New Developments in WHIZARD Version 2.6

We describe recent additions to the WHIZARD 2 Monte-Carlo event generator which improve the physics description of lepton-collider event samples and speed up the calculation time required for cross sections and event generation.Comment: Talk presented by W. Kilian at the International Workshop on Future Linear Colliders (LCWS2017), Strasbourg, France, 23-27 October 2017. C17-10-23.

Systematic review of diagnostic tests for vaginal trichomoniasis.

OBJECTIVE: To review critically and to summarize the evidence of diagnostic tests and culture media for the diagnosis of Trichomonas vaginitis. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of literature indexed in MEDLINE of studies that used Trichomonas culture as the reference standard (9,882 patients, 35 studies). Level I studies (5,047 patients, 13 studies) fulfilled at least two of three criteria: 1) consecutive patients were evaluated prospectively, 2) decision to culture was not influenced by test results, and 3) there was independent and blind comparison to culture. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) was 95% (95% CI 91% to 99%), and the specificity was 98% (95% CI 96% to 100%). One study was classified as Level I evidence (52 patients). The sensitivity of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was 82% (95% CI 74% to 90%), and the specificity was 73% (95% CI 35% to 100%). The sensitivity of the direct fluorescence antibody was 85% (95% CI 79% to 90%), and the specificity was 99% (95% CI 98% to 100%). Sensitivities of culture media were 95% for Diamond's, 96% for Hollander, and 95% for CPLM. CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity and specificity of tests to diagnose trichomoniasis vary widely

Far-Ultraviolet Color Gradients in Early-Type Galaxies

We discuss far-UV (1500 A) surface photometry and FUV-B color profiles for 8 E/S0 galaxies from images taken with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, primarily during the Astro-2 mission. In three cases, the FUV radial profiles are more consistent with an exponential than a de Vaucouleurs function, but there is no other evidence for the presence of a disk or of young, massive stars. In all cases except M32 the FUV-B color becomes redder at larger radii. There is a wide range of internal radial FUV-B color gradients. However, we find no correlation between the FUV-B color gradients and internal metallicity gradients based on Mg absorption features. We conclude that metallicity is not the sole parameter controlling the "UV upturn component" in old populations.Comment: 11 pages; tar.gz file includes LaTeX text file, 3 PostScript figures. Paper to be published in ApJ Letter

Large Scales - Long Times: Adding High Energy Resolution to SANS

The Neutron Spin Echo (NSE) variant MIEZE (Modulation of IntEnsity by Zero Effort), where all beam manipulations are performed before the sample position, offers the possibility to perform low background SANS measurements in strong magnetic fields and depolarising samples. However, MIEZE is sensitive to differences \DeltaL in the length of neutron flight paths through the instrument and the sample. In this article, we discuss the major influence of \DeltaL on contrast reduction of MIEZE measurements and its minimisation. Finally we present a design case for enhancing a small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) instrument at the planned European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden, using a combination of MIEZE and other TOF options, such as TISANE offering time windows from ns to minutes. The proposed instrument allows studying fluctuations in depolarizing samples, samples exposed to strong magnetic fields, and spin-incoherently scattering samples in a straightforward way up to time scales of \mus at momentum transfers up to 0.01 {\AA}-1, while keeping the instrumental effort and costs low.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure

Pseudo-axions in Little Higgs models

Little Higgs models have an enlarged global symmetry which makes the Higgs boson a pseudo-Goldstone boson. This symmetry typically contains spontaneously broken U(1) subgroups which provide light electroweak-singlet pseudoscalars. Unless such particles are absorbed as the longitudinal component of $Z'$ states, they appear as pseudoscalars in the physical spectrum at the electroweak scale. We outline their significant impact on Little Higgs phenomenology and analyze a few possible signatures at the LHC and other future colliders in detail. In particular, their presence significantly affects the physics of the new heavy quark states predicted in Little Higgs models, and inclusive production at LHC may yield impressive diphoton resonances.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figs., accepted to PRD; footnote added, typos correcte

Electroweak Physics

The results of high precision weak neutral current (WNC), Z-pole, and high energy collider electroweak experiments have been the primary prediction and test of electroweak unification. The electroweak program is briefly reviewed from a historical perspective. Current changes, anomalies, and things to watch are summarized, and the implications for the standard model and beyond discussed.Comment: 12 pages, invited talk presented at the Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP 2003), New York, May 200

Top Pair Production Beyond Double-Pole Approximation: pp, pp~ --> 6 Fermions and 0, 1 or 2 Additional Partons

Hadron collider cross sections for tt~ production and di-lepton, single-lepton and all-jet decays with up to 2 additional jets are calculated using complete LO matrix elements with 6-, 7- and 8-particle final states. The fixed-width, complex-mass and overall-factor schemes (FWS, CMS & OFS) are employed and the quality of narrow-width and double-pole approximations (NWA & DPA) is investigated for inclusive production and suppressed backgrounds to new particle searches. NWA and DPA cross sections differ by 1% or less. The inclusion of sub- and non-resonant amplitudes effects a cross section increase of 5-8% at pp supercolliders, but only minor changes at the Tevatron. On-shell tt~/Wtb backgrounds for the H --> WW decay in weak boson fusion, the hadronic \tau decay of a heavy H^\pm and the \phi --> hh --> \tau\tau bb~ radion decay at the LHC are updated, with corrections ranging from 3% to 30%. FWS and CMS cross sections are uniformly consistent, but OFS cross sections are up to 6% smaller for some backgrounds.Comment: 20 pages, 6 tables, 1 figur

WW Cross-sections and Distributions

We present the results obtained by the "WW Cross-sections and Distributions" working group during the CERN Workshop "Physics at LEP2" (1994/1995)Comment: 61 pages, tar'ed gzip'ed uuencoded files, LaTeX, 4 Postscript figures. To appear in "Physics at LEP2", G.Altarelli and F.Zwirner eds., CERN Report 199

Propylene Carbonate Reexamined: Mode-Coupling β\beta Scaling without Factorisation ?

The dynamic susceptibility of propylene carbonate in the moderately viscous regime above $T_{\rm c}$ is reinvestigated by incoherent neutron and depolarised light scattering, and compared to dielectric loss and solvation response. Depending on the strength of $\alpha$ relaxation, a more or less extended $\beta$ scaling regime is found. Mode-coupling fits yield consistently $\lambda=0.72$ and $T_{\rm c}=182$K, although different positions of the susceptibility minimum indicate that not all observables have reached the universal asymptotics