4,813 research outputs found
A Statistical Model to Explain the Mendel--Fisher Controversy
In 1866 Gregor Mendel published a seminal paper containing the foundations of
modern genetics. In 1936 Ronald Fisher published a statistical analysis of
Mendel's data concluding that "the data of most, if not all, of the experiments
have been falsified so as to agree closely with Mendel's expectations." The
accusation gave rise to a controversy which has reached the present time. There
are reasonable grounds to assume that a certain unconscious bias was
systematically introduced in Mendel's experimentation. Based on this
assumption, a probability model that fits Mendel's data and does not offend
Fisher's analysis is given. This reconciliation model may well be the end of
the Mendel--Fisher controversy.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-STS342 the Statistical
Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Charge breaking bounds in the Zee model
We study the possibility that charge breaking minima occur in the Zee model.
We reach very different conclusions from those attained in simpler, two Higgs
doublet models, and the reason for this is traced back to the existence of
cubic terms in the potential. A scan of the Zee model's parameter space shows
that CB is restricted to a narrow region of values of the parameters
Flavour Physics and CP Violation in the Standard Model and Beyond
We present the invited lectures given at the Third IDPASC School which took
place in Santiago de Compostela in January 2013. The students attending the
school had very different backgrounds, some of them were doing their Ph.D. in
experimental particle physics, others in theory. As a result, and in order to
make the lectures useful for most of the students, we focused on basic topics
of broad interest, avoiding the more technical aspects of Flavour Physics and
CP Violation. We make a brief review of the Standard Model, paying special
attention to the generation of fermion masses and mixing, as well as to CP
violation. We describe some of the simplest extensions of the SM, emphasising
novel flavour aspects which arise in their framework.Comment: Invited talk at the Third IDPASC School 2013, January 21st - February
2nd 2013, Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain; 36 pages, 8 figures, 2
tables; version with few misprints correcte
Spontaneous CP Violation in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model Revisited
We re-examine spontaneous CP violation at the tree level in the context of
the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) with two Higgs
doublets and a gauge singlet field. We analyse the most general Higgs potential
without a discrete Z_3 symmetry, and derive an upper bound on the mass of the
lightest neutral Higgs boson consistent with present experimental data. We
investigate, in particular, its dependence on the admixture and CP-violating
phase of the gauge singlet field, as well as on tan(beta). To assess the
viability of the spontaneous CP violation scenario, we estimate epsilon_K by
applying the mass insertion approximation. We find that a non-trivial flavour
structure in the soft-breaking A terms is required to account for the observed
CP violation in the neutral kaon sector. Furthermore, combining the
minimisation conditions for spontaneous CP violation with the constraints
coming from K0-K0bar mixing, we find that the upper bound on the lightest
Higgs-boson mass becomes stronger. We also point out that the electric dipole
moments of electron and neutron are a serious challenge for SUSY models with
spontaneous CP violation.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX2e, 5 figures; matches the published versio
Small violations of unitarity, the phase in Bs mixing and visible t->cZ decays at the LHC
We show that it is possible to accommodate the observed size of the phase in
--, mixing in the framework of a model with violation of
unitarity. This violation is associated to the presence of a new
isosinglet quark , which mixes both with and and has a mass
not exceeding 500 GeV. The crucial point is the fact that this framework allows
for of order , to be
contrasted with the situation in the Standard Model, where is
constrained to be of order . We point out that this scenario implies
rare top decays at a rate observable at the LHC and
significantly different from unity. In this framework, one may also account for
the observed size of -- mixing without having to invoke long
distance contributions. It is also shown that in the present scenario, the
observed size of -- mixing constrains
to be of order
, which is significantly smaller than what is allowed in generic
models with violations of unitarity.Comment: 20 pages. References added. Additional observables considered,
updated numerical examples, conclusions unchange
On fermion masses and mixing in a model with symmetry
In a recently proposed multi-Higgs extension of the standard model in which
discrete symmetries, and are imposed we show that, after
accommodating the fermion masses and the mixing matrices in the charged
currents, the mixing matrices in the neutral currents induced by neutral
scalars are numerically obtained. However, the flavor changing neutral currents
are under control mainly by mixing and/or mass suppressions in the neutral
scalar sector.Comment: Version accepted for publication in International Journal of Modern
Physics A. In this version we added a discussion on the charged lepton and
neutrino masses. The title has been changed. Other minor changes do not
modify the conclusion
Phenomenology of a Quark Mass Matrix from Six Dimensions and its implication for the Strong CP problem
A model of quark mass matrices from six dimensions, which is nearly democatic
in nature and which is previously constructed by two of us (PQH and MS), is
studied in detail in this manuscript. We found that not only it fits all the
six quark masses as well as the CKM matrix but also that there exists a region
in the allowed parameter space of the model where the constraint on the
parameter \bar{\theta} of the Strong CP problem is satisfied. This region
itself puts a constraint on the CKM parameters \bar{\rho} and \bar{\eta}. As
such, through our analysis, there appears to be a deep connection between
Strong and Weak CP in this modelComment: RevTeX, 21 pages and 14 figure
Earthquakes and robustness for timber structures
Major similarities between robustness assessment and seismic design exist, and significant information can be brought from seismic design to robustness design. As will be discussed, although some methods and limitations considered in seismic design can improve robustness, the capacity of the structure to sustain limited damage without disproportionate effects is significantly more complex. In fact, seismic design can either improve or reduce the resistance of structures to unforeseeable events, depending on structural type, triggering event, structural material, among others.European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST
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