Testing Split Supersymmetry with Inflation

Split supersymmetry (SUSY) -- in which SUSY is relevant to our universe but largely inaccessible at current accelerators -- has become increasingly plausible given the absence of new physics at the LHC, the success of gauge coupling unification, and the observed Higgs mass. Indirect probes of split SUSY such as electric dipole moments (EDMs) and flavor violation offer hope for further evidence but are ultimately limited in their reach. Inflation offers an alternate window into SUSY through the direct production of superpartners during inflation. These particles are capable of leaving imprints in future cosmological probes of primordial non-gaussianity. Given the recent observations of BICEP2, the scale of inflation is likely high enough to probe the full range of split SUSY scenarios and therefore offers a unique advantage over low energy probes. The key observable for future experiments is equilateral non-gaussianity, which will be probed by both cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large scale structure (LSS) surveys. In the event of a detection, we forecast our ability to find evidence for superpartners through the scaling behavior in the squeezed limit of the bispectrum.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Building a Better mSUGRA: WIMP Dark Matter Without Flavor Violation

The appearance of a natural dark matter candidate, the neutralino, is among the principal successes of minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) and its descendents. In lieu of a suitable ultraviolet completion, however, theories of gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking such as mSUGRA suffer from arbitrary degrees of flavor violation. Though theories of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking are free from such prohibitive flavor violation, they typically lack natural neutralino dark matter candidates. Yet this conventional dichotomy breaks down when the hidden sector is strongly coupled; in models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, the neutralino may be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) if the fields of the hidden sector possess large anomalous dimensions. In fact, general models of so-called "sequestered" gauge mediation possess the full richness of neutralino dark matter found in mSUGRA without corresponding flavor problems. Here we explore generalized models of sequestered gauge mediation and the rich variety of neutralino dark matter they exhibit.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure

Reshaping the field: building restorative capital

Restorative justice is best known as an alternative approach for dealing with crime and wrongdoing. Yet as the restorative movement has grown it is increasingly being deployed in different arenas. Based on a two-year study funded by the UK National Lottery, this article provides an early glimpse into how people experience the introduction of restorativeness as cultural change within an organisational context. Using a combination of observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups, this research explores how different staff groups react to, adapt to and resist the introduction of a new ethos and language within their organisation. Drawing on the ideas of Bourdieu (1986), it appears that a new form of restorative cultural capital is emerging that threatens the very integrity of the values restorative justice claims to uphold

Analysis of aircraft spectrometer data with logarithmic residuals

Spectra from airborne systems must be analyzed in terms of their mineral-related absorption features. Methods for removing backgrounds and extracting these features one at a time from reflectance spectra are discussed. Methods for converting radiance spectra into a form similar to reflectance spectra so that the feature extraction procedures can be implemented on aircraft spectrometer data are also discussed

Controlling evaporation loss from water storages

[Executive Summary]: Evaporation losses from on-farm storage can potentially be large, particularly in irrigation areas in northern New South Wales and Queensland where up to 40% of storage volume can be lost each year to evaporation. Reducing evaporation from a water storage would allow additional crop production, water trading or water for the environment. While theoretical research into evaporation from storages has previously been undertaken there has been little evaluation of current evaporation mitigation technologies (EMTs) on commercial sized water storages. This project was initiated by the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines (NRM) with the express aim of addressing this gap in our knowledge. The report addressed i) assessment of the effectiveness of different EMT’s in reducing evaporation from commercial storages across a range of climate regions, ii) assessment of the practical and technical limitations of different evaporation control products, and iii) comparison of the economics of different EMT’s on water storages used for irrigation

Literacy, Numeracy and Labour Market Outcomes in Canada

Most research on the contribution of human capital to economic growth and its role in the distribution of income uses indirect measures of human capital such as educational attainment and work experience. Such measures are arguably inputs into the production of human capital in the form of skills, competencies and knowledge. This study uses Canadian data from the international Adult Literacy Survey to analyse the role of directly observed skills -- specifically, prose, document and quantitative literacy -- on individual labour market earnings. The contributions of unobserved skills are taken into account using input measures (education and experience). We find that literacy skills have a large and statistically significant causal effect on earnings. As much as one-third of the return to education may be due to the combined effects of education on literacy and of literacy skills on earnings. In contrast, very little of the return to labour market experience is associated with the combined effects of experience on literacy and literacy skills on earnings.

