Electromigration failure by shape change of voids in bamboo lines

The behavior of electromigration-induced voids in narrow, unpassivated aluminum interconnects is examined, using scanning electron microscopy. Some electromigration tests were interrupted several times in order to observe void nucleation, void growth, and finally the failure of the conductor line. It is found that voids which opened the line have a specific asymmetric shape with respect to the electron flow direction. Besides void nucleation and void growth, void shape changes can consume a major part of the lifetime of the conductor line. A first attempt to model these processes on the basis of diffusion along the void surface shows that voids with a noncircular initial shape tend to produce the fatal asymmetry due to electron wind effects, with the anisotropy of surface energy possibly playing only a minor role

A Model-independent Description of New Physics effects in e+e- to t tbar

We study the potential of a future $e^+e^-$ collider for the search of anomalous gamma t t bar and Z t t bar couplings, assuming that CP-invariance holds. This is done in a model-independent way, considering that all six possible couplings do appear. Two experimental situations are envisaged, with and without electron beam polarization. Observability limits in the form of domains in the 6-dimensional parameter space are established. Illustrations for specific constrained models are also presented and implications for new physics searches are discussed.Comment: 26 pages and 5 figures. e-mail: [email protected]

Four-Fermi Effective Operators in Top-Quark Production and Decay

Effects of four-Fermi-type new interactions are studied in top-quark pair production and their subsequent decays at future e^+e^- colliders. Secondary-lepton-energy distributions are calculated for arbitrary longitudinal beam polarizations. An optimal-observables procedure is applied for the determination of new parameters.Comment: Polarized e^- plus unpolarized e^+ collisions were include

CP violation in gauge theories

We define the CP transformation properties of scalars, fermions and vectors in a gauge theory and show that only three types of interactions can lead to CP violation: scalar interactions, fermion-scalar interactions and $F \tilde F$ associated with the strong CP problem and which involve only the gauge fields. For technicolor theories this implies the absence of CP violation within perturbation theory.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, revtex and epsf require

Proposing "b-Parity" - a New Approximate Quantum Number in Inclusive b-jet Production - as an Efficient Probe of New Flavor Physics

We consider the inclusive reaction \ell^+ \ell^- -> nb +X (n = number of b-jets) in lepton colliders for which we propose a useful approximately conserved quantum number b_P=(-1)^n that we call b-Parity (b_P). We make the observation that the Standard Model (SM) is essentially b_P-even since SM b_P-violating signals are necessarily CKM suppressed. In contrast new flavor physics can produce b_P=-1 signals whose only significant SM background is due to b-jet misidentification. Thus, we show that b-jet counting, which relies primarily on b-tagging, becomes a very simple and sensitive probe of new flavor physics (i.e., of b_P-violation).Comment: 5 pages using revtex, 2 figures embadded in the text using epsfig. As will appear in Phys.Rev.Lett.. Considerable improvement was made in the background calculation as compared to version 1, by including purity parameters, QCD effects and 4-jets processe

Searching For Anomalous τνW\tau \nu W Couplings

The capability of current and future measurements at low and high energy $e^+e^-$ colliders to probe for the existence of anomalous, CP conserving, $\tau \nu W$ dipole moment-type couplings is examined. At present, constraints on the universality of the tau charged and neutral current interactions as well as the shape of the $\tau \to \ell$ energy spectrum provide the strongest bounds on such anomalous couplings. The presence of these dipole moments are shown to influence, e.g., the extraction of $\alpha_s(m_\tau^2)$ from $\tau$ decays and can lead to apparent violations of CVC expectations.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment and Lepton Flavor Violation

A non-universal interaction, which involves only the third family leptons induces lepton flavor violating couplings and contributes to the anomalous magnetic moment of muon. In this paper, we study the effects of non-universal interaction on muon (g-2) and rare decay $\tau \to \mu \gamma$ by using an effective lagrangian technique, and a phenomenological $Z^\prime$ model where $Z^\prime$ couples only to the third family lepton. We find that the deviation from the theory can be explained and the induced $\tau \to \mu \gamma$ rate could be very close to the current experimental limit. In the $Z^\prime$ model, $M_{Z^\prime}$ has to be lighter than 2.6 TeV.Comment: references added, the version to appear in PR

Search for anomalous top-gluon couplings at LHC revisited

Through top-quark pair productions at LHC, we study possible effects of nonstandard top-gluon couplings yielded by SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) invariant dimension-6 effective operators. We calculate the total cross section and also some distributions for p p -> t tbar X as functions of two anomalous-coupling parameters, i.e., the chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments of the top, which are constrained by the total cross section sigma(p pbar -> t tbar X) measured at Tevatron. We find that LHC might give us some chances to observe sizable effects induced by those new couplings.Comment: One comment and related two refs. added. Final version (to appear in Eur.Phys.J. C

Effective Theory of a Dynamically Broken Electroweak Standard Model at NLO

We consider the Standard Model as an effective theory at the weak scale $v$ of a generic new strong interaction that dynamically breaks electroweak symmetry at the energy scale $\Lambda\sim$ (few) TeV. Assuming only the minimal field content with the Standard Model fermions and gauge bosons, but without a light Higgs particle, we construct the complete Lagrangian through next-to-leading order, that is, including terms of order $v^2/\Lambda^2$. The systematics behind this expansion is clarified. Although similar to chiral perturbation theory, it is not governed by the dimension of operators alone, but depends in an essential way on the loop expansion. Power-counting formulas are derived that indicate the classes of operators required at the next-to-leading order. The complete set of operators at leading and next-to-leading order is then listed, based on the restrictions implied by the Standard-Model gauge symmetries. We recover the well-known operators discussed in the literature in connection with the electroweak chiral Lagrangian and in similar contexts, but we collect a complete and systematic list of all terms through order $v^2/\Lambda^2$. This includes some operators not discussed in explicit terms before. We also show that a few of the previously considered operators can be eliminated via the equations of motion. As another important result we confirm the known list of dimension-6 operators in the Standard Model with an elementary Higgs doublet, essentially as a special case of our scenario.Comment: 35 pages, 1 figure; references adde

Field Transformations and the Classical Equation of Motion in Chiral Perturbation Theory

The construction of effective Lagrangians commonly involves the application of the `classical equation of motion' to eliminate redundant structures and thus generate the minimal number of independent terms. We investigate this procedure in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. The use of the 'classical equation of motion' is interpreted in terms of field transformations. Such an interpretation is crucial if one wants to bring a given Lagrangian into a canonical form with a minimal number of terms. We emphasize that the application of field transformations not only eliminates structures, or, what is equivalent, expresses certain structures in terms of already known different structures, but also leads to a modification of coefficients of higher--order terms. This will become relevant, once one considers effective interaction terms beyond next--to--leading order, i.e., beyond $O(p^4)$.Comment: TRIUMF preprint TRI-PP-94-64, 10 pages in LaTex using RevTex macr