Suppressing the background process to QED Compton scatteringfor delineating the photon content of the proton

We investigate the QED Compton process (QEDCS) in and , together with the major background coming from virtual Compton scattering (VCS), where the photon is emitted from the hadronic vertex. We suggest new kinematical constraints which suppress the VCS background and are furthermore suitable for the extraction of the equivalent photon content of the proton at the HERA collider. We show that the cross section, commonly expressed in terms of the proton structure functions, is reasonably well described by the equivalent photon approximation of the proton, also in the inelastic channel in the proposed kinematical region.Received: 5 February 2004, Revised: 8 March 2004, Published online: 9 June 2004     

Complete description of polarization effects in emission of a photon by an electron in the field of a strong laser wave

We consider the emission of a photon by an electron in the field of a strong laser wave. Polarization effects in this process are important for a number of physical problems. The probability of this process for circularly or linearly polarized laser photons and for arbitrary polarization of all other particles is calculated. We obtain the complete set of functions which describe such a probability in a compact invariant form. Besides this, we discuss in some detail the polarization effects in the kinematics relevant to the problem of conversion at and colliders.Received: 13 February 2004, Published online: 23 June 2004     

Testing non-commutative QED \gamma\gamma\gamma and \gamma\gamma\gamma\gamma couplings at LHC

In this work, we investigate the sensitivity of the process at LHC for the photonic 3- and 4-point functions that appear in non-commutative QED. We show that this process serves to study the behavior of the space-space as well as of the space-time non-commutativity. We also show that this process can probe the non-commutative scale in the range of a few TeV.Received: 9 February 2004, Revised: 27 February 2004, Published online: 8 April 2004     

Measurement of prompt photon cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Results are presented on the photoproduction of isolated prompt photons, inclusively and associated with jets, in the center of mass energy range 142 < W < 266 GeV. The cross sections are measured for the transverse momentum range of the photons GeV and for associated jets with E _T ^jet > 4.5 GeV. They are measured differentially as a function of , the pseudorapidities and and estimators of the momentum fractions and x _p of the incident photon and proton carried by the constituents participating in the hard process. In order to further investigate the underlying dynamics, the angular correlation between the prompt photon and the jet in the transverse plane is studied. Predictions by perturbative QCD calculations in next to leading order are about below the inclusive prompt photon data after corrections for hadronisation and multiple interactions, but are in reasonable agreement with the results for prompt photons associated with jets. Comparisons with the predictions of the event generators PYTHIA and HERWIG are also presented.Received: 13 July 2004, Revised: 15 November 2004, Published online: 17 December 2004     

Diffractive $\gamma \gamma$ production at hadron colliders

We compute the cross section for exclusive double-diffractive production at the Tevatron, , and the LHC. We evaluate both the gg and -channel exchange contributions to the process. The observation of exclusive production at the Tevatron will provide a check on the model predictions and offer an opportunity to confirm the expectations for exclusive double-diffractive Higgs production at the LHC.Received: 10 September 2004, Revised: 8 October 2004, Published online: 1 December 2004     

Complete description of polarization effects in e + e- pair productionby a photon in the field of a strong laser wave

We consider production of a e ⁺ e ^- pair by a high-energy photon in the field of a strong laser wave. A probability of this process for circularly or linearly polarized laser photons and for arbitrary polarization of all other particles is calculated. We obtain the complete set of functions which describe such a probability in a compact invariant form. Besides, we discuss in some detail the polarization effects in the kinematics relevant to the problem of conversion at and colliders.Received: 13 December 2004, Published online: 4 February 2005     

Probing the CP nature of the Higgs bosons by $t\overline{t}$ productionat photon linear colliders

We study the effects of heavy Higgs bosons on the production process at photon linear colliders. The interference patterns between the resonant Higgs production amplitudes and the continuum QED amplitudes are examined. The patterns tell us not only the CP nature of the Higgs bosons but also the phase of the -Higgs vertex which gives new information about the Higgs couplings to new charged particles. We point out that it is necessary to use circularly polarized photon beams to produce efficiently heavy Higgs bosons whose masses exceed the electron beam energy, and show that the above interference patterns of the production amplitudes can be studied by observing t and decay angular distributions. Analytic expressions for the helicity amplitudes for the sequential process are presented in terms of the generic production amplitudes.Received: 2 June 2003, Published online: 24 October 2003     

