Decay of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos

Existing limits on the nonradiative decay of one neutrino to another plus a massless particle (e.g., a singlet Majoron) are very weak. The best limits on the lifetime to mass ratio come from solar neutrino observations and are tau/m greater, similar 10(-4) s/eV for the relevant mass eigenstate(s). For lifetimes even several orders of magnitude longer, high-energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources would decay. This would strongly alter the flavor ratios from the phi(nu(e)):phi(nu(mu)):phi(nu(tau))=1:1:1 expected from oscillations alone and should be readily visible in the near future in detectors such as IceCube.     

Phenomenology of the production,decay, and detection of new hadronic states associated with supersymmetry

Supersymmetric theories involve spinorial partners for the gluons of QCD. If the symmetry breaking is such that they are massless or light, they probably combine with quarks to form families of new, relatively low-lying hadrinic states, which decay into ordinary hadrons and a new, neutrino-like particle. We discuss how present experiments can put limits on their production.     

Scalar correlator at [symbol: see text](alpha(s)4), Higgs boson decay into bottom quarks, and bounds on the light-quark masses

We compute, for the first time, the absorptive part of the massless correlator of two quark scalar currents in five loops. As physical applications, we consider the [symbol: see text](alpha(s)4) corrections to the decay rate of the standard model Higgs boson into quarks, as well as the constraints on the strange quark mass following from QCD sum rules.     

Ghost freedom and string actions

We prove that the effective action for a closed bosonic string propagating in a massless background is ghost free to all orders in α'.     

Massless gauge bosons other than the photon

Gauge bosons associated with unbroken gauge symmetries, under which all standard model fields are singlets, may interact with ordinary matter via higher-dimensional operators. A complete set of dimension-six operators involving a massless U(1) field, gamma('), and standard model fields is presented. The mu-->egamma(') decay, primordial nucleosynthesis, star cooling, and other phenomena set lower limits on the scale of chirality-flip operators in the 1-15 TeV range if the operators have coefficients given by the corresponding Yukawa couplings. Simple renormalizable models induce gamma(') interactions with leptons or quarks at two loops, and may provide a cold dark matter candidate.     

Higher level string resonances in four dimensions

We study higher level Regge resonances of open superstrings, focusing on the universal part of the Neveu-Schwarz sector common to all D-brane realizations of the standard model. For Regge states with masses far above the fundamental string scale, we discuss the spin-dependence of their decay rates into massless gauge bosons. Extending our previous work on lowest level string excitations, we study the second mass level at which spins range from 0 to 3. We construct the respective vertex operators and compute the amplitudes involving one massive particle and two or three gauge bosons. To illustrate the use of Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) recursion relations in superstring theory, we build the four-gluon amplitude from on-shell amplitudes involving string resonances and gauge bosons.     

Hard noncommutative loops resummation

The noncommutative version of the Euclidean g2phi4 theory is considered. By using Wilsonian flow equations the ultraviolet renormalizability can be proved to all orders in perturbation theory. On the other hand, the infrared sector cannot be treated perturbatively and requires a resummation of the leading divergences in the two-point function. This is analogous to what is done in the hard thermal loops resummation of finite temperature field theory. Next-to-leading order corrections to the self-energy are computed, resulting in O(g3) contributions in the massless case, and O(g6logg2) in the massive one.     

Numerical evaluation of multi-loop integrals by sector decomposition

In a recent paper [Nucl. Phys. B 585 (2000) 741] we have presented an automated subtraction method for divergent multi-loop/leg integrals in dimensional regularisation which allows for their numerical evaluation, and applied it to diagrams with massless internal lines. Here we show how to extend this algorithm to Feynman diagrams with massive propagators and arbitrary propagator powers. As applications, we present numerical results for the master 2-loop 4-point topologies with massive internal lines occurring in Bhabha scattering at two loops, and for the master integrals of planar and non-planar massless double box graphs with two off-shell legs. We also evaluate numerically some two-point functions up to 5 loops relevant for beta-function calculations, and a 3-loop 4-point function, the massless on-shell planar triple box. Whereas the 4-point functions are evaluated in non-physical kinematic regions, the results for the propagator functions are valid for arbitrary kinematics.     

Chargino and neutralino decays revisited

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the decays of charginos and neutralinos in the minimal supersymmetric standard model where the neutralino is assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle. We focus, in particular, on the three-body decays of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino into the lightest neutralino and fermion–antifermion pairs and include vector boson, Higgs boson and sfermion exchange diagrams, where in the latter contribution the full mixing in the third generation is included. The radiative corrections to the heavy fermion and SUSY particle masses will also be taken into account. We present complete analytical formulae for the Dalitz densities and the integrated partial decay widths in the massless fermion case, as well as the expressions of the differential decay widths including the masses of the final fermions and the polarization of the decaying charginos and neutralinos. We then discuss these decay modes, in particular in scenarios where the parameter is large and in models without universal gaugino masses at the grand unification scale, where some new decay channels, such as decays into gluinos and pairs, open up. Received: 12 April 2001 / Published online: 8 June 2001     

Pair production in the gravitational field of a cosmic string

We show that many elementary particle physics processes, such as pair production by a high energy photon, that take place in Minkowski space only if a non-uniform external field provides for momentum non-conservation, do occur in the space-time around a straight cosmic string, even though the space is locally flat and there is no local gravitational potential. We exemplify this mechanism through the evaluation of the cross section per unit length of string for the decay of a massless scalar particle into a pair of massive particles. The cross sections for this kind of processes are typically small. Nevertheless, it is interesting to realize how these reactions occur due to topological properties of space, rather than to the action of a local field.     

