The decay of theZ boson into four massive fermions

We calculate, the partial width for the tree level decay of theZ boson into four massive fermions atO(α²) and \(O(\alpha _s^2 )\) . Analytic expressions for the helicity amplitudes are presented. We also present ‘observable’ widths for the case when the fermions are energetic and well separated, and make a comparison between the massive and massless matrix elements in this region. We make a direct comparison between the four fermion decay and the production and decay of the Higgs boson via the Bjorken mechanism, \(Z \to H\mu ^ + \mu ^ - \to q\bar q\mu ^ + \mu ^ - \) . Provided the detector resolution is good, \(\Delta m_{q\bar q} \) ～ few GeV, the Higgs signal stands clearly above the four fermion background for all Higgs boson masses considered.     

Vibrotactile temporal gap detection as a function of age

The ability of subjects to detect temporal gaps between bursts of sinusoids or bursts of bandlimited noise was measured to evaluate the phenomenon of tactile "sensory persistence" in older persons. Vibratory stimuli were delivered to the right thenar eminence of 27 subjects ranging in age from 8-75 years. The subjects' task was to detect the presence of a silent interval or "gap" between flanking 350-ms vibrotactile stimuli. The gap-detection threshold, expressed as the amplitude of vibration relative to the absolute detection threshold, decreased as the gap duration increased and was higher for gaps in noise than for gaps in sinusoids. The threshold for detecting short gaps increased with age for noise stimuli, but not for sinusoidal stimuli. Furthermore, the gap-detection threshold recovered more rapidly in older subjects for noise stimuli, but less rapidly in older subjects for sinusoidal stimuli. Because of these differences, it appears that the effects of age on gap detection cannot be due to a simple increase in sensory persistence, but may be due to multiple processes.     

An algorithm for the linear complementarity problem with upper and lower bounds

In this paper, we adapt the octahedral simplicial algorithm for solving systems of nonlinear equations to solve the linear complementarity problem with upper and lower bounds. The proposed algorithm generates a piecewise linear path from an arbitrarily chosen pointz ⁰ to a solution point. This path is followed by linear programming pivot steps in a system ofn linear equations, wheren is the size of the problem. The starting pointz ⁰ is left in the direction of one of the 2 ⁿ vertices of the feasible region. The ray along whichz ⁰ is left depends on the sign pattern of the function value atz ⁰. The sign pattern of the linear function and the location of the points in comparison withz ⁰ completely govern the path of the algorithm.This research is part of the VF-Program Equilibrium and Disequilibrium in Demand and Supply, approved by the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Den Haag, The Netherlands.