Statistical Laws and Mechanics of Voronoi Random Lattices

We investigate random lattices where the connectivities are determined by the Voronoi construction, while the location of the points are the dynamic degrees of freedom. The Voronoi random lattices with an associated energy are immersed in a heat bath and investigated using a Monte Carlo simulation algorithm. In thermodynamic equilibrium we measure coordination number distributions and test the Aboav-Weaire and Lewis laws.Comment: 14 pages (figures not included), LaTeX, HLRZ-26/9

Discrete Fracture Model with Anisotropic Load Sharing

A two-dimensional fracture model where the interaction among elements is modeled by an anisotropic stress-transfer function is presented. The influence of anisotropy on the macroscopic properties of the samples is clarified, by interpolating between several limiting cases of load sharing. Furthermore, the critical stress and the distribution of failure avalanches are obtained numerically for different values of the anisotropy parameter $\alpha$ and as a function of the interaction exponent $\gamma$. From numerical results, one can certainly conclude that the anisotropy does not change the crossover point $\gamma_c=2$ in 2D. Hence, in the limit of infinite system size, the crossover value $\gamma_c=2$ between local and global load sharing is the same as the one obtained in the isotropic case. In the case of finite systems, however, for $\gamma\le2$, the global load sharing behavior is approached very slowly

SUSY-QCD corrections to stop annihilation into electroweak final states including Coulomb enhancement effects

We present the full $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s)$ supersymmetric QCD corrections for stop-anti-stop annihilation into electroweak final states within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We also incorporate Coulomb corrections due to gluon exchange between the incoming stops. Numerical results for the annihilation cross sections and the predicted neutralino relic density are presented. We show that the impact of the radiative corrections on the cosmologically preferred region of the parameter space can become larger than the current experimental uncertainty, shifting the relic bands within the considered regions of the parameter space by up to a few tens of GeV.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, updated to version published in Phys. Rev.

Precision predictions for supersymmetric dark matter

The dark matter relic density has been measured by Planck and its predecessors with an accuracy of about 2%. We present theoretical calculations with the numerical program DM@NLO in next-to-leading order SUSY QCD and beyond, which allow to reach this precision for gaugino and squark (co-)annihilations, and use them to scan the phenomenological MSSM for viable regions, applying also low-energy, electroweak and hadron collider constraints.Comment: 6 pages, 1 table, 8 figures, proceedings of ICHEP 201

Neutralino-hadron scattering in the NMSSM

We provide a scan of the parameter space for neutralino-hadron scattering in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model using an updated value for the strange quark sigma commutator. These results also take into account constraints from WMAP data on the relic density and new constraints from the Large Hadron Collider. We find that the resultant spin-independent cross sections are smaller in magnitude than those found in recent results obtained within the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model, yet still great enough to feasibly allow for detection in the case of bino-like neutralinos.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure