Membrane contact sites - an interesting species, an interesting mix

In this issue of EMBO reports, Loewen and colleagues reveal a role for plasma membrane–endoplasmic reticulum contact sites in regulating phosphatidylcholine synthesis in budding yeast

High Scale Boundary Conditions in Models with Two Higgs Doublets

We investigate high scale boundary conditions on the quartic Higgs-couplings and their $\beta$-functions in the Type-II Two Higgs Doublet Model and the Inert Doublet Model. These conditions are associated with two possible UV physics scenarios: the Multiple Point Principle, in which the potential exhibits a second minimum at $M_{Pl}$, and Asymptotic Safety, where the scalar couplings run towards an interacting UV fixed point at high scales. We employ renormalisation group running at two-loops and apply theoretical and experimental constraints to their parameter spaces. We find neither model can simultaneously accommodate the MPP whilst also providing realistic masses for both the Higgs and the top quark. However, we do find regions of parameter space compatible with Asymptotic Safety.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures (25 plots); v3: version accepted for publicatio

The gene complement of the ancestral bilaterian - was Urbilateria a monster?

Expressed sequence tag analyses of the annelid Pomatoceros lamarckii, recently published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, are consistent with less extensive gene loss in the Lophotrochozoa than in the Ecdysozoa, but it would be premature to generalize about patterns of gene loss on the basis of the limited data available

An Orthogonal Test of the LL-functions Ratios Conjecture, II

Recently Conrey, Farmer, and Zirnbauer developed the L-functions Ratios conjecture, which gives a recipe that predicts a wealth of statistics, from moments to spacings between adjacent zeros and values of L-functions. The problem with this method is that several of its steps involve ignoring error terms of size comparable to the main term; amazingly, the errors seem to cancel and the resulting prediction is expected to be accurate up to square-root cancellation. We prove the accuracy of the Ratios Conjecture's prediction for the 1-level density of families of cuspidal newforms of constant sign (up to square-root agreement for support in (-1,1), and up to a power savings in (-2,2)), and discuss the arithmetic significance of the lower order terms. This is the most involved test of the Ratios Conjecture's predictions to date, as it is known that the error terms dropped in some of the steps do not cancel, but rather contribute a main term! Specifically, these are the non-diagonal terms in the Petersson formula, which lead to a Bessel-Kloosterman sum which contributes only when the support of the Fourier transform of the test function exceeds (-1, 1).Comment: 36 pages, first draf

Linear Collider Physics

The International Linear Collider has a rich physics programme, whatever lies beyond the standard model. Accurate measurement of the top quark mass is needed to constrain the model or its extensions. If there is a light Higgs boson the LHC should see it, but the ILC will pin down its characteristics and test them against model predictions. If Supersymmetric particles appear the ILC will measure a complementary set of them to those seen at the LHC, and may allow extrapolation to the Grand Unified scale. And if a strong electroweak sector is indicated the ILC will be sensitive to the presence of new structures in difermion and diboson systems up to higher masses than the direct search range of the LHC. Beyond the LHC and ILC there could be need for a multi TeV lepton collider.Comment: Plenary talk at ICHEP 2004, Beijing, 22 August 200