Radiative corrections to single Higgs boson production in e+e−e^+ e^- annihilation

For energies relevant to future linear colliders, \sqrt{s} \gsim 500 GeV, the WW fusion channel dominates the Higgs boson production cross section $e^+ e^- \to \bar{\nu} \nu h^0$. We have calculated the one-loop corrections to this process due to fermion and sfermion loops in the context of the MSSM. As a special case, the contribution of the fermion loops in the SM has also been studied. In general, the correction is negative and sizeable of the order of 10 percent, the bulk of it being due to fermion loops.Comment: Version to appear in Phys. Lett.

British Opinion and the Coming of the Franco-Prussian War, 1866-1870

Due to their desire for a strong Central European nation to counterbalance France and Russia and their belief that any people should have the right to unification, the British supported the German nationalist movement after 1866. Due to French meddling in the affairs of other countries and French opposition to what the British thought was the legitimate aim of the German people, the British became anti-French in the late 1860s. Due to the belief of the British in progress, they could view most of the events on the Continent, even the violent ones, as the gradual advancement of civilization. The Franco-Prussian War required the British to re-evaluate all of these views, as well as many others, and conclude that Germany, not France, constituted the threat to Europe

On the Frontlines of Todays Cities: Trauma, Challenges and Solutions

Local officials work at the level of government closest to the people, and with that comes great responsibility and great challenge. While public officials at the state and federal level have faced harassment and threats for decades, this trend has now made its way to cities, with local leaders on the frontlines of these challenges. Driven by increasing polarization, the spread of mis- and disinformation and the growing influence and power of social media, local officials face everything from racist, homophobic attacks online to city council meetings that devolve into screaming matches. The COVID-19 pandemic, racial reckoning and other recent national crises pushed many things to the extreme and threats and harassment against local leaders are no exception. While a certain amount of disagreement is a healthy part of a functioning democracy, civil discourse in America has been increasingly in decline. Eighty-seven percent of surveyed local officials have noticed an increase in levels of harassment, threats and violence during their time in office.While more than 8 in 10 surveyed local officials have experienced some form of harassment, threats and violence, fewer than half work in an office with a strategy to handle these incidents. This report sheds light on the impact felt by local officials and their communities across the country and offers a three-pronged approach to help keep them safe from threats, while maintaining their mental and physical wellbeing

United States Poverty in a Cross-National Context

In this paper we use cross-national comparisons made possible by the LIS to examine America’s experience in maintaining a low poverty rate. We compare the effectiveness of United States antipoverty policies to that of similar polices elsewhere in the industrialized world. If lessons can be learned from cross-national comparisons, there is much that can be learned about antipoverty policy by American voters and policymakers. The United States has one of the highest poverty rates of all the countries participating in the LIS, whether poverty is measured using comparable absolute or relative standards for determining who is poor. Although the high rate of relative poverty in the United States is no surprise, given the country’s well-known tolerance of wide economic disparities, the lofty rate of absolute poverty is much more troubling. After Luxembourg, the United States has the highest average income in the industrialized world. Our analysis of absolute poverty rates provides poverty estimates for 11 industrialized countries. The United States ranks second highest among the 11 in per capita income, yet it ranks third highest in the percentage of its population with absolute incomes below the American poverty line. The per capita income of the United States is more than 30 percent higher than it is, on average, in the other ten countries of our survey. Yet the absolute poverty rate in the United States is 13.6 percent, while the average rate in the other ten countries is just 8.1 percent— 5.5 percentage points lower than the United States rate. Our paper suggests some reasons for this pattern. The paper is organized as follows. We begin by reviewing international concepts and measures of poverty as they relate to the main measures of income and poverty used in other chapters of this book. Next we present cross-national estimates of both absolute and relative poverty, concentrating on the latter measures. After examining the level and trend in these rates, we explore some of the factors that are correlated with national poverty rates and examine the antipoverty effectiveness of government programs aimed at reducing poverty. We conclude with a discussion of the relationship between policy differences and outcome differences among the several countries, and consider the implications of our analysis for antipoverty policy in the United States

Examining the Higgs boson potential at lepton and hadron colliders: a comparative analysis

We investigate inclusive Standard Model Higgs boson pair production at lepton and hadron colliders for Higgs boson masses in the range 120 GeV < m_H < 200 GeV. For m_H < 140 GeV we find that hadron colliders have a very limited capability to determine the Higgs boson self-coupling, \lambda, due to an overwhelming background. We also find that, in this mass range, supersymmetric Higgs boson pairs may be observable at the LHC, but a measurement of the self coupling will not be possible. For m_H > 140 GeV we examine ZHH and HH nu bar-nu production at a future e+e- linear collider with center of mass energy in the range of sqrt{s}=0.5 - 1 TeV, and find that this is likely to be equally difficult. Combining our results with those of previous literature, which has demonstrated the capability of hadron and lepton machines to determine \lambda in either the high or the low mass regions, we establish a very strong complementarity of these machines.Comment: Revtex, 25 pages, 2 tables, 10 figure

Single Higgs boson production at future linear colliders including radiative corrections

The next generation of high energy e+ e- linear colliders is expected to operate at \sqrt{s} \gtsim 500 GeV. In this energy range the WW fusion channel dominates the Higgs boson production cross section e+ e- -> \bar\nu \nu h^0/H^0. We calculate the one-loop corrections to this process due to fermion and sfermion loops within the MSSM. We perform a detailed numerical analysis of the total cross section and the distributions of the rapidity, the transverse momentum and the production angle of the Higgs boson. The fermion-sfermion correction is substantial being of the order of -10% and is dominated by the fermion loops. In addition, we explore the possibility of polarized e+ / e- beams. In the so-called "intense coupling" scenario the production of the heavy Higgs boson H^0 is also discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Nucl. Phys.

