What is the upper limit on the lightest supersymmetric Higgs mass?

In this talk the question of what is the upper bound on the lightest supersymmetric Higgs mass, m_h is addressed. This question is relevant since experimental lower bounds on m_h might implement, in the near future, exclusion of supersymmetry. By imposing (perturbative) unification of the gauge couplings at some high scale \simgt 10^{17} GeV, we have found that for a top-quark mass M_t=175 GeV, and depending on the supersymmetric parameters, this bound can be as high as 205 GeV.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Work presented at PASCOS-98, March 22-29 199

Indirect Effect of Supersymmetric Triplets in Stop Decays

We study an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with a zero hypercharge triplet, and the effect that such a particle has on stop decays. This model has the capability of predicting a 125.5 GeV Higgs even in the presence of light stops and it can modify the diphoton rate by means of the extra charged fermion triplet coupled to the Higgs. Working in the limit where the scalar triplet decouples, and with small values of mA, we find that the fermion triplet can greatly affect the branching ratios of the stops, even in the absence of a direct stop-triplet coupling. We compare the triplet extension with the MSSM and discuss how the additional fields affect the search for stop pair production.Comment: pdfLateX, 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, Typos, minor changes. Version published in JHE

ON GAUGINO CONDENSATION WITH FIELD-DEPENDENT GAUGE COUPLINGS

We study in detail gaugino condensation in globally and locally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. We focus on models for which gauge-neutral matter couples to the gauge bosons only through nonminimal gauge kinetic terms, for the cases of one and several condensing gauge groups. Using only symmetry arguments, the low-energy expansion, and general properties of supersymmetry, we compute the low energy Wilson action, as well as the (2PI) effective action for the composite {\it classical} superfield U\equiv\langle \Tr\WW \rangle, with $W_\alpha$ the supersymmetric gauge field strength. The 2PI effective action provides a firmer foundation for the approach of Veneziano and Yankielowicz, who treated the composite superfield, $U$, as a quantum degree of freedom. We show how to rederive the Wilson action by minimizing the 2PI action with respect to $U$. We determine, in both formulations and for global and local supersymmetry, the effective superpotential, $W$, the non-perturbative contributions to the low-energy K\"ahler potential $K$, and the leading higher supercovariant derivative terms in an expansion in inverse powers of the condensation scale. As an application of our results we include the string moduli dependence of the super- and K\"ahler potentials for simple orbifold models.Comment: 54 pages, plain te

Echoes of the electroweak phase transition: discovering a second Higgs doublet through A0 → ZH0

The existence of a second Higgs doublet in nature could lead to a cosmological first-order electroweak phase transition and explain the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. We obtain the spectrum and properties of the new scalars H0, A0, and H� that signal such a phase transition and show that the observation of the decay A0 → ZH0 at LHC would be a “smoking gun” signature of these scenarios. We analyze the LHC search prospects for this decay in the llbb¯ and llWþW− final states, arguing that current data may be sensitive to this signature in the former channel as well as there being great potential for a discovery in either channel at the very early stages of the 14 TeV run

Supersymmetric CP-violating Currents and Electroweak Baryogenesis

In this work we compute the CP-violating currents of the right-handed stops and Higgsinos, induced by the presence of non-trivial vacuum expectation values of the Higgs fields within the context of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) with explicit CP-violating phases. Using the Keldysh formalism, we perform the computation of the currents at finite temperature, in an expansion of derivatives of the Higgs fields. Contrary to previous works, we implement a resummation of the Higgs mass insertion effects to all orders in perturbation theory. While the components of the right-handed stop current j^\mu_{\widetilde t_R} become proportional to the difference H_2 \partial^{\mu}H_1-H_1 \partial^{\mu} H_2 (suppressed by \Delta\beta), the Higgsino currents, j^\mu_{\widetilde{H}_i}, present contributions proportional to both H_2 \partial^{\mu}H_1\pm H_1 \partial^{\mu} H_2. For large values of the charged Higgs mass and moderate values of \tan\beta the contribution to the source proportional to H_2 \partial^{\mu}H_1+H_1 \partial^{\mu} H_2 in the diffusion equations become sizeable, although it is suppressed by the Higgsino number violating interaction rate \Gamma_\mu^{-1/2}. For small values of the wall velocity, 0.04\simlt v_\omega \simlt 0.1, the total contribution leads to acceptable values of the baryon asymmetry for values of the CP-violating phases \phi_{CP} in the range 0.04\simlt|\sin\phi_{CP}|\simlt 1. Finally, we comment on the relevance of the latest results of Higgs searches at LEP2 for the mechanism of electroweak baryogenesis within the MSSM.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, latex2e. Typo corrected and references adde

