Electroweak Precision Physics at e+ e- Colliders with RacoonWW

We present precise predictions for the processes e+ e- -> WW -> 4f(gamma) at LEP2 and future Linear-Collider (LC) energies obtained with the Monte Carlo generator RacoonWW. The program RacoonWW includes the complete O(alpha) electroweak radiative corrections to e+ e- -> WW -> 4f in the double-pole approximation (DPA). While the virtual corrections are treated in DPA, the calculation of the bremsstrahlung corrections is based on the full lowest-order matrix elements to the processes e+ e- -> 4f+gamma. This asymmetric treatment of virtual and real photons requires a careful matching of the arising infrared and collinear singularities. We also take into account higher-order initial-state photon radiation via the structure-function method. Here, we briefly describe the RacoonWW approach, give numerical results for the total W-pair production cross sections, confront them with LEP2 data, and study the impact of the radiative corrections on angular and W-invariant-mass distributions at LEP2 and LC energies.Comment: 12 pages, 13 postscript figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 22nd annual MRST Conference on Theoretical High Energy Physics (MRST 2000), Rochester, New York, May 8-9, 200

W-pair production at future e+e- colliders: precise predictions from RACOONWW

We present numerical results for total cross sections and various distributions for e+e- --> WW --> 4f(+gamma) at a future 500GeV linear collider, obtained from the Monte Carlo generator RACOONWW. This generator is the first one that includes O(alpha) electroweak radiative corrections in the double-pole approximation completely. Owing to their large size the corrections are of great phenomenological importance.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 10 postscript file

Electroweak Radiative Corrections to Off-Shell W-Pair Production

We briefly describe the RacoonWW approach to calculate radiative corrections to e+ e- -> W W -> 4 fermions and present numerical results for the total W-pair production cross section at LEP2.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, talk given at the DPF2000 meeting, Columbus, OH, August 9-12, 200

Probing anomalous quartic gauge-boson couplings via e+e- --> 4fermions+gamma

All lowest-order amplitudes for e+e- --> 4f+gamma are calculated including five anomalous quartic gauge-boson couplings that are allowed by electromagnetic gauge invariance and the custodial SU(2)_c symmetry. Three of these anomalous couplings correspond to the operators L_0, L_c, and L_n that have been constrained by the LEP collaborations in WWgamma production. The anomalous couplings are incorporated in the Monte Carlo generator RACOONWW. Moreover, for the processes e+e- --> 4f+gamma RACOONWW is improved upon including leading universal electroweak corrections such as initial-state radiation. The discussion of numerical results illustrates the size of the leading corrections as well as the impact of the anomalous quartic couplings for LEP2 energies and at 500GeV.Comment: 27 pages, latex, 42 postscript files, some misprints correcte

Electric potential distributions at the interface between plasmasheet clouds

At the interface between two plasma clouds with different densities, temperatures, and/or bulk velocities, there are large charge separation electric fields which can be modeled in the framework of a collisionless theory for tangential discontinuities. Two different classes of layers were identified: the first one corresponds to (stable) ion layers which are thicker than one ion Lamor radius; the second one corresponds to (unstable) electron layers which are only a few electron Larmor radii thick. It is suggested that these thin electron layers with large electric potential gradients (up to 400 mV/m) are the regions where large-amplitude electrostatic waves are spontaneously generated. These waves scatter the pitch angles of the ambient plasmasheet electron into the atmospheric loss cone. The unstable electron layers can therefore be considered as the seat of strong pitch angle scattering for the primary auroral electrons

Abrasion of flat rotating shapes

We report on the erosion of flat linoleum "pebbles" under steady rotation in a slurry of abrasive grit. To quantify shape as a function of time, we develop a general method in which the pebble is photographed from multiple angles with respect to the grid of pixels in a digital camera. This reduces digitization noise, and allows the local curvature of the contour to be computed with a controllable degree of uncertainty. Several shape descriptors are then employed to follow the evolution of different initial shapes toward a circle, where abrasion halts. The results are in good quantitative agreement with a simple model, where we propose that points along the contour move radially inward in proportion to the product of the radius and the derivative of radius with respect to angle