Higgs Production at NNLO

We describe the calculation of inclusive Higgs boson production at hadronic colliders at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. We have used the technique developed in reference [4]. Our results agree with those published earlier in the literature.Comment: Talk given at PASCOS'03, TIFR, Mumbai, LaTeX, 5 page

Increasing Autism Awareness in Inner-City Churches: A Brief Report

Autism diagnosis rates trail significantly in the African American community. This pre-test post-test pilot study evaluated an African American inner-city church health ambassadors (HAs) autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness training session. The participants included 12 HAs who attended the 1 hour training session organized by the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Results of surveys showed higher mean scores post training for (1) HA attitudes about the potential for children to improve with applied behavior analysis therapy; (2) HA self-efficacy for having information about ASD screening materials; (3) strategies HAs could use to help parents/caregivers of children with developmental delays and challenging behaviors; (4) HA confidence in referrals for children with signs of ASD; (5) HA knowledge of measures to take to maximize a child\u27s chance of receiving an ASD evaluation; and (6) HA comfort for talking to parents about children with challenging behaviors. Several of these effects were maintained 3 months later. Findings underscore the usefulness of the intervention for increasing the dissemination of knowledge about ASD and the opportunity to positively affect ASD screening, early intervention, and policy standards applicable to this vulnerable population

Two-loop corrections to Higgs boson production

In this paper we present the complete two-loop vertex corrections to scalar and pseudo-scalar Higgs boson production for general colour factors for the gauge group ${\rm SU(N)}$ in the limit where the top quark mass gets infinite. We derive a general formula for the vertex correction which holds for conserved and non conserved operators. For the conserved operator we take the electromagnetic vertex correction as an example whereas for the non conserved operators we take the two vertex corrections above. Our observations for the structure of the pole terms $1/\epsilon^4$, $1/\epsilon^3$ and $1/\epsilon^2$ in two loop order are the same as made earlier in the literature for electromagnetism. However we also elucidate the origin of the second order single pole term which is equal to the second order singular part of the anomalous dimension plus a universal function which is the same for the quark and the gluon. [3mm]Comment: 27 pages LaTeX.We correct some misprints. Moreover we have discovered that the second order single pole term is equal to the singular part of the second order anomalous dimension plus a universal function which is the same for the quark and the gluon. This holds for vertex corrections as well as for scattering amplitude

Confinement and Quantization Effects in Mesoscopic Superconducting Structures

We have studied quantization and confinement effects in nanostructured superconductors. Three different types of nanostructured samples were investigated: individual structures (line, loop, dot), 1-dimensional (1D) clusters of loops and 2D clusters of antidots, and finally large lattices of antidots. Hereby, a crossover from individual elementary "plaquettes", via clusters, to huge arrays of these elements, is realized. The main idea of our study was to vary the boundary conditions for confinement of the superconducting condensate by taking samples of different topology and, through that, modifying the lowest Landau level E_LLL(H). Since the critical temperature versus applied magnetic field T_c(H) is, in fact, E_LLL(H) measured in temperature units, it is varied as well when the sample topology is changed through nanostructuring. We demonstrate that in all studied nanostructured superconductors the shape of the T_c(H) phase boundary is determined by the confinement topology in a unique way.Comment: 28 pages, 19 EPS figures, uses LaTeX's aipproc.sty, contribution to Euroschool on "Superconductivity in Networks and Mesoscopic Systems", held in Siena, Italy (8-20 september 1997

Atomic decay near a quantized medium of absorbing scatterers

The decay of an excited atom in the presence of a medium that both scatters and absorbs radiation is studied with the help of a quantum-electrodynamical model. The medium is represented by a half space filled with a randomly distributed set of non-overlapping spheres, which consist of a linear absorptive dielectric material. The absorption effects are described by means of a quantized damped-polariton theory. It is found that the effective susceptibility of the bulk does not fully account for the medium-induced change in the atomic decay rate. In fact, surface effects contribute to the modification of the decay properties as well. The interplay of scattering and absorption in the total decay rate is discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

UHE neutrino damping in a thermal gas of relic neutrinos

We present a calculation of the damping of an ultra-energetic (UHE) cosmic neutrino travelling through the thermal gas of relic neutrinos, using the formalism of finite-temperature field theory. From the self-energy diagram due to Z exchange, we obtain the annihilation cross section for an UHE neutrino interacting with an antineutrino from the background. This method allows us to derive the full expressions for the UHE neutrino transmission probability, taking into account the momentum of relic neutrinos. We compare our results with the approximations in use in the literature. We discuss the effect of thermal motion on the shape of the absorption dips for different UHE neutrino fluxes as well as in the context of relic neutrino clustering. We find that for ratios of the neutrino mass to the relic background temperature $10^2$ or smaller, the thermal broadening of the absorption lines could significantly affect the determination of the neutrino mass and of the characteristics of the population of UHE sources.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures. Typos corrected. More accurate treatment of the interaction with relic neutrino clusters. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic