Supersymmetry breaking at the end of a cascade of Seiberg dualities

We study the IR dynamics of the cascading non-conformal quiver theory on N regular and M fractional D3 branes at the tip of the complex cone over the first del Pezzo surface. The horizon of this cone is the irregular Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^{2,1}. Our analysis shows that at the end of the cascade supersymmetry is dynamically broken.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, typos correcte

CP violation as a probe of flavor origin in Supersymmetry

We address the question of the relation between supersymmetry breaking and the origin of flavor in the context of CP violating phenomena. We prove that, in the absence of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase, a general Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with all possible phases in the soft-breaking terms, but no new flavor structure beyond the usual Yukawa matrices, can never give a sizeable contribution to $\epsilon_K$, $\epsilon^\prime/\epsilon$ or hadronic $B^0$ CP asymmetries. Observation of supersymmetric contributions to CP asymmetries in B decays would hint at a non-flavor blind mechanism of supersymmetry breaking.Comment: Reference added. 7 pages, no figure

An Examination of Behaviors and Attitudes toward Food Based on the Self-Reported Desire to Lose Weight: A Comparison of Two Groups in the United States and Italy

This research uses a survey instrument in the United States and Italy to examine the relationship between consumers’ demographics, attitudes, and behaviors toward food purchasing and their self-described desire to lose weight. Approximately two-thirds of consumers in the United States and slightly over half of consumers in Italy indicated a desire to lose weight. Married consumers with children in the household in both countries are more likely to desire to lose weight. Furthermore, consumers from both countries who desire to lose weight were more likely to agree that “the main meal of the day is the most important time of the day for my household.†Although the main meal of the day is more important to consumers from both countries who desire to lose weight, consumers in the United States who desire to lose weight were more likely to indicate that every member of their families eat the main meal together. Consumers in Italy who desire to lose weight were less likely to indicate that every member of their families eat the main meal together. The self-described overweight consumers in both countries enjoy cooking and have sufficient food for their families. However, the overweight consumer in the United States is often too busy to cook. This research finds no difference in the number of meals eaten away from home in a typical week between those in each country who desire to lose weight and those who do not. Furthermore, in the United States the sources of foods eaten away from home, such as fast food, are not related to the importance to the consumer of weight loss.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

Non-factorizable contributions to Bd0ˉ→Ds(∗)Ds(∗)ˉ\bar{B^0_d} \to D_s^{(*)} \bar{D_s^{(*)}}

It is pointed out that decays of the type $B \to D \bar{D}$ have no factorizable contributions, unless at least one of the charmed mesons in the final state is a vector meson. The dominant contributions to the decay amplitudes arise from chiral loop contributions and tree level amplitudes generated by soft gluon emissions forming a gluon condensate. We predict that the branching ratios for the processes $\bar B^0 \to D_s^+ D_s^-$, $\bar B^0 \to D_s^{+*} D_s^-$ and $\bar B^0 \to D_s^+ D_s^{-*}$ are all of order $(3- 4) \times 10^{-4}$, while $\bar B^0 \to D_s^{+*} D_s^{-*}$ has a branching ratio 5 to 10 times bigger. We emphasize that the branching ratios are sensitive to $1/m_c$ corrections.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Based on talk by J.O. Eeg at BEACH 2004, 6th international conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons, Illionois Institute of Technology, Chicago, june. 27 - july 3, 200

Non-extremal fractional branes

We construct non-extremal fractional D-brane solutions of type-II string theory at the Z_2 orbifold point of K3. These solutions generalize known extremal fractional-brane solutions and provide further insights into N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories and dual descriptions thereof. In particular, we find that for these solutions the horizon radius cannot exceed the non-extremal enhancon radius. As a consequence, we conclude that a system of non-extremal fractional branes cannot develop into a black brane. This conclusion is in agreement with known dual descriptions of the system.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX. v2: 30 pages; equation (3.4) corrected; typos fixed; discussion in section 3 streamlined and slightly extended; reference adde

Grounding the case for a European approach to the regulation of automated driving: the technology-selection effect of liability rules

In the current paper, we discuss the need for regulation at EU level of Connected and Automated Driving solutions (henceforth CAD) based on multiple considerations, namely (i) the need for uniformity of criteria across European Member States, and (ii) the impact that regulation—or the absence of it—has on the proliferation of specific technological solutions. The analysis is grounded on legal and economic considerations of possible interactions between vehicles with different levels of automation, and shows how the existing framework delays innovation. A Risk-Management Approach, identifying one sole responsible party ex ante (one-stop-shop), liable under all circumstances—pursuant to a strict, if not absolute liability rule—is to be preferred. We analyse the solution adopted by some Member States in light of those considerations and conclude that none truly corresponds to a RMA approach, and differences will also cause market fragmentation. We conclude that because legal rules determine what kind of technological application is favoured over others—and thence they are not technology-neutral—uniformity across MSs is of essential relevance, and discuss possible policy approaches to be adopted at European level

Brane-Inspired Orientifold Field Theories

In this paper we consider the gauge theory living on the world-volume of a stack of N D3-branes of Type 0B/\Omega' I_6(-1)^{F_{L}} and of its orbifolds C^2/Z_2 and C^3/(Z_2 x Z_2). The gauge theories obtained in the three cases are a brane realization of ``orientifold field theories'' having the bosonic sector common with N=4,2,1 super Yang-Mills respectively. In these non-supersymmetric theories, we investigate the possibility of keeping the gauge/gravity correspondence that has revealed itself so successful in the case of supersymmetric theories. In the open string framework we compute the coefficient of the gauge kinetic term showing that the perturbative behaviour of the orientifold field theory can be obtained from the closed string channel in the large N limit, where the theory exhibits Bose-Fermi degeneracy.Comment: 27 pages, LaTe