Realistic Anomaly-mediated Supersymmetry Breaking

We consider supersymmetry breaking communicated entirely by the superconformal anomaly in supergravity. This scenario is naturally realized if supersymmetry is broken in a hidden sector whose couplings to the observable sector are suppressed by more than powers of the Planck scale, as occurs if supersymmetry is broken in a parallel universe living in extra dimensions. This scenario is extremely predictive: soft supersymmetry breaking couplings are completely determined by anomalous dimensions in the effective theory at the weak scale. Gaugino and scalar masses are naturally of the same order, and flavor-changing neutral currents are automatically suppressed. The most glaring problem with this scenario is that slepton masses are negative in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We point out that this problem can be simply solved by coupling extra Higgs doublets to the leptons. Lepton flavor-changing neutral currents can be naturally avoided by approximate symmetries. We also describe more speculative solutions involving compositeness near the weak scale. We then turn to electroweak symmetry breaking. Adding an explicit \mu term gives a value for B\mu that is too large by a factor of order 100. We construct a realistic model in which the \mu term arises from the vacuum expectation value of a singlet field, so all weak-scale masses are directly related to m_{3/2}. We show that fully realistic electroweak symmetry breaking can occur in this model with moderate fine-tuning.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX2e, 3 eps figure

NEW PHYSICS AND RECENT HIGH PRECISION ELECTROWEAK MEASUREMENTS

We analyze LEP and SLC data from the 1995 Winter Conferences for signals of new physics. We compare the data with the Standard Model (SM) as well as a number of test hypotheses concerning the nature of new physics: (i) nonstandard Zbb couplings, (ii) nonstandard Zff couplings for the entire third generation, (iii) nonstandard oblique corrections, (iv) nonstandard lepton couplings, (v) general nonstandard W and Z couplings to all fermions, as well as combinations of the above. In most of our analyses, we leave the SM variables $\alpha_s$ and $m_t$ as free parameters to see how the various types of new physics can affect their inferred values. We find that the best fit ($\chi^2/d.o.f. = 8.4/10$) is obtained for the nonstandard Zbb couplings, which also give a `low' value (0.112) for $\alpha_s$. The SM also gives a good description of the Z data, having $\chi^2/d.o.f. = 12.4/12$. If $\alpha_s$ is held fixed to the low-energy value 0.112, then we find that a combination of the nonstandard Zbb couplings is fit to lie more than four standard deviations away from zero.Comment: Plain TeX, 9 pages, one figure (uuencoded), and 8 table

Hadronic ψ\psi production calculated in the NRQCD factorization formalism

The NRQCD factorization formalism of Bodwin, Braaten, and Lepage prescribes how to write quarkonium production rates as a sum of products of short-distance coefficients times non-perturbative long-distance NRQCD matrix elements. We present, in the true spirit of the factorization formalism, a detailed calculation of the inclusive cross section for hadronic $\psi$ production. We find that in addition to the well known {\it color-singlet} production mechanisms, there are equally important mechanisms in which the $c\bar{c}$ pair that forms the $\psi$ is initially produced in a {\it color-octet} state, in either a ${}^3S_1$, ${}^1S_0$, ${}^3P_0$ or ${}^3P_2$ angular-momentum configuration. In our presentation, we emphasize the ``matching'' procedure, which %is the method that allows us to determine the short-distance coefficients appearing in the factorization formula. We also point out how one may systematically include relativistic corrections in these calculations.Comment: 25 pages, 3 postscript figures, use Revtex and epsfig.sty We fixed some typos, added some text regarding a reference, and changed some equations. The file will be available at http://phenom.physics.wisc.edu

A Global Fit to Extended Oblique Parameters

The STU formalism of Peskin and Takeuchi is an elegant method for encoding the measurable effects of new physics which couples to light fermions dominantly through its effects on electroweak boson propagation. However, this formalism cannot handle the case where the scale of new physics is not much larger than the weak scale. In this case three new parameters (V, W and X) are required. We perform a global fit to precision electroweak data for these six parameters. Our results differ from what is found for just STU. In particular we find that the preference for S < 0 is not maintained.Comment: Plain TeX, 11 pages, one figure (ps file enclosed), (replaced version corrects minor TeX problem, text unchanged) UdeM-LPN-TH-93-166, McGill-93/24, OCIP/C-93-

NRQCD matrix elements in polarization of J-Psi produced from b-decay

We present the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) prediction for the polarization of the J-Psi produced in b to J-Psi + X, as well as the helicity-summed production rate. We propose that these observables provide a means of measuring the three most important color-octet NRQCD matrix elements involved in J-Psi production. Anticipating the measurement of the polarization parameter alpha, we determine its expected range given current experimental bounds on the color-octet matrix elements.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, 2 figure

Bounding Anomalous Gauge-Boson Couplings

In this version we have corrected some minor errors in the tables, corrected typos, and added a reference. We have also updated our comparison with earlier workers. Figures are now included as uuencoded compressed tar files.Comment: 32 page

Model-Independent Global Constraints on New Physics

Using effective-lagrangian techniques we perform a systematic survey of the lowest-dimension effective interactions through which heavy physics might manifest itself in present experiments. We do not restrict ourselves to special classes of effective interactions (such as `oblique' corrections). We compute the effects of these operators on all currently well-measured electroweak observables, both at low energies and at the $Z$ resonance, and perform a global fit to their coefficients. Despite the fact that a great many operators arise in our survey, we find that most are quite strongly bounded by the current data. We use our survey to systematically identify those effective interactions which are {\it not} well-bounded by the data -- these could very well include large new-physics contributions. Our results may also be used to efficiently confront specific models for new physics with the data, as we illustrate with an example.Comment: plain TeX, 68 pages, 2 figures (postscript files appended), McGill-93/12, NEIPH-93-008, OCIP/C-93-6, UQAM-PHE-93/08, UdeM-LPN-TH-93-15

Photoproduction of J/ψ\psi in the forward region

We study the phenomenology of fixed-target elastic $J/\psi$ photoproduction in the NRQCD factorization formalism. Our the goal is to test an essential feature of this formalism --- the color-octet mechanism. We obtain an order-of-magnitude estimate for a certain linear combination of NRQCD color-octet matrix elements. Our estimate is consistent with other empirical determinations and with the $v$-scaling rules of NRQCD.Comment: Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Substantial change