Welfare State Expenditures and the Distribution of Child Opportunities

This paper estimates the redistributive effects of welfare state expenditures on social and economic disparities in the economic well-being of citizens in ten nations. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other sources for cash and non-cash social welfare benefits (health and education benefits from third parties) are used to describe differences in the size and nature of welfare states and their distributional effects. The OECD data are combined with micro data on household incomes from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) both to estimate the redistributive effects of the expenditures and taxes and to construct measures of the differences in the relative standard of living among the population at various points in the income distributions of their countries. Estimates are provided for country populations as a while and for three mutually exclusive groups: all persons; non-aged persons living with children; non-aged without children at home; and the elderly. These measures may be thought of as capturing the degree to which welfare states at the end of the 20th and dawn of the 21st century provide for the developmental needs and capabilities of their populations in terms of cash, access to health care, and educational opportunity. The results indicate a wide range of differences in levels of economic resources and support, within as well as between, nations and groups. The degree to which children have fair and equal opportunity chances; the degree to which the population has access to quality health care; and the population groups who are most called upon (most taxed) to provide these benefits are all investigated here. Non-cash benefits are particularly important for low-income Americans, especially elders and children and their families, and should not be taken for granted by analysts of the welfare state. Counting in-kind benefits at government cost substantially reduces across-national differences in market and cash disposable incomes, but does not eliminate them. The results are very sensitive to how in-kind benefits are measured and valued. [Revised October 2004

Observability of the Lightest MSSM Higgs Boson with Explicit CP Violation via Gluon Fusion at the LHC

We investigate the observability of the lightest Higgs boson in the gluon-fusion channel at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model with explicit CP-violating mixing among three neutral Higgs bosons. The lightest Higgs boson with its mass less than 130 GeV can be detected at the LHC via its gluon-fusion production followed by the decay into two photons. The explicit CP violation can suppress both the production cross section and the two-photon decay branching fraction so significantly that the signal cross section may be more than ten times smaller than the SM signal. This reduction factor can be as small as 1/40 if the lightest Higgs boson mass is 115 GeV and its production cross section at LEP2 is more than 90 % that of the SM case.Comment: 12 pages, 4 eps figures, a reference with two papers adde

Determining the Higgs Boson Self Coupling at Hadron Colliders

Inclusive Standard Model Higgs boson pair production at hadron colliders has the capability to determine the Higgs boson self-coupling, lambda. We present a detailed analysis of the gg\to HH\to (W^+W^-)(W^+W^-)\to (jjl^\pm\nu)(jj{l'}^\pm\nu) and gg\to HH\to (W^+W^-)(W^+W^-)\to (jjl^\pm\nu)({l'}^\pm\nu {l''}^\mp\nu) (l, {l'}, {l''}=e, \mu) signal channels, and the relevant background processes, for the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and a future Very Large Hadron Collider operating at a center-of-mass energy of 200 TeV. We also derive quantitative sensitivity limits for lambda. We find that it should be possible at the LHC with design luminosity to establish that the Standard Model Higgs boson has a non-zero self-coupling and that lambda / lambda_{SM} can be restricted to a range of 0-3.8 at 95% confidence level (CL) if its mass is between 150 and 200 GeV. At a 200 TeV collider with an integrated luminosity of 300 fb^{-1}, lambda can be determined with an accuracy of 8 - 25% at 95% CL in the same mass range.Comment: 28 pages, Revtex3, 9 figures, 3 table

Effects of Intronic and Exonic Polymorphisms of Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) Gene on Serum PON1 Activity in a Korean Population

Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) hydrolyzes a number of toxic organophosphorous compounds and reduces lipid peroxide accumulation, and PON1 genetic polymorphisms in the coding region modulate serum PON1 activity. In this study, we investigated the association between 3 polymorphisms of PON1 located in intron 5 (17899insdelTT and 17974CT) and exon 6 (192QR) and serum PON1 activity. The genetic polymorphisms and serum activity of PON1 were analyzed in 153 healthy Koreans by using a direct sequencing assay and spectrophotometric method, respectively. A significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) was observed between all tested single nucleotide polymorphisms, with the strongest LD observed between 17899insdelTT and 192QR (D' = 0.984). The 17899insdelTT, 17974CT and 192QR genetic polymorphisms were associated with significant differences in serum paraoxonase activity. In multiple regression analyses, smoking, triglyceride level, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level, and the 17899insdelTT and 192QR genetic polymorphisms were significant determinants of serum paraoxonase activity, while age, smoking, triglyceride level, HDL level, and the 192QR genetic polymorphism were significant determinants of serum arylesterase activity. These results suggest that although the 192QR genetic polymorphism in the coding region of PON1 is primarily associated with serum PON1 activity, the intronic polymorphisms are also involved in serum PON1 activity, and this association may be mediated by LD