Mixed top-bottom squark production at the LHC

We calculate cross sections for mixed stop-sbottom pair production at the LHC, analogous to single-top production, a weak process involving the W-t(i)-b(j) vertex. While coupling-suppressed relative to QCD same-flavor squark pair production, the signal is distinctive due to heavy-flavor tagging along with a possible same-sign lepton pair in the final state. SUSY backgrounds can often be suppressed many orders of magnitude by taking advantage of distinct kinematic differences from the signal. Measuring the rate of this process would add significant additional information to that gathered from other SUSY processes. If the stop and sbottom mixings can be determined elsewhere, stop-sbottom production would provide for a measurement of the weak squark gauge coupling and super-CKM vertex factor.Comment: typo corrected, comment on W-associated channel added, version to appear in PR

Direct Measurement of the Top Quark Charge at Hadron Colliders

We consider photon radiation in tbar-t events at the upgraded Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as a tool to measure the electric charge of the top quark. We analyze the contributions of tbar-t-gamma production and radiative top quark decays to p-p, pbar-p -> gamma l^+/- nu bbar-b jj, assuming that both b-quarks are tagged. With 20~fb^{-1} at the Tevatron, the possibility that the ``top quark'' discovered in Run I is actually an exotic charge -4/3 quark can be ruled out at the 95% confidence level. At the LHC, it will be possible to determine the charge of the top quark with an accuracy of about 10%.Comment: Revtex, 24 pages, 2 tables, 9 figure

The lightest Higgs boson production at photon colliders in the 2HDM-III

The branching ratios of the lightest CP-even Higgs boson $h^0$, in the framework of the General Two Higgs Doublet Model are calculated. Different scenarios are presented taking into account constraints obtained in previous works on the flavor changing neutral currents factors. Plausible scenarios with flavour changing processes at tree level like $b \bar s$ and $t \bar c$ are analyzed for relevant region of parameters. The loop-induced Higgs couplings to photon pairs can be tested with a photon collider. The number of events of $h^0$ as a resonance in photon colliders are calculated taking into account its corresponding background signal in TESLA, CLIC and NLC.Comment: 1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia. (2) Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. 21 pages, 5 figures, RevTe

Photon State Tomography for Two-Mode Correlated Itinerant Microwave Fields

Continuous variable entanglement between two modes of a radiation field is usually studied at optical frequencies. As an important step towards the observation of entanglement between propagating microwave photons we demonstrate the experimental state reconstruction of two field modes in the microwave domain. In particular, we generate two-mode correlated states with a Josephson parametric amplifier and detect all four quadrature components simultaneously in a two-channel heterodyne setup using amplitude detectors. Analyzing two-dimensional phase space histograms for all possible pairs of quadratures allows us to determine the full covariance matrix and reconstruct the four-dimensional Wigner function. We demonstrate strong correlations between the quadrature amplitude noise in the two modes. Under ideal conditions two-mode squeezing below the standard quantum limit should be observable in future experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Hot Topics in Ultra-Peripheral Collisions

Ultra-peripheral collisions of relativistic heavy ions involve long-ranged electromagnetic interactions at impact parameters too large for hadronic interactions to occur. The nuclear charges are large; with the coherent enhancement, the cross sections are also large. Many types of photonuclear and purely electromagnetic interactions are possible. We present here an introduction to ultra-peripheral collisions, and present four of the most compelling physics topics. This note developed from a discussion at a workshop on ``Electromagnetic Probes of Fundamental Physics,'' in Erice, Italy, Oct. 16-21, 2001.Comment: 7 pages, with 3 figures. This developed from a discussion at the workshop on "Electromagnetic Probes of Fundamental Physics," Oct. 16-21, Erice, Ital

Crystal Structure of the Sodium Cobaltate Deuterate Superconductor NaxCoO2o4xD2O (x=1/3)

Neutron and x-ray powder diffraction have been used to investigate the crystal structures of a sample of the newly-discovered superconducting sodium cobaltate deuterate compound with composition Na0.31(3)CoO2o1.25(2)D2O and its anhydrous parent compound Na0.61(1)CoO2. The deuterate superconducting compound is formed by coordinating four D2O molecules (two above and two below) to each Na ion in a way that gives Na-O distances nearly equal to those in the parent compound. One deuteron of the D2O molecule is hydrogen bonded to an oxygen atom in the CoO2 plane and the oxygen atom and the second deuteron of each D2O molecule lie approximately in a plane between the Na layer and the CoO2 layers. This coordination of Na by four D2O molecules leads to ordering of the Na ions and D2O molecules. The sample studied here, which has Tc=4.5 K, has a refined composition of Na0.31(3)CoO2o1.25(2)D2O, in agreement with the expected 1:4 ratio of Na to D2O. These results show that the optimal superconducting composition should be viewed as a specific hydrated compound, not a solid solution of Na and D2O (H2O) in NaxCoO2oyD2O. Studies of physical properties vs. Na or D2O composition should be viewed with caution until it is verified that the compound remains in the same phase over the composition range of the study.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

ANOMALOUS GAUGE BOSON INTERACTIONS

We discuss the direct measurement of the trilinear vector boson couplings in present and future collider experiments. The major goals of such experiments will be the confirmation of the Standard Model (SM) predictions and the search for signals of new physics. We review our current theoretical understanding of anomalous trilinear gauge boson self-interactions. If the energy scale of the new physics is $\sim 1$ TeV, these low energy anomalous couplings are expected to be no larger than ${\cal O}(10^{-2})$. Constraints from high precision measurements at LEP and low energy charged and neutral current processes are critically reviewed.Comment: 53 pages with 17 embedded figures, LaTeX, uses axodraw.sty, figures available on request. The complete paper, is available at ftp://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-871.ps.Z or http://phenom.physics.wisc.edu/pub/preprints/1995/madph-95-871.ps.Z Summary of the DPF Working Subgroup on Anomalous Gauge Boson Interactions of the DPF Long Range Planning Stud

Probing Trilinear Gauge Boson Interactions via Single Electroweak Gauge Boson Production at the LHC

We analyze the potential of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to study anomalous trilinear vector-boson interactions W^+ W^- \gamma and W^+ W^- Z through the single production of electroweak gauge bosons via the weak boson fusion processes q q -> q q W (-> \ell^\pm \nu) and q q -> q q Z(-> \ell^+ \ell^-) with \ell = e or \mu. After a careful study of the standard model backgrounds, we show that the single production of electroweak bosons at the LHC can provide stringent tests on deviations of these vertices from the standard model prediction. In particular, we show that single gauge boson production exhibits a sensitivity to the couplings \Delta \kappa_{Z,\gamma} similar to that attainable from the analysis of electroweak boson pair production.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure