High-Energy Scattering and Diffraction: Theory Summary

New developments in the theory and phenomenology of high-energy scattering and diffraction that were presented and discussed at DIS2000 are reviewed.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, including one PostScript figure. Talk given at the 8th International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering (DIS2000), 25th-30th April 2000, Liverpool, England, to appear in the proceeding

A Renormalization Group Improved Calculation of Top Quark Production near Threshold

The top quark cross section close to threshold in $e^+e^-$ annihilation is computed including the summation of logarithms of the velocity at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic order in QCD. The remaining theoretical uncertainty in the normalization of the total cross section is at the few percent level, an order of magnitude smaller than in previous next-to-next-to-leading order calculations. This uncertainty is smaller than the effects of a light standard model Higgs boson.Comment: changed figures, added reference

Exclusive J/ψJ/\psi and Υ\Upsilon photoproduction and the low xx gluon

We study exclusive vector meson photoproduction, $\gamma p \to V + p$ with $V=J/\psi$ or $\Upsilon$, at NLO in collinear factorisation, in order to examine what may be learnt about the gluon distribution at very low $x$. We examine the factorisation scale dependence of the predictions. We argue that, using knowledge of the NLO corrections, terms enhanced by a large $\ln(1/\xi)$ can be reabsorbed in the LO part by a choice of the factorisation scale. (In these exclusive processes $\xi$ takes the role of Bjorken-$x$.) Then, the scale dependence coming from the remaining NLO contributions has no $\ln(1/\xi)$ enhancements. As a result, we find that predictions for the amplitude of $\Upsilon$ production are stable to within about $\pm 15\%$. This will allow data for the exclusive process $p p \to p\Upsilon p$ at the LHC, particularly from LHCb, to be included in global parton analyses to constrain the gluon PDF down to $x\sim 10^{-5}$. Moreover, the study of exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction indicates that the gluon density found in the recent global PDF analyses is too small at low $x$ and low scales.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Text significantly improved, references added, version to be published in J.Phys.

Massive Quark Production in Electron Positron Annihilation to Order αs2\alpha_s^2

Recent analytical and numerical results for the three-loop polarization function allow to present a phenomenological analysis of the cross section for massive quark production in electron positron annihilation to order $\alpha_s^2$. Numerical predictions based on fixed order perturbation theory are presented for charm and bottom production above 5 and 11.5 GeV, respectively. The contribution from these energy regions to $\alpha(M_Z^2)$, the running QED coupling constant at scale M_Z, are given. The dominant terms close to threshold, i.e. in an expansion for small quark velocity $\beta$, are presented.Comment: 26 pages (Latex), 16 figures (Postscript

Strategic Information Planning – Insights from an Action Research Project in the Financial Services Industry

The core purpose of strategic information planning (SIP) lies in identifying future directions for investments in information technology, information systems and information supply that will assist an organisation to realise its business goals. SIP is a critical challenge and major concern to both academics and practitioners, in particular consultants. While the latter have proposed a number of formal methodologies and principles of good practice, these are normative recommendations that are hardly justified through theoretical insight. In fact, SIP is yet to be well understood theoretically and requires more empirical support. This motivated us to carry out an in depth case study on SIP in a financial service company. The study aimed at improving the SIP practices in place and was conducted in an action research-like manner. This research report at hand presents the results of the study. We firstly describe the enterprise, its situation and the SIP practices in place. We then reflect upon the SIP process, its contingencies and its outcome in light of the current academic literature. This leads us to a number of theoretically informed suggestions that concern the improvement of SIP as well as the direction of the resulting information strategy. These suggestions have already been debated with senior IT executives from the case enterprise. This debate helped to confirm some theoretical propositions from literature while other recommendations were not agreed upon by the practitioners. Our findings from the study are finally framed to give a fresh impetus to future research and perhaps challenge some current wisdom. <br

Automation of NLO processes and decays and POWHEG matching in WHIZARD

We give a status report on the automation of next-to-leading order processes within the Monte Carlo event generator WHIZARD, using GoSam and OpenLoops as provider for one-loop matrix elements. To deal with divergences, WHIZARD uses automated FKS subtraction, and the phase space for singular regions is generated automatically. NLO examples for both scattering and decay processes with a focus on e+e- processes are shown. Also, first NLO-studies of observables for collisions of polarized leptons beams, e.g. at the ILC, will be presented. Furthermore, the automatic matching of the fixed-order NLO amplitudes with emissions from the parton shower within the POWHEG formalism inside WHIZARD will be discussed. We also present results for top pairs at threshold in lepton collisions, including matching between a resummed threshold calculation and fixed-order NLO. This allows the investigation of more exclusive differential observables.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Talk presented at ACAT 2016 at UTFSM, Valpara\'iso, Chil

A Literature Overview on Strategic Information Systems Planning

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) has been among the highest ranked issues on management agendas for many years. As such, SISP should be a major concern for researchers as well. However, SISP does not play that important of a role in the academic discussion, at least in Germany. Leading German textbooks on Information Management devote only small sections to strategy themes. Moreover, the recommendations given for conducting SISP in these textbooks are mainly normative and hardly take international research findings into account. Taking this as a motivation, we conducted a comprehensive literature review of German and Anglo-American information systems journals. Our objective was to understand more fully what we know about SISP through international research. On the flip side, our research aims at identifying fields that are in urgent need for closer academic investigation so that individual speculations and normative recommendations might still substitute for valid research insights. Overall, we found a considerable amount of research conducted in the field of SISP that we organised in five broad thematic fields: Strategic IT impact, approaches to SISP, information systems strategy, and strategic alignment. We give a short overview of research conducted so far and seminal publications available in the research fields. Moreover, based on a sub-sample of our literature base, we compute statistics which indicate the intensity of the academic discussion in the different thematic fields over time. Our statistics show that most attention has been paid to the competitive use of IT. The IS strategy in contrast has only been of limited interest, though it is central to any strategic considerations in IS. Our survey also suggests that German speaking researchers have devoted relatively few efforts to SISP in comparison to their Anglo-American colleagues