Top-BESS model and its phenomenology

We introduce the top-BESS model which is the effective description of the strong electroweak symmetry breaking with a single new SU(2)_L+R triplet vector resonance. The model is a modification of the BESS model in the fermion sector. The triplet couples to the third generation of quarks only. This approach reflects a possible extraordinary role of the top quark in the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. The low-energy limits on the model parameters found provide hope for finding sizable signals in the LHC Drell-Yan processes as well as in the s-channel production processes at the ILC. However, there are regions of the model parameter space where the interplay of the direct and indirect fermion couplings can hide the resonance peak in a scattering process even though the resonance exists and couples directly to top and bottom quarks.Comment: published in Physical Review D, minor changes in text, 21 pages, 37 figure

Micromorphological and chemical investigation of late-Viking age grave fills at Hofstaðir, Iceland

Grave fills from seven human burials from a late-Viking age - early medieval cemetery at Hofstaðir, Mývatnssveit (Iceland) were examined by soil micromorphology and organic chemical analysis. Detailed analysis of the weathering of the mineral constituents of the grave fills demonstrates a relationship between the extent of weathering of volcanic silicates within the fills and the presence of buried human remains. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) of extracts from the fills and controls of two graves revealed organic signatures dominated by plant-derived organic matter, with no evidence of degradation products of the body tissues. Transformation of n-alkanes into n-alkan-2-ones provides evidence for microbial activity within the fills. GC–MS analysis of the organic extract from under one of the skulls and pyrolysis gas chromatography of wood fragments found in that grave provide compelling evidence for the former presence of a conifer wood coffin. The use of this non-native wood in the burial provides evidence for either the import of foreign lumber or the utilisation of driftwood, most likely originating from Russia/Siberia

Late Proterozoic to Early Palaeozoic platform deposits of Southern Moravia (Czech Republic)

Integrated sedimentological and palaeontological study of borehole cores through plat orm siliciclastic deposits of the southernmost part of Brunovistulicum (S Moravia) shows convincing evidence for the Cambrian age of a considerable portion organic-walled microfossils of Late Proterozoic (Ediacaran) age have been found in a sample from the Menín-1 borehole. Thirty genera characteristic of the Ediacaran have been recognized. Part, though, of the siliciclastic succession of S Brunovistulicum is Devonian in age. The platform deposits studied are consid red to have the same source area but the degree of maturity of the Devonian clastics rocks is generally higher than that of the older strata. Facies analysis indicates a predominance of deltaic settings (braided and fan del tas); similar sedimentary environments are suggested for both the Ediacaran/Cambrian and Devonian successions

Trace fossils at the basal Upper Greensand (Albian, Cretaceous) unconformity surface in east Devon (southwest England) and the nature of the unconformity surface

Along the east Devon coast the early Cretaceous Upper Greensand Formation rests unconformably on bioturbated firmground and hardground surfaces on mid-Triassic to early Jurassic rocks (Mercia Mudstone Group to Lias Group). The classification and interpretation of the burrows and borings preserved on and beneath these surfaces are discussed, and compared with those from similar bioturbated surfaces elsewhere in Europe. In east Devon, the nature of the preservation of these trace fossils is dependent not only on the nature of the substrate but also on that of the infilling materials. These range from poorly defined, irregular infillings composed of pebbly mudstone to well-defined casts of cemented fine-grained sandstone that preserve detailed external ornaments. The most prominent trace fossils recorded are regularly spaced, flask-shaped Gastrochaenolites ornatus Kelly & Bromley produced by an as yet unidentified bivalve that rotated during penetration. At Branscombe, where the Upper Greensand rests on Triassic mudstones, many of the crypts are ellipsoidal to subhemispheroidal in cross-section. Their producer(s) are also enigmatic. Some infillings contain fragments of Myopholas or Girardotia, bivalves that rotate during penetration of soft to firm substrates. These burrows were probably initiated above the unconformity surface and extended down into an already perforated and softened mudstone surface. A few burrows may be due to a burrowing coelenterate. Bioturbation at the sub-Albian unconformity is ubiquitous in southern and eastern England, and indicates that the erosion surface was available for colonization for a considerable period of time