Supersymmetry Explanation for the Puzzling Bottom Quark Production Cross Section

It has been known for a long time that the cross section for bottom-quark $b$ production at hadron collider energies exceeds theoretical expectations. An additional contribution from pair-production of light gluinos $\tilde{g}$, of mass 12 to 16 GeV, with two-body decays into bottom quarks and light bottom squarks $\tilde{b}$, helps to obtain a $b$ production rate in better agreement with data. The masses of the $\tilde{g}$ and $\tilde{b}$ are restricted further by the ratio of like-sign to opposite-sign leptons at hadron colliders. Constraints on this scenario from other data are examined, and predictions are made for various processes such as Upsilon decay into $\tilde{b}'s$.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 2 figures. Invited paper to be published in the Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Heavy Flavor Physics, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, September 10 - 13, 200

Threshold Resummation of Soft Gluons in Hadronic Reactions -- An Introduction

I discuss the motivation for resummation of the effects of initial-state soft gluon radiation, to all orders in the strong coupling strength, for processes in which the near-threshold region in the partonic subenergy is important. I summarize the method of "perturbative resummation" and its application to the calculation of the total cross section for top quark production at hadron colliders. Comments are included on the differences between the treatment of subleading logarithmic terms in this method and in other approaches.Comment: 15 pages. latex, one figure. Invited paper to be published in the Proceedings of the Symposium on QCD Corrections and New Physics, Hiroshima, October 27 - 29, 199

Production of Prompt Photons

After a brief review of the production dynamics of prompt single photons in hadron collisions, I summarize a new QCD calculation of the transverse momentum distribution of continuum prompt photon pairs produced by QCD subprocesses, including all-orders soft-gluon resummation valid at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. Resummation is necessary to obtain reliable predictions, as well as good agreement with data from the Fermilab Tevatron, in the range of transverse momentum where the cross section is largest. Predictions are made for the Large Hadron Collider where the QCD diphoton continuum is shown to have a softer spectrum in transverse momentum than the Higgs boson signal.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, AIP style file. To be published in the Proceedings of the 9th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP 2006), Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, May 30 - June 3, 200

Supersymmetry Contribution to Bottom Quark Production at Hadron Colliders

A new contribution from pair-production of light gluinos, of mass 12 to 16 GeV, with two-body decays into bottom quarks and light bottom squarks, helps to obtain a bottom-quark production rate in better agreement with hadron collider data. The masses of the gluino and bottom squark are further restricted by the ratio of like-sign to opposite-sign leptons at hadron colliders. Constraints on this scenario from other data are examined and predictions are made.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 1 figure. Uses two-column style file ltwol.sty. To be published in the Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on B Physics and CP Violation, Ise-Shima, Japan, February 18 - 23, 200

The Law\u27s Mystery

What is the continuing significance of Cohen v. California, the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that “Fuck the Draft” is a message protected by the First Amendment? Using Cohen as an exemplar, this article offers a new theory about how to understand the law and judicial opinions. The theory begins in a recognition of the “law” as resting upon mystery and uncertainty, a mystery that is also the source of the law’s enchantment. It is this enchantment that we depend upon for the law to be authoritative rather than authoritarian and reducible to the political and thus to power. In simple terms, the mystery of the law—its being beyond us in this way—constitutes its legitimate authority over us. The law that discloses itself to us does so through the openings that language provides. For our culture, judicial opinions are its primary way of doing this. Having introduced the theory, the article applies it, exploring whether it is possible to bring to the surface the tracings of a “great” judicial performance, using “great” in the sense of revealing an opening through which the law discloses itself. This section describes a reading of Cohen that aims to discover whether through the performance of the opinion, its author has uncovered something that is “of the essence” of our community. The article finally raises questions about what it would mean to legal education and law practice if judicial opinions were evaluated without destroying the law’s mystery. What would it mean if we thought of judges as preservers of this mystery? What would it mean if readers of opinions started thinking in terms of their own experience of the opinion rather than as critics of it? And what would it mean if lawyers saw their task as related to “truth”