Technicolor contribution to lepton + photon + missing energy events at the Tevatron

Events with one lepton, one photon and missing energy are the subject of recent searches at the Fermilab Tevatron. We compute possible contributions to these type of events from the process p pbar --> photon l nu_l nu_tau nubar_tau, where l=e,mu in the context of a Low Scale Technicolor Model. We find that with somewhat tighter cuts than the ones used in the CDF search, it could be possible to either confirm or exclude this model in a small region of its parameter space.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Improved text and figures, including comments and new reference

Long-term X-ray changes in the emission from the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61

We present results obtained from X-ray observations of the anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP) 4U 0142+61 taken between 2000-2007 using XMM-Newton, Chandra and Swift. In observations taken before 2006, the pulse profile is observed to become more sinusoidal and the pulsed fraction increased with time. These results confirm those derived using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and expand the observed evolution to energies below 2 keV. The XMM-Newton total flux in the 0.5-10 keV band is observed to be nearly constant in observations taken before 2006, while an increase of ~10% is seen afterwards and coincides with the burst activity detected from the source in 2006-2007. After these bursts, the evolution towards more sinusoidal pulse profiles ceased while the pulsed fraction showed a further increase. No evidence for large-scale, long-term changes in the emission as a result of the bursts is seen. The data also suggest a correlation between the flux and hardness of the spectrum, with brighter observations on average having a harder spectrum. As pointed out by other authors, we find that the standard blackbody plus power-law model does not provide the best spectral fit to the emission from 4U 0142+61. We also report on observations taken with the Gemini telescope after two bursts. These observations show source magnitudes consistent with previous measurements. Our results demonstrate the wide range of X-ray variability characteristics seen in AXPs and we discuss them in light of current emission models for these sources.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, in emulateapj style. Submitted to Ap

The Effect of Composite Resonances on Higgs decay into two photons

In scenarios of strongly coupled electroweak symmetry breaking, heavy composite particles of different spin and parity may arise and cause observable effects on signals that appear at loop levels. The recently observed process of Higgs to $\gamma \gamma$ at the LHC is one of such signals. We study the new constraints that are imposed on composite models from $H\to \gamma\gamma$, together with the existing constraints from the high precision electroweak tests. We use an effective chiral Lagrangian to describe the effective theory that contains the Standard Model spectrum and the extra composites below the electroweak scale. Considering the effective theory cutoff at $\Lambda = 4\pi v \sim 3$ TeV, consistency with the $T$ and $S$ parameters and the newly observed $H\to \gamma\gamma$ can be found for a rather restricted range of masses of vector and axial-vector composites from $1.5$ TeV to $1.7$ TeV and $1.8$ TeV to $1.9$ TeV, respectively, and only provided a non-standard kinetic mixing between the $W^{3}$ and $B^{0}$ fields is included.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures. Version for publication in European Physical Journal

A new signature for color octet pseudoscalars at the LHC

Color octet (pseudo)scalars, if they exist, will be copiously produced at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). However, their detection can become a very challenging task. In particular, if their decay into a pair of top quarks is kinematically forbidden, the main decay channel would be into two jets, with a very large background. In this Brief Report we explore the possibility of using anomaly-induced decays of the color octet pseudoscalars into gauge bosons to find them at the LHC.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. New references adde

Constraining Radio Emission from Magnetars

We report on radio observations of five magnetars and two magnetar candidates carried out at 1950 MHz with the Green Bank Telescope in 2006-2007. The data from these observations were searched for periodic emission and bright single pulses. Also, monitoring observations of magnetar 4U0142+61 following its 2006 X-ray bursts were obtained. No radio emission was detected was detected for any of our targets. The non-detections allow us to place luminosity upper limits (at 1950 MHz) of approximately L < 1.60 mJy kpc^2 for periodic emission and L < 7.6 Jy kpc^2 for single pulse emission. These are the most stringent limits yet for the magnetars observed. The resulting luminosity upper limits together with previous results are discussed, as is the importance of further radio observations of radio-loud and radio-quiet magnetars.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Triple Photon Production at the Tevatron in Technicolor Models

We study the process p bar{p} --> gamma gamma gamma as a signal for associated photon-technipion production at the Tevatron. This is a clean signature with relatively low background. Resonant and non-resonant contributions are included and we show that technicolor models can be effectively probed in this mode

X-ray and Near-IR Variability of the Anomalous X-ray Pulsar 1E 1048.1-5937: From Quiescence Back to Activity

(Abridged) We report on new and archival X-ray and near-infrared observations of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1048.1-5937 performed between 2001-2007 with RXTE, CXO, Swift, HST, and VLT. During its ~2001-2004 active period, 1E 1048.-5937 exhibited two large, long-term X-ray pulsed-flux flares as well as short bursts, and large (>10x) torque changes. Monitoring with RXTE revealed that the source entered a phase of timing stability in 2004; at the same time, a series of four simultaneous observations with CXO and HST in 2006 showed that its X-ray flux and spectrum and near-IR flux, all variable prior to 2005, stabilized. The near-IR flux, when detected by HST (H~22.7 mag) and VLT (K_S~21.0 mag), was considerably fainter than previously measured. Recently, in 2007 March, this newfound quiescence was interrupted by a sudden flux enhancement, X-ray spectral changes and a pulse morphology change, simultaneous with a large spin-up glitch and near-IR enhancement. Our RXTE observations revealed a sudden pulsed flux increase by a factor of ~3 in the 2-10 keV band. In observations with CXO and Swift, we found that the total X-ray flux increased much more than the pulsed flux, reaching a peak value of >7 times the quiescent value (2-10 keV). With these recent data, we find a strong anti-correlation between X-ray flux and pulsed fraction, and a correlation between X-ray spectral hardness and flux. Simultaneously with the radiative and timing changes, we observed a significant X-ray pulse morphology change such that the profile went from nearly sinusoidal to having multiple peaks. We compare these remarkable events with other AXP outbursts and discuss implications in the context of the magnetar model and other models of AXP emission.Comment: 13 pages (6 figures) in emulateapj style. Accepted for publication in ApJ. New version includes referee's corrections; split Figure 1 into 2 figures; modified Figs. 4b and 6b; rearranged and renumbered of some figures and sections; added an X-ray dataset; improved analysis of pulse morphology and pulsed fraction; added paragraph to sec. 3.2.