$J/\psi$ gluonic dissociation revisited: I. Fugacity,flux and formation time effects

We revisit the standard treatment due to Xu et al. of suppression due to gluonic bombardment in an equilibrating quark-gluon plasma. Effects arising from gluon fugacity, relative g- flux, and meson formation time are explicitly incorporated in the formulation of the gluon number density, velocity-weighted cross section, and the survival probability. Our new formulae are applied to a numerical study of the pattern of suppression in the central rapidity region at RHIC/LHC energies. The temperature and transverse momentum dependence of our graphs have noticeable differences from those of Xu et al.Received: 27 February 2004, Revised: 3 June 2004, Published online: 6 August 2004     

Four-fermion production at $\gamma\gamma$ colliders: 1. Lowest-order predictions and anomalous couplings

We have constructed a Monte Carlo generator (the corresponding FORTRAN code can be obtained from the authors upon request) for lowest-order predictions for the processes and in the standard model and extensions thereof by an effective coupling as well as anomalous triple and quartic gauge-boson couplings. Polarization is fully supported, and a realistic photon beam spectrum can be taken into account. For the processes all helicity amplitudes are explicitly given in a compact form. The presented numerical results contain, in particular, a survey of cross sections for representative final states and their comparison to results obtained with the program package Whizard/Madgraph. The impact of a realistic beam spectrum on cross sections and distributions is illustrated. Moreover, the size of various contributions to cross sections, such as from weak charged- or neutral-current, or from strong interactions, is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to W-pair production channels where we investigate the impact of background diagrams, possible definitions of the W-pair signal, and the issue of gauge-invariance violation caused by finite gauge-boson widths. Finally, the effects of triple and quartic anomalous gauge-boson couplings on cross sections as well as the possibility to constrain these anomalous couplings at future colliders are discussed.Received: 19 May 2004, Published online: 16 July 2004     

Two loop $\overline{{\rm MS}}$ gluon pole mass from the LCO formalism

We compute the pole mass of the gluon in QCD from the local composite operator formalism at two loops in the renormalization scheme. For the Yang-Mills theory an estimate of the mass at two loops is .Received: 25 October 2004, Published online: 17 December 2004     

The rare annihilation decays $\bar{B}^0_{s,d} \to J/\psi\gamma$

We investigate the physics potential of the annihilation decays in the standard model and beyond. In a naive factorization approach, the branching ratios are estimated to be and . In the framework of QCD factorization, we compute the non-factorizable corrections and get , . Future measurements of these decays would be useful for testing the factorization frameworks. The smallness of these decays in the SM makes them sensitive probes of new physics. As an example, we will consider the possible admixture of the (V + A) charge current to the standard (V-A) current. This admixture will give a significant contribution to the decays.Received: 29 August 2003, Revised: 17 January 2004, Published online: 19 March 2004Corresponding author: Y.D. Yang     

Studies on chargino production and decay at a photon collider

A Monte-Carlo analysis on production and decay of supersymmetric charginos at a future photon-collider is presented. A photon collider offers the possibility of a direct branching-ratio measurement. In this study, the process has been considered for a specific mSUGRA scenario. Various backgrounds and a parameterised detector simulation have been included. Depending on the centre-of-mass energy, a statistical error for the directly measurable branching ratio BR( ) of up to 3.5% can be reached.Received: 14 March 2005, Revised: 31 May 2005, Published online: 28 June 2005G. Klämke: Now at: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Karlsruhe, Wolfgang-Gaede-Str. 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany     

An analysis of the time-dependent CP asymmetryin $B \to \pi \pi$ decays in the standard model

