo spazio-temporale delle sorgenti della radioemissione di tipo II. Durante il periodo settembre 1978-dicembre 1979, sono stati osservati nove brillamenti solari, che generavano onde d’urto producenti un’intensa radioemissione di tipo II osservata dal satellite ISEE-3 nell’intervallo di lunghezze d’onda ettometrico e chilometrico. Tutte queste onde d’urto erano responsabili delle diminuzioni di Forbush. Poiché l’osservazione della radioemissione di tipo II ci permette di seguire la propagazione delle onde d’urto praticamente dal posto dove loro sono generate, in profondità nella corona, fin nello spazio interplanetario verso la Terra, i risultati ottenuti forniscono la possibilità di una precisa identificazione della connessione tra le diminuzioni di Forbush ed i brillamenti corrispondenti. Queste osservazioni danno anche un ulteriore contributo all’analisi delle perturbazioni interplanetarie ed alla possibilità di previsione di diminuzioni di Forbush.

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Резюме Указываются новые возможности, связанные с прослеживанием радиовспышек типа II, для более точной идентификации солнечных вспышек, ответственных за убывание Форбуша, которые вызывают межпланетные ударные волны. Девять солнечных вспышек, наблюдавшися между сентябрем 1978 и декабрем 1979, образовали ударные волны, которые вызвали интенсивные радио-вспышки типа II, которые наблюдались спутником ISEE-3. Все эти ударные волны типа II ответственны за убывания Форбуша. Так как навпюдения радио-вспышек типа II позволяет нам проследить распространение ударных волн практически от места их образования глубоко в солнечной короне через межпланетное пространство до Земли, то такие наблюдения обеспечивают возможность точной идентификации убываний Форбуша в зависимости от соответствующих солнечных вспышек. Эти наблюдения также позволяют анализировать межпланетные возмущения и предсказывать убывания Форбуша.

     

Bounds on the neutrino mass from the dark matter in the universe

Summary The problem of the missing matter in the Universe is reviewed and discussed in terms of massive neutrinos. The primordial abundances of light elements produced during the big bang nucleosynthesis can be used to determine firm bounds on the number of neutrino flavours and on the ratio of baryon to photon densities in the Universe. These limits imply that nonbaryonic matter is the dominant constituent of large-scale cosmic structures, being massive neutrinos the best guess for such a matter. In order that the Universe be closed, a value of the neutrino rest mass is derived, which agrees with the bounds obtained from the dynamics of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. It is also shown that density perturbations can hardly grow in a nucleon-dominated Universe, and massive neutrinos may be the seed for nucleon condensations. All these astrophysical and cosmological considerations suggest a lower and an upper bound of the neutrino rest mass. Paper presented at the Congress ?Galactic and Extragalactic Dark Matter?, Roma, 28 to 30 June 1983.     

Intranuclear-Cascade model calculation of photofission probabilities for actinide nuclei

We have calculated the fission probabilities for ²³⁷Np, ^{233, 235, 238}U, ²³²Th, and ^natPb following the absorption of photons with energies from 68 MeV to 3.77 GeV using the RELDIS Monte Carlo code. This code implements the cascade-evaporation-fission model of intermediate-energy photonuclear reactions. It includes multiparticle production in photoreactions on intranuclear nucleons, pre-equilibrium emission, and the statistical decay of excited residual nuclei via competition of evaporation, fission, and multifragmentation processes. The calculations show that in the GeV energy region the fission process is not solely responsible for the entire total photoabsorption cross-section, even for the actinides. The fission probabilities are 80-95% for ²³³U, ²³⁵U, and ²³⁷Np, 70-80% for ²³⁸U, and only 55-70% for ²³²Th. This is because certain residual nuclei that are created by deep photospallation at GeV photon energies have relatively low fission probabilities. The results of those model calculations are in reasonable agreement (at the 10% level) with recent experimental data on relative photofission cross-sections for ²³⁷Np and ^{233, 235, 238}U (but not for ²³²Th or ^natPb) from the Saskatchewan and Jefferson Laboratories over a very wide range in photon energy. Using our calculated fission probabilities plus the total photoabsorption cross-sections per nucleon, estimated from previous cross-section data for nuclei from C to Pb, we can infer absolute photofission cross-sections for the actinide nuclei and compare them with the SAL and JLab results. The resulting discrepancies, however, clearly demonstrate the need for direct measurement of the total photoabsorption cross-sections for the heavy actinides.     

