Testing Supersymmetry with Lepton Flavor Violating tau and mu decays

In this work the following lepton flavor violating $\tau$ and $\mu$ decays are studied: $\tau^- \to \mu^- \mu^- \mu^+$, $\tau^- \to e^- e^- e^+$, $\mu^- \to e^- e^- e^+$, $\tau^- \to \mu^- \gamma$, $\tau^- \to e^- \gamma$ and $\mu^- \to e^- \gamma$. We work in a supersymmetric scenario consisting of the minimal supersymmetric standard model particle content, extended by the addition of three heavy right handed Majorana neutrinos and their supersymmetric partners, and where the generation of neutrino masses is done via the seesaw mechanism. Within this context, a significant lepton flavor mixing is generated in the slepton sector due to the Yukawa neutrino couplings, which is transmited from the high to the low energies via the renormalization group equations. This slepton mixing then generates via loops of supersymmetric particles significant contributions to the rates of $l_j \to 3 l_i$ and the correlated $l_j \to l_i \gamma$ decays. We analize here in full detail these rates in terms of the relevant input parameters, which are the usual minimal supergravity parameters and the seesaw parameters. For the $l_j \to 3 l_i$ decays, a full one-loop analytical computation of all the contributing supersymmetric loops is presented. This completes and corrects previous computations in the literature. In the numerical analysis compatibility with the most recent experimental upper bounds on all these $\tau$ and $\mu$ decays, with the neutrino data, and with the present lower bounds on the supersymmetric particle masses are required. Two typical scenarios with degenerate and hierarchical heavy neutrinos are considered. We will show here that the minimal supergravity and seesaw parameters do get important restrictions from these $\tau$ and $\mu$ decays in the hierarchical neutrino case.Comment: Version to appear in Physical Review

Generation of broad XUV continuous high harmonic spectra and isolated attosecond pulses with intense mid-infrared lasers

We present experimental results showing the appearance of a near-continuum in the high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectra of atomic and molecular species as the driving laser intensity of an infrared pulse increases. Detailed macroscopic simulations reveal that these near-continuum spectra are capable of producing IAPs in the far field if a proper spatial filter is applied. Further, our simulations show that the near-continuum spectra and the IAPs are a product of strong temporal and spatial reshaping (blue shift and defocusing) of the driving field. This offers a possibility of producing IAPs with a broad range of photon energy, including plateau harmonics, by mid-IR laser pulses even without carrier-envelope phase stabilization.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J.Phys. B (Oct 2011

Probing the Higgs mechanism via γγ→W+W−\gamma\gamma\to W^+W^-

We investigate the sensitivity of the reaction $\gamma\gamma\to W^+W^-$ to the Higgs sector based on the complete one-loop corrections in the minimal Standard Model and the gauged non-linear $\sigma$-model. While this sensitivity is very strong for the suppressed cross-section of equally polarized photons and longitudinal W bosons, it is only marginal for the dominant mode of transverse polarizations. The corrections within the $\sigma$-model turn out to be UV-finite in accordance with the absence of \log\MH terms in the Standard Model with a heavy Higgs boson.Comment: 12 pages uuencoded postscrip

Lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decays from massive seesaw neutrinos

Lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decays are studied within the context of seesaw models with Majorana massive neutrinos. Two models are considered: The SM-seesaw, with the Standard Model Particle content plus three right handed neutrinos, and the MSSM-seesaw, with the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model particle content plus three right handed neutrinos and their supersymmetric partners. The widths for these decays are derived from a full one-loop diagrammatic computation in both models, and they are analyzed numerically in terms of the seesaw parameters, namely, the Dirac and Majorana mass matrices. Several possible scenarios for these mass matrices that are compatible with neutrino data are considered. In the SM-seesaw case, very small branching ratios are found for all studied scenarios. These ratios are explained as a consequence of the decoupling behaviour of the heavy right handed neutrinos. In contrast, in the MSSM-seesaw case, sizeable branching ratios are found for some of the leptonic flavor violating decays of the MSSM neutral Higgs bosons and for some choices of the seesaw matrices and MSSM parameters. The relevance of the two competing sources of lepton flavor changing interactions in the MSSM-seesaw case is also discussed. The non-decoupling behaviour of the supersymmetric particles contributing in the loop-diagrams is finally shown.Comment: 44pgs. Version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Imperfect Homoclinic Bifurcations

Experimental observations of an almost symmetric electronic circuit show complicated sequences of bifurcations. These results are discussed in the light of a theory of imperfect global bifurcations. It is shown that much of the dynamics observed in the circuit can be understood by reference to imperfect homoclinic bifurcations without constructing an explicit mathematical model of the system.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR

