Collider signals of gravitino dark matter in bilinearly broken R-parity

In models with gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. If R-parity is violated the gravitino decays, but with a half-live far exceeding the age of the universe and thus is, in principle, a candidate for the dark matter. We consider the decays of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, assumed to be the neutralino. We show that in models where the breaking of R-parity is bilinear, the condition that R-parity violation explains correctly the measured neutrino masses fixes the branching ratio of the decay ${\tilde \chi}^0_1 \to {\tilde G}\gamma$ in the range $10^{-3}-10^{-2}$, if the gravitino mass is in the range required to solve the dark matter problem, i.e. of the order (few) 100 eV. This scenario is therefore directly testable at the next generation of colliders.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Proposal for a Supersymmetric Standard Model

The fact that neutrinos are massive suggests that the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) might be extended in order to include three gauge-singlet neutrino superfields with Yukawa couplings of the type $H_2 L \nu^c$. We propose to use these superfields to solve the $\mu$ problem of the MSSM without having to introduce an extra singlet superfield as in the case of the next-to-MSSM (NMSSM). In particular, terms of the type $\nu^c H_1 H_2$ in the superpotential may carry out this task spontaneously through sneutrino vacuum expectation values. In addition, terms of the type $(\nu^c)^3$ avoid the presence of axions and generate effective Majorana masses for neutrinos at the electroweak scale. On the other hand, these terms break lepton number and R-parity explicitly implying that the phenomenology of this model is very different from the one of the MSSM or NMSSM. For example, the usual neutralinos are now mixed with the neutrinos. For Dirac masses of the latter of order $10^{-4}$ GeV, eigenvalues reproducing the correct scale of neutrino masses are obtained.Comment: 9 pages, latex, title modified. Final version published in PR

R-parity Conserving Supersymmetry, Neutrino Mass and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

We consider contributions of R-parity conserving softly broken supersymmetry (SUSY) to neutrinoless double beta (\znbb) decay via the (B-L)-violating sneutrino mass term. The latter is a generic ingredient of any weak-scale SUSY model with a Majorana neutrino mass. The new R-parity conserving SUSY contributions to \znbb are realized at the level of box diagrams. We derive the effective Lagrangian describing the SUSY-box mechanism of \znbb-decay and the corresponding nuclear matrix elements. The 1-loop sneutrino contribution to the Majorana neutrino mass is also derived. Given the data on the \znbb-decay half-life of $^{76}$Ge and the neutrino mass we obtain constraints on the (B-L)-violating sneutrino mass. These constraints leave room for accelerator searches for certain manifestations of the 2nd and 3rd generation (B-L)-violating sneutrino mass term, but are most probably too tight for first generation (B-L)-violating sneutrino masses to be searched for directly.Comment: LATEX, 29 pages + 4 (uuencoded) figures appende

Superconductivity from Undressing

Photoemission experiments in high $T_c$ cuprates indicate that quasiparticles are heavily 'dressed' in the normal state, particularly in the low doping regime. Furthermore these experiments show that a gradual undressing occurs both in the normal state as the system is doped and the carrier concentration increases, as well as at fixed carrier concentration as the temperature is lowered and the system becomes superconducting. A similar picture can be inferred from optical experiments. It is argued that these experiments can be simply understood with the single assumption that the quasiparticle dressing is a function of the local carrier concentration. Microscopic Hamiltonians describing this physics are discussed. The undressing process manifests itself in both the one-particle and two-particle Green's functions, hence leads to observable consequences in photoemission and optical experiments respectively. An essential consequence of this phenomenology is that the microscopic Hamiltonians describing it break electron-hole symmetry: these Hamiltonians predict that superconductivity will only occur for carriers with hole-like character, as proposed in the theory of hole superconductivity

Disposal of Household Wastewater in Soils of High Stone Content (1981-1983)

Four experimental filter fields were constructed with built-in monitoring equipment in Nixa soils. These soils contain many chert fragments and a fragipan about 60 cm below the soil surface. The fragipan restricts downward movement of water and is the designlimitingfeature. The four filter fields were: 1. A standard filter field, 76 cm deep. The bottom of the trench was in the fragipan. 2. A modified standard filter field, 30 cm deep. The bottom of the trench was above the fragipan. 3. A modified pressure filter field, 40 cm deep. The bottom of the trench was above the fragipan. In addition, a pressure-distribution system was used to insure uniform distribution of effluent in the trench. Inadvertently, this field was installed in a different soil, and the results cannot be compared directly with the other three. 4. Another modified pressure filter field with the bottom of the trench only 6 cm below the soil surface. Observation of these systems confirms that placing filter fields higher in the soil above the hydraulically limiting horizon results in improved hydraulic performance. The presence of the fragipan amplified the adverse effects attributable to climatic stress. The seepage beds which are higher in the soil profile are able to handle the effluent load and climate load with less danger of surfacing

Metallic ferromagnetism without exchange splitting

In the band theory of ferromagnetism there is a relative shift in the position of majority and minority spin bands due to the self-consistent field due to opposite spin electrons. In the simplest realization, the Stoner model, the majority and minority spin bands are rigidly shifted with respect to each other. Here we consider models at the opposite extreme, where there is no overall shift of the energy bands. Instead, upon spin polarization one of the bands broadens relative to the other. Ferromagnetism is driven by the resulting gain in kinetic energy. A signature of this class of mechanisms is that a transfer of spectral weight in optical absorption from high to low frequencies occurs upon spin polarization. We show that such models arise from generalized tight binding models that include off-diagonal matrix elements of the Coulomb interaction. For certain parameter ranges it is also found that reentrant ferromagnetism occurs. We examine properties of these models at zero and finite temperatures, and discuss their possible relevance to real materials