Non-Static Local String in Higher-Dimensional Gravity

We analyze the space-time structure of local gauge string with a phenomenological energy–momentum tensor, as prescribed by Vilenkin, in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions with a non-zero cosmological constant Λ. A set of solutions of the full non-linear Einstein's equations for the interior region of such a string is presented.     

A stabilization law for two semi-infinite interacting strings of characters

We consider a Markov chain that describes the evolution of two interacting strings of symbols. The transitions probalitities of this Markov chain depend only on the rightmost symbols of both strings. The main goal of the present paper is to prove a limit theorem (stabilization law): the distribution of the rightmost symbols converges to some limit correlation function.1 Partially supported by FAPESP (2002/01501-9) and RFBR (02-01-00415)2 Partially supported by RFBR (02-01-00415)     

Hadron spectroscopy and structure from AdS/CFT

The AdS/CFT correspondence between conformal field theory and string states in an extended space-time has provided new insights into not only hadron spectra, but also their light-front wave functions. We show that there is an exact correspondence between the fifth-dimensional coordinate of anti-de Sitter space z and a specific impact variable ζ which measures the separation of the constituents within the hadron in ordinary space-time. This connection allows one to predict the form of the light-front wave functions of mesons and baryons, the fundamental entities which encode hadron properties and scattering amplitudes. A new relativistic Schr?dinger light-front equation is found which reproduces the results obtained using the fifth-dimensional theory. Since they are complete and orthonormal, the AdS/CFT model wave functions can be used as an initial ansatz for a variational treatment or as a basis for the diagonalization of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian. A number of applications of light-front wave functions are also discussed.     

Remarks on the Formulation of the Cosmological Constant/Dark Energy Problems

Associated with the cosmic acceleration are the old and new cosmological constant problems, recently put into the more general context of the dark energy problem. In broad terms, the old problem is related to an unexpected order of magnitude of this component while the new problem is related to this magnitude being of the same order of the matter energy density during the present epoch of cosmic evolution. Current plans to measure the equation of state or density parameters certainly constitute an important approach; however, as we discuss, this approach is faced with serious feasibility challenges and is limited in the type of conclusive answers it could provide. Therefore, is it really too early to seek actively for new tests and approaches to these problems? In view of the difficulty of this endeavor, we argue in this work that a good place to start is by questioning some of the assumptions underlying the formulation of these problems and finding new ways to put this questioning to the test. First, we calculate how much fine tuning the cosmic coincidence problem represents. Next, we discuss the potential of some cosmological probes such as weak gravitational lensing to identify novel tests to probe dark energy questions and assumptions and provide an example of consistency tests. Then, motivated by some theorems in General Relativity, we discuss if the full identification of the cosmological constant with vacuum energy is unquestionable. We discuss some implications of the simplest solution for the principles of General Relativity. Also, we point out the relevance of experiments at the interface of astrophysics and quantum field theory, such as the Casimir effect in gravitational and cosmological contexts. We conclude that challenging some of the assumptions underlying the cosmological constant problems and putting them to the test may prove useful and necessary to make progress on these questions.     

Cosmic Strings and Domain Walls in a Scale-Covariant Theory of Gravitation

Axially symmetric space-time is considered in the presence of cosmic string source and thick domain walls in the frame work of a scale-covariant theory of gravitation. A relation between metric potential is assumed to get a determinate solution of the field equations of this theory. In this particular case, it is observed that the geometric (Nambu) string p-string (Takabayasi string) and Reddy string do not survive. It is also seen that the stiff (self-gravitating) domain walls do not exist in this theory.     

Stable bundle extensions on elliptic Calabi–Yau threefolds

We construct stable bundle extensions on elliptically fibered Calabi–Yau threefolds. We show that these bundles can solve the topological anomaly constraint in heterotic string theory without the need for invoking background five-branes.