Gravitational helicity interaction

For gravitational deflections of massless particles of given helicity from a classical rotating body, we describe the general relativity corrections to the geometric optics approximation. We compute the corresponding scattering cross sections for neutrinos, photons and gravitons to lowest order in the gravitational coupling constant. We find that the helicity coupling to spacetime geometry modifies the ray deflection formula of the geometric optics, so that rays of different helicity are deflected by different amounts. We also discuss the validity range of the Born approximation.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Nuclear Physics

Effects of an intermediate scale in SUSY grand unification

We discuss the production of lepton flavor violation and EDMs and the viability of the $b-\tau$ unification hypothesis in SUSY grand unification with an intermediate gauge symmetry breaking scale.Comment: 3 pages (Latex, esprc2.sty used), talk given at 4th International Conference on Supersymmetry (SUSY '96, College Park, MD, May 29 - June 1, 1996

QCD Radiative Corrections to the Leptonic Decay Rate of the B_c Meson

The QCD radiative corrections to the leptonic decay rate of the $B_c$ meson are calculated using the formalism of nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) to separate short-distance and long-distance effects. The $B_c$ decay constant is factored into a sum of NRQCD matrix elements each multiplied by a short-distance coefficient. The short-distance coefficient for the leading matrix element is calculated to order $\alpha_s$ by matching a perturbative calculation in full QCD with the corresponding perturbative calculation in NRQCD. This short-distance correction decreases the leptonic decay rate by approximately $15\%$.Comment: Changed Eq. 2 to read 1/(8 \pi), put in a missing i M_{B_c} in Eq. 18, and put in a normalisation factor of 2 M_{B_c} in Eq. 19

The History of the Mysterious Eclipses of KH 15D: Asiago Observatory, 1967-1982

We are gathering archival observations to determine the photometric history of the unique and unexplained eclipses of the pre-main-sequence star KH 15D. Here we present a light curve from 1967-1982, based on photographic plates from Asiago Observatory. During this time, the system alternated periodically between bright and faint states, as observed today. However, the bright state was 0.9 mag brighter than the modern value, and the fractional variation between bright and faint states (Delta I = 0.7 mag) was smaller than observed today (3.5 mag). A possible explanation for these findings is that the system contains a second star that was previously blended with the eclipsing star, but is now completely obscured.Comment: Accepted to AJ. 24 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. v2: Phase error corrected in figures 8 and 1

U(2) and Maximal Mixing of nu_{mu}

A U(2) flavor symmetry can successfully describe the charged fermion masses and mixings, and supress SUSY FCNC processes, making it a viable candidate for a theory of flavor. We show that a direct application of this U(2) flavor symmetry automatically predicts a mixing of 45 degrees for nu_mu to nu_s, where nu_s is a light, right-handed state. The introduction of an additional flavor symmetry acting on the right-handed neutrinos makes the model phenomenologically viable, explaining the solar neutrino deficit as well as the atmospheric neutrino anomaly, while giving a potential hot dark matter candidate and retaining the theory's predictivity in the quark sector.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Photoproduction of h_c

Using the NRQCD factorization formalism, we calculate the total cross section for the photoproduction of h_c mesons. We include color-octet and color-singlet mechanisms as well as next-to-leading order perturbative QCD corrections. The theoretical prediction depends on two nonperturbative matrix elements that are not well determined from existing data on charmonium production. For reasonable values of these matrix elements, the cross section is large enough that the h_c may be observable at the E831 experiment and at the HERA experiments.Comment: Revtex file 8 pages, 1 figure. Macros needed: epsf,floats,rotate Minor typos changed, and reference added. Version to be published in Phys.Rev.

Testing Quarkonium Production with Photoproduced J/ψ+γJ/\psi + \gamma

I compute the leading color-octet contributions to the process $\gamma + p \to J/\psi + \gamma (+ X)$ within the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization formalism. In the color-singlet model, $J/\psi + \gamma$ can only be produced when the photon interacts through its structure function, while the color-octet mechanism allows for production of $J/\psi + \gamma$ via direct photon-gluon fusion. Resolved photon processes can be easily be distinguished from direct photon processes by examining the fraction of the incident photon energy carried away by the $J/\psi$ in the event. Therefore, this process provides a conclusive test of the color-octet mechanism. $J/\psi + \gamma$ production is particularly sensitive to the NRQCD matrix element which figures prominently in the fragmentation production of $J/\psi$ at large $p_{\perp}$ in hadron colliders. I also examine the predictions of the color evaporation model (CEM) of quarkonium production and find that this process can easily discriminate between the NRQCD factorization formalism and the CEM.Comment: uses Revtex, 12 pages, 4 EPS figures embedded using epsf.sty. Some references have been added. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Role of Long-Range Correlations on the Quenching of Spectroscopic Factors

We consider the proton and neutron quasiparticle orbits around the closed-shell 56Ni and 48Ca isotopes. It is found that large model spaces (beyond the capability of shell-model applications) are necessary for predicting the quenchings of spectroscopic factors. The particle-vibration coupling is identified as the principal mechanism. Additional correlations--due to configuration with several particle-hole excitations--are estimated using shell-model calculations and generate an extra reduction which is < ~4% for most quasiparticle states. The theoretical calculations nicely agree with (e,e'p) and heavy ion knock-out experiments. These results open a new path for a microscopic understanding of the shell-model.Comment: Minor comments added and typos corrected. Accepted for publication on Phys. Rev. Let

Mutual cosideration of b→sγb\to s\gamma and μ→eγ\mu\to e\gamma in supersymmetric SO(10) grand unification

We compare the branching ratios for $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ and $\mu\rightarrow e\gamma$ in terms of constraining the parameter space in supersymmetric SO(10) grand unification models where supersymmetry is broken softly near the Planck scale by generationally symmetric operators. We observe two general cases. One with small $\tan\beta =2$ and the other one with large $\tan\beta$ having third generation Yukawa coupling unification at the GUT scale. \newline\indent We show that for small $\tan\beta$ the branching ratio constraints allow only a smaller region of parameter space for $\mu>0$ compared to $\mu<0$ for gluino mass \alt 500 GeV. With large $\tan\beta$, we find acceptable regions of parameter space with \left|\mu \right|\alt 1 TeV only for $\mu<0$. The dominant constraint on large $\tan\beta$ with $\mu >0$ parameter space is found to be given by the $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ branching ratio, while for large $\tan\beta$ with $\mu <0$ it is found to be given by the $\mu\rightarrow e\gamma$ branching ratio. In many of these acceptable regions, we find that the $\mu\rightarrow e\gamma$ branching ratio is predicted to be within one order of magnitude of its current experimental bound. We also show that the usually neglected gluino mediated diagrams in $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ can not be ignored in some regions of parameter space, especially for large $\tan\beta$ scenarios when the gluino mass is near its lower experimental bound.Comment: 14 pages (Latex), 4 PS figs (uuencoded, epsf.tex), slight modification in text, as to appear in Physics Letters

Electric Dipole moments of charged leptons and lepton flavor violating interactions in the general two Higgs Doublet model

We calculate the electric dipole moment of electron using the experimental result of muon electric dipole moment and upper limit of the BR(\mu --> e\gamma) in the framework of the general two Higgs doublet model. Our prediction is 10^{-32} e-cm, which lies in the experimental current limits. Further, we obtain constraints for the Yukawa couplings \bar{\xi}^{D}_{N,\tau e} and \bar{\xi}^{D}_{N,\tau\mu}. Finally we present an expression which connects the BR(\tau\to \mu\gamma) and the electric dipole moment of \tau-lepton and study the relation between these physical quantities.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Figures (required epsf sty