Ice sheets as a significant source of highly reactive nanoparticulate iron to the oceans

The Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets cover ~\n10% of global land surface, but are rarely considered as active components of the global iron cycle. The ocean waters around both ice sheets harbour highly productive coastal ecosystems, many of which are iron limited. Measurements of iron concentrations in subglacial runoff from a large Greenland Ice Sheet catchment reveal the potential for globally significant export of labile iron fractions to the near-coastal euphotic zone. We estimate that the flux of bioavailable iron associated with glacial runoff is 0.40–2.54?Tg per year in Greenland and 0.06–0.17?Tg per year in Antarctica. Iron fluxes are dominated by a highly reactive and potentially bioavailable nanoparticulate suspended sediment fraction, similar to that identified in Antarctic icebergs. Estimates of labile iron fluxes in meltwater are comparable with aeolian dust fluxes to the oceans surrounding Greenland and Antarctica, and are similarly expected to increase in a warming climate with enhanced melting

Virtual effects of light gauginos and higgsinos: a precision electroweak analysis of split supersymmetry

We compute corrections to precision electroweak observables in supersymmetry in the limit that scalar superpartners are very massive and decoupled. This leaves charginos and neutralinos and a Standard Model-like Higgs boson as the only states with unknown mass substantially affecting the analysis. We give complete formulas for the chargino and neutralino contributions, derive simple analytic results for the pure gaugino and higgsino cases, and study the general case. We find that in all circumstances, the precision electroweak fit improves when the charginos and neutralinos are near the current direct limits. Larger higgsino and gaugino masses worsen the fit as the theory predictions asymptotically approach those of the Standard Model. Since the Standard Model is considered by most to be an adequate fit to the precision electroweak data, an important corollary to our analysis is that all regions of parameter space allowed by direct collider constraints are also allowed by precision electroweak constraints in split supersymmetry.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, v2: typos fixed and note adde

Precision Calculations for Future Colliders

I discuss the motivations for, and the status of, precision calculations for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the planned International Linear Collider (ILC).Comment: latex, uses ws-ijmpe.cls, 19 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, based on a talk given at the symposium "50 Years of High Energy Physics at UB", to appear in International Journal of Modern Physics

Physics at International Linear Collider (ILC)

International Linear Collider (ILC) is an electron-positron collider with the initial center-of-mass energy of 500 GeV which is upgradable to about 1 TeV later on. Its goal is to study the physics at TeV scale with unprecedented high sensitivities. The main topics include precision measurements of the Higgs particle properties, studies of supersymmtric particles and the underlying theoretical structure if supersymmetry turns out to be realized in nature, probing alternative possibilities for the origin of mass, and the cosmological connections thereof. In many channels, Higgs and leptonic sector in particular, ILC is substantially more sensitive than LHC, and is complementary to LHC overall. In this short article, we will have a quick look at the capabilities of ILC.Comment: To appear in JPSJ Vol76 No1

b Quark Physics with 2 .10^9 Z Bosons

It has been suggested to realize a factory for 10^9 Z^0 through a linear e^+e^- collider with polarized beams. Very likely the relevant CP studies for B mesons will already have been performed at the B factories by that time, hence GIGA-Z will be a third generation b physics experiment. Yet such a facility would provide us with unique opportunities in the domain of beauty physics that would be of essential significance even in 2010: (1) Production and decay of polarized beauty baryons; (2) searching for and probing transitions driven by b --> q \nu \bar{\nu}; (3) detailed and comprehensive studies of inclusive semileptonic B_s decays

The Road Towards the ILC: Higgs, Top/QCD, Loops

The International Linear e+e- Collider (ILC) could go into operation in the second half of the upcoming decade. Experimental analyses and theory calculations for the physics at the ILC are currently performed. We review recent progress, as presented at the LCWS06 in Bangalore, India, in the fields of Higgs boson physics and top/QCD. Also the area of loop calculations, necessary to achieve the required theory precision, is included.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Plenary talk given at the LCWS06 March 2006, Bangalore, India. Top part slightly enlarged, references adde

Master integrals for massive two-loop Bhabha scattering in QED

We present a set of scalar master integrals (MIs) needed for a complete treatment of massive two-loop corrections to Bhabha scattering in QED, including integrals with arbitrary fermionic loops. The status of analytical solutions for the MIs is reviewed and examples of some methods to solve MIs analytically are worked out in more detail. Analytical results for the pole terms in epsilon of so far unknown box MIs with five internal lines are given.Comment: 23 pages, 5 tables, 12 figures, references added, appendix B enlarge

Invisible Z-Boson Decays at e+e- Colliders

The measurement of the invisible Z-boson decay width at e+e- colliders can be done "indirectly", by subtracting the Z-boson visible partial widths from the Z-boson total width, or "directly", from the process e+e- -> \gamma \nu \bar{\nu}. Both procedures are sensitive to different types of new physics and provide information about the couplings of the neutrinos to the Z-boson. At present, measurements at LEP and CHARM II are capable of constraining the left-handed Z\nu\nu-coupling, 0.45 <~ g_L <~ 0.5, while the right-handed one is only mildly bounded, |g_R| <= 0.2. We show that measurements at a future e+e- linear collider at different center-of-mass energies, \sqrt{s} = MZ and \sqrt{s}s ~ 170 GeV, would translate into a markedly more precise measurement of the Z\nu\nu-couplings. A statistically significant deviation from Standard Model predictions will point toward different new physics mechanisms, depending on whether the discrepancy appears in the direct or the indirect measurement of the invisible Z-width. We discuss some scenarios which illustrate the ability of different invisible Z-boson decay measurements to constrain new physics beyond the Standard Model

MW and sin^2\theta_eff in Split SUSY: present and future expectations

We analyse the precision electroweak observables MW and sin^2\theta_eff and their correlations in the recently proposed Split SUSY model. We compare the results with the Standard Model and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model predictions, and with present and future experimental accuracies. Present experimental accuracies in (MW, sin^2\theta_eff) do not allow constraints to be placed on the Split SUSY parameter space. We find that the shifts in (MW, sin^2\theta_eff) induced by Split SUSY can be larger than the anticipated accuracy of the GigaZ option of the International Linear Collider, and that the most sensitive observable is sin^2\theta_eff. These large shifts are possible also for large chargino masses in scenarios with small tan(\beta) =~ 1.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages, 4 figures. Comments adde