Towards high-precision predictions for the MSSM Higgs sector

The status of the evaluation of the MSSM Higgs sector is reviewed. The phenomenological impact of recently obtained corrections is discussed. In particular it is shown that the upper bound on m_h within the MSSM is shifted upwards. Consequently, lower limits on obtained by confronting the upper bound as function of with the lower bound on m_h from Higgs searches are significantly weakened. Furthermore, th e region in the M_A--plane where the coupling of the lightest Higgs boson to down-type fermions is suppressed is modified. The presently not calculated higher-order corrections to the Higgs-boson mass matrix are estimated to shift the mass of the lightest Higgs boson by up to 3 GeV. Received: 12 December 2002 / Published online: 3 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: giuseppe.degrassi@roma3.infn.it RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: Sven.Heinemeyer@physik.uni-muenchen.de RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: hollik@mppmu.mpg.de RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: slavich@mppmu.mpg.de RID="e" ID="e" e-mail: Georg.Weiglein@durham.ac.uk     

Recursive actions for scalar theories

We introduce a class of self-interacting scalar theories in which the various coupling constants obey a recursive relation. These imply a particularly simple form for the generating function of the Feynman amplitudes with vanishing external momenta, as well as for the effective potential. In addition we discuss an interesting duality inherent in these models. Specializing to the case of zero spacetime dimensions we find intriguing nullification properties for the amplitudes. Received: 19 December 2001 / Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: chrisd@sci.kun.nl RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: kleiss@sci.kun.nl RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: petros@sci.kun.nl RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: andrevh@sci.kun.nl RID="e" ID="e" e-mail: papadopo@alice.nuclear.demokritos.gr     

Explicit model realizing parton-hadron duality

An explicit model realizing parton-hadron duality and fitting the data is suggested. Complex nonlinear Regge trajectories are important ingredients of the model. The inclusion of Δ and N^* trajectories should account for all resonances in the direct channel. The exotic trajectory is responsible for the smooth background. Received: 7 June 2002 / Accepted: 3 July 2002 / Published online: 10 December 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: fiore@cs.infn.it RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: flachi@ifae.es RID="c" ID="c"e-mail: jenk@gluk.org RID="d" ID="d"e-mail: sasha@len.uzhgorod.ua RID="e" ID="e"e-mail: vladimir@cfif.ist.utl.pt Communicated by V.V. Anisovich     

How well can we reconstruct the $t\bar{t}$ system near its threshold at future ee linear colliders?

We developed a new method for the full kinematical reconstruction of the system near its threshold at future linear e ⁺ e ^- colliders. In the core of the method lies likelihood fitting which is designed to improve measurement accuracies of the kinematical variables that specify the final states resulting from decays. The improvement is demonstrated by applying this method to a Monte Carlo sample generated with various experimental effects including beamstrahlung, finite acceptance and resolution of the detector system, etc. In most cases the fit takes a broad non-Gaussian distribution of a given kinematical variable to a nearly Gaussian shape, thereby justifying phenomenological analyses based on simple Gaussian smearing of the parton-level momenta. The standard deviations of the resultant distributions of various kinematical variables are given in order to facilitate such phenomenological analyses. A possible application of the kinematical fitting method and its expected impact are also discussed. Received: 4 March 2003 / Published online: 23 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: ikematsu@post.kek.jp RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: fujiik@jlcuxf.kek.jp RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: hioki@ias.tokushima-u.ac.jp RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: sumino@tuhep.phys.tohoku.ac.jp RID="e" ID="e" e-mail: tohrut@hiroshima-u.ac.jp     

Fourth generation effects in processes induced by the $b \rightarrow s$ transition

We study the effects of sequential fourth quark generation in rare decays induced by the transition and in B _s ⁰- mixing. Using the experimental values on the branching ratios of the and decays, the allowed regions for and are determined as a function of the t ^' quark mass. Received: 3 April 2003 / Published online: 2 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: taliev@metu.edu.tr RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: ozpineci@ictp.trieste.it RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: savci@metu.edu.tr     

UCN production in superfluid helium

Ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) are produced in superfluid helium by single- and multi-phonon excitation. The UCN production rate density R _II via multiphonons can be larger than that by one-phonon excitation R _I being due to the dependence of the incident neutron spectral flux density dφ/dλ on the wavelength λ. Received: 28 March 2002 / Accepted: 19 December 2002 / Published online: 11 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: wschott@e18.physik.tu-muenchen.de RID="b" ID="b"On leave of absence from PNPI, Gatchina, Russia Communicated by T. Walcher     

