Four-pion production in e+ e- annihilation

We calculate the processes e+ e- -> 4 pions and tau -> nu_tau + 4 pions to O(p^4) in the low-energy expansion of the standard model. The chiral amplitudes of O(p^4) can be extended via resonance exchange to energies around 1 GeV. Higher-order effects have been included in the form of omega, a_1 and double rho exchange and by performing a resummation of the pion form factor. The predicted cross sections and the branching ratios BR(rho -> 4 pions) are in good agreement with available data.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, small changes in the text, results and conclusions unchanged, version to appear in EPJ

Four-pion production

Starting from the low-energy structure derived from QCD, we extend the amplitudes for four-pion production in e+ e- annihilation and tau decays up to invariant four-pion masses of 1 GeV. Cross sections and branching ratios BR(rho^0 -> 4 pi) are compared with available data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, contribution to Proc. of QCD'02, Montpellier, July 2002, misprints correcte

Status of the KTeV Experiment at Fermilab

The KTeV experiment is a fixed target experiment at Fermilab. Its primary goal is the search for direct CP violation in the decay of neutral kaons. Its current status and some preliminary results will be discussed.Comment: 5 pages Latex, 4 figures; to be published in the proceedings of the XVI International Workshop on Weak Interactions and Neutrinos, WIN '97, Capri, Italy, June 22-28, 199

On the Corrections to Dashen's Theorem

The electromagnetic corrections to the masses of the pseudoscalar mesons $\pi$ and $K$ are considered. We calculate in chiral perturbation theory the contributions which arise from resonances within a photon loop at order $O(e^2 m_q)$. Within this approach we find rather moderate deviations to Dashen's theorem.Comment: 14 pages, sligthly enlarged version; a numerical error is corrected and the embedding of the figures is improved. The complete paper, including figures, is also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/ , or via www at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/cgi-bin/preprints/; to be published in Phys.Rev.

Power counting in baryon chiral perturbation theory including vector mesons

It is demonstrated that using a suitable renormalization condition one obtains a consistent power counting in manifestly Lorentz-invariant baryon chiral perturbation theory including vector mesons as explicit degrees of freedom.Comment: 8 pages, REVTeX 4, 3 figure

Real CP violation in a simple extension of the standard model

I present a simple three-Higgs-doublet extension of the standard model in which real CP violation takes place. The strong CP problem is attenuated by this model.Comment: 8 page

Dispersion Relation Bounds for pi pi Scattering

Axiomatic principles such as analyticity, unitarity and crossing symmetry constrain the second derivative of the pi pi scattering amplitudes in some channels to be positive in a region of the Mandelstam plane. Since this region lies in the domain of validity of chiral perturbation theory, we can use these positivity conditions to bound linear combinations of \bar{l}_1 and \bar{l}_2. We compare our predictions with those derived previously in the literature using similar methods. We compute the one-loop pi pi scattering amplitude in the linear sigma model (LSM) using the MS-bar scheme, a result hitherto absent in the literature. The LSM values for \bar{l}_1 and \bar{l}_2 violate the bounds for small values of m_sigma/m_pi. We show how this can occur, while still being consistent with the axiomatic principles.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Two references added, a few minor changes. Published versio

Low Energy Constants from High Energy Theorems

New constraints on resonance saturation in chiral perturbation theory are investigated. These constraints arise because each consistent saturation scheme must map to a representation of the full QCD chiral symmetry group. The low-energy constants of chiral perturbation theory are then related by a set of mixing angles. It is shown that vector meson dominance is a consequence of the fact that nature has chosen the lowest-dimensional nontrivial chiral representation. It is further shown that chiral symmetry places an upper bound on the mass of the lightest scalar in the hadron spectrum.Comment: 11 pages TeX and mtexsis.te

Auxin-sensitive Aux/IAA proteins mediate drought tolerance in Arabidopsis by regulating glucosinolate levels.

A detailed understanding of abiotic stress tolerance in plants is essential to provide food security in the face of increasingly harsh climatic conditions. Glucosinolates (GLSs) are secondary metabolites found in the Brassicaceae that protect plants from herbivory and pathogen attack. Here we report that in Arabidopsis, aliphatic GLS levels are regulated by the auxin-sensitive Aux/IAA repressors IAA5, IAA6, and IAA19. These proteins act in a transcriptional cascade that maintains expression of GLS levels when plants are exposed to drought conditions. Loss of IAA5/6/19 results in reduced GLS levels and decreased drought tolerance. Further, we show that this phenotype is associated with a defect in stomatal regulation. Application of GLS to the iaa5,6,19 mutants restores stomatal regulation and normal drought tolerance. GLS action is dependent on the receptor kinase GHR1, suggesting that GLS may signal via reactive oxygen species. These results provide a novel connection between auxin signaling, GLS levels and drought response

FCNC in left-right symmetric theories and constraints on the right-handed scale

We revise the limits on the FCNC higgses in manifestly left-right symmetric theories. It is shown that the combination of the Kobayashi-Maskawa CP-violation with the tree level $\Delta S=2$ higgs exchange gives very large contribution to the CP-violating $\epsilon$ parameter. It leads to the new strong constraint on the FCNC higgs mass, M>50- 100 TeV, enhanced by factor of the order $\sqrt{m_t/m_c}$. Being addressed to the supersymmetric left-right models, FCNC problem requires both right-handed scale and supersymmetric mass parameters be heavier than 50 TeV for $tan\beta\sim 1$. The most relaxed case corresponds to $tan\beta\sim 20- 30$ where right-handed scale can be of the order of few TeV.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 3 figure