758 research outputs found
Prospects for Discovering Supersymmetry at the LHC
Supersymmetry is one of the best-motivated candidates for physics beyond the
Standard Model that might be discovered at the LHC. There are many reasons to
expect that it may appear at the TeV scale, in particular because it provides a
natural cold dark matter candidate. The apparent discrepancy between the
experimental measurement of g_mu - 2 and the Standard model value calculated
using low-energy e+ e- data favours relatively light sparticles accessible to
the LHC. A global likelihood analysis including this, other electroweak
precision observables and B-decay observables suggests that the LHC might be
able to discover supersymmetry with 1/fb or less of integrated luminosity. The
LHC should be able to discover supersymmetry via the classic missing-energy
signature, or in alternative phenomenological scenarios. The prospects for
discovering supersymmetry at the LHC look very good.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure
Lovelock inflation and the number of large dimensions
We discuss an inflationary scenario based on Lovelock terms. These higher
order curvature terms can lead to inflation when there are more than three
spatial dimensions. Inflation will end if the extra dimensions are stabilised,
so that at most three dimensions are free to expand. This relates graceful exit
to the number of large dimensions.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. v2: published version, added clarification
A Note on Infinities in Eternal Inflation
In some well-known scenarios of open-universe eternal inflation, developed by
Vilenkin and co-workers, a large number of universes nucleate and thermalize
within the eternally inflating mega-universe. According to the proposal, each
universe nucleates at a point, and therefore the boundary of the nucleated
universe is a space-like surface nearly coincident with the future light cone
emanating from the point of nucleation, all points of which have the same
proper-time. This leads the authors to conclude that at the proper-time t =
t_{nuc} at which any such nucleation occurs, an infinite open universe comes
into existence. We point out that this is due entirely to the supposition of
the nucleation occurring at a single point, which in light of quantum cosmology
seems difficult to support. Even an infinitesimal space-like length at the
moment of nucleation gives a rather different result -- the boundary of the
nucleating universe evolves in proper-time and becomes infinite only in an
infinite time. The alleged infinity is never attained at any finite time.Comment: 13 pages and 6 figure
Recommended from our members
Improvement in rice seed storage longevity from high-temperature drying is a consistent positive function of harvest moisture content above a critical value
Drying reduces seed moisture content which improves subsequent seed survival periods. Diverse maximum temperatures have been recommended to limit or avoid damage to seeds, but some high-temperature drying regimes may improve subsequent seed quality. Seeds from 20 different accessions of five rice (Oryza sativa L.) variety groups (aromatic, Aus, Indica, temperate Japonica, tropical Japonica) were harvested over several seasons at different stages of maturation and either dried throughout at 15°C/15% RH or for different initial periods (continuous or intermittent) in different drying regimes at 45°C before final equilibrium drying at 15°C/15% RH. Subsequent seed longevity in hermetic storage at 45°C with 10.9% moisture content was determined. In no case did initial drying at 45°C provide poorer longevity than drying at 15°C/15% RH throughout. There was a split-line relation, which did not differ amongst investigations, between longevity after initial drying at 45°C relative to that at 15°C/15% RH throughout and harvest moisture content, with a break point at 16.5% (a seed moisture status of about -14 MPa). Below 16.5%, relative longevity did not differ with harvest moisture content with little or no advantage to longevity from drying at 45°C. Above 16.5%, relative longevity showed a positive relation with harvest moisture content, with substantial benefit from drying at 45°C to subsequent longevity of seeds harvested whilst still moist. Hence there are temporal (immediately ex planta cf. subsequent air-dry storage) and water status discontinuities (above cf. below 16.5%) in the effect of temperature on subsequent air-dry longevity
Colliders and Cosmology
Dark matter in variations of constrained minimal supersymmetric standard
models will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to the comparison
between accelerator and direct detection constraints.Comment: Submitted for the SUSY07 proceedings, 15 pages, LaTex, 26 eps figure
Supersymmetric Benchmarks with Non-Universal Scalar Masses or Gravitino Dark Matter
We propose and examine a new set of benchmark supersymmetric scenarios, some
of which have non-universal Higgs scalar masses (NUHM) and others have
gravitino dark matter (GDM). The scalar masses in these models are either
considerably larger or smaller than the narrow range allowed for the same
gaugino mass m_{1/2} in the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) with universal scalar
masses m_0 and neutralino dark matter. The NUHM and GDM models with larger m_0
may have large branching ratios for Higgs and/or production in the cascade
decays of heavier sparticles, whose detection we discuss. The phenomenology of
the GDM models depends on the nature of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric
particle (NLSP), which has a lifetime exceeding 10^4 seconds in the proposed
benchmark scenarios. In one GDM scenario the NLSP is the lightest neutralino
\chi, and the supersymmetric collider signatures are similar to those in
previous CMSSM benchmarks, but with a distinctive spectrum. In the other GDM
scenarios based on minimal supergravity (mSUGRA), the NLSP is the lighter stau
slepton {\tilde \tau}_1, with a lifetime between ~ 10^4 and 3 X 10^6 seconds.