Stellar Wind Variations During the X-ray High and Low States of Cygnus X-1

We present results from Hubble Space Telescope UV spectroscopy of the massive X-ray binary system, HD226868 = Cyg X-1. The spectra were obtained at both orbital conjunction phases in two separate runs in 2002 and 2003 when the system was in the X-ray high/soft state. The stellar wind lines suffer large reductions in strength when the black hole is in the foreground due to the X-ray ionization of the wind ions. A comparison of HST and archival IUE spectra shows that similar photoionization effects occur in both the X-ray states. We constructed model UV wind line profiles assuming that X-ray ionization occurs everywhere in the wind except the zone where the supergiant blocks the X-ray flux. The good match between the observed and model profiles indicates that the wind ionization extends to near to the hemisphere of the supergiant facing the X-ray source. The H-alpha emission strength is generally lower in the high/soft state compared to the low/hard state, but the He II 4686 emission is relatively constant between states. The results suggest that mass transfer in Cyg X-1 is dominated by a focused wind flow that peaks along the axis joining the stars and that the stellar wind contribution is shut down by X-ray photoionization effects. The strong stellar wind from the shadowed side of the supergiant will stall when Coriolis deflection brings the gas into the region of X-ray illumination. This stalled gas component may be overtaken by the orbital motion of the black hole and act to inhibit accretion from the focused wind. The variations in the strength of the shadow wind component may then lead to accretion rate changes that ultimately determine the X-ray state.Comment: ApJ, in press, 41 pages, 15 figure

Exact Solutions for Domain Walls in Coupled Complex Ginzburg - Landau Equations

The complex Ginzburg Landau equation (CGLE) is a ubiquitous model for the evolution of slowly varying wave packets in nonlinear dissipative media. A front (shock) is a transient layer between a plane-wave state and a zero background. We report exact solutions for domain walls, i.e., pairs of fronts with opposite polarities, in a system of two coupled CGLEs, which describe transient layers between semi-infinite domains occupied by each component in the absence of the other one. For this purpose, a modified Hirota bilinear operator, first proposed by Bekki and Nozaki, is employed. A novel factorization procedure is applied to reduce the intermediate calculations considerably. The ensuing system of equations for the amplitudes and frequencies is solved by means of computer-assisted algebra. Exact solutions for mutually-locked front pairs of opposite polarities, with one or several free parameters, are thus generated. The signs of the cubic gain/loss, linear amplification/attenuation, and velocity of the coupled-front complex can be adjusted in a variety of configurations. Numerical simulations are performed to study the stability properties of such fronts.Comment: Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, in pres

Universal conductance enhancement and reduction of the two-orbital Kondo effect

We investigate theoretically the linear and nonlinear conductance through a nanostructure with two-fold degenerate single levels, corresponding to the transport through nanostructures such as a carbon nanotube, or double dot systems with capacitive interaction. It is shown that the presence of the interaction asymmetry between orbits/dots affects significantly the profile of the linear conductance at finite temperature, and, of the nonlinear conductance, particularly around half-filling, where the two-particle Kondo effect occurs. Within the range of experimentally feasible parameters, the SU(4) universal behavior is suggested, and comparison with relevant experiments is made.Comment: 10 pages, 16 figure

Replicated Transfer Matrix Analysis of Ising Spin Models on `Small World' Lattices

We calculate equilibrium solutions for Ising spin models on `small world' lattices, which are constructed by super-imposing random and sparse Poissonian graphs with finite average connectivity c onto a one-dimensional ring. The nearest neighbour bonds along the ring are ferromagnetic, whereas those corresponding to the Poisonnian graph are allowed to be random. Our models thus generally contain quenched connectivity and bond disorder. Within the replica formalism, calculating the disorder-averaged free energy requires the diagonalization of replicated transfer matrices. In addition to developing the general replica symmetric theory, we derive phase diagrams and calculate effective field distributions for two specific cases: that of uniform sparse long-range bonds (i.e. `small world' magnets), and that of (+J/-J) random sparse long-range bonds (i.e. `small world' spin-glasses).Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, IOP macros, eps figure

The Effective Lagrangian of the Two Higgs Doublet Model

We consider the two Higgs doublet model extension of the Standard Model in the limit where all physical scalar particles are very heavy; too heavy, in fact, to be experimentally produced in forthcoming experiments. The symmetry breaking sector can thus be described by an effective chiral Lagrangian. We obtain the values of the coefficients of the O(p^4) operators relevant to the oblique corrections and investigate to what extent some non-decoupling effects may remain at low energies.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 2 figure