A simple SU(5) model with unification near the Planck scale

We study unification in the SU(5) model with an extra Dirac multiplet in the ${\bf 24}$ representation. After spontaneous symmetry breaking we have at low energies a singlet, a colorless triplet and a neutral color-octet. All other particles can be taken at the unification scale. This combination leads to a unification very near the Planck scale. The triplet is light, its neutral component is a dark matter candidate. The model is in agreement with a recently derived anomaly condition, that implies that the number of (Weyl)-fermions has to be a multiple of 16.Comment: 6 page

Resonance in Strong WW Rescattering in Massive SU(2) Gauge Theory

We investigate the effects of WW rescattering through strong anomalous four-vector boson couplings. In the I=1, J=1 channel, we find a resonance with a mass of approximately 200 GeV and a width of less than 12 GeV. In an application to pion physics we find a small correction to the KSRF relation.Comment: 21 pages, extended discussion, some minor change

Non--decoupling, triviality and the ρ\rho parameter

The dependence of the $\rho$ parameter on the mass of the Higgs scalar and the top quark is computed non--perturbatively using the $1/N_F$ expansion in the standard model. We find an explicit expression for the $\rho$ parameter that requires the presence of a physical cutoff. This should come as no surprise since the theory is presumably trivial. By taking this cutoff into account, we find that the $\rho$ parameter can take values only within a limited range and has finite ambiguities that are suppressed by inverse powers of the cutoff scale, the so called ``scaling--violations". We find that large deviations from the perturbative results are possible, but only when the cutoff effects are also large.Comment: 16pp, Figures NOT included, harvmac, minor modifications incl. wording, refs., UCLA/92/TEP/23,OHSTPY-HEP-T-92-00

Interpretation of Precision Measurements in the Strongly Interacting Limit of the Standard Electroweak Model

Strong rescattering corrections to one-loop contributions to the parameters of the standard electroweak model are considered.Comment: 12 page

Heavy Fermion Screening Effects and Gauge Invariance

We show that the naively expected large virtual heavy fermion effects in low energy processes may be screened if the process under consideration contains external gauge bosons constrained by gauge invariance. We illustrate this by a typical example of the process $\gamma\gamma\to b \bar{b}$. Phenomenological implications are also briefly indicated.Comment: a miss-print fixed, 7 pages, LaTex, no figure

Corrections to oblique parameters induced by anomalous vector boson couplings

We study quadratically divergent radiative corrections to the oblique parameters at LEP1 induced by non-standard vector boson self-couplings. We work in the Stueckelberg formalism and regulate the divergences through a gauge-invariant higher derivative scheme. Using consistency arguments together with the data we find a limit on the anomalous magnetic moment Delta kappa of the W-boson, |Delta kappa| <= 0.26.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX; cross reference corrected, minor beautifications, version to be published in Phys.Rev.

Ongoing mumps outbreak in a student population with high vaccination coverage, Netherlands, 2010.

Since December 2009, mumps incidence has increased in the Netherlands. As of 20 April 2010, 172 cases have been notified on the basis of laboratory confirmation or linkage to a laboratory-confirmed case. Of these, 112 were students, the majority of whom had been vaccinated (81%). Although outbreaks in vaccinated populations have been described before, risk factors for exposure and susceptibility, and dose-dependent vaccine effectiveness in a student population of this nature are relatively unknown

Single-Top-Quark Production via W-Gluon Fusion at Next-to-Leading Order

Single-top-quark production via W-gluon fusion at hadron colliders provides an opportunity to directly probe the charged-current interaction of the top quark. We calculate the next-to-leading-order corrections to this process at the Fermilab Tevatron, the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and DESY HERA. Using a b-quark distribution function to sum collinear logarithms, we show that there are two independent corrections, of order 1/[ln(m_t^2/m_b^2)] and alpha_s. This observation is generic to processes involving a perturbatively derived heavy-quark distribution function at an energy scale large compared with the heavy-quark mass.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, small update to Phys. Rev. D versio