What heavy quanta bounds could be inferred from a Higgs discovery?

The Higgs couplings can receive non-decoupling corrections due to heavy quanta, and deviations from the SM can be used to test its presence. The possible Higgs signal recently reported at LEP, with mh=115 GeV, severely constrains the presence of heavy quanta, such as a heavy fourth family. At Tevatron, the Higgs production by gluon fusion, followed by the decay h -> WW*, can also be used to probe the existence of heavy colored particles, including additional families, chiral sextet and octet quarks. Within the MSSM, we also find that gluon fusion is a sensitive probe for the squark spectrum.Comment: 12 pages, 3 tables, 1 figure. Accepted in Mod. Phys. Lett. A (2001

Internal kinematic and physical properties in a BCD galaxy: Haro 15 in detail

We present a detailed study of the kinematic and physical properties of the ionized gas in multiple knots of the blue compact dwarf galaxy Haro 15. Using echelle and long slit spectroscopy data, obtained with different instruments at Las Campanas Observatory, we study the internal kinematic and physical conditions (electron density and temperature), ionic and total chemical abundances of several atoms, reddening and ionization structure. Applying direct and empirical methods for abundance determination, we perform a comparative analysis between these regions and in their different components. On the other hand, our echelle spectra show complex kinematics in several conspicuous knots within the galaxy. To perform an in-depth 2D spectroscopic study we complete this work with high spatial and spectral resolution spectroscopy using the Integral Field Unit mode on the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument at the Gemini South telescope. With these data we are able to resolve the complex kinematical structure within star forming knots in Haro 15 galaxy.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, IX Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society held on September 13-17, 2010, in Madrid, Spai

A search for diffuse bands in fullerene planetary nebulae: evidence of diffuse circumstellar bands

Large fullerenes and fullerene-based molecules have been proposed as carriers of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). The recent detection of the most common fullerenes (C60 and C70) around some planetary nebulae (PNe) now enable us to study the DIBs towards fullerene-rich space environments. We search DIBs in the optical spectra towards three fullerene-containing PNe (Tc 1, M 1-20, and IC 418). Special attention is given to DIBs which are found to be unusually intense towards these fullerene sources. In particular, an unusually strong 4428A absorption feature is a common charateristic of fullerene PNe. Similar to Tc 1, the strongest optical bands of neutral C60 are not detected towards IC 418. Our high-quality (S/N > 300) spectra for PN Tc 1, together with its large radial velocity, permit us to search for the presence of diffuse bands of circumstellar origin, which we refer to as diffuse circumstellar bands (DCBs). We report the first tentative detection of two DCBs at 4428 and 5780 A in the fullerene-rich circumstellar environment around the PN Tc 1. Laboratory and theoretical studies of fullerenes in their multifarious manifestations (carbon onions, fullerene clusters, or even complex species formed by fullerenes and other molecules like PAHs or metals) may help solve the mystery of some of the diffuse band carriers.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics (16 pages, 10 figures, and 7 Tables); final version (changes regarding PN M 1-20 and language corrected

Near-barrier Fusion Induced by Stable Weakly Bound and Exotic Halo Light Nuclei

The effect of breakup is investigated for the medium weight $^{6}$Li+$^{59}$Co system in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. The strong coupling of breakup/transfer channels to fusion is discussed within a comparison of predictions of the Continuum Discretized Coupled-Channels model which is also applied to $^{6}$He+$^{59}$Co a reaction induced by the borromean halo nucleus $^{6}$He.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. A talk given at the FUSION06: International Conference on Reaction Mechanisms and Nuclear Structure at the Coulomb barrier, March 19-23, 2006, San Servolo, Venezia, Ital

Correlations between reflected and transmitted intensity patterns emerging from opaque disordered media

The propagation of monochromatic light through a scattering medium produces speckle patterns in reflection and transmission, and the apparent randomness of these patterns prevents direct imaging through thick turbid media. Yet, since elastic multiple scattering is fundamentally a linear and deterministic process, information is not lost but distributed among many degrees of freedom that can be resolved and manipulated. Here we demonstrate experimentally that the reflected and transmitted speckle patterns are correlated, even for opaque media with thickness much larger than the transport mean free path, proving that information survives the multiple scattering process and can be recovered. The existence of mutual information between the two sides of a scattering medium opens up new possibilities for the control of transmitted light without any feedback from the target side, but using only information gathered from the reflected speckle.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure