METing SUSY on the Z peak

Recently the ATLAS experiment announced a 3 $\sigma$ excess at the Z-peak consisting of 29 pairs of leptons together with two or more jets, $E_T^{\rm miss}> 225$ GeV and $H_T \geq 600$ GeV, to be compared with $10.6 \pm 3.2$ expected lepton pairs in the Standard Model. No excess outside the Z-peak was observed. By trying to explain this signal with SUSY we find that only relatively light gluinos, $m_{\tilde g} \lesssim 1.2$ TeV, together with a heavy neutralino NLSP of $m_{\tilde \chi} \gtrsim 400$ GeV decaying predominantly to Z-boson plus a light gravitino, such that nearly every gluino produces at least one Z-boson in its decay chain, could reproduce the excess. We construct an explicit general gauge mediation model able to reproduce the observed signal overcoming all the experimental limits. Needless to say, more sophisticated models could also reproduce the signal, however, any model would have to exhibit the following features, light gluinos, or heavy particles with a strong production cross-section, producing at least one Z-boson in its decay chain. The implications of our findings for the Run II at LHC with the scaling on the Z peak, as well as for the direct search of gluinos and other SUSY particles, are pointed out.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures, simulation improved, Checkmate analysis added, new benchmark point included. Typos corrected, conclusions unchange

Dynamics of Entanglement Transfer Through Multipartite Dissipative Systems

We study the dynamics of entanglement transfer in a system composed of two initially correlated three-level atoms, each located in a cavity interacting with its own reservoir. Instead of tracing out reservoir modes to describe the dynamics using the master equation approach, we consider explicitly the dynamics of the reservoirs. In this situation, we show that the entanglement is completely transferred from atoms to reservoirs. Although the cavities mediate this entanglement transfer, we show that under certain conditions, no entanglement is found in cavities throughout the dynamics. Considering the entanglement dynamics of interacting and non-interacting bipartite subsystems, we found time windows where the entanglement can only flow through interacting subsystems, depending on the system parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, publishe in Physical Review

Understanding the spiral structure of the Milky Way using the local kinematic groups

We study the spiral arm influence on the solar neighbourhood stellar kinematics. As the nature of the Milky Way (MW) spiral arms is not completely determined, we study two models: the Tight-Winding Approximation (TWA) model, which represents a local approximation, and a model with self-consistent material arms named PERLAS. This is a mass distribution with more abrupt gravitational forces. We perform test particle simulations after tuning the two models to the observational range for the MW spiral arm properties. We explore the effects of the arm properties and find that a significant region of the allowed parameter space favours the appearance of kinematic groups. The velocity distribution is mostly sensitive to the relative spiral arm phase and pattern speed. In all cases the arms induce strong kinematic imprints for pattern speeds around 17 km/s/kpc (close to the 4:1 inner resonance) but no substructure is induced close to corotation. The groups change significantly if one moves only ~0.6 kpc in galactocentric radius, but ~2 kpc in azimuth. The appearance time of each group is different, ranging from 0 to more than 1 Gyr. Recent spiral arms can produce strong kinematic structures. The stellar response to the two potential models is significantly different near the Sun, both in density and kinematics. The PERLAS model triggers more substructure for a larger range of pattern speed values. The kinematic groups can be used to reduce the current uncertainty about the MW spiral structure and to test whether this follows the TWA. However, groups such as the observed ones in the solar vicinity can be reproduced by different parameter combinations. Data from velocity distributions at larger distances are needed for a definitive constraint.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables; acccepted for publication in MNRA

Measuring the purity of a qubit state: entanglement estimation with fully separable measurements

Given a finite number $N$ of copies of a qubit state we compute the maximum fidelity that can be attained using joint-measurement protocols for estimating its purity. We prove that in the asymptotic $N\to\infty$ limit, separable-measurement protocols can be as efficient as the optimal joint-measurement one if classical communication is used. This in turn shows that the optimal estimation of the entanglement of a two-qubit state can also be achieved asymptotically with fully separable measurements. The relationship between our global Bayesian approach and the quantum Cramer-Rao bound is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX, improved versio

Climatically-controlled siliceous productivity in the eastern Gulf of Guinea during the last 40 000 yr

Opal content and diatom assemblages were analysed in core GeoB4905-4 to reconstruct siliceous productivity changes in the eastern Gulf of Guinea during the last 40 000 yr. Opal and total diatom accumulation rates presented low values over the considered period, except during the Last Glacial Maximum and between 15 000 calendar years Before Present (15 cal. ka BP) and 5.5 cal. ka BP, the so-called African Humid Period, when accumulation rates of brackish and freshwater diatoms at the core site were highest. Conversely, accumulation rates of windblown diatoms exhibited an opposite pattern with higher values before and after the African Humid Period and greatest values during Heinrich Events, the Younger Dryas and since 5.5 cal. ka BP. <br><br> Our results demonstrate that siliceous productivity in the eastern Gulf of Guinea was directly driven by the nutrient load from local rivers, whose discharges were forced by precipitation changes over western Equatorial Africa and/or modification of the fluvio-deltaic systems forced by sea level changes. Precipitation in this region is controlled by the West African monsoon which is, in turn, partly dependent on the presence and intensity of the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT). Our results therefore suggest that the ACT was weakened, warmer trade winds were less vigorous, and cloud convection and precipitation were greater during the AHP though centennial-to-millennial timescale dry events were observed at ∼10 cal. ka BP, ∼8.5 cal. ka BP and ∼6 cal. ka BP. Conversely, the ACT was more intense, trade winds were more vigorous and African climate was more arid during H1, the Younger Dryas and after 5.5 cal. ka BP into the present

Fluid adsorption near an apex: Covariance between complete and critical wetting

Critical wetting is an elusive phenomenon for solid-fluid interfaces. Using interfacial models we show that the diverging length scales, which characterize complete wetting at an apex, precisely mimic critical wetting with the apex angle behaving as the contact angle. Transfer matrix, renormalization group (RG) and mean field analysis (MF) shows this covariance is obeyed in 2D, 3D and for long and short ranged forces. This connection should be experimentally accesible and provides a means of checking theoretical predictions for critical wetting.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Cosmological Constant and Noncommutativity: A Newtonian point of view

We study a Newtonian cosmological model in the context of a noncommutative space. It is shown that the trajectories of a test particle undergo modifications such that it no longer satisfies the cosmological principle. For the case of a positive cosmological constant, spiral trajectories are obtained and corrections to the Hubble constant appear. It is also shown that, in the limit of a strong noncommutative parameter, the model is closely related to a particle in a G\"odel-type metric.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Introduction was changed and references added. Final version accepted for publication in JMPL