Effects of CP-violating phases in supersymmetry

Recent studies about the impact of the CP-violating complex parameters in supersymmetry on the decays of third generation squarks and about T-odd asymmetries in neutralino and chargino production and decay are reviewed. The CP-even branching ratios of the third generation squarks show a pronounced dependence on the phases of A_t, A_b, mu and M_1 in a large region of the supersymmetric parameter space. This could have important implications for stop and sbottom searches and the MSSM parameter determination in future collider experiments. We have estimated the expected accuracy in the determination of the parameters by global fits of measured masses, decay branching ratios and production cross sections. We have found that the parameter A_t can be determined with an error of 2 - 3%, whereas the error on A_b is likely to be of the order of 50 - 100%. In addition we have studied CP-odd observables, like asymmetries based on triple product correlations, which are necessary to unambiguously establish CP violation. We have analysed these asymmetries in neutralino and chargino production with subsequent three-body decays at the International Linear Collider with longitudinally polarised beams in the MSSM with complex parameters M_1 and mu. The asymmetries, which appear already at tree-level because of spin correlation between production and decay, can be as large as 20% and will therefore be an important tool for the search for CP-violating effects in supersymmetry.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 7 eps figures, uses appolb.cls, presented at the final meeting of the European Network ``Physics at Colliders'', Montpellier, September 26 - 27, 200

A scheme with two large extra dimensions confronted with neutrino physics

We investigate a particle physics model in a six-dimensional spacetime, where two extra dimensions form a torus. Particles with Standard Model charges are confined by interactions with a scalar field to four four-dimensional branes, two vortices accommodating ordinary type fermions and two antivortices accommodating mirror fermions. We investigate the phenomenological implications of this multibrane structure by confronting the model with neutrino physics data.Comment: LATEX, 24 pages, 9 figures, minor changes in the tex

Characterization and functional expression in Escherichia coli of the sodium/proton/glutamate symport proteins of Bacillus stearothermophilus and Bacillus caldotenax

The genes encoding the Na+/H+/L-glutamate symport proteins of the thermophilic organisms Bacillus stearothermophilus (gltT(Bs)) and Bacillus caldotenax (gltT(Bc)) were cloned by complementation of Escherichia coli JC5412 for growth on glutamate as sole source of carbon, energy and nitrogen. The nucleotide sequences of the gltT(Bs) and gltT(Bc), genes were determined. In both cases the translated sequences corresponded with proteins of 421 amino acid residues (96.7% amino acid identity between GltT(Bs) and GltT(Bc)). Putative promoter, terminator and ribosome-binding-site sequences were found in the flanking regions. These expression signals were functional in E coli. The hydropathy profiles indicate that the proteins are hydrophobic and could form 12 membrane-spanning regions. The Na+/H+ CoUpled L-glutamate symport proteins GltT(Bs) and GltT(Bc) are homologous to the strictly H+ coupled L-glutamate transport protein of E. coli K-12 (overall 57.2% identity). Functional expression of glutamate transport activity was demonstrated by uptake of glutamate in whole cells and membrane vesicles. In accordance with previous observations (de Vrij et al., 1989; Heyne et al., 1991), glutamate uptake was driven by the electrochemical gradients of sodium ions and protons