Diabetic pancreatic β cells ARNT all they should be

A complex network of interacting transcription factors plays a critical role in normal pancreatic β cell function, with mutations in certain transcription factor genes known to cause diabetes. In a recent issue of Cell, Gunton et al. (2005) demonstrate a role for the transcription factor ARNT/HIF1β (hydrocarbon nuclear receptor translocator/hypoxia-inducible factor 1 β) in normal β cell function. ARNT expression is reduced in diabetic human islets and β cell-specific ARNT knockout mice show the impaired glucose tolerance and abnormal insulin secretion that are characteristic of type 2 diabetes

Precision Measurements at The Higgs Resonance: A Probe of Radiative Fermion Masses

The possibility of radiative generation of fermion masses from soft supersymmetry breaking chiral flavor violation is explored. Consistent models are identified and classified. Phenomenological implications for electric dipole moments and magnetic moments, as well as collider probes -- in particular those relevant at the Higgs resonance -- are discussed. It is shown that partial widths $\Gamma_{h^{0} \to ff}$ are enhanced compared with the minimal supersymmetric standard model.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, aipproc.sty (included). Talk presented by N. Polonsky at the Workshop on Physics at the First Muon Collider and the Front End of a Muon Collider, Fermilab, November 6-9, 199

Effects of supersymmetric grand unification scale physics on Γ(b→sγ)\Gamma \left( b\to s\gamma\right)

Although calculations of the $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ rate in supersymmetric grand unified models have always either ignored the gluino mediated contribution or found it to be negligible, we show that taking universal supersymmetry breaking masses at the Planck scale, rather than at the gauge unification scale as is customary, leads to the gluino contribution being more significant and in fact sometimes even larger than the chargino mediated contributions when $\mu >0$ and $\tan{\beta}$ is of order 1. The impact is greatest felt when the gluinos are relatively light. Taking the universal boundary condition at the Planck scale also has an effect on the chargino contribution by increasing the effect of the wino and higgsino-wino mediated decays. The neutralino mediated contribution is found to be enhanced, but nevertheless it remains relatively insignificant.Comment: Title changed, final version as accepted for PRD, 12 pages, 6 Figures (Figs.2-6 included, uuencoded, epsf.tex

The strong coupling, unification, and recent data

The prediction of the strong coupling assuming (supersymmetric) coupling constant unification is reexamined. We find, using the new electroweak data, $\alpha_{s}(M_{Z}) \approx 0.129 \pm 0.010$. The implications of the large $\alpha_{s}$ value are discussed. The role played by the $Z$ beauty width is stressed. It is also emphasized that high-energy (but not low-energy) corrections could significantly diminish the prediction. However, unless higher-dimension operators are assumed to be suppressed, at present one cannot place strong constraints on the super-heavy spectrum. Non-leading electroweak threshold corrections are also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex + RevTex, uuencoded postscript file (including 13 figures) is attached. Also available at ftp://dept.physics.upenn.edu/pub/Ni

Single flux quantum circuits with damping based on dissipative transmission lines

We propose and demonstrate the functioning of a special Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) circuit with frequency-dependent damping. This damping is achieved by shunting individual Josephson junctions by pieces of open-ended RC transmission lines. Our circuit includes a toggle flip-flop cell, Josephson transmission lines transferring single flux quantum pulses to and from this cell, as well as DC/SFQ and SFQ/DC converters. Due to the desired frequency-dispersion in the RC line shunts which ensures sufficiently low noise at low frequencies, such circuits are well-suited for integrating with the flux/phase Josephson qubit and enable its efficient control.Comment: 6 pages incl. 6 figure

The Superpartner Spectrum of Gaugino Mediation

We compute the superpartner masses in a class of models with gaugino mediation (or no-scale) boundary conditions at a scale between the GUT and Planck scales. These models are compelling because they are simple, solve the supersymmetric flavor and CP problems, satisfy all constraints from colliders and cosmology, and predict the superpartner masses in terms of very few parameters. Our analysis includes the renormalization group evolution of the soft-breaking terms above the GUT scale. We show that the running above the GUT scale is largely model independent and find that a phenomenologically viable spectrum is obtained.Comment: 15 page

μ\mu-term as the origin of baryon and lepton number asymmetry

We study a possibility of combining an origin of the $\mu$-term and the baryon and lepton number asymmetry. If we assume that the $\mu$-term is generated through a flat direction of a singlet scalar field, the coherent oscillation of this condensate around its potential minimum can store the global U(1) charge asymmetry. The decay of this condensate can distribute this asymmetry into the lepton and baryon number asymmetry as far as its decay occurs at an appropriate temperature. We examine the compatibility between this scenario and the small neutrino mass generation based on both the ordinary seesaw mechanism and the bilinear R-parity violating terms.Comment: 22 pages, published versio