Natural fermion mass hierarchy and mixings in family unification

We present an SU(9) model of family unification with three light chiral families, and a natural hierarchy of charged fermion masses and mixings. The existence of singlet right handed neutrions with masses about two orders of magnitude smaller than the GUT scale, as needed to understand the light neutrinos masses via the see-saw mechanism, is compelling in our model.Comment: 7 pages, no figur

‘To be, or not to be’: Hamlet Q1, Q2 and Montaigne

The differences between the second quarto (1604-5) version of Hamlet’s soliloquy beginning ‘To be, or not to be’ and the version contained in the first quarto (1603) have often been used to argue for the authorial integrity of the former and the degenerate nature of the latter. However, recent research has questioned the customary primacy between these two texts, arguing instead that Q2 revises and expands Q1 (as the title page of Q2 claims). This article will attempt to substantiate this interpretation by showing that Shakespeare's revision of ‘To be, or not to be’ is inspired by the ideas and vocabulary of Montaigne’s essay ‘By diuers meanes men come unto a like end’, translated by John Florio and published in 1603. Shakespeare’s indebtedness to Montaigne has been noted before, most notably in The Tempest. But it is significant that possibly Shakespeare’s first direct encounter with Montaigne is inspired by the very first three pages of Montaigne’s Essays

Conformality and Gauge Coupling Unification

It has been recently proposed to embed the standard model in a conformal gauge theory to resolve the hierarchy problem, and to avoid assuming either grand unification or low-energy supersymmetry. By model building based on string-field duality we show how to maintain the successful prediction of an electroweak mixing angle with $sin^2\theta \simeq 0.231$ in conformal gauge theories with three chiral families.Comment: 8 pages LaTe

Stability Issues for w < -1 Dark Energy

Precision cosmological data hint that a dark energy with equation of state $w = P/\rho < -1$ and hence dubious stability is viable. Here we discuss for any $w$ nucleation from $\Lambda > 0$ to $\Lambda = 0$ in a first-order phase transition. The critical radius is argued to be at least of galactic size and the corresponding nucleation rate is glacial, thus underwriting the dark energy's stability and rendering remote any microscopic effect.Comment: 9 pages LaTeX. Significantly rewritten (including abstract

Structure of Equilenin at 100 K: an estrone-related steroid

The structure of the estrone-related steroid, Equilenin, C18H18O2 (systematic name 3-hy-droxy-13-methyl-11,12,13,14,15,16-hexa-hydro-cyclo-penta-[a]phen-anthren-17-one), has been determined at 100 K. The crystals are ortho-rhom-bic, P212121, and the absolute structure of the mol-ecule in the crystal has been determined by resonant scattering [Flack parameter = -0.05 (4)]. The C atoms of the A and B rings are almost coplanar, with an r.m.s. deviation from planarity of 0.0104 Å. The C ring has a sofa conformation, while the D ring has an envelope conformation with the methine C atom as the flap. The keto O atom and the methyl group are translated 0.78 and 0.79 Å, respectively, from the equivalent positions on 17β-estrone. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains parallel to the c-axis direction

Outcome from Spontaneous CP Violation for B Decays

In the aspon model solution of the strong $CP$ problem, there is a gauged $U(1)$ symmetry, spontaneously broken by the same vacuum expectation value which breaks $CP$, whose massive gauge boson provides an additional mechanism of weak $CP$ violation. We calculate the $CP$ asymmetries in $B$ decays for the aspon model and show that they are typically smaller than those predicted from the standard model. A linear relation between the $CP$ asymmetries of different decay processes is obtained.Comment: REVTEX, 9 pages, IFP-486-UNC, NSF-PT-94-1, and UDHEP-01-9

Mersenne Primes, Polygonal Anomalies and String Theory Classification

It is pointed out that the Mersenne primes $M_p=(2^p-1)$ and associated perfect numbers ${\cal M}_p=2^{p-1}M_p$ play a significant role in string theory; this observation may suggest a classification of consistent string theories.Comment: 10 pages LaTe

Electron and Muon g−2g-2 Contributions from the T′T' Higgs Sector

We study the experimental constraints from electron and muon $g-2$ factors on the Higgs masses and Yukawa couplings in the $T'$ model, and thereby show that the discrepancy between the standard model prediction and experimental value of muon anomalous $g-2$ factor can be easily accommodated.Comment: 7 pages, slightly modified and new references adde

Aspects of Soft and Spontaneous CP Violation

We study four different models for CP violation: the standard (KM) model, the aspon model of spontaneous breaking and two models of soft breaking. In all except the standard model, the strong CP problem is addressed and solved. Testable predictions for the area of the unitarity triangle and for (epsilon'/epsilon)_K are emphasized. The issue of CP violation may well become the first place where the standard model of particle theory is shown definitively to be deficient. There are two reasons for expecting this to happen: (1) the strong CP problem is still not understood in the unadorned standard model and (2) the KM mechanism, although unquestionably present, may not provide the full explanation of epsilon_K and (epsilon'/epsilon)_K.Comment: 24 pages LaTeX including 4 figures. Minor modification to analysis of lower bound for d_n, summarized in new Table I

String Approach to QCD Quarks in Fundamental Representations

Straightforward use of AdS/CFT correspondence can give QCD with quarks in adjoint representations. Using an asymmetric orbifold approach we obtain nonsupersymmetric QCD with four quark flavors in fundamental representations of color.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Talk at Eighth Workshop on Nonperturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, l'Institut Astrophysique de Paris, June 7-11, 200