Turning back the tide of American mink invasion at unprecedented scales in partnership with communities

Lambin, X., Atkinson, S., Bryce, R., Davies, L., Gray, H., Oliver, M.K, Urquhart, J

Studying Science Communication

Proceedings of the Panel of the EASST2014 conference, organised by Sarah R Davies and Maja Horst. Volume edited by Erik Stengler

Book review: hackerspaces: making the maker movement by Sarah R. Davies

In Hackerspaces: Making the Maker Movement, Sarah R. Davies examines the increasingly high profile of hacking and making, drawing on visits to hackerspaces and interviews with those involved in them. Attending to the multiple strands of hacking and questions regarding the commodification of the ‘hacker spirit’ as well as the movement’s diversity, this is an engagingly written book that addresses readers beyond a purely academic audience, writes Siún Carden

Electroweak Baryogenesis and Dark Matter with an approximate R-symmetry

It is well known that R-symmetric models dramatically alleviate the SUSY flavor and CP problems. We study particular modifications of existing R-symmetric models which share the solution to the above problems, and have interesting consequences for electroweak baryogenesis and the Dark Matter (DM) content of the universe. In particular, we find that it is naturally possible to have a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition while simultaneously relaxing the tension with EDM experiments. The R-symmetry (and its small breaking) implies that the gauginos (and the neutralino LSP) are pseudo-Dirac fermions, which is relevant for both baryogenesis and DM. The singlet superpartner of the U(1)_Y pseudo-Dirac gaugino plays a prominent role in making the electroweak phase transition strongly first-order. The pseudo-Dirac nature of the LSP allows it to behave similarly to a Dirac particle during freeze-out, but like a Majorana particle for annihilation today and in scattering against nuclei, thus being consistent with current constraints. Assuming a standard cosmology, it is possible to simultaneously have a strongly first-order phase transition conducive to baryogenesis and have the LSP provide the full DM relic abundance, in part of the allowed parameter space. However, other possibilities for DM also exist, which are discussed. It is expected that upcoming direct DM searches as well as neutrino signals from DM annihilation in the Sun will be sensitive to this class of models. Interesting collider and Gravity-wave signals are also briefly discussed.Comment: 50 pages, 10 figure

Two-loop RGEs with Dirac gaugino masses

The set of renormalisation group equations to two loop order for general supersymmetric theories broken by soft and supersoft operators is completed. As an example, the explicit expressions for the RGEs in a Dirac gaugino extension of the (N)MSSM are presented.Comment: 10 pages + 24 pages of RGEs in appendix; no figure

Status of the GEO600 gravitational wave detector

The GEO600 laser interferometric gravitational wave detector is approaching the end of its commissioning phase which started in 1995.During a test run in January 2002 the detector was operated for 15 days in a power-recycled michelson configuration. The detector and environmental data which were acquired during this test run were used to test the data analysis code. This paper describes the subsystems of GEO600, the status of the detector by August 2002 and the plans towards the first science run

Community and Identity in Contemporary Technosciences

This open access edited book provides new thinking on scientific identity formation. It thoroughly interrogates the concepts of community and identity, including both historical and contemporaneous analyses of several scientific fields. Chapters examine whether, and how, today’s scientific identities and communities are subject to fundamental changes, reacting to tangible shifts in research funding as well as more intangible transformations in our society’s understanding and expectations of technoscience. Authors: Karen Kastenhofer, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Clemens Blümel, Bettina Bock von Wülfingen, Béatrice Cointe, Carlos Cuevas-Garcia, Sarah R Davies, Alexander Degelsegger-Márquez, Juliane Jarke, Pierre-Benoît Joly, Marianne Noël, Benjamin Raimbault, Andrea Schikowitz, Sarah M. Schönbauer, Inga Ulnicane-Ozolina, Caitlin D. WylieDer vorgelegte Open Access Band befasst sich mit Identität und Gemeinschaft in den TechnoWissenschaften. Er widmet sich wesentlichen soziologischen Konzepten und präsentiert sowohl historische, als auch aktuelle Fallbeispiele, darunter Supramolekulare Chemie, Synthetische Biologie, Nanotechnologie und Nachhaltigkeitsforschung. AutorInnen: Karen Kastenhofer, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Clemens Blümel, Bettina Bock von Wülfingen, Béatrice Cointe, Carlos Cuevas-Garcia, Sarah R Davies, Alexander Degelsegger-Márquez, Juliane Jarke, Pierre-Benoît Joly, Marianne Noël, Benjamin Raimbault, Andrea Schikowitz, Sarah M. Schönbauer, Inga Ulnicane-Ozolina, Caitlin D. Wyli

Fitting Neutrino Physics with a U(1)_R Lepton Number

We study neutrino physics in the context of a supersymmetric model where a continuous R-symmetry is identified with the total Lepton Number and one sneutrino can thus play the role of the down type Higgs. We show that R-breaking effects communicated to the visible sector by Anomaly Mediation can reproduce neutrino masses and mixing solely via radiative contributions, without requiring any additional degree of freedom. In particular, a relatively large reactor angle (as recently observed by the Daya Bay collaboration) can be accommodated in ample regions of the parameter space. On the contrary, if the R-breaking is communicated to the visible sector by gravitational effects at the Planck scale, additional particles are necessary to accommodate neutrino data.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures; v2: references added, constraints updated, overall conclusions unchange