New Signatures of Squarks

When the gluino is light and long lived, missing energy is a poor signature for both squarks and gluinos. Instead, $S_q S_q^*$ production in $e^+ e^-$ and $p \bar{p}$ collisions characteristically results in events with $\ge 4$ jets. Methods are proposed for deciding whether an observed excess of 4-jet events is due to $S_q S_q^*$ production. The recent report by ALEPH of observation of 14 4-jet events when 7 were expected is discussed.Comment: 12/22/95 version (put on net 1/1/96) elaborates remarks on squarks as possible source of ALEPH 4-jet excess and adds a ref. latex, 10 pages (including 1 figure), uufile

Tidal Disruption Flares as the Source of Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays

The optical spectral energy distributions of two tidal disruption flares identified by van Velzen et al. (2011) in archival SDSS data, are found to be well-fit by a thin-accretion-disk model. Furthermore, the inferred Supermassive Black Hole mass values agree well with the SMBH masses estimated from the host galaxy properties. Integrating the model SEDs to include shorter wavelength contributions provides an estimate of the bolometric luminosities of the accretion disks. The resultant bolometric luminosities are well in excess of the minimum required for accelerating UHECR protons. In combination with the recent observational estimate of the TDF rate (van Velzen and Farrar, these Proceedings), the results presented here strengthen the case that transient jets formed in tidal disruption events may be responsible for accelerating all or most UHECRs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, invited talk at the ESA Workshop on TIdal Disruption Events and AGN Outbursts, Madrid, June 25-27, 201