Every supersymmetric cascade would end in a {\tilde \tau}_1, which would have a
distinctive time-of-flight signature. Slow-moving {\tilde \tau}_1's might be
trapped in a collider detector or outside it, and the preferred detection
strategy would depend on the {\tilde \tau}_1 lifetime. We discuss the extent to
which these mSUGRA GDM scenarios could be distinguished from gauge-mediated
models.Comment: 52 pages LaTeX, 13 figure
Kernel Bounds for Structural Parameterizations of Pathwidth
Assuming the AND-distillation conjecture, the Pathwidth problem of
determining whether a given graph G has pathwidth at most k admits no
polynomial kernelization with respect to k. The present work studies the
existence of polynomial kernels for Pathwidth with respect to other,
structural, parameters. Our main result is that, unless NP is in coNP/poly,
Pathwidth admits no polynomial kernelization even when parameterized by the
vertex deletion distance to a clique, by giving a cross-composition from
Cutwidth. The cross-composition works also for Treewidth, improving over
previous lower bounds by the present authors. For Pathwidth, our result rules
out polynomial kernels with respect to the distance to various classes of
polynomial-time solvable inputs, like interval or cluster graphs. This leads to
the question whether there are nontrivial structural parameters for which
Pathwidth does admit a polynomial kernelization. To answer this, we give a
collection of graph reduction rules that are safe for Pathwidth. We analyze the
success of these results and obtain polynomial kernelizations with respect to
the following parameters: the size of a vertex cover of the graph, the vertex
deletion distance to a graph where each connected component is a star, and the
vertex deletion distance to a graph where each connected component has at most
c vertices.Comment: This paper contains the proofs omitted from the extended abstract
published in the proceedings of Algorithm Theory - SWAT 2012 - 13th
Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops, Helsinki, Finland, July 4-6, 201
Relating the CMSSM and SUGRA models with GUT scale and Super-GUT scale Supersymmetry Breaking
While the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM) with
universal gaugino masses, m_{1/2}, scalar masses, m_0, and A-terms, A_0,
defined at some high energy scale (usually taken to be the GUT scale) is
motivated by general features of supergravity models, it does not carry all of
the constraints imposed by minimal supergravity (mSUGRA). In particular, the
CMSSM does not impose a relation between the trilinear and bilinear soft
supersymmetry breaking terms, B_0 = A_0 - m_0, nor does it impose the relation
between the soft scalar masses and the gravitino mass, m_0 = m_{3/2}. As a
consequence, tan(\beta) is computed given values of the other CMSSM input
parameters. By considering a Giudice-Masiero (GM) extension to mSUGRA, one can
introduce new parameters to the K\"ahler potential which are associated with
the Higgs sector and recover many of the standard CMSSM predictions. However,
depending on the value of A_0, one may have a gravitino or a neutralino dark
matter candidate. We also consider the consequences of imposing the
universality conditions above the GUT scale. This GM extension provides a
natural UV completion for the CMSSM.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; added erratum correcting several equations and
results in Sec.2, Sec.3 and 4 remain unaffected and conclusions unchange
Unconventional Cosmology
I review two cosmological paradigms which are alternative to the current
inflationary scenario. The first alternative is the "matter bounce", a
non-singular bouncing cosmology with a matter-dominated phase of contraction.
The second is an "emergent" scenario, which can be implemented in the context
of "string gas cosmology". I will compare these scenarios with the inflationary
one and demonstrate that all three lead to an approximately scale-invariant
spectrum of cosmological perturbations.Comment: 45 pages, 10 figures; invited lectures at the 6th Aegean Summer
School "Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology", Chora, Naxos, Greece, Sept.
12 - 17 2012, to be publ. in the proceedings; these lecture notes form an
updated version of arXiv:1003.1745 and arXiv:1103.227
A protocol to determine seed storage behaviour
This publications provides an approach by which conservationists can determine whether or not long-term seed storage is feasible for a particular species, i.e. whether or not that species shows orthodox seed storage behaviour. It provides advice on the implementation of the protocol, examples of ways in which the results from seed storage studies could be misinterpreted due to confounding factors, as well as several alternative approaches for estimating seed storage behaviour prior to carrying out actual investigations with the seeds. In particular, the latter section introduces the concept of a multicriteria approach for estimating seed storage behaviour. It is intended to be used along with the Compendium (see IPGRI Handbooks for Genebanks No.4 - Seed Storage behaviour: a Compendium); these two publications are essentially complementary. The overall aim of the protocol is to guide and encourage further work in this area of seed physiology (particularly for species on which relatively less work has been done to date)m with the objective to expanding on/up-dating the type of species-specific data compiled in the compendium
- …