Deconstructing scalar QED at zero and finite temperature

We calculate the effective potential for the WLPNGB in a world with a circular latticized extra dimension. The mass of the Wilson line pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (WLPNGB) is calculated from the one-loop quantum effect of scalar fields at zero and finite temperature. We show that a series expansion by the modified Bessel functions is useful to calculate the one-loop effective potentials. Received: 24 January 2003 / Published online: 14 April 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: b1834@sty.cc.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: b1795@sty.cc.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: shiraish@po.cc.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp     

Bounded rational driver models

This paper introduces a car following model where the driving scheme takes into account the deficiencies of human decision making in a general way. Additionally, it improves certain shortcomings of most of the models currently in use: it is stochastic but has a continuous acceleration. This is achieved at the cost of formulating the model in terms of the time derivative of the acceleration, making it non-Newtonian. However, the recipe for construction of bounded rational driver models proposed in this paper seems to be very general and can be applied to most, if not all of the traditional car-following models. Received 18 November 2002 / Received in final form 6 February 2003 Published online 1st April 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: ialub@fpl.gpi.ru RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: peter.wagner@dlr.de RID="c" ID="c"e-mail: reinhard.mahnke@physik.uni-rostock.de     

Structure and properties of confined sodium nitrite

We study the lateral and transverse diffusion of amphiphiles in two-component bilayer membranes, using a coarse-grained model for amphiphilic molecules and combined Monte Carlo-Molecular Dynamics simulations. Membrane structural properties, such as the mean thickness, are also measured. The dependence of such properties on membrane composition, inter-molecular interactions, and amphiphile stiffness is determined. In particular, we show that addition of shorter amphiphiles drives the model membrane towards a more fluid state, with increased amphiphile lateral diffusion rates. These results can be understood in the framework of a simple free-volume model. Furthermore, we observe an increase in the trans-membrane diffusion when the interaction energy of amphiphiles with their neighboring molecules is decreased. Received: 6 December 2002 / Accepted: 17 April 2003 / Published online: 27 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: imparato@mpikg-golm.mpg.de RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: shillcock@mpikg-golm.mpg.de RID="c" ID="c"e-mail: lipowsky@mpikg-golm.mpg.de     

Compressible bag model and the phase structure

The phase structure of hadrons and the quark-gluon plasma is investigated by two types of equation of state of the hadrons, namely the ideal hadron gas model and the compressible bag model. It is pointed out that, while the ideal gas model produces an unrealistic extra hadron phase, the compressible bag model gives the expected and reasonable phase diagram even if the rich hadron spectrum is taken into account. Received: 22 February 2002 / Revised version: 28 June 2002 / Published online: 20 September 2002 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: kagiyama@sci.kagoshima-u.ac.jp RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: kumamoto@cosmos01.cla.kagoshima-u.ac.jp RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: minaka@edu.kagoshima-u.ac.jp RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: nakamura@sci.kagoshima-u.ac.jp RID="e" ID="e" e-mail: ohkura@cosmos01.cla.kagoshima-u.ac.jp RID="f" ID="f" e-mail: yamaguchi@cosmos01.cla.kagoshima-u.ac.jp     

Nucleon form factors from a covariant quark core: Limits in their description

In treating the relativistic 3-quark problem, a dressed-quark propagator parameterization is used which is compatible with recent lattice data and pion observables. Furthermore 2-quark correlations are modeled as a series of quark loops in the scalar and axialvector channel. The resulting reduced Faddeev equations are solved for nucleon and delta. Nucleon electromagnetic form factors are calculated in a fully covariant and gauge-invariant scheme. Whereas the proton electric form factor G _E and the nucleon magnetic moments are described correctly, the neutron electric form factor and the ratio G _E/G _M for the proton appear to be quenched. The influence of vector mesons on the form factors is investigated which amounts to a 25% modification of the electromagnetic proton radii within this framework. Received: 16 April 2002 / Accepted: 29 August 2002 / Published online: 17 January 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Supported by a Feodor-Lynen fellowship of the Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation and the Australian Research Council. RID="b" ID="b"Address after April 30: MPI für Metallforschung, Heisenbergstr. 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. RID="c" ID="c"e-mail: Reinhard.Alkofer@uni-tuebingen.de Communicated by A. Sch?fer     

On the instanton-induced portion of the nucleon strangeness II: the MIT model beyond the linearized approximation

If instantons are introduced into the MIT bag model in such a way that the bag radii are allowed to vary, the MIT bag interior can accommodate an instanton density which is by an order of magnitude larger than in the case when the radii are fixed (although it is still significantly smaller than in the non-perturbative QCD vacuum). The instanton contribution to the baryon mass shifts is also correspondingly larger. The instanton-induced part of the scalar strangeness of the nucleon MIT bag is an order of magnitude larger than found previously, within the linearized approximation. The decrease of the model radii (which is associated with the increase of the instanton density) is very favorable from the standpoint of nuclear physics. Received: 7 February 2003 / Revised version: 1 April 2003 / Published online: 23 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: klabucar@phy.hr RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: kkumer@phy.hr RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: dmekter@rudjer.irb.hr RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: bp@phy.hr. Present address: Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Rijeka, HR-51000 Rijeka, Croatia     