Wiley Rutledge, Executive Detention, and Judicial Conscience at War

John Ferren’s Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court is the first full biography of Rutledge, and the book not only lifts Rutledge from obscurity’s shadow; it also dispels any “limbo” surrounding the Court he served. Part I of this Article offers a brief biographical sketch showing that Rutledge deserves that much. His pre-judicial life as dean, legal reformer, and advocate of progressive politics provides context for his work on the bench. Also, Rutledge’s tale illuminates broader issues, including FDR’s transformative judicial appointments, early twentieth-century legal education, and the New Deal’s influence on both. Students of history, and especially students of the Court, will appreciate Ferren’s introduction to this unknown, important Justice. Part II shifts from the historical to the modern, analyzing the impact of Rutledge’s judicial work on today’s cases concerning executive detention. In recent Supreme Court litigation, President Bush has claimed the power to detain individuals without judicial oversight, without criminal charges, and with at most hand-tailored military commissions to punish violations of the law of nations. Such issues might seem novel today, but they would not to Rutledge. The most important cases of his era concerned the executive’s authority to detain. And Rutledge’s career, more than that of any other judge, exemplifies the challenges and mistakes affecting the rule of law in wartime. Part III connects Rutledge’s life and Ferren’s book to the deepest issues underlying any judicial biography—namely, what judges should do and who they should be. Consider why judicial biographies are read in the first place. Compared to politicians, movie stars, generals, and other “biographees,” judges fill their lives with plodding, sedentary events that do not produce a gripping read. The unacknowledged appeal of judicial biographies, however, is the light that their subjects’ stories cast on general issues of judging and judicial role. In our legal culture, biography is a repository for stories about “great” and “villainous” judges. These stories shape the context of modern judicial performance and, in turn, how such performance is itself judged. In the final analysis, I suggest that judicial biography—done well, at the right time—can focus much-needed attention on questions of judicial role. And although the character and talents of judges are always important, they are distinctively so under the pressures of our War on Terror

Symposium: \u3ci\u3eErie\u3c/i\u3e at Eighty: Choice of Law Across the Disciplines: \u3ci\u3eErie\u3c/i\u3e\u27s Intellectual History

Erie R.R. v. Tompkins is an iconic case in American law, and it has held that status for a very long time. One byproduct of such longevity is that the decision’s meaning and context have changed dramatically through the ages. Indeed, the sheer variability of Erie’s interpretations helps to explain why the decision has remained such an important, controversial, and influential feature of American legal thought for eighty years. This essay offers a brief and schematic account of Erie’s intellectual history, while also offering cautionary signals about Erie’s most recent group of interpreters. Even for observers who might endorse Erie’s new and ongoing expansions, appreciation for the decision’s dynamic intellectual history is indispensable for charting Erie’s future applications, theories, and limits

Beyond States: A Constitutional History of Territory, Statehood, and Nation-Building

The United States has always been more than simply a group of united states. The constitutional history of national union and component states is linked to a third category: federal territory. This Article uses an integrated history of territory, statehood, and union to develop a new framework for analyzing constitutional statehood. Three historical periods are crucial—the Founding Era, the Civil War, and Reconstruction—as times when statehood was especially malleable as a matter of constitutional law. During each of those formative periods, the most important constitutional struggles about statehood and the union involved federal territories. Conflicts about territories reveal an important distinction between theories of states’ constitutional authority to participate in national politics (the “skeleton” of statehood) and their constitutional authority to resist the national government (the “muscle” of statehood). The skeletal authority of states to participate in federal politics has been legally explicit and essential since the Articles of Confederation. By comparison, advocates for muscular states’ rights have relied on dubious inferences and historical distortions. During the Founding Era and the Civil War, pivotal disputes concerning territories were resolved to favor the skeleton of representational statehood instead of the muscular statehood of antifederal resistance. During Reconstruction, however, the Supreme Court created new doctrines of muscular statehood that were based on inaccurate histories of the Founding and the Civil War. Judicial decisions like the Slaughter-House Cases and the Civil Rights Cases applied those doctrinal theories of muscular statehood to limit individual rights and congressional power under the Reconstruction Amendments. In the late twentieth century, such precedents gained force after the confirmation of politically conservative Supreme Court Justices, and similar doctrines might be even more powerful with the modern Court’s conservative supermajority