Curves of marginal stability, and weak- and strong-coupling BPS spectra in N = 2 supersymmetric QCD

We explicitly determine the global structure of the SL(2, ) bundle over the Coulomb branch of the moduli space of asymptotically free N = 2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with gauge group SU(2) when massless hypermultiplets are present. For each relevant number of flavours, we show that there is a curve of marginal stability of the Coulomb branch, diffeomorphic to a circle, across which the BPS spectrum is discontinuous. We determine rigorously and completely the BPS spectra inside and outside the curve. In all cases, the spectrum inside the curve consists of only those BPS states that are responsible for the singularities of the low energy effective action (in addition to the massless abelian gauge multiplet which is always present). The predicted decay patterns across the curve of marginal stability are perfectly consistent with all quantum numbers carried by the BPS states. As a byproduct, we also show that the electric and magnetic quantum numbers of the massless states at the singularities proposed by Seiberg and Witten are the only possible ones.     

Lorentz Covariant Canonical Formalism for Free Massive, Massless and Tachyonic Particles

We construct a consistent Lorentz-covariant canonical formalism for a free massive, massless and tachyonic particle in the framework of the absolute synchronization scheme of clocks. In the case of a massive particle our approach is canonically equivalent to the standard formulation which is not manifestly covariant. The absolute synchronization scheme seems to be the only one we can apply in the case of massless and tachyonic particles.     

On the possibility of massless particle instability

It is shown that phase restrictions along with the application of known conservation laws allow only massless particle decay involving two photons and a graviton. These results are re-examined from an alternative viewpoint emphasizing virtual processes.     

Speed of light in non-trivial vacua

We unify all existing results on the change of the speed of low-energy photons due to modifications of the vacuum, finding that it is given by a universal constant times the quotient of the difference of energy densities between the usual and modified vacua over the mass of the electron to the fourth power. Whether photons move faster or slower than c depends only on the lower or higher energy density of the modified vacuum, respectively. Physically, a higher energy density is characterized by the presence of additional particles (real or virtual) in the vacuum whereas a lower one stems from the absence of some virtual modes. We then carry out a systematic study of the speed of propagation of massless particles for several field theories up to two loops on a thermal vacuum. Only low-energy massless particles corresponding to a massive theory show genuine modifications of their speed while remaining massless. All other modifications are mass related, or running mass-related. We also develop a formalism for the Casimir vacuum which parallels the thermal one and check that photons travel faster than c between plates.     

Quantum scale invariance,cosmological constant and hierarchy problem

We construct a class of theories which are scale-invariant on quantum level in all orders of perturbation theory. In a subclass of these models scale invariance is spontaneously broken, leading to the existence of a massless dilaton. The applications of these results to the problem of stability of the electroweak scale against quantum corrections, to the cosmological constant problem and to dark energy are discussed.     

Two-loop anomalous-dimension matrix for soft-gluon exchange

The resummation of soft-gluon exchange for QCD hard scattering requires a matrix of anomalous dimensions. We compute this matrix directly for arbitrary 2-->n massless processes for the first time at two loops. Using color-generator notation, we show that it is proportional to the one-loop matrix. This result reproduces all pole terms in dimensional regularization of the explicit calculations of massless 2-->2 amplitudes in the literature, and it predicts all poles at next-to-next-to-leading order in any 2-->n process that has been computed at next-to-leading order. The proportionality of the one- and two-loop matrices makes possible the resummation in closed form of the next-to-next-to-leading logarithms and poles in dimensional regularization for the 2-->n processes.     

Hidden Higgs particles

In a class of extended Higgs structures containing a light or massless pseudoscalar it is quite likely the normal Wienberg-Salam Higgs particle decays preferentially into spin-zero bosons if its mass is below the t$\text{t}$ threshold. These spin-zero bosons may be invisible either because they do not decay or because they decay into neutrinos. Thus Higgs particles may be light enough to be produced at accessible energies but difficult to detect through their decay products.     

Vector tadpole graphs in the Coleman-Weinberg model

In the Coleman-Weinberg model (massless scalar quantum electrodynamics), a gauge invariant approximation scheme is obtained by summing vector tadpole graphs to all loop orders. We investigate the influence of this summation on the masses of the scalar and vector particles in the model.     

Multiple light scattering from disordered media. The effect of brownian motion of scatterers

We have measured the time autocorrelation function of the light intensity multiply scattered from turbid aqueous suspensions of submicron size polystyrene spheres in directions near backscattering. It is found strongly non-exponential at short times revealing the very fast decay of coherence in extended scattering loops due to the thermal motion of the many spheres involved; the longest living decay time is found remarkably close to the single particle backscattering relaxation time even under conditions of interparticle interactions. These features are only weakly affected by the particular interference effect between time-reversed pairs of loops giving rise to the coherent backscattering enhancement. A simple argument is presented which accounts for these observations.Dedicated to Prof. Klaus Dransfeld on the occasion of his 60^th birthday