Jet Tomography in the Forward Direction at RHIC

Hadron production at high-$p_T$ displays a strong suppression pattern in a wide rapidity region in heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies. This finding indicates the presence of strong final state effects for both transversally and longitudinally traveling partons, namely induced energy loss. We have developed a perturbative QCD based model to describe hadron production in $pp$ collision, which can be combined with the Glauber -- Gribov model to describe hadron production in heavy ion collisions. Investigating $AuAu$ and $CuCu$ collisions at energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ $A$GeV at mid-rapidity, we find the opacity of the strongly interacting hot matter to be proportional to the participant nucleon number. Considering forward rapidities, the suppression pattern indicates the formation of a longitudinally contracted dense deconfined zone in central heavy ion collisions. We determine parameters for the initial geometry from the existing data.Comment: 6 pages for Hot Quarks '06 Conferenc

Testing SUSY

If SUSY provides a solution to the hierarchy problem then supersymmetric states should not be too heavy. This requirement is quantified by a fine tuning measure that provides a quantitative test of SUSY as a solution to the hierarchy problem. The measure is useful in correlating the impact of the various experimental measurements relevant to the search for supersymmetry and also in identifying the most sensitive measurements for testing SUSY. In this paper we apply the measure to the CMSSM, computing it to two-loop order and taking account of current experimental limits and the constraint on dark matter abundance. Using this we determine the present limits on the CMSSM parameter space and identify the measurements at the LHC that are most significant in covering the remaining parameter space. Without imposing the LEP Higgs mass bound we show that the smallest fine tuning (1:13) consistent with a relic density within the WMAP bound corresponds to a Higgs mass of 114$\pm$2 GeV. Fine tuning rises rapidly for heavier Higgs.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures; references added, figures updated for extended parameter space sca

Pion Content of the Nucleon as seen in the NA51 Drell-Yan experiment

In a recent CERN Drell-Yan experiment the NA51 group found a strong asymmetry of $\bar u$ and $\bar d$ densities in the proton at $x\simeq0.18$. We interpret this result as a decisive confirmation of the pion-induced sea in the nucleon.Comment: 10 pages + 3 figures, Preprint KFA-IKP(TH)-1994-14 .tex file. After \enddocument a uu-encodeded Postscript file comprising the figures is appende

Like Sign Dilepton Signature for R-Parity Violating SUSY Search at the Tevatron Collider

The like sign dileptons provide the most promising signature for superparticle search in a large category of $R$-parity violating SUSY models. We estimate the like sign dilepton signals at the Tevatron collider, predicted by these models, over a wide region of the MSSM parameter space. One expects an unambiguous signal upto a gluino mass of $200 - 300$ GeV ($\geq 500$ GeV) with the present (proposed) accumulated luminosity of $\sim 0.1~(1)~{\rm fb}^{-1}$.Comment: 12 page LaTeX file; 5 figures available upon request from the autho

Testing SUSY at the LHC: Electroweak and Dark matter fine tuning at two-loop order

In the framework of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) we evaluate the electroweak fine tuning measure that provides a quantitative test of supersymmetry as a solution to the hierarchy problem. Taking account of current experimental constraints we compute the fine tuning at two-loop order and determine the limits on the CMSSM parameter space and the measurements at the LHC most relevant in covering it. Without imposing the LEPII bound on the Higgs mass, it is shown that the fine tuning computed at two-loop has a minimum $\Delta=8.8$ corresponding to a Higgs mass $m_h=114\pm 2$ GeV. Adding the constraint that the SUSY dark matter relic density should be within present bounds we find $\Delta=15$ corresponding to $m_h=114.7\pm 2$ GeV and this rises to $\Delta=17.8$ ($m_h=115.9\pm 2$ GeV) for SUSY dark matter abundance within 3$\sigma$ of the WMAP constraint. We extend the analysis to include the contribution of dark matter fine tuning. In this case the overall fine tuning and Higgs mass are only marginally larger for the case SUSY dark matter is subdominant and rises to $\Delta=28.7$ ($m_h=116.98\pm 2$ GeV) for the case of SUSY dark matter saturates the WMAP bound. For a Higgs mass above these values, fine tuning rises exponentially fast. The CMSSM spectrum that corresponds to minimal fine tuning is computed and provides a benchmark for future searches. It is characterised by heavy squarks and sleptons and light neutralinos, charginos and gluinos.Comment: 36 pages, 24 figure

