Results from NEMO 3

The NEMO 3 experiment is located in the Modane Underground Laboratory and has been taking data since 2003 with seven isotopes. It is searching for the double beta decay process with two or zero neutrinos emitted in the final state. Precision measurements of the half-life of the isotopes due to two neutrino double beta decay have been performed and new results for 96Zr, 48Ca and 150Nd are presented here. Measurements of this process are important for reducing the uncertainties on the nuclear matrix elements. No evidence for zero neutrino double beta decay has been found and a 90% Confidence Level lower limit on the half-life of this process is derived. From this an upper limit can be set on the effective Majorana neutrino mass using the most recent nuclear matrix elements calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, a paper submitted to the proceedings for the conference Neutrino0

Chromospheric explosions

Three issues relative to chromospheric explosions were debated. (1) Resolved: The blue-shifted components of x-ray spectral lines are signatures of chromospheric evaporation. It was concluded that the plasma rising with the corona is indeed the primary source of thermal plasma observed in the corona during flares. (2) Resolved: The excess line broading of UV and X-ray lines is accounted for by a convective velocity distribution in evaporation. It is concluded that the hypothesis that convective evaporation produces the observed X-ray line widths in flares is no more than a hypothesis. It is not supported by any self-consistent physical theory. (3) Resolved: Most chromospheric heating is driven by electron beams. Although it is possible to cast doubt on many lines of evidence for electron beams in the chromosphere, a balanced view that debaters on both sides of the question might agree to is that electron beams probably heat the low corona and upper chromosphere, but their direct impact on evaporating the chromosphere is energetically unimportant when compared to conduction. This represents a major departure from the thick-target flare models that were popular before the Workshop