Gravitational Backreaction Effects on the Holographic Phase Transition

We study radion stabilization in the compact Randall-Sundrum model by introducing a bulk scalar field, as in the Goldberger and Wise mechanism, but (partially) taking into account the backreactions from the scalar field on the metric. Our generalization reconciles the radion potential found by Goldberger and Wise with the radion mass obtained with the so-called superpotential method where backreaction is fully considered. Moreover we study the holographic phase transition and its gravitational wave signals in this model. The improved control over backreactions opens up a large region in parameter space and leads, compared to former analysis, to weaker constraints on the rank N of the dual gauge theory. We conclude that, in the regime where the 1/N expansion is justified, the gravitational wave signal is detectable by LISA.Comment: 42 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor changes for the publicatio

GOVERNANCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN THE TROPICAL FRUIT COMMODITY CHAINS IN LATIN AMERICA

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceThe analyses mobilized costs conventional benefits for the evaluation ex ante of the feasibility of technical innovations in the agri-foodstuffs chains are criticized in their capacity to integrate the economic and environmental externalities that structure the development of the innovations. This communication proposes to undergo a methodology that puts in complementariness diagnoses, participating analyses multicriterion and investigations with actors of chains for the evaluation ex-ante of the feasibility of technical innovations different. The application is realised in different chains from processing of fruits in Latin America (Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico). The results allow to characterize that the conditions of supplying in matera premium (fresh fruit) and the conditions of organization of the chains in the implementation of interactions between different actors; they are strategic elements of the feasibility. On the other hand they show the necessity to improve the methodologic picture proposed to activate “systems of chain innovations” that improve the processes of gobernancia of the technological directions in relation to their environmental impacts and social

Brans-Dicke-type theories and avoidance of the cosmological singularity

We tudy flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology in Brans-Dicke-type theories of gravitation with minimal coupling between the scalar field and the matter fields in the Einstein frame (general relativity with an extra scalar field) for arbitrary values of the Brans-Dicke parameter $\omega>-{3/2}$. It is shown that the cosmological singularity occuring in the Einstein frame formulation of this theory is removed in the Jordan frame in the range $-{3/2}<\omega<\leq-{4/3}$. This result is interpreted in the ligth of a viewpoint (first presented in reference gr-qc/9905071) asserting that both Jordan frame and Einstein frame formulations of general relativity are physically equivalent. The implications of the obtained result for string theory are outlined.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, no figures. Improved version accepted for publication in PR

Study on the wood anatomy, annual wood increment and intra-annual growth dynamics of Podocarpus oleifolius var. macrostachyus from Costa Rica

Tropical countries in the future will have an increasing demand for softwoods which favours mixed plantations possibly with minor portions of native conifer species. In this context numerous tropical species of the Podocarpaceae can be of ecological and economical interest. In Costa Rica the native species Podocarpus oleifolius var. macrostachyus (Parl.) Buchholz & Gray could be attractive for the establishment of manmade forests. However, profound knowledge on growth characteristics and wood properties is missing. In particular, information on the annual wood increment and intra-annual growth dynamics under natural site conditions at higher altitudes where P. oleifolius var. macrostachyus competes with hardwood species is not available and therefore the objective of this study. At the Cordillera de Talamanca (approx. 2,700 m a.s.l.), Costa Rica, an old-growth stand was chosen from which in total 5 trees (40 to 80 cm diameter at DBH) were sampled by taking stem sections and discs (2 trees)or increment cores (3 trees). During the period from October 1998 to December 2000, two trees of the site were pinned monthly for exact determination of the annual wood increment and the intra-annual growth dynamics in relationship to climate. The results of one of these pinned trees are demonstrated. It turned out that at high altitude the annual wood increment of old growth trees amounts to 1-2 mm (diameter) only. The tracheids show a rather constant cell wall thickness (2.5-4.5 μm) throughout the year, but a very variable radial cell diameter from 29 to 61 μm. The exact age of the tree cannot be determined anatomically, as there are no distinct tree-ring boundaries, but only very moderately developed terminal bands of flattened tracheids which do not circle the entire circumference of the stem. The monthly pin-labelling documents that during the dry season from about January until March in 1999 and 2000, virtually no cells were formed. However, with the beginning of the rainy season, about 59 % of the wood increment resulted from the months April to June. This increment rate already decreased from July to September to 32 %. Due to a distinct decrease in precipitation towards the end of the year, only 9 % of the wood increment were formed in the last quarter of the year, mainly consisting of the hardly visible terminal and flattened tracheids. The wood of this species is of very homogeneous structure and certainly attractive for highquality wood production

Phantom Higgs from Unparticles

A renormalizable coupling between the Higgs and a scalar unparticle operator O_U of non-integer dimension d_U < 2 gives rise, after electroweak symmetry breaking, to a mass gap in the unparticle continuum and a shift in the original Higgs mass, which can end up above or below the mass gap. We show that, besides the displaced Higgs state, a new isolated state can generically appear in the spectrum near or below the mass gap. Such state (which we call phantom Higgs) is a mixture of Higgs and unparticles and therefore has universally reduced couplings to fermions and gauge bosons. This phenomenon could cause the mass of the lightest Higgs state accessible to colliders to be much smaller than the mass expected from the SM Lagrangian.Comment: 14 LaTeX pages, 6 figure