arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Palash B. Pal.
There are well-known bounds on light neutrino masses from cosmological energy density arguments. These arguments assume the neutrinos to be non-degenerate. We show how these bounds are affected if the neutrinos are degenerate. In this case, we obtain correlated bounds between neutrino mass and degeneracy.
In an R-parity-violating supersymmetric theory, we derive upper bounds on all the λ''_{ijk}λ_{i'j'k'}-type combinations from the consideration of proton stability, where λ''_{ijk} are baryon-number-violating couplings involving three baryonic fields and λ_{i'j'k'} are lepton-number-violating couplings involving three leptonic fields.
In the linearized theory of gravity coupled to the electromagnetic field, we calculate the cross sections of two processes in which both the gravitational and electromagnetic interactions play a role. Those processes, in which a graviton is produced in the final state, are: (a) the photoproduction of gravitons off electrons and (b) the production of a photon and a graviton from electron-positron annihilation. The motivation and outlook for these calculations are discussed.
We derive stringent upper bounds on all the $(λ''_{ijk} μ_l)$-type combinations from the consideration of proton stability, where $λ''_{ijk}$ are baryon-number-violating trilinear couplings and $μ_l$ are lepton-number-violating bilinear mass parameters in a R-parity-violating supersymmetric theory.
In a medium that contains electrons but not the other charged leptons, such as normal matter, the gravitational interactions of neutrinos are not the same for all the neutrino flavors. We calculate the leading order matter-induced corrections to the neutrino gravitational interactions in such a medium and consider some of their physical implications.
In supersymmetric theories, R-parity is defined in a way such that it does not commute with the space-time symmetries. We show that, in general sypersymmetric models, one can define a discrete symmetry which commutes with all space-time and gauge symmetries, and whose phenomenological implications are equivalent to those of R-parity.
In this talk, I have discussed some issues of recent interest and activity in the field of neutrino astrophysics and cosmology. The topics are: (1)~The origin of high peculiar velocities of pulsars; (2)~Energization of the supernova shock wave; (3)~Ultra-high energy neutrino astronomy; (4)~Possible implications of the recent measurements of low deuterium abundance.
Performing functional integration of the free Lagrangian, we find the vacuum energy of a field. The functional integration is performed in a way which easily generalizes to systems at non-zero temperature. We use this technique to obtain the Casimir energy density and pressure at arbitrary temperatures.
For photons that propagate through a gas of neutrinos with a non-zero chemical potential, the left-handed and right-handed polarization modes acquire different dispersion relations. This is due to the CP and CPT-odd terms induced by such a background on the photon self-energy. We present a detailed calculation of this effect, which does not depend on any physical assumptions beyond those of the standard electroweak model. Some possible cosmological and astrophysical implications of our results are considered in several contexts, including the recent discussions regarding the rotation of the plane of polarization of electromagnetic waves over cosmological distances.
We calculate the rate for the radiative neutrino decay in a thermal background of electrons and photons, taking into account the effect of the stimulated emission of photons in the thermal bath. We show that the rate is enhanced by a large factor relative to the rate for the corresponding process in the vacuum.
The structure of the electromagnetic vertex of spin-1 particles are studied in a general way, for the diagonal as well as the off-diagonal couplings. In each case, we consider in detail the consequences of gauge invariance and the space-time discrete symmetries, paying particular attention to the implications for the couplings of the photon to neutral gauge bosons, which arise in higher orders. Several general results concerning the static electromagnetic properties of neutral bosons are derived, analogous to the results that are well known in the case of neutral spin-1/2 particles.
Due to their weak interactions, neutrinos can polarize a medium and acquire an induced charge. We consider the Cherenkov radiation emitted by neutrinos due to their effective electromagnetic interactions as they pass through a polarizable medium. The effect exists even for massless, chiral neutrinos, where no physics beyond the standard model needs to be assumed.
In general the zero momentum limit of thermal self-energies calculated in perturbation theory depends on the order in which the time and the space components of the momentum are taken to zero. We show that this is an artifact of the perturbative calculation, and in fact the non-analyticity of the one-loop self-energy disappears when it is calculated with improved vertices and/or improved propagators that incorporate the imaginary part of the self-energy.
Considering the observed anisotropy in cosmic microwave background radiation ($ΔT/T \leq 10^{-4}$) an upper limit on the electric charge asymmetry over a cosmological scale is found which is several orders more stringent than those found earlier. The same argument constrains the charge of massless, degenerate neutrinos.
In addition to the dielectric and magnetic permeability constants, another constant is generally needed to describe the electrodynamic properties of a linear isotropic medium. We discuss why the need for the third constant arises and what sort of physical situations can give rise to a non-zero value for it. This additional constant, which we call the {\em ``Activity Constant''} and denote by $ζ$, can explain optical activity and other phenomena from a purely macroscopic and phenomenological point of view.
In unification models based on SU(15) or SU(16), baryon number is part of the gauge symmetry, broken spontaneously. In such models, we discuss various scenarios of important baryon number violating processes like proton decay and neutron-antineutron oscillation. Our analysis depends on the effective operator method, and covers many variations of symmetry breaking, including different intermediate groups and different Higgs boson content. We discuss processes mediated by gauge bosons and Higgs bosons parallely. We show how accidental global or discrete symmetries present in the full gauge invariant Lagrangian restrict baryon number violating processes in these models. In all cases, we find that baryon number violating interactions are sufficiently suppressed to allow grand unification at energies much lower than the usual $10^{16}$ GeV.
Neutrinos can polarize a medium due to their weak interaction. This can manifest itself as an effective induced charge of the neutrino. We show how it is related to the Debye screening length in a plasma, first using the results of the 1-loop calculation of the neutrino electromagnetic vertex and then in general to all orders in $e$ and to leading order in the Fermi coupling. We also discuss how the results are modified if the neutrinos have mass -- either Dirac or Majorana type.
The equivalence theorem, between the longitudinal gauge bosons and the states eaten up by them in the process of symmetry breaking, is shown to be valid in a class of models where the details of dynamical symmetry breaking makes it obscure.