On the sgoldstino interpretation of the diphoton excess

We point out that the diphoton excess at about 750 GeV recently discovered by the LHC experiments can be explained within supersymmetric models with low scale supersymmetry breaking with sgoldstino as a natural candidate. We discuss phenomenological consequences of this scenario describing possible signatures to test this hypothesis.     

More about the sgoldstino interpretation of HyperCP events

We further discuss possible sgoldstino interpretation of the observation, reported by the HyperCP collaboration, of three Σ⁺ → pμ⁺μ⁻ decay events with the dimuon invariant mass 214.3 MeV within the detector resolution. With a sgoldstino mass equal to 214.3 MeV, this interpretation can be verified at existing and future B and ϕ factories. We find that the most natural values of the branching ratios of two-body B and D meson decays to sgoldstino P and vector meson V are about 10⁻⁶−10⁻⁷. The branching ratios of ϕ meson decay ϕ → Pγ are estimated to be in the range 1.8 × 10⁻¹³−1.6 × 10⁻⁷, depending on the hierarchy of supersymmetry-breaking soft terms. Similar branching ratios for ρ and ω mesons are in the range 10⁻¹⁴−3.4 × 10⁻⁷. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

A closer look into DESIRE for NMR microscopy

The major challenge of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microscopy at a spatial resolution of a few micrometers is to obtain a sufficiently high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) within a reasonable measurement time. As a particular difficulty, molecular self-diffusion poses a serious limitation to true spatial resolution and SNR if conventional Fourier encoding techniques are used. Opposed to that, the alternative DESIRE (Diffusion Enhancement of SIgnal and REsolution) approach to NMR microscopy utilises diffusion to increase the SNR. Being a real-space imaging method, spatial localisation is accomplished by saturation pulses while diffusion continuously replaces the saturated by unsaturated spins. For this technique a signal enhancement of up to three orders of magnitude has been predicted and initial experimental data have provided a proof of principle. In the present work, a detailed investigation of one-dimensional (1D) DESIRE is presented including simulations of a real implementation of the method, a quantitative experimental analysis, and basic 1D imaging. The simulations reveal the importance and provide the means of ensuring the true spatial resolution for this particular way of localisation, enable the selection of useful experimental parameters, and predict the specific image contrast to be expected around barriers restricting diffusion. Experimental data are presented with resolutions down to 3 microm and DESIRE enhancement up to 25 that are in good agreement with the simulation results. In particular, 1D DESIRE imaging in a phantom confirms the expected signal drop close to barriers due to spatially restricted diffusion.     

Heavy scalar boson in view of the unconfirmed 750 GeV LHC diphoton excess

We discuss the impact of the constraints from the measurements of the parameters of the observed 125 GeV Higgs boson and from the unconfirmed 750 GeV diphoton excess in the LHC experiments on the properties of a possible extra scalar boson predicted in various Standard Model extensions. We consider an SM extension based on a stabilized brane-world model, in which the effective low-energy Lagrangian for the scalar degrees of freedom turns out to be very general and, for different values of the model parameters, reproduces the scalar field Lagrangians of various SM extensions by a singlet scalar. It is shown that in the simplest variant of the model, where only the gravitational degrees of freedom propagate in the bulk, the 125 GeV scalar state can be consistently interpreted as a Higgs-dominated state for a rather wide range of the model parameters, whereas the production cross section of a heavier radion-dominated state with mass 750 GeV or more turns out to be too small in the allowed region of the model parameter space for producing the wouldbe diphoton excess.     

String consistency,heavy exotics,and the 750 GeV diphoton excess at the LHC

String consistency conditions are stronger than anomaly cancellation and can require the addition of exotics in the visible sector. We study such exotics and demonstrate that they may account for the modest excess at 750 GeV in recent diphoton resonance searches performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. In a previous analysis of type II MSSM D‐brane quivers we systematically added up to five exotics for the sake of satisfying string consistency conditions. Using this dataset, we demonstrate that 89780 of the 89964 quivers have exotics, 78155 of which include singlets that may couple to MSSM or exotic multiplets with coupling structures governed by U(1) symmetries that are often anomalous. We demonstrate that certain sets of exotics are far preferred over others and study the structure of singlet couplings to heavy exotics carrying standard model charges. Typical possibilities include singlets that may decay to vector‐like quarks and/or vector‐like leptons and subsequently to two photons. We show that a narrow width diphoton excess can be accounted for while evading existing bounds if multiple exotics are added, with vector‐like leptons of mass GeV and vector‐like quarks with masses up to ≃ 3 TeV. However, a large width , as suggested by the ATLAS data, cannot be easily accommodated in this framework. Renormalization group equations with GUT‐scale boundary conditions show that these supersymmetric models are perturbative and stable. Type IIA compactifications on toroidal orbifolds allow for O(10) Yukawa couplings in the ultraviolet. We also discuss the possibility of accounting for the diphoton excess in a low string scale scenario via the decay of string axions.     

A closer look at photochemical reactions of transition-metal compounds by time-resolved EPR

A review is given of applications of time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) in the field of photochemistry of transition-metal compounds. The two main TREPR techniques used in these studies are described. A brief overview is given of chemically induced dynamic electron polarization mechanisms that can affect TREPR spectra and that can give insights into the mechanism of photochemical reactions. Following these background sections, experimental results are presented. The discussion focuses in particular on the Fourier-transform EPR studies of photoinduced metal-alkyl bond homolysis reactions of a series of transition-metal (Co, Ru, Re, Pt) complexes carried out by the authors.     

A closer look at the feather coloration in the male purple sunbird,Nectarinia asiatica

During the breeding season male, but not female, individuals of the purple sunbird possess colourful plumage of chiefly blue and black coloration with a splatter of orange and yellow on the chest. Representative feathers of these colours were collected from male birds during the breeding season and analyzed by reflectance and scanning electron microscopy. The rachis, which is the central support of a feather on which various barbs and barbules are arranged, is spongy and made up of keratin layers with rod-shaped melanosomes sparsely distributed within these layers. Barbs and barbules are the structural units of the feather and depending on how they are arranged provide a characteristic shape to the feather. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analyses of the feathers revealed the presence of various metal elements that might contribute to the feathers’ colorations. Blue feathers are iridescent and contain mainly iron, copper, zinc and cobalt (in that order of abundance); black feathers were also found to contain mainly iron and copper, but chromium instead of zinc and cobalt, while yellow feathers were found to contain predominantly cobalt and nickel. The metal content of the feathers in an as yet unknown way may be involved in the production of the distinct absorbance and reflectance patterns that the brilliant plumage of the purple sunbird is renowned for.