Measurements of the time-dependent CP-asymmetry in the decay and its charge conjugate by the BELLE and BABAR collaborations currently yield and , characterizing the direct and mixing-induced CP-asymmetries, respectively. We study the implication of these measurements on the CKM phenomenology taking into account the available information in the quark mixing sector. Our analysis leads to the results that the ratio |P _c /T _c | involving the QCD-penguin and tree amplitudes and the related strong phase difference in the decays are quite substantial. Using the isospin symmetry to constrain |P _c /T _c | and , where parameterizes the penguin-induced contribution, we present a fit of the current data including the measurements of and . Our best-fits yield , , , , and . At 68% C.L., the ranges are , , , and . Currently en vogue dynamical approaches to estimate the hadronic matrix elements in decays do not provide a good fit of the current data.Received: 5 April 2004, Published online: 14 July 2004A.Ya. Parkhomenko: On leave of absence from Department of Theoretical Physics, Yaroslavl State University, Sovietskaya 14, 150000 Yaroslavl, Russia.     

The process $\gamma(^*) + p \to \eta_c + X$: a test for the perturbative QCD odderon

The rates of inclusive photo- and electroproduction of the meson: are calculated in the triple Regge region, integrated over the diffractive mass X. For the Regge exchanges we use the hard pomeron and odderon, both being calculated in the framework of perturbative QCD. The integrated cross section depends upon the coupling of the BFKL pomeron to two C = -1 odderons, and it is found to be of the order of 60 pb for photoproduction and 1.5 pb at Q² = 25 GeV².Received: 16 April 2003, Published online: 25 February 2004     

b-tagging in DELPHI at LEP

The numbers of events suitable for the determination of the gluon distribution function f ^p _g (x,Q ²) in a proton at the LHC for various intervals of x and Q ² are estimated. The contributions of background events of different sources are studied and estimated in the considered intervals of x and Q ². The PYTHIA event generator was used to produce physical events for this analysis.Received: 17 June 2003, Revised: 8 July 2004, Published online: 24 August 2004N.B. Skachkov: Present address: Joliot-Curie 6, JINR, 141980, Dubna, Moscow region, Russia     

On the Product of Real Spectral Triples

The product of two real spectral triples and , the first of which is necessarily even, was defined by A.Connes as given by and, in the even-even case, by . Generically it is assumed that the real structure obeys the relations , , , where the -sign table depends on the dimension n modulo 8 of the spectral triple. If both spectral triples obey Connes' >-sign table, it is seen that their product, defined in the straightforward way above, does not necessarily obey this -sign table. In this Letter, we propose an alternative definition of the product real structure such that the -sign table is also satisfied by the product.     

Can a non-symmetric metric mimic NCQFT in $e^ + e^- \to \gamma \gamma$?

In the non-symmetric gravitational theory (NGT) the space-time metric departs from the flat-space Minkowski form in such a way that it is no longer symmetric, i.e. . We find that in the most conservative such scenario coupled to quantum field theory, which we call minimally non-symmetric quantum field theory (MNQFT), there are experimentally measurable consequences similar to those from non-commutative quantum field theory (NCQFT). This can be expected from the Seiberg-Witten map which has recently been interpreted as equating gauge theories on non-commutative space-times with those in a field-dependent gravitational background. In particular, in scattering processes such as the pair annihilation , both theories make the same striking prediction that the azimuthal cross section oscillates in . However the predicted number of oscillations differs in the two theories: MNQFT predicts between one and four, whereas NCQFT has no such restriction.Received: 17 May 2004, Revised: 10 September 2004, Published online: 18 November 2004This work was supported by the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.     

Photon events with missing energy in e + e- collisions at $\sqrt{s} = {}$130 to 209 GeV

The production of single- and multi-photon events has been studied in the reaction . The data collected with the DELPHI detector during the years 1999 and 2000 at centre-of-mass energies between 191 GeV and 209 GeV was combined with earlier data to search for phenomena beyond the Standard Model. The measured number of light neutrino families was consistent with three and the absence of an excess of events beyond that predicted by the Standard Model processes was used to set limits on new physics. Both model-independent searches and searches for new processes predicted by supersymmetric and extra-dimensional models have been made. Limits on new non-standard model interactions between neutrinos and electrons were also determined.Received: 31 March 2004, Revised: 14 October 2004, Published online: 7 December 2004