Higher dimensional supersymmetry in 4D superspace

We present an explicit formulation of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories from \D= 5 to 10 dimensions in the familiar \N=1,\D=4 superspace. This provides the rules for globally supersymmetric model building with extra dimensions and in particular allows us to simply write down $\N=1$ SUSY preserving interactions between bulk fields and fields localized on branes. We present a few applications of the formalism by way of illustration, including supersymmetric ``shining'' of bulk fields, orbifolds and localization of chiral fermions, anomaly inflow and super-Chern-Simons theories.Comment: Typos corrected. Added reference to early work by Marcus, Sagnotti and Siegel and a term to the non-Abelian Lagrangian for D>5 formally needed for gauge invariance. The results however remain unchange

Collective Quartics from Simple Groups

This article classifies Little Higgs models that have collective quartic couplings. There are two classes of collective quartics: Special Cosets and Special Quartics. After taking into account dangerous singlets, the smallest Special Coset models are SU(5)/SO(5) and SU(6)/Sp(6). The smallest Special Quartic model is SU(5)/SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) and has not previously been considered as a candidate Little Higgs model.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

What Precision Electroweak Physics Says About the SU(6)/Sp(6) Little Higgs

We study precision electroweak constraints on the close cousin of the Littlest Higgs, the SU(6)/Sp(6) model. We identify a near-oblique limit in which the heavy W' and B' decouple from the light fermions, and then calculate oblique corrections, including one-loop contributions from the extended top sector and the two Higgs doublets. We find regions of parameter space that give acceptably small precision electroweak corrections and only mild fine tuning in the Higgs potential, and also find that the mass of the lightest Higgs boson is relatively unconstrained by precision electroweak data. The fermions from the extended top sector can be as light as 1 TeV, and the W' can be as light as 1.8 TeV. We include an independent breaking scale for the B', which can still have a mass as low as a few hundred GeV.Comment: 52 pages, 16 figure

Composite Inelastic Dark Matter

Peaking consistently in June for nearly eleven years, the annual modulation signal reported by DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA offers strong evidence for the identity of dark matter. DAMA's signal strongly suggest that dark matter inelastically scatters into an excited state split by O(100 keV). We propose that DAMA is observing hyperfine transitions of a composite dark matter particle. As an example, we consider a meson of a QCD-like sector, built out of constituent fermions whose spin-spin interactions break the degeneracy of the ground state. An axially coupled U(1) gauge boson that mixes kinetically with hypercharge induces inelastic hyperfine transitions of the meson dark matter that can explain the DAMA signal.Comment: 5 pages (two-column), 1 figure, revised version, references adde

The Cosmology of Composite Inelastic Dark Matter

Composite dark matter is a natural setting for implementing inelastic dark matter - the O(100 keV) mass splitting arises from spin-spin interactions of constituent fermions. In models where the constituents are charged under an axial U(1) gauge symmetry that also couples to the Standard Model quarks, dark matter scatters inelastically off Standard Model nuclei and can explain the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal. This article describes the early Universe cosmology of a minimal implementation of a composite inelastic dark matter model where the dark matter is a meson composed of a light and a heavy quark. The synthesis of the constituent quarks into dark mesons and baryons results in several qualitatively different configurations of the resulting dark matter hadrons depending on the relative mass scales in the system.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures; references added, typos correcte

Genetic influences on response to novel objects and dimensions of personality in Papio baboons

Behavioral variation within and between populations and species of the genus Papio has been studied extensively, but little is known about the genetic causes of individual- or population-level differences. This study investigates the influence of genetic variation on personality (sometimes referred to as temperament) in baboons and identifies a candidate gene partially responsible for the variation in that phenotype. To accomplish these goals, we examined individual variation in response to both novel objects and an apparent novel social partner (using a mirror test) among pedigreed baboons (n = 578) from the Southwest National Primate Research Center. We investigated the frequency and duration of individual behaviors in response to novel objects and used multivariate factor analysis to identify trait-like dimensions of personality. Exploratory factor analysis identified two distinct dimensions of personality within this population. Factor 1 accounts for 46.8 % of the variance within the behavioral matrix, and consists primarily of behaviors related to the boldness of the subject. Factor 2 accounts for 18.8 % of the variation, and contains several anxiety like behaviors. Several specific behaviors, and the two personality factors, were significantly heritable, with the factors showing higher heritability than most individual behaviors. Subsequent analyses show that the behavioral reactions observed in the test protocol are associated with animals\u27 social behavior observed later in their home social groups. Finally we used linkage analysis to map quantitative trait loci for the measured phenotypes. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in a positional candidate gene (SNAP25) are associated with variation in one of the personality factors, and CSF levels of homovanillic acid and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol. This study documents heritable variation in personality among baboons and suggests that sequence variation in SNAP25 may influence differences in behavior and neurochemistry in these nonhuman primates

Strategies and methods to study sex differences in cardiovascular structure and function: a guide for basic scientists

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cardiovascular disease remains the primary cause of death worldwide. In the US, deaths due to cardiovascular disease for women exceed those of men. While cultural and psychosocial factors such as education, economic status, marital status and access to healthcare contribute to sex differences in adverse outcomes, physiological and molecular bases of differences between women and men that contribute to development of cardiovascular disease and response to therapy remain underexplored.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This article describes concepts, methods and procedures to assist in the design of animal and tissue/cell based studies of sex differences in cardiovascular structure, function and models of disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To address knowledge gaps, study designs must incorporate appropriate experimental material including species/strain characteristics, sex and hormonal status. Determining whether a sex difference exists in a trait must take into account the reproductive status and history of the animal including those used for tissue (cell) harvest, such as the presence of gonadal steroids at the time of testing, during development or number of pregnancies. When selecting the type of experimental animal, additional consideration should be given to diet requirements (soy or plant based influencing consumption of phytoestrogen), lifespan, frequency of estrous cycle in females, and ability to investigate developmental or environmental components of disease modulation. Stress imposed by disruption of sleep/wake cycles, patterns of social interaction (or degree of social isolation), or handling may influence adrenal hormones that interact with pathways activated by the sex steroid hormones. Care must be given to selection of hormonal treatment and route of administration.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Accounting for sex in the design and interpretation of studies including pharmacological effects of drugs is essential to increase the foundation of basic knowledge upon which to build translational approaches to prevent, diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases in humans.</p

Jet Dipolarity: Top Tagging with Color Flow

A new jet observable, dipolarity, is introduced that can distinguish whether a pair of subjets arises from a color singlet source. This observable is incorporated into the HEPTopTagger and is shown to improve discrimination between top jets and QCD jets for moderate to high pT.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures (updated to JHEP version

5D UED: Flat and Flavorless

5D UED is not automatically minimally flavor violating. This is due to flavor asymmetric counter-terms required on the branes. Additionally, there are likely to be higher dimensional operators which directly contribute to flavor observables. We document a mostly unsuccessful attempt at utilizing localization in a flat extra dimension to resolve these flavor constraints while maintaining KK-parity as a good quantum number. It is unsuccessful insofar as we seem to be forced to add brane operators in such a way as to precisely mimic the effects of a double throat warped extra dimension. In the course of our efforts, we encounter and present solutions to a problem common to many extra dimensional models in which fields are "doubly localized:" ultra-light modes. Under scrutiny, this issue seems tied to an intrinsic tension between maintaining Kaluza-Klein parity and resolving mass hierarchies via localization.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure