Xi and AntiXi production in Pb+Pb collisions at 40 AGeV at CERN SPS

First results on the production of Xi and AntiXi hyperons in Pb+Pb interactions at 40 AGeV are presented. The AntiXi/Xi ratio at midrapidity is studied as a function of collision centrality. The ratio shows no significant centrality dependence within statistical errors; it ranges from 0.07 to 0.15. The AntiXi/Xi ratio for central Pb+Pb collisions increases strongly with the collision energy.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of SQM03, to be published in Journal of Physics G; V2: changes in table 1 and figure

Omega and AntiOmega production in Pb+Pb and p+p collisions at 30, 40 and 158 AGeV

We report preliminary results on Omega and AntiOmega production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 30, 40 and 158 AGeV and p + p interactions at 158 GeV. The midrapidity AntiOmega/Omega ratio is estimated to be 0.45 +- 0.05 and 0.41 +- 0.18 for central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 and 40 AGeV, respectively. The corresponding value for 158 GeV p+p interactions is 0.67 +- 0.62. For central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV fully corrected distributions are obtained. The inverse slope parameters of the transverse mass spectrum and total yields are T(Omega) = 276 +- 23 MeV, = 0.47 +- 0.07 and T(AntiOmega) = 285 +- 39 MeV, = 0.15 +- 0.02.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of "Strangeness in Quark Matter 2003" (March 2003, Atlantic Beach NC, USA), to be published in Journal of Physics G., 6 pages, 6 figure

Experimental Precision Tests for the Electroweak Standard Model

This paper contains a review of recent precision measurements of electroweak observables and resulting tests of the electroweak Standard Model.Comment: 78 page

Prospects for Pentaquark Searches in e+e−e^+e^- Annihilations and γγ\gamma\gamma Collisions

Recent strong experimental evidence of a narrow exotic S = +1 baryon resonance, $\Theta^+$, suggests the existence of other exotic baryons. We discuss the prospects of confirming earlier experimental evidence of $\Theta^+$ and the observation of additional hypothetical exotic baryons in $e^+e^-$ annihilations and $\gamma\gamma$ collisions at LEP and B Factories

Rigidity dependent knee and cosmic ray induced high energy neutrino fluxes

Scenarios in which the knee of the cosmic ray spectrum depends on the particle rigidities usually predict that the cosmic ray composition becomes heavier above the knee and have associated a change in the spectral slope of each individual nuclear component which is steeper than the change ($\Delta\alpha\simeq 0.3$) observed in the total spectrum. We show that this implies that the very high energy ($E_\nu>10^{14}$ eV) diffuse neutrino fluxes produced by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere or colliding with the interstellar medium in the Galaxy will be significantly suppressed, making their detection harder but also reducing the background for the search of other (more challenging) astrophysical neutrino sources.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Strangeness from 20 AGeV to 158 AGeV

New results from the energy scan programme of NA49, in particular kaon production at 30 AGeV and phi production at 40 and 80 AGeV are presented. The K+/pi+ ratio shows a pronounced maximum at 30 AGeV; the kaon slope parameters are constant at SPS energies. Both findings support the scenario of a phase transition at about 30 AGeV beam energy. The phi/pi ratio increases smoothly with beam energy, showing an energy dependence similar to K-/pi-. The measured particle yields can be reproduced by a hadron gas model, with chemical freeze-out parameters on a smooth curve in the T-muB plane. The transverse spectra can be understood as resulting from a rapidly expanding, locally equilibrated source. No evidence for an earlier kinetic decoupling of heavy hyperons is found.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of "Strangeness in Quark Matter 2003" (March 2003, Atlantic Beach NC, USA), to be published in Journal of Physics G. 11 pages, 14 figure

Dark Matter and Higgs Mass in the CMSSM with Yukawa Quasi-Unification

We present an updated analysis of the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model with mu>0 supplemented by an `asymptotic' Yukawa coupling quasi-unification condition, which allows an acceptable b-quark mass. Imposing constraints from the cold dark matter abundance in the universe, B physics, the muon anomalous magnetic moment, and the mass m_h of the lightest neutral CP-even Higgs boson, we find that the lightest neutralino cannot act as a cold dark matter candidate. This is mainly because the upper bound on the lightest neutralino relic abundance from cold dark matter considerations, despite the fact that this abundance is drastically reduced by neutralino-stau coannihilations, is incompatible with the recent data on the branching ratio of B_s --> mu^+ mu^-. Allowing for a different particle, such as the axino or the gravitino, to be the lightest supersymmetric particle and, thus, constitute the cold dark matter in the universe, we find that the predicted m_h's in our model favor the range (119-126) GeV.Comment: 13 pages including 4 figures and 1 table, talk given by G. Lazarides at the 7th International Workshop on the Dark Side of the Universe, KITPC, Beijing, China, September 26-30, 2011 (to appear in the proceedings

Event shapes in e+e- annihilation and deep inelastic scattering

This article reviews the status of event-shape studies in e+e- annihilation and DIS. It includes discussions of perturbative calculations, of various approaches to modelling hadronisation and of comparisons to data.Comment: Invited topical review for J.Phys.G; 40 pages; revised version corrects some nomenclatur

Search for promptly produced heavy quarkonium states in hadronic Z decays

A search has been made for direct production of heavy quarkonium states in more than 3 million hadronic Z 0 decays in the 1991-1994 DELPHI data. Prompt J/ψ, ψ(2 S) and Γ candidates have been searched for through their leptonic decay modes using criteria based on the kinematics and decay vertex positions. New upper limits are set at the 90% confidence level for Br(Z 0→(Qq)X)/Br(Z 0→ hadrons) for various strong production mechanisms of J/ψ and Γ; these range down to 0.9×10-4. The limits are set in the presence of a small excess (∼1% statistical probability of a background fluctuation) in the sum of candidates from prompt J/ψ, ψ(2 S), γ(1 S), γ(2 S) and γ(3 S) relative to the estimated background. © 1996 Springer-Verlag.0SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe