Effects of Sfermion Mixing induced by RGE Running in the Minimal Flavor Violating CMSSM

Within the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) with Minimal Flavor Violation (MFV) for scalar quarks we study the effects of intergenerational squark mixing on $B$-physics observables, electroweak precision observables (EWPO) and the Higgs boson mass predictions. Squark mixing is generated through the Renormalization Group Equations (RGE) running from the GUT scale to the electroweak scale due to presence of non diagonal Yukawa matrices in the RGE's, e.g. due to the CKM matrix. We find that the $B$-Physics observables as well as the Higgs mass predictions do not receive sizable corrections. On the other hand, the EWPO such as the $W$ boson mass can receive corrections by far exceeding the current experimental precision. These contributions can place new upper bounds on the CMSSM parameter space. We extend our analysis to the CMSSM extended with a mechanism to explain neutrino masses (CMSSM-seesaw I), which induces flavor violation in the scalar lepton sector. Effects from slepton mixing on the analyzed observables are in general smaller than from squark mixing, but can reach the level of the current experimenal uncertainty for the EWPO

The formation of spiral arms and rings in barred galaxies

In this and in a previous paper (Romero-Gomez et al. 2006) we propose a theory to explain the formation of both spirals and rings in barred galaxies using a common dynamical framework. It is based on the orbital motion driven by the unstable equilibrium points of the rotating bar potential. Thus, spirals, rings and pseudo-rings are related to the invariant manifolds associated to the periodic orbits around these equilibrium points. We examine the parameter space of three barred galaxy models and discuss the formation of the different morphological structures according to the properties of the bar model. We also study the influence of the shape of the rotation curve in the outer parts, by making families of models with rising, flat, or falling rotation curves in the outer parts. The differences between spiral and ringed structures arise from differences in the dynamical parameters of the host galaxies. The results presented here will be discussed and compared with observations in a forthcoming paper.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted in A&A. High resolution version available at http://www.oamp.fr/dynamique/pap/merce.htm