Measuring CP Violating Phases at a Future Linear Collider

At a future Linear Collider one will be able to determine the masses of charginos and neutralinos and their pair production cross sections to high accuracies. We show how systematically including the cross sections into the analysis improves the measurement of the underlying mass parameters, including potential CP violating phases. In addition, we investigate how experimental errors will affect the determination of these parameters. We present a first estimate on the lower limit of observable small phases and on the accuracy in determining large phases.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX3.1, Version to be published in Physics Letters B, physics setup improved, figures added, conclusions unchange

Use interactive multimedia to improve your programming course

This paper reports first year students’ experiences with multimedia-based learning for programming and its influence on students obtained from two case studies at Napier and Brunel universities. Engineering students at the universities have taken programming courses from their first year and many have showed difficulties in their learning. The main reason is that it is a very abstract domain, which means that both lecturers and students can have difficulties in explaining and understanding abstract concepts verbally. Considering the strengths of Interactive Multimedia(IMM), i.e. interactivity and visualisation, we decided to use it to improve students’ learning. An empirical study was planned and IMM materials were designed for this. A trial and two case studies were carried out from December 2000 to June 2001. The designed materials were integrated into the curriculum as a teaching aid and self-guided learning materials. The data gathered from the case studies indicated that many students felt the multimedia-based learning helped their understanding of the programming concepts, and some became very motivated in programming. Also, using the interactive multimedia materials for both teaching and learning enhanced students’ learning experience. At last, we found educating both lecturers and students on what is multimedia-based learning prior to a course can increase its effectiveness

Review of local non-Gaussianity from multi-field inflation

We review models which generate a large non-Gaussianity of the local form. We first briefly consider three models which generate the non-Gaussianity either at or after the end of inflation; the curvaton scenario, modulated (p)reheating and an inhomogeneous end of inflation. We then focus on ways of generating the non-Gaussianity during inflation. We derive general conditions which a product or sum separable potential must satisfy in order to generate a large local bispectrum during slow-roll inflation. As an application we consider two-field hybrid inflation. We then derive a formalism not based on slow roll which can be applied to models in which the slow-roll parameters become large before inflation ends. An exactly soluble two-field model is given in which this happens. Finally we also consider further non-Gaussian observables; a scale dependence of f_NL and the trispectrum.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. Invited review for the special issue "Testing the Gaussianity and Statistical Isotropy of the Universe" for Advances in Astronomy. v2: Numerous references and comments adde

Density-equalizing maps for simply-connected open surfaces

In this paper, we are concerned with the problem of creating flattening maps of simply-connected open surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Using a natural principle of density diffusion in physics, we propose an effective algorithm for computing density-equalizing flattening maps with any prescribed density distribution. By varying the initial density distribution, a large variety of mappings with different properties can be achieved. For instance, area-preserving parameterizations of simply-connected open surfaces can be easily computed. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Applications to data visualization and surface remeshing are explored

Constituent quark model for nuclear stopping in high energy nuclear collisions

We study the nuclear stopping in high energy nuclear collisions using the constituent quark model. It is assumed that wounded nucleons with different number of interacted quarks hadronize in different ways. The probabilities of having such wounded nucleons are evaluated for proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. After examining our model in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions and fixing the hadronization functions, it is extended to nucleus-nucleus collisions. It is used to calculate the rapidity distribution and the rapidity shift of final state protons in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The computed results are in good agreement with the experimental data on ^{32}\mbox{S} +\ ^{32}\mbox{S} at $E_{lab} = 200$ AGeV and ^{208}\mbox{Pb} +\ ^{208}\mbox{Pb} at $E_{lab} = 160$ AGeV. Theoretical predictions are also given for proton rapidity distribution in ^{197}\mbox{Au} +\ ^{197}\mbox{Au} at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ AGeV (BNL-RHIC). We predict that the nearly baryon free region will appear in the midrapidity region and the rapidity shift is $\langle \Delta y \rangle = 2.22$.Comment: 40 pages, 16 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Modification of Decay Constants of Superstring Axions: Effects of Flux Compactification and Axion Mixing

We study possibilities for lowering the decay constants of superstring axions. In the heterotic Calabi-Yau compactification, a localized model-dependent axion can appear at a nearly collapsing 2-cycle. The effect of flux can be used for generating warp factor suppression of the axion decay constant. We also point out that the hidden sector instanton potential much higher than the QCD instanton potential picks up the larger effective axion decay constant as that of the QCD axion. We show that this can be converted by introducing many hidden-sector quarks so that the decay constant of the QCD axion turns out to be much smaller than the string scale.Comment: 6 pages with 3 figures, revtex; figure added,section of axion mixing modifie

Network architecture, salience and coordination

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation of monotone games with imperfect information. Players are located at the nodes of a network and observe the actions of other players only if they are connected by the network. These games have many sequential equilibria; nonetheless, the behavior of subjects in the laboratory is predictable. The network architecture makes some strategies salient and this in turn makes the subjects’ behavior predictable and facilitates coordination on efficient outcomes. In some cases, modal behavior corresponds to equilibrium strategies