Bounds on Higgs and Gauge--Boson Interactions from LEP2 Data

We derive bounds on Higgs and gauge--boson anomalous interactions using the LEP2 data on the production of three photons and photon pairs in association with hadrons. In the framework of $SU(2)_L \otimes U(1)_Y$ effective Lagrangians, we examine all dimension--six operators that lead to anomalous Higgs interactions involving $\gamma$ and $Z$. The search for Higgs boson decaying to $\gamma\gamma$ pairs allow us to obtain constrains on these anomalous couplings that are comparable with the ones originating from the analyses of $p\bar{p}$ collisions at the Tevatron. Our results also show that if the coefficients of all ``blind'' operators are assumed to have same magnitude, the indirect constraints on the anomalous couplings obtained from this analyses, for Higgs masses $M_H \lesssim$ 140 GeV, are more restrictive than the ones coming from the $W^+W^-$ production.Comment: 14 pages Latex file using RevTeX, 3 figures as .eps file

Framework for evaluating customer value and the feasibility of servicing architectures for on-orbit satellite servicing

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005."June 2005."Includes bibliographical references (195-197).The question that this thesis examines is whether traditional monolithic satellite designs have limited the value that the satellite market generates for the space industry. To answer this question, this thesis focuses on the "Value" that satellites generate. By examining the value that satellites offer their operators, this thesis determines if alternative methods of satellite design offer greater value than traditional satellite designs. One alternative method that is examined is on-orbit satellite servicing. On a basic level, on-orbit satellite servicing is the process of providing services to a satellite in orbit, such as: relocation, refueling, repairs, or upgrades. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and support a framework for determining the value of on-orbit satellite servicing. The framework involves examining on-orbit servicing as a competitive market and dividing that market into two sides -the customer and the provider. By examining the customer side of on-orbit servicing, this thesis identifies the reasons a customer would require servicing and thus determines the value that can be delivered to the customer. By determining the point where the value of servicing is zero, the customer's maximum servicing price can be computed.(cont.) By examining the provider's side of the market, this thesis identifies the different forms of servicing that can fulfill the customer's needs. Based on a provider's forms of servicing, the provider's minimum servicing price can be determined. Finally, by overlaying the maximum servicing price with the minimum servicing price, one can determine if a feasible on-orbit servicing market exists. If any overlap exists, then a feasible range of servicing prices exists and servicing makes sense.Simply put, an overlap represents the case where a customer need exists and a provider has the ability to meet that need - hence a servicing market exists. This thesis concludes with a discussion concerning the development of on-orbit satellite servicing and how this development is not limited solely by economic and technical issues. It is the purpose of this thesis to show that on-orbit satellite servicing provides a means for escape from the traditional approach of satellite design. thereby allowing a paradigm shift towards more valuable design approaches. While some may believe that on-orbit satellite servicing provides a means to sustain current technology trends, it is argued that on-orbit satellite servicing is a disruptive technology.(cont.) With disruptive technologies come the opportunities for greater value and dramatic change. On-orbit satellite servicing provides the opportunity for a paradigm shift in satellite design that can lead to dramatic new ideas, uses, and valuations of space.by Andrew Michael Long.S.M

Sub-millimeter Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-square Law

Motivated by a variety of theories that predict new effects, we tested the gravitational 1/r^2 law at separations between 10.77 mm and 137 microns using two different 10-fold azimuthally symmetric torsion pendulums and rotating 10-fold symmetric attractors. Our work improves upon other experiments by up to a factor of about 100. We found no deviation from Newtonian physics at the 95% confidence level and interpret these results as constraints on extensions of the Standard Model that predict Yukawa or power-law forces. We set a constraint on the largest single extra dimension (assuming toroidal compactification and that one extra dimension is significantly larger than all the others) of R <= 160 microns, and on two equal-sized large extra dimensions of R <= 130 microns. Yukawa interactions with |alpha| >= 1 are ruled out at 95% confidence for lambda >= 197 microns. Extra-dimensions scenarios stabilized by radions are restricted to unification masses M >= 3.0 TeV/c^2, regardless of the number of large extra dimensions. We also provide new constraints on power-law potentials V(r)\propto r^{-k} with k between 2 and 5 and on the gamma_5 couplings of pseudoscalars with m <= 10 meV/c^2.Comment: 34 pages, 38 figure

The effect of education on oral health students' attitudes in Australia and New Zealand

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the oral health attitudes and behavior of students in the oral health curriculum in Australia and New Zealand. Materials and Methods: The Hiroshima University - Dental Behavioral Inventory was administered to students in the first (year 1) and final years (year 3) of the oral health curriculum at Charles Sturt University in Australia and the University of Otago in New Zealand. A total of fifty-two year 1 students and forty-five year 3 students completed English version of the questionnaire in 2013. The responses were statistically analyzed by Fisher's exact tests and exact logistic regression models. Results: The responses of students in years 1 and 3 differed significantly for "I worry about the color of my teeth" at Charles Sturt University and at the University Otago, for "I think my teeth are getting worse despite my daily brushing," "I put off going to the dentist until I have a toothache," and "I don't feel I've brushed well unless I brush with strong strokes." The estimated odds ratios from the exact logistic regression models showed that year 1 students were more likely to agree with above-mentioned four questions. Conclusions: Oral Health students who had been educated in a 3-year oral health curriculum in Australia and New Zealand had more positive attitudes and behaviors related oral health than did students at the beginning of their curriculum

