On the Critical Behavior of D1-brane Theories

We study renormalization-group flow patterns in theories arising on D1-branes in various supersymmetry-breaking backgrounds. We argue that the theory of N D1-branes transverse to an orbifold space can be fine-tuned to flow to the corresponding orbifold conformal field theory in the infrared, for particular values of the couplings and theta angles which we determine using the discrete symmetries of the model. By calculating various nonplanar contributions to the scalar potential in the worldvolume theory, we show that fine-tuning is in fact required at finite N, as would be generically expected. We further comment on the presence of singular conformal field theories (such as those whose target space includes a ``throat'' described by an exactly solvable CFT) in the non-supersymmetric context. Throughout the analysis two applications are considered: to gauge theory/gravity duality and to linear sigma model techniques for studying worldsheet string theory.Comment: 23 pages in harvmac big, 8 figure

A crisis for public-private partnerships (PPPs)?

The credit squeeze and recession are combining to make PPPs almost impossible to finance, anywhere in the world. Traditional government borrowing and procurement can still be used to implement infrastructure programmes

Radiative Kaon Decays and the Penguin Contribution to the Delta I = 1/2 Rule

A consistent census of penguins in the Delta I = 1/2 rule is taken from the eta0 pole contribution to the radiative KL to gamma gamma, KS to pi0 gamma gamma and K+ to pi+ gamma gamma decay modes. We briefly comment on its impact for KL to pi0 pi0 gamma gamma, KL to pi+ pi- gamma and check its compatibility with the KL - KS mass difference and the CP violating epsilon-prime / epsilon parameter.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure

Constraining the Two-Higgs-Doublet-Model parameter space

We confront the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model with a variety of experimental constraints as well as theoretical consistency conditions. The most constraining data are the \bar B\to X_s\gamma decay rate (at low values of M_{H^\pm}), and \Delta\rho (at both low and high M_{H^\pm}). We also take into account the B\bar B oscillation rate and R_b, or the width \Gamma(Z\to b\bar b) (both of which restrict the model at low values of \tan\beta), and the B^-\to\tau\nu_\tau decay rate, which restricts the model at high \tan\beta and low M_{H^\pm}. Furthermore, the LEP2 non-discovery of a light, neutral Higgs boson is considered, as well as the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Since perturbative unitarity excludes high values of \tan\beta, the model turns out to be very constrained. We outline the remaining allowed regions in the \tan\beta-M_{H^\pm} plane for different values of the masses of the two lightest neutral Higgs bosons, and describe some of their properties.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure

Phenomenological Consequences of sub-leading Terms in See-Saw Formulas

Several aspects of next-to-leading (NLO) order corrections to see-saw formulas are discussed and phenomenologically relevant situations are identified. We generalize the formalism to calculate the NLO terms developed for the type I see-saw to variants like the inverse, double or linear see-saw, i.e., to cases in which more than two mass scales are present. In the standard type I case with very heavy fermion singlets the sub-leading terms are negligible. However, effects in the percent regime are possible when sub-matrices of the complete neutral fermion mass matrix obey a moderate hierarchy, e.g. weak scale and TeV scale. Examples are cancellations of large terms leading to small neutrino masses, or inverse see-saw scenarios. We furthermore identify situations in which no NLO corrections to certain observables arise, namely for mu-tau symmetry and cases with a vanishing neutrino mass. Finally, we emphasize that the unavoidable unitarity violation in see-saw scenarios with extra fermions can be calculated with the formalism in a straightforward manner.Comment: 22 pages, matches published versio