Anomalous Neutrino Reactions at HERA

We study the sensitivity of HERA to new physics using the helicity suppressed reaction $e_R p \rightarrow \nu X$, where the final neutrino can be a standard model one or a heavy neutrino. The approach is model independent and is based on an effective lagrangian parametrization. It is shown that HERA will put significant bounds on the scale of new physics, though, in general, these are more modest than previously thought. If deviations from the standard model are observed in the above processes, future colliders such as the SSC and LHC will be able to directly probe the physics responsible for these discrepancies}Comment: 11 Pages + 2 figures is TOPDRAWER (included at the end or available by mail). Report UCRHEP-T113 (requires the macropackage PHYZZX). A line in the TeX file requesting an input file has been removed, it caused problem

Aharonov-Bohm Effect and Disclinations in an Elastic Medium

In this work we investigate quasiparticles in the background of defects in solids using the geometric theory of defects. We use the parallel transport matrix to study the Aharonov-Bohm effect in this background. For quasiparticles moving in this effective medium we demonstrate an effect similar to the gravitational Aharonov- Bohm effect. We analyze this effect in an elastic medium with one and $N$ defects.Comment: 6 pages, Revtex

Situationally-sensitive knowledge translation and relational decision making in hyperacute stroke: a qualitive study

Stroke is a leading cause of disability. Early treatment of acute ischaemic stroke with rtPA reduces the risk of longer term dependency but carries an increased risk of causing immediate bleeding complications. To understand the challenges of knowledge translation and decision making about treatment with rtPA in hyperacute stroke and hence to inform development of appropriate decision support we interviewed patients, their family and health professionals. The emergency setting and the symptomatic effects of hyper-acute stroke shaped the form, content and manner of knowledge translation to support decision making. Decision making about rtPA in hyperacute stroke presented three conundrums for patients, family and clinicians. 1) How to allow time for reflection in a severely time-limited setting. 2) How to facilitate knowledge translation regarding important treatment risks and benefits when patient and family capacity is blunted by the effects and shock of stroke. 3) How to ensure patient and family views are taken into account when the situation produces reliance on the expertise of clinicians. Strategies adopted to meet these conundrums were fourfold: face to face communication; shaping decisions; incremental provision of information; and communication tailored to the individual patient. Relational forms of interaction were understood to engender trust and allay anxiety. Shaping decisions with patients was understood as an expression of confidence by clinicians that helped alleviate anxiety and offered hope and reassurance to patients and their family experiencing the shock of the stroke event. Neutral presentations of information and treatment options promoted uncertainty and contributed to anxiety. ‘Drip feeding’ information created moments for reflection: clinicians literally made time. Tailoring information to the particular patient and family situation allowed clinicians to account for social and emotional contexts. The principal responses to the challenges of decision making about rtPA in hyperacute stroke were relational decision support and situationally-sensitive knowledge translation

Four-Fermi Effective Operators in Top-Quark Production and Decay

Effects of four-Fermi-type new interactions are studied in top-quark pair production and their subsequent decays at future e^+e^- colliders. Secondary-lepton-energy distributions are calculated for arbitrary longitudinal beam polarizations. An optimal-observables procedure is applied for the determination of new parameters.Comment: Polarized e^- plus unpolarized e^+ collisions were include

Statistical Mechanics of Soft Margin Classifiers

We study the typical learning properties of the recently introduced Soft Margin Classifiers (SMCs), learning realizable and unrealizable tasks, with the tools of Statistical Mechanics. We derive analytically the behaviour of the learning curves in the regime of very large training sets. We obtain exponential and power laws for the decay of the generalization error towards the asymptotic value, depending on the task and on general characteristics of the distribution of stabilities of the patterns to be learned. The optimal learning curves of the SMCs, which give the minimal generalization error, are obtained by tuning the coefficient controlling the trade-off between the error and the regularization terms in the cost function. If the task is realizable by the SMC, the optimal performance is better than that of a hard margin Support Vector Machine and is very close to that of a Bayesian classifier.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Global Study of Electron-Quark Contact Interactions

We perform a global fit of data relevant to $eeqq$ contact interactions, including deep inelastic scattering at high $Q^2$ from ZEUS and H1, atomic physics parity violation in Cesium from JILA, polarized $e^-$ on nuclei scattering experiments at SLAC, Mainz and Bates, Drell-Yan production at the Tevatron, the total hadronic cross section $\sigma_{had}$ at LEP, and neutrino-nucleon scattering from CCFR. With only the new HERA data, the presence of contact interactions improves the fit compared to the Standard Model. When other data sets are included, the size of the contact contributions is reduced and the overall fit represents no real improvement over the Standard Model.Comment: 26 pages (now single-spaced), Revtex, 2 eps figures, uses epsf.sty. Some clarifications, minor corrections, 2 new references, also 3 new tables which present 95% CL bounds on the contact interaction scales Lambd

Cumulants and the moment algebra: tools for analysing weak measurements

Recently it has been shown that cumulants significantly simplify the analysis of multipartite weak measurements. Here we consider the mathematical structure that underlies this, and find that it can be formulated in terms of what we call the moment algebra. Apart from resulting in simpler proofs, the flexibility of this structure allows generalizations of the original results to a number of weak measurement scenarios, including one where the weakly interacting pointers reach thermal equilibrium with the probed system.Comment: Journal reference added, minor correction

Model of the Quark Mixing Matrix

The structure of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix is analyzed from the standpoint of a composite model. A model is constructed with three families of quarks, by taking tensor products of sufficient numbers of spin-1/2 representations and imagining the dominant terms in the mass matrix to arise from spin-spin interactions. Generic results then obtained include the familiar relation $|V_{us}| = (m_d/m_s)^{1/2} - (m_u/m_c)^{1/2}$, and a less frequently seen relation $|V_{cb}| = \sqrt{2} [(m_s/m_b) - (m_c/m_t)]$. The magnitudes of $V_{ub}$ and $V_{td}$ come out naturally to be of the right order. The phase in the CKM matrix can be put in by hand, but its origin remains obscure.Comment: Presented by Mihir P. Worah at DPF 92 Meeting, Fermilab, November, 1992. 3 pages, LaTeX fil

New Solution of D=11 Supergravity on S^7 from D=4

A new static partially twisted solution of N=4, SO(4) gauged supergravity in D=11 is obtained in this work using Cveti\^c et al embedding of four dimensional into eleven dimensional supergravities. In four dimensions we get two solutions: an asymptotic one corresponding to $AdS_4$ and a near horizon fixed point solution of the form $AdS_2\times H_2$. Hence, while the former solution has 32 supercharges the latter turns out to have only 4 conserved. Moreover, we managed to find an exact interpolating solution, thus connecting the above two. Aiming at a future study of $AdS/CFT$ duality for the theory at hand we derived the Penrose limit of the four dimensional solutions. Interestingly the pp-wave limit of the near horizon solution suggests itself as being of the supernumerary supersymmetric type. In D=11 we exhibit the uplift of the four dimensional solutions: one associated to $AdS_4\times S^7$ and the other to a foliation of $AdS_2\times H_2 \times S^7$, as well as their pp-wave limits.Comment: 14 pages, LaTe

Probing Top-Quark Couplings at Polarized NLC

The energy spectrum of the lepton(s) in e^+e^- --> tt-bar --> l^{+-} ...../l^+l^-..... at next linear colliders (NLC) is studied for arbitrary longitudinal beam polarizations as a possible test of new physics in top-quark couplings. The most general non-standard couplings for gamma-tt-bar, Ztt-bar and Wtb vertices are considered. Expected precision of the non-standard-parameter determination is estimated applying the optimal-observable procedure.Comment: Final version, To appear in Phys. Rev.