Probing new physics in electroweak penguins through B_d and B_s decays

An enhanced electroweak penguin amplitude due to the presence of unknown new physics can explain the discrepancies found between theory and experiment in the B -> pi K decays, in particular in A_CP(B^- -> pi^0 K^-) - A_CP(\bar{B}^0 -> pi^+ K^-), but the current precision of the theoretical and experimental results does not allow to draw a firm conclusion. We argue that the \bar{B}_s -> phi rho^0 and \bar{B}_s -> phi pi^0 decays offer an additional tool to investigate this possibility. These purely isospin-violating decays are dominated by electroweak penguins and we show that in presence of a new physics contribution their branching ratio can be enhanced by about an order of magnitude, without violating any constraints from other hadronic B decays. This makes them very interesting modes for LHCb and future B factories. In arXiv:1011.6319 we have performed both a model-independent analysis and a study within realistic New Physics models such as a modified-Z^0-penguin scenario, a model with an additional Z' boson and the MSSM. In this article we summarise the most important results of our study.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX. Talk given at Discrete2010, Rome, 6-11 December 2010; References adde

Thermal fatigue performance of integrally cast automotive turbine wheels

Fluidized bed thermal fatigue testing was conducted on 16 integrally cast automotive turbine wheels for 1000-10,000 (600 sec total) thermal cycles at 935/50 C. The 16 wheels consisted of 14 IN-792 + 1% Hf and 2 gatorized AF2-1DA wheels; 6 of the IN-792 + Hf wheels contained crack arrest pockets inside the blade root flange. Temperature transients during the thermal cycling were measured in three calibration tests using either 18 or 30 thermocouples per wheel. Thermal cracking based on crack length versus accumulated cycles was greatest for unpocketed wheels developing cracks in 8-13 cycles compared to 75-250 cycles for unpocketed wheels. However, pocketed wheels survived up to 10,000 cycles with crack lengths less than 20 mm, whereas two unpocketed wheels developed 45 mm long cracks in 1000-2000 cycles

Thermal fatigue and oxidation data of TAZ-8A and M22 alloys and variations

Thermal fatigue and oxidation data were obtained on 36 specimens, representing 18 distinct variations (including the base systems) of TAZ-8A and M22 alloys. Double-edge wedge specimens for these systems were cycled between fluidized beds maintained at 1088 C and 316 C with a 180 s immersion in each bed. The systems included alloys TAZ-8A, M22, and 16 variations of these alloys. Each alloy variation consisted of a unique composition with an alternation in the percentage of carbon (C1 and C2), molydenum (M1 and M2), tungsten (W1 and W2), columbium (CB1, CB2, and CB3), tantalium (T1, T2, and T3), or boron (B1, B2, and B3) present. All of the alloys showed little weight change due to oxidation compared with other alloys previously tested in fluidized beds. Only both C1 alloy variation specimens survived 3500 cycles without cracking in the small radius, although substantial cracks were present, emanating from the end notches which were used for holding the specimens

Fatigue testing of low-cost fiberglass composite wind turbine blade materials

The static and fatigue behavior of transverse filament tape (TFT) fiberglass/epoxy and TFT/polyester composites was established by the testing of specimens cut from panels fabricated by a filament winding process used for the construction of large experimental wind turbine blades

Thermal fatigue and oxidation data of oxide dispersion-strengthened alloys

Thermal fatigue and oxidation data were obtained 24 specimens representing 9 discrete oxide dispersion-strengthened alloy compositions or fabricating techniques. Double edge wedge specimens, both bare metal and coated for each systems, were cycled between fluidized beds maintained at 1130 C with a three minute immersion in each bed. The systems included alloys identified as 262 in hardness of HRC 38; 264 in hardness of HRC 38, 40 and 43; 265 HRC 39, 266 of HRC 37 and 40; 754; and 956. Specimens in the bare condition of 265 HRC 39 and 266 HRC 37 survived 6000 cycles without cracking on the small radius of the double edge wedge specimen. A coated specimen of 262 HRC 38, 266 HRC 37 and 266 HRC40 also survived 6000 cycles without cracking. A duplicate coated specimen of 262 HRC 38 alloy survived 5250 cycles before cracks appeared. All the alloys showed little weight change compared compared to alloys tested in prior programs

Compactness results in Symplectic Field Theory

This is one in a series of papers devoted to the foundations of Symplectic Field Theory sketched in [Y Eliashberg, A Givental and H Hofer, Introduction to Symplectic Field Theory, Geom. Funct. Anal. Special Volume, Part II (2000) 560--673]. We prove compactness results for moduli spaces of holomorphic curves arising in Symplectic Field Theory. The theorems generalize Gromov's compactness theorem in [M Gromov, Pseudo-holomorphic curves in symplectic manifolds, Invent. Math. 82 (1985) 307--347] as well as compactness theorems in Floer homology theory, [A Floer, The unregularized gradient flow of the symplectic action, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 41 (1988) 775--813 and Morse theory for Lagrangian intersections, J. Diff. Geom. 28 (1988) 513--547], and in contact geometry, [H Hofer, Pseudo-holomorphic curves and Weinstein conjecture in dimension three, Invent. Math. 114 (1993) 307--347 and H Hofer, K Wysocki and E Zehnder, Foliations of the Tight Three Sphere, Annals of Mathematics, 157 (2003) 125--255].Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol7/paper25.abs.htm

Generalizing Boolean Satisfiability III: Implementation

This is the third of three papers describing ZAP, a satisfiability engine that substantially generalizes existing tools while retaining the performance characteristics of modern high-performance solvers. The fundamental idea underlying ZAP is that many problems passed to such engines contain rich internal structure that is obscured by the Boolean representation used; our goal has been to define a representation in which this structure is apparent and can be exploited to improve computational performance. The first paper surveyed existing work that (knowingly or not) exploited problem structure to improve the performance of satisfiability engines, and the second paper showed that this structure could be understood in terms of groups of permutations acting on individual clauses in any particular Boolean theory. We conclude the series by discussing the techniques needed to implement our ideas, and by reporting on their performance on a variety of problem instances

New obstructions to symplectic embeddings

In this paper we establish new restrictions on symplectic embeddings of certain convex domains into symplectic vector spaces. These restrictions are stronger than those implied by the Ekeland-Hofer capacities. By refining an embedding technique due to Guth, we also show that they are sharp.Comment: 80 pages, 3 figures, v2: improved exposition and minor corrections, v3: Final version, expanded and improved exposition and minor corrections. The final publication is available at link.springer.co