Proton Decay, Fermion Masses and Texture from Extra Dimensions in SUSY GUTs

In supersymmetry, there are gauge invariant dimension 5 proton decay operators which must be suppressed by a mass scale much larger than the Planck mass. It is natural to expect that this suppression should be explained by a mechanism that explains the hierarchical structure of the fermion mass matrices. We apply this argument to the case where wave functions of chiral multiplets are localized under a kink background along an extra spatial dimension and the Yukawa couplings as well as the coefficients of the proton decay operators are determined by the overlap of the relevant wave functions. A configuration is found in the context of SU(5) supersymmetric grand unified theory that yields realistic values of quark masses, mixing angles, CP phase and charged lepton masses and sufficiently small genuine dimension 5 proton decay operators. Inclusion of SU(5) breaking effects is essential in order to obtain non-vanishing CP phase as well as correct lepton masses. The resulting mass matrix has a texture structure in which texture zeros are a consequence of extremely small overlap of the wave functions. Our approach requires explicit breaking of supersymmetry in the extra dimension, which can be realized in (de)constructing extra dimension.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, comments adde

On Extended Electroweak Symmetries

We discuss extensions of the Standard Model through extending the electroweak gauge symmetry. An extended electroweak symmetry requires a list of extra fermionic and scalar states. The former is necessary to maintain cancellation of gauge anomalies, and largely fixed by the symmetry embedding itself. The latter is usually considered quite arbitrary, so long as a vacuum structure admitting the symmetry breaking is allowed. Anomaly cancellation may be used to link the three families of quarks and leptons together, given a perspective on flavor physics. It is illustrated lately that the kind of models may also have the so-called little Higgs mechanism incorporated. This more or less fixes the scalar sector and take care of the hierarchy problem, making such models of extended electroweak symmetries quite appealing candidates as TeV scale effective field theories.Comment: 1+8 pages of latex with ws-procs9x6.cls; talk presented at Coral Gables Conference 200

Fermi Edge Resonances in Non-equilibrium States of Fermi Gases

We formulate the problem of the Fermi Edge Singularity in non-equilibrium states of a Fermi gas as a matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem with an integrable kernel. This formulation is the most suitable for studying the singular behavior at each edge of non-equilibrium Fermi states by means of the method of steepest descent, and also reveals the integrable structure of the problem. We supplement this result by extending the familiar approach to the problem of the Fermi Edge Singularity via the bosonic representation of the electronic operators to non-equilibrium settings. It provides a compact way to extract the leading asymptotes.Comment: Accepted for publication, J. Phys.

Progress in Electroweak Baryogenesis

Recent work on generating the excess of matter over antimatter in the early universe during the electroweak phase transition is reviewed.Comment: 50 pages (figures on request), uses harvmac (table of contents correct for "l" format), UCSD-93-2,BU-HEP-93-

Gauge/Anomaly Syzygy and Generalized Brane World Models of Supersymmetry Breaking

In theories in which SUSY is broken on a brane separated from the MSSM matter fields, supersymmetry breaking is naturally mediated in a variety of ways. Absent other light fields in the theory, gravity will mediate supersymmetry breaking through the conformal anomaly. If gauge fields propagate in the extra dimension they, too, can mediate supersymmetry breaking effects. The presence of gauge fields in the bulk motivates us to consider the effects of new messenger fields with holomorphic and non-holomorphic couplings to the supersymmetry breaking sector. These can lead to contributions to the soft masses of MSSM fields which dramatically alter the features of brane world scenarios of supersymmetry breaking. In particular, they can solve the negative slepton mass squared problem of anomaly mediation and change the predictions of gaugino mediation.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

The Delta-Delta Intermediate State in 1S0 Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering From Effective Field Theory

We examine the role of the Delta-Delta intermediate state in low energy NN scattering using effective field theory. Theories both with and without pions are discussed. They are regulated with dimensional regularization and MSbar subtraction. We find that the leading effects of the Delta-Delta state can be absorbed by a redefinition of the contact terms in a theory with nucleons only. It does not remove the requirement of a higher dimension operator to reproduce data out to moderate momentum. The explicit decoupling of the Delta-Delta state is shown for the theory without pions.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, uses harvma

Valuing Options in California Water Markets: A Laboratory Investigation

Risk and reliability dominate water supply discussions in the arid western United States. In the past, water managers built additional storage to mitigate supply risk. The optimal, least expensive storage sites have now been taken, and there are strong, environmental objections to new facilities. Reliability of existing supplies is further diminished due to concerns about endangered species and global climate change. Thus water agencies increasingly turn to contractual mechanisms such as dry-year options to manage supply risk in advance of need. However, although a few water agencies across the West have implemented dry-year options, sufficient data for conventional econometric analysis do not yet exist. We thus utilize experimental economics to analyze the effect of annual dry-year options on water markets. How do market structure (competitive versus market power) and option contract availability affect water price and allocation within a market? Experiment participants trade stochastic realizations of water in a non-uniform double auction parameterized to resemble the California water market. We find that realized gains from trade are on average higher when options can be traded, by 11% in competitive markets and by 21% in dominant buyer markets. Findings in this analysis may assist policymakers in preparing for the next multi-year drought in California.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Influence of Thermal Pressure on Equilibrium Models of Hypermassive Neutron Star Merger Remnants

The merger of two neutron stars leaves behind a rapidly spinning hypermassive object whose survival is believed to depend on the maximum mass supported by the nuclear equation of state, angular momentum redistribution by (magneto-)rotational instabilities, and spindown by gravitational waves. The high temperatures (~5-40 MeV) prevailing in the merger remnant may provide thermal pressure support that could increase its maximum mass and, thus, its life on a neutrino-cooling timescale. We investigate the role of thermal pressure support in hypermassive merger remnants by computing sequences of spherically-symmetric and axisymmetric uniformly and differentially rotating equilibrium solutions to the general-relativistic stellar structure equations. Using a set of finite-temperature nuclear equations of state, we find that hot maximum-mass critically spinning configurations generally do not support larger baryonic masses than their cold counterparts. However, subcritically spinning configurations with mean density of less than a few times nuclear saturation density yield a significantly thermally enhanced mass. Even without decreasing the maximum mass, cooling and other forms of energy loss can drive the remnant to an unstable state. We infer secular instability by identifying approximate energy turning points in equilibrium sequences of constant baryonic mass parametrized by maximum density. Energy loss carries the remnant along the direction of decreasing gravitational mass and higher density until instability triggers collapse. Since configurations with more thermal pressure support are less compact and thus begin their evolution at a lower maximum density, they remain stable for longer periods after merger.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap