4,198 research outputs found
A new simple form of quark mixing matrix
Although different parametrizations of quark mixing matrix are mathematically
equivalent, the consequences of experimental analysis may be distinct. Based on
the triminimal expansion of Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix around the unit matrix, we
propose a new simple parametrization. Compared with the Wolfenstein
parametrization, we find that the new form is not only consistent with the
original one in the hierarchical structure, but also more convenient for
numerical analysis and measurement of the CP-violating phase. By discussing the
relation between our new form and the unitarity boomerang, we point out that
along with the unitarity boomerang, this new parametrization is useful in
hunting for new physics.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, final version for journal publicatio
Influence of mild feed restriction and mild reduction in dietary amino acid content on feeding behaviour of group-housed growing pigs
This study investigates changes in the feeding behaviour of pigs as a result of a restriction in their feed allowance and a reduction in dietary indispensable amino acid (AA) content. Ninety-six Topig Talent Ă PIC barrows were housed in 8 pens and individually fed either ad libitum (AL) or a restricted diet (RF) from 47 to 145 kg body weight (BW). The amount of feed given to RF pigs was close to their expected voluntary intake, but it was limited to proportions of 0.33, 0.66 and 1.00 of the estimated daily amount of feed in 3 time intervals, 00:01 to 8:00, 8:01 to 16:00 and 16:01 to 24:00 h, respectively. From 86 kg BW, the pigs in 4 of the pens were fed diets with conventional standardized ileal digestible AA content (CAA), while the pigs in the other pens received diets (LAA) in which the proportions of dietary indispensable AA were lowered with respect to CAA by 0.91 from 86 to 118 kg BW and by 0.82 from 118 to 145 kg BW. Automated feeders monitored individual feeding behaviour. Data were analysed by pig and feeding phase with a 2 Ă 2 factorial design. Over the whole experimental period, feed restriction resulted in a decrease in daily feed intake (7%, P < 0.001), the number of visits (27%, P < 0.001) and the time spent feeding (14%, P < 0.001), but an increase in feed consumption per visit (20%, P = 0.001) and feeding rate (10%, P = 0.032). The reduction in AA increased daily feed intake (7%, P = 0.031), tended to increase feeding rate (14%, P = 0.07) and interacted with feeding regime with respect to the number and duration of feeding visits. During growing and finishing, we observed high, negative, non-linear relationships between feed consumption per visit and visit frequency (R2 = 0.989 to 0.876), between visit duration and visit frequency (R2 = 0.648 to 0.695), and between feeding rate and time spent feeding in a day (R2 = 0.802 to 0.707), and positive linear relationships between visit duration and feed consumption per visit (R2 = 0.614 to 0.570). The individual feeding rate during growing was positively correlated with that during finishing (R2 = 0.458). We conclude that pigs try to adapt their feeding pattern to compensate for a reduction in feed allowance or nutrient restriction by, for example, increasing their feeding rate, which may reflect increased feeding motivation
Practical use of variational principles for modeling water waves
This paper describes a method for deriving approximate equations for
irrotational water waves. The method is based on a 'relaxed' variational
principle, i.e., on a Lagrangian involving as many variables as possible. This
formulation is particularly suitable for the construction of approximate water
wave models, since it allows more freedom while preserving the variational
structure. The advantages of this relaxed formulation are illustrated with
various examples in shallow and deep waters, as well as arbitrary depths. Using
subordinate constraints (e.g., irrotationality or free surface impermeability)
in various combinations, several model equations are derived, some being
well-known, other being new. The models obtained are studied analytically and
exact travelling wave solutions are constructed when possible.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, 62 references. Other author's papers can be
downloaded at http://www.denys-dutykh.com
Lepton Flavour Violation in a Supersymmetric Model with A4 Flavour Symmetry
We compute the branching ratios for mu-> e gamma, tau-> mu gamma and tau -> e
gamma in a supersymmetric model invariant under the flavour symmetry group A4 X
Z3 X U(1)_{FN}, in which near tri-bimaximal lepton mixing is naturally
predicted. At leading order in the small symmetry breaking parameter u, which
is of the same order as the reactor mixing angle theta_{13}, we find that the
branching ratios generically scale as u^2. Applying the current bound on the
branching ratio of mu -> e gamma shows that small values of u or tan(beta) are
preferred in the model for mass parameters m_{SUSY} and m_{1/2} smaller than
1000 GeV. The bound expected from the on-going MEG experiment will provide a
severe constraint on the parameter space of the model either enforcing u approx
0.01 and small tan(beta) or m_{SUSY} and m_{1/2} above 1000 GeV. In the special
case of universal soft supersymmetry breaking terms in the flavon sector a
cancellation takes place in the amplitudes and the branching ratios scale as
u^4, allowing for smaller slepton masses. The branching ratios for tau -> mu
gamma and tau -> e gamma are predicted to be of the same order as the one for
mu -> e gamma, which precludes the possibility of observing these tau decays in
the near future.Comment: 44 page
Genotype distribution of cervical human papillomavirus DNA in women with cervical lesions in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The HVP vaccine is a useful tool for preventing cervical cancer. The purpose of this study is to determine the most frequent HPV genotypes in Equatorial Guinea in order to develop future vaccination strategies to apply in this country.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A campaign against cervical cancer was carried out in the area on a total of 1,680 women. 26 of the women, following cytological screening, were treated surgically with a loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP). Cases were studied histologically and were genotyped from paraffin blocks by applying a commercial kit that recognized 35 HPV types.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cytological diagnoses included 17 HSIL, 1 LSIL, 5 ASC-H and 3 AGUS. Histological diagnosis resulted in 3 cases of microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma stage IA of FIGO, 9 CIN-3, 8 CIN-2, 2 CIN-1, 3 flat condylomas and mild dysplasia of the endocervical epithelium. Fifteen of twenty-five cases genotyped were positive for HPV (60%). HPV 16 and 33 were identified in four cases each, HPV 58 in two other cases, and HPV 18, 31, 52, and 82 in one case, with one HPV 16 and 58 coinfection.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The frequency of HPV types in the African area varies in comparison to other regions, particularly in Europe and USA. Vaccination against the five most common HPV types (16, 33, 58, 18, and 31) should be considered in the geographic region of West Africa and specifically in Equatorial Guinea.</p
Vectorlike Confinement at the LHC
We argue for the plausibility of a broad class of vectorlike confining gauge
theories at the TeV scale which interact with the Standard Model predominantly
via gauge interactions. These theories have a rich phenomenology at the LHC if
confinement occurs at the TeV scale, while ensuring negligible impact on
precision electroweak and flavor observables. Spin-1 bound states can be
resonantly produced via their mixing with Standard Model gauge bosons. The
resonances promptly decay to pseudo-Goldstone bosons, some of which promptly
decay to a pair of Standard Model gauge bosons, while others are charged and
stable on collider time scales. The diverse set of final states with little
background include multiple photons and leptons, missing energy, massive stable
charged particles and the possibility of highly displaced vertices in dilepton,
leptoquark or diquark decays. Among others, a novel experimental signature of
resonance reconstruction out of massive stable charged particles is
highlighted. Some of the long-lived states also constitute Dark Matter
candidates.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures. v4: expanded discussion of Z_2 symmetry for
stability, one reference adde
The flavor puzzle in multi-Higgs models
We reconsider the flavor problem in the models with two Higgs doublets. By
studying two generation toy models, we look for flavor basis independent
constraints on Yukawa couplings that will give us the mass hierarchy while
keeping all Yukawa couplings of the same order. We then generalize our findings
to the full three generation Standard Model. We find that we need two
constraints on the Yukawa couplings to generate the observed mass hierarchy,
and a slight tuning of Yukawa couplings of order 10%, much less than the
Standard Model. We briefly study how these constraints can be realized, and
show how flavor changing currents are under control for mixing in
the near-decoupling limit.Comment: 26 pages, typos are corrected, references are added, the final
versio
Right Unitarity Triangles, Stable CP-violating Phases and Approximate Quark-Lepton Complementarity
Current experimental data indicate that two unitarity triangles of the CKM
quark flavor mixing matrix V are almost the right triangles with \alpha \approx
90^\circ. We find that \alpha = 90^\circ actually points to {\rm
Re}(V_{tb}V_{ud}V^*_{td}V^*_{ub}) = 0. Considering a very suggestive
parametrization of V, we show that its CP-violating phase \phi is nearly equal
to \alpha (i.e., \phi - \alpha \approx 1.1^\circ). Both \phi and \alpha are
stable against the renormalizaton-group evolution from the electroweak scale
M_Z to a superhigh energy scale M_X or vice versa, and thus it is impossible to
obtain \alpha = 90^\circ at M_Z from \phi = 90^\circ at M_X. We conjecture that
there might also exist a maximal CP-violating phase \phi \approx 90^\circ in
the MNS lepton flavor mixing matrix U. The approximate quark-lepton
complementarity relations, which hold in the standard parametrizations of V and
U, can also hold in our particular parametrizations of V and U simply due to
the smallness of |V_{ub}| and |V_{e3}|.Comment: RevTex 12 pages, 1 PS figure. Accepted for publication in PL
A natural little hierarchy for RS from accidental SUSY
We use supersymmetry to address the little hierarchy problem in
Randall-Sundrum models by naturally generating a hierarchy between the IR scale
and the electroweak scale. Supersymmetry is broken on the UV brane which
triggers the stabilization of the warped extra dimension at an IR scale of
order 10 TeV. The Higgs and top quark live near the IR brane whereas light
fermion generations are localized towards the UV brane. Supersymmetry breaking
causes the first two sparticle generations to decouple, thereby avoiding the
supersymmetric flavour and CP problems, while an accidental R-symmetry protects
the gaugino mass. The resulting low-energy sparticle spectrum consists of
stops, gauginos and Higgsinos which are sufficient to stabilize the little
hierarchy between the IR scale and the electroweak scale. Finally, the
supersymmetric little hierarchy problem is ameliorated by introducing a singlet
Higgs field on the IR brane.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor corrections, version published in JHE
Flavor Mediation Delivers Natural SUSY
If supersymmetry (SUSY) solves the hierarchy problem, then naturalness
considerations coupled with recent LHC bounds require non-trivial superpartner
flavor structures. Such "Natural SUSY" models exhibit a large mass hierarchy
between scalars of the third and first two generations as well as degeneracy
(or alignment) among the first two generations. In this work, we show how this
specific beyond the standard model (SM) flavor structure can be tied directly
to SM flavor via "Flavor Mediation". The SM contains an anomaly-free SU(3)
flavor symmetry, broken only by Yukawa couplings. By gauging this flavor
symmetry in addition to SM gauge symmetries, we can mediate SUSY breaking via
(Higgsed) gauge mediation. This automatically delivers a natural SUSY spectrum.
Third-generation scalar masses are suppressed due to the dominant breaking of
the flavor gauge symmetry in the top direction. More subtly, the
first-two-generation scalars remain highly degenerate due to a custodial U(2)
symmetry, where the SU(2) factor arises because SU(3) is rank two. This
custodial symmetry is broken only at order (m_c/m_t)^2. SUSY gauge coupling
unification predictions are preserved, since no new charged matter is
introduced, the SM gauge structure is unaltered, and the flavor symmetry treats
all matter multiplets equally. Moreover, the uniqueness of the anomaly-free
SU(3) flavor group makes possible a number of concrete predictions for the
superpartner spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. v2 references added, minor changes to
flavor constraints and a little discussion adde
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