Circumstantial evidence for rotating mass matrix from fermion mass and mixing data

It is shown that existing data on the mixing between up and down fermion states and on the hierarchical mass ratios between fermion generations, as far as can be so analyzed at present, are all consistent with the two phenomena being both consequences of a mass matrix rotating in generation space with changing energy scale. As a result, the rotating mass matrix can be traced over some 14 orders of magnitude in energy from the mass scale of the t quark at 175 GeV to below that of the atmospheric neutrino at 0.05 eV. Received: 27 August 2002 / Published online: 24 January 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: jose.m.bordes@uv.es RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: h.m.chan@rl.ac.uk RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: tsou@maths.ox.ac.uk     

Production of high quality shocks for equation of state experiments

In this paper we describe the quality requirements that a shock wave must fulfil to make equation of state (EOS) measurements possible: planarity, no-preheating and stationarity of the shock. Experimental measurements have been performed at the Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik (Garching). We also present simple analytical models that allow to verify shock stationarity and absence of preheating. Received 17 June 2002 Published online 21 January 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: batani@mib.infn.it RID="b" ID="b"Present address: Pro-beam, Behrinsta?e 6, 85152 Planegg b. München, Germany. RID="c" ID="c"UMR 7605     

Isomeric states in proton-unbound 187, 189Bi isotopes

Prompt and delayed gamma-ray spectroscopy of very neutron-deficient bismuth isotopes ^{187, 189}Bi has been performed using the Recoil Decay Tagging (RTD) method. The isomeric i _13/2 states have been identified and their lifetimes have been measured. The systematics of these long-lived M2 isomers has been extended to the proton-unbound isotopes. The general behaviour of single-proton states is discussed within the systematics and interpreted within the shell-model framework. Received: 2 May 2002 / Accepted: 3 June 2002 / Published online: 19 November 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: wkorten@cea.fr RID="b" ID="b"Present address: GANIL, Caen, France. RID="c" ID="c"Present address: Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, P.O. Box 14, FIN-00881 Helsinki. Communicated by D. Schwalm     

Experimental tests of non-perturbative pion wave functions

We use the transverse-momentum dependence of the cross section for the diffractive dissociation of high energy pions to two jets to study some non-perturbative light-cone wave functions of the pion. We compare the predictions for this distribution by Gaussian and Coulomb wave functions as well as the wave function derived from a solution of the light-cone Hamiltonian in the singlet model. We conclude that this experimentally measured information provides a powerful tool for these studies. Received: 15 January 2003 / Published online: 14 April 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: ashery@tauphy.tau.ac.il RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: pauli@mpi-hd.mpg.de     

The radiative return at $\phi$- and B-factories: small-angle photon emission at next-to-leading order

The radiative return offers the unique possibility for a measurement of the cross section of electron-positron annihilation into hadrons over a wide range of energies. The large luminosity of present - and B-factories easily compensates for the additional factor of due to the emission of a hard photon. Final states with photons at large angles can be easily identified. The rate for events with collinear photons, however, is enhanced by a large logarithm and allows, in particular at lower energies, for a complementary measurement. The Monte Carlo generator PHOKHARA, which includes next-to-leading order corrections from virtual and real photon emission, has been extended from large photon angles into the collinear region, using recent results for the virtual corrections. In addition, the present version includes final state radiation for muon and pion pair production and final states with four pions. Implications for the experimental analysis at three typical energies, 1.02, 4 and 10.6 GeV, are presented: the magnitude of these new corrections is studied, possibilities for the separation of initial and final state radiation are proposed, and the differences with respect to the previous treatment based on structure functions are investigated. Received: 16 December 2002 / Published online: 26 February 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: czyz@us.edu.pl RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: grzel@joy.phys.us.edu.pl, Supported in part by "Marie Curie Training Site" at Karlsruhe University RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: jk@particle.uni-karlsruhe.de RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: german.rodrigo@cern.ch, Supported in part by E.U. TMR grant HPMF-CT-2000-00989     

World-line techniques for resumming gluon radiative corrections at the cross-section level

We employ the Polyakov world-line path-integral version of QCD to identify and resum at leading perturbative order enhanced radiative gluon contributions to the Drell-Yan type ( pair annihilation) cross-sections. We emphasize that this is the first time that world-line techniques are applied to cross-section calculations. Received: 10 June 2002 / Published online: 31 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: akaranik@cc.uoa.gr RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: cktorid@cc.uoa.gr RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: stefanis@tp2.ruhr-uni-bochum.de