Degassing pathways through the shallow magmatic-hydrothermal system of Poás

We report results from a multidisciplinary campaign carried out at Poás crater-lake (Costa Rica) on 17-18 March 2009. Thermal imagery of fumaroles on the north side of the dome and the lake surface revealed mean apparent temperatures of 25-40°C (maximum of 80°C), and 30-35°C (maximum of 48°C), respectively. Mean radiative heat output of the lake, uncorrected for downwelling flux, was estimated as ~230 MW. The mean SO2 flux emitted by the crater measured by walking-traverses was 76 tonnes day-1, with approximately equal contributions from both the dome and the lake and fumarole plumes. Gas measurements by active open-path FTIR spectroscopy indicated molar ratios of H2O/SO2 = 151 and CO2/SO2 = 1.56. HCl and HF were not detected in measured spectra but based on the detection limits of these species, we calculate SO2/HCl > 40, and SO2/HF > 200. Particles were sampled from the plume by air filtration. The filters were analysed using ion chromatography, which revealed an abundance of K+ and SO42-, with smaller amounts of Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cl-. We discuss here the implications of the results for degassing pathways through the shallow magmatic-hydrothermal system

Naturalness and Focus Points with Non-Universal Gaugino Masses

Relations between the gaugino masses have been shown to alleviate the degree of fine-tuning in the MSSM. In this paper we consider specific models of supersymmetry breaking with gravity mediation and demonstrate that within both GUT and string constructions it is possible to generate these relations in a natural way. We have numerically studied the degree of fine-tuning in these models, including one-loop corrections, and have found regions of parameter space that can satisfy all known collider constraints with fine-tunings less than 20%. We discuss some of the phenomenological features of these models within the regions of reduced fine-tuning.Comment: 31 pages, 21 figures. Version accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics

Fine tuning as an indication of physics beyond the MSSM

We investigate the amount of fine tuning of the electroweak scale in the presence of new physics beyond the MSSM, parametrized by higher dimensional operators. We show that these significantly reduce the MSSM fine tuning to Delta<10 for a Higgs mass between the LEPII bound and 130 GeV, and a corresponding scale M_* of new physics as high as 30 to 65 times the Higgsino mass. If the fine-tuning criterion is indeed of physical relevance, the findings indicate the presence of new physics in the form of new states of mass of O(M_*) that generated the effective operators in the first instance. At small $\tan\beta$ these states can be a gauge singlet or a SU(2) triplet. We derive analytical results for the EW scale fine-tuning for the MSSM with higher dimensional operators, including the quantum corrections which are also applicable to the pure MSSM case in the limit the coefficients of the higher dimension operators vanish. A general expression for the fine-tuning is also obtained for an arbitrary two-Higgs doublet potential.Comment: 27 pages, 6 Figures; Eqs.(15)-(18) and (A.2)-(A.5) simplified; figures 1-3 update

The phylogenetically distinct early human embryo

The phylogenetic singularity of the human embryo remains unresolved as cell types of the human blastocyst have resisted classification. Combining clustering of single cellular transcriptomes and dynamically expressed genes we resolve the cell types. This unveils the missing inner cell mass (ICM) and reveals classical step-wise development. Conversely, numerous features render our blastocyst phylogenetically distinct: unlike mice, our epiblast is self-renewing and we have blastocyst non-committed cells (NCCs), part of an apoptosis-mediated quality control/purging process. At the transcriptome-level all primate embryos are distinct as the pluripotent cell types are uniquely fast evolving. A substantial fraction of gene expression gain and loss events between human and new-world monkeys involve endogenous retrovirus H (ERVH). Human pluripotent cells are unique in which (H)ERVH's are active, the extent to which these modulate neighbour gene expression and their ability to suppress mutagenic transposable elements. Current naive cultures are heterogeneous and both developmentally and phylogenetically "confused"