Spontaneous CP Violating Phase as The CKM Matrix Phase

We propose that the CP violating phase in the CKM mixing matrix is identical to the CP phases responsible for the spontaneous CP violation in the Higgs potential. A specific multi-Higgs model with Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is constructed to realize this idea. The CP violating phase does not vanish when all Higgs masses become large. There are flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions mediated by neutral Higgs bosons at the tree level. However, unlike general multi-Higgs models, the FCNC Yukawa couplings are fixed in terms of the quark masses and CKM mixing angles. Implications for meson-anti-meson mixing, including recent data on $D-\bar D$ mixing, and neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) are studied. We find that the neutral Higgs boson masses can be at the order of one hundred GeV. The neutron EDM can be close to the present experimental upper bound.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex. Several typos corrected, and one reference adde

Majorana Neutrino, the Size of Extra Dimensions, and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

The problem of Majorana neutrino mass generated in Arkani-Hamed--Dimopoulos-Dvali model with n extra spatial dimensions is discussed. Taking into account constraints on neutrino masses coming from cosmological observations, it is possible to obtain lower limits on the size of extra dimensions as large as 10^{-6} mm. In the case of n=4 it is easy to lower the fundamental scale of gravity from the Planck energy to electroweak scale \~TeV without imposing any additional constraints. A link between the half-life of neutrinoless double beta decay and the size of extra dimensions is discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, using RevTEX. Units conversion correcte

New evidence for strong nonthermal effects in Tycho's supernova remnant

For the case of Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR) we present the relation between the blast wave and contact discontinuity radii calculated within the nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in SNRs. It is demonstrated that these radii are confirmed by recently published Chandra measurements which show that the observed contact discontinuity radius is so close to the shock radius that it can only be explained by efficient CR acceleration which in turn makes the medium more compressible. Together with the recently determined new value $E_{sn}=1.2\times 10^{51}$ erg of the SN explosion energy this also confirms our previous conclusion that a TeV gamma-ray flux of $(2-5)\times 10^{-13}$ erg/(cm$^2$s) is to be expected from Tycho's SNR. Chandra measurements and the HEGRA upper limit of the TeV gamma-ray flux together limit the source distance $d$ to $3.3\leq d\leq 4$ kpc.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science, Proc. of "The Multi-Messenger Approach to High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources (Third Workshop on the Nature of Unidentified High-Energy Sources)", Barcelona, July 4-7, 200

The Casimir force and the quantum theory of lossy optical cavities

We present a new derivation of the Casimir force between two parallel plane mirrors at zero temperature. The two mirrors and the cavity they enclose are treated as quantum optical networks. They are in general lossy and characterized by frequency dependent reflection amplitudes. The additional fluctuations accompanying losses are deduced from expressions of the optical theorem. A general proof is given for the theorem relating the spectral density inside the cavity to the reflection amplitudes seen by the inner fields. This density determines the vacuum radiation pressure and, therefore, the Casimir force. The force is obtained as an integral over the real frequencies, including the contribution of evanescent waves besides that of ordinary waves, and, then, as an integral over imaginary frequencies. The demonstration relies only on general properties obeyed by real mirrors which also enforce general constraints for the variation of the Casimir force.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, minor amendment

X-ray standing wave and reflectometric characterization of multilayer structures

Microstructural characterization of synthetic periodic multilayers by x-ray standing waves have been presented. It has been shown that the analysis of multilayers by combined x-ray reflectometry (XRR) and x-ray standing wave (XSW) techniques can overcome the deficiencies of the individual techniques in microstructural analysis. While interface roughnesses are more accurately determined by the XRR technique, layer composition is more accurately determined by the XSW technique where an element is directly identified by its characteristic emission. These aspects have been explained with an example of a 20 period Pt/C multilayer. The composition of the C-layers due to Pt dissolution in the C-layers, Pt$_{x}$C$_{1-x}$, has been determined by the XSW technique. In the XSW analysis when the whole amount of Pt present in the C-layers is assumed to be within the broadened interface, it l eads to larger interface roughness values, inconsistent with those determined by the XRR technique. Constraining the interface roughness values to those determined by the XRR technique, requires an additional amount of dissolved Pt in the C-layers to expl ain the Pt fluorescence yield excited by the standing wave field. This analysis provides the average composition Pt$_{x}$C$_{1-x}$ of the C-layers .Comment: 12 pages RevTex, 10 eps figures embedde

The seesaw mechanism at TeV scale in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos

We implement the seesaw mechanism in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos. This is accomplished by the introduction of a scalar sextet into the model and the spontaneous violation of the lepton number. We identify the Majoron as a singlet under $SU_L(2)\otimes U_Y(1)$ symmetry, which makes it safe under the current bounds imposed by electroweak data. The main result of this work is that the seesaw mechanism works already at TeV scale with the outcome that the right-handed neutrino masses lie in the electroweak scale, in the range from MeV to tens of GeV. This window provides a great opportunity to test their appearance at current detectors, though when we contrast our results with some previous analysis concerning detection sensitivity at LHC, we conclude that further work is needed in order to validate this search.Comment: about 13 pages, no figure