Re-investigating Dempster's idea on evidence combination.

Abstract. In this paper, we investigate the problem encountered by Dempster’s combination rule in view of Dempster’s original combination framework. We first show that the root of Dempster’s combination rule (defined and named by Shafer) is Dempster’s original idea on evidence combination. We then argue that Dempster’s original idea on evidence combination is, in fact, richer than what has been formulated in the rule. We conclude that, by strictly following what Dempster has suggested, there should be no counterintuitive results when combining evidence

O(\alpha_s) QCD Corrections to Spin Correlations in e−e+→ttˉe^- e^+ \to t \bar t process at the NLC

Using a Generic spin basis, we present a general formalism of one-loop radiative corrections to the spin correlations in the top quark pair production at the Next Linear Collider, and calculate the O(\alpha_s) QCD corrections under the soft gluon approximation. We find that: (a) in Off-diagonal basis, the $O(\alpha_s)$ QCD corrections to $e_L^- e^+$ ($e_R^- e^+$) scattering process increase the differential cross sections of the dominant spin component $t_{\uparrow}\bar{t}_{\downarrow}$ ($t_{\downarrow}\bar{t}_{\uparrow}$) by $\sim 30$ and $\sim (0.1$ depending on the scattering angle for $\sqrt{s}=400 GeV$ and 1 TeV, respectively; (b) in {Off-diagonal basis} (Helicity basis), the dominant spin component makes up 99.8% ($\sim 53$) of the total cross section at both tree and one-loop level for $\sqrt{s}=400 GeV$, and the Off-diagonal basis therefore remains to be the optimal spin basis after the inclusion of $O(\alpha_s)$ QCD corrections.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, revised version (a few print mistakes are corrected, some numerical results are modified, and Fig.4 is added