No abstract

Experimental studies have obtained the caloric curve of nuclear matter from heavy ion collisions as well as its dependence on the size of the fragmenting source. In particular it has been determined that smaller systems have caloric curves with higher plateau temperatures than larger systems. This work uses molecular dynamics simulations to study the thermodynamics of heavy ion collisions and to identify the main factors that determine the caloric curve. The simulations indicate that the reaction is composed of three stages: 1) an initial collision that transforms the nuclei from normal density and zero temperature and entropy, to a hot and dense blob of matter with higher values of density, temperature and entropy; 2) this is followed by a constant-entropy expansion that takes the system to the spinodal of the phase diagram; 3) where the system rapidly disassembles into fragments by the process of spinodal decomposition, and not by nucleation. These findings indicate that the plateau temperature of the caloric curve is nothing more than the temperature of the phase change and it is set by the intersection of the isentropic expansion and the spinodal. In other words, the plateau temperature is simply the temperature at which the system breaks as it enters the spinodal. This transition temperature is thus set by the entropy generated during the initial part of the collision.

An atmospheric neutrino oscillation tool that uses full three-neutrino oscillation probabilities and a full three-neutrino treatment of the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect, together with an analysis of the K2K, MINOS, and CHOOZ data, is used to examine the bounds on theta_{13}. The recent, more finely binned, Super-K atmospheric data are employed. For L/E_{nu} greater, similar 10;{4} km/GeV, we previously found significant linear in theta_{13} terms. This analysis finds theta_{13} bounded from above by the atmospheric data while bounded from below by CHOOZ. The origin of this result arises from data in the previously mentioned very long baseline region; here, matter effects conspire with terms linear in theta_{13} to produce asymmetric bounds on theta_{13}. Assuming CP conservation, we find theta_{13} = -0.07_{-0.11};{+0.18} (90% C.L.).

In this work, an independent and detailed statistical analysis of the double-Chooz experiment is performed. In order to have a thorough understanding of the implications of the double-Chooz data on both oscillation parameters sin 2 ð2θ 13 Þ and Δm −0.215 × 10 −3 eV 2 =c 4 . Our analysis allows us to study the effects of the so-called "spectral bump" around 5 MeV; it is observed that a variation of this spectral bump may be able to move the Δm 2 31 best fit value, in such a way that Δm 2 31 takes the order of magnitude of the MINOS value. In other words, if we allow the variation of the spectral bump, then we may be able to determine both oscillation parameters using Far detector data only, with no further restrictions from other experiments. Finally, and with the intention of understanding the effects of the preliminary Near detector data, we performed two different analyses, aiming to eliminate the effects of the energy bump. As a consequence, it is found that unlike the Far detector analysis, the Near detector data may be able to fully determine both oscillation parameters by itself, resulting in sin 2 ð2θ 13 Þ ¼ 0.095 AE 0.053 and Δm