Affleck-Dine Sneutrino Inflation

Motivated by the coincidence between the Hubble scale during inflation and the typical see-saw neutrino mass scale, we present a supergravity model where the inflaton is identified with a linear combination of right-handed sneutrino fields. The model accommodates an inflaton potential that is flatter than quadratic chaotic inflation, resulting in a measurable but not yet ruled out tensor-to-scalar ratio. Small CP-violation in the neutrino mass matrix and supersymmetry breaking yield an evolution in the complex plane for the sneutrino fields. This induces a net lepton charge that, via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, can be the origin of the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Etička dimenzija provedbe javnih politika na razini najbližoj građanima

The discretion exercised by frontline workers can have a significant effect on the implementation of public policy and service provision. The deployment of discretion tends to be characterised as self-serving. However, while people often act in far from ideal ways, this does not mean that their actions do not also reflect ethical concerns. In the first section of this paper, I argue that an ethical analysis of the moral economy of practice helps us to see discretionary practices as practical evaluations of and responses to the policy context, and as a source of situated principles to examine professional discretion in action. In the second part of the paper, I draw on these ideas to illustrate how a research study can illuminate front-line workers’ ethical evaluation of their work environment, the role they have within that setting, and their deployment of discretion in response to the issues that concern them. Discretion affects the translation of policy through practice into a service for citizens. Here the perspectives of policymakers and citizens on the use of discretion are clearly important. However, in looking at discretion from the perspective of front-line professional staff, I have sought to recognise that their views are also important and can reflect serious ethical analysis. Convenience and self-interest can play a part in how front-line staff choose to use discretion, but to understand the extent and impact of these motives we also need to understand (and not exclude) the possibility that discretion can also be influenced by ethical commitments and valid critique of policy. Ethical analysis of the moral economy of discretion, where discretion is not assumed to be necessarily good or bad, offers critical insights into policy, challenges in implementation, and service at the front line.Prostor slobodnog odlučivanja kojeg imaju službenici koji su u neposrednom dodiru s građanima može imati nezanemarivi učinak na provedbu javnih politika i pružanje javnih usluga. Korištenje te mogućnosti često se doživljava kao izraz sebičnih interesa samih službenika. No, premda ljudi često rade na način koji je daleko od idealnog, to ne znači da njihovi postupci ne odražavaju i etičke dileme. U prvom dijelu rada argumentira se da analiza etičke dimenzije slobodnog odlučivanja do kojeg dolazi u praksi pomaže da se slobodno odlučivanje sagleda kao praktična procjena i odgovor na kontekst provedbe javnih politika te kao izvor ustaljenih načela za analizu slobodnog odlučivanja službenika u stvarnim okolnostima. U drugom dijelu rada te se ideje koriste da bi se pokazalo kako istraživački rad može službenicima koji su u neposrednom dodiru s građanima dati osnovu za etičku procjenu radne okoline, njihove uloge u toj okolini i njihovog odlučivanja o načinu rada rukovođenog relevantnim okolnostima. Takvo odlučivanje zapravo određuje način na koji će se njihovo razumijevanje javnih politika u praksi pretočiti u konkretne usluge za građane. U tom su kontekstu važni načini razumijevanja službeničkog slobodnog radnog odlučivanja od strane aktera koji oblikuju javne politike te od strane građana. No, namjera rada bila je pokazati da su važna i stajališta samih tih službenika, koja mogu odražavati njihove ozbiljne etičke analize. Pogodovanje svojim sebičnim interesima može djelomično opredijeliti način na koji će službenici koji su u neposrednom dodiru s građanima koristiti prostor slobodnog odlučivanja, ali da bi se razumjelo dosege i učinke tih motiva potrebno je razumjeti, a ne isključiti mogućnost da njihovi konkretni načini rada budu uvjetovani njihovim etičkim vrijednostima i opravdanom kritikom javnih politika koje provode. Etička analiza prostora slobodnog odlučivanja u kojoj takvo odlučivanje nije unaprijed proglašeno dobrim ili lošim omogućuje iznimno važne uvide u javne politike, izazove njihove provedbe i neposrednog pružanja usluga građanima

Low-Scale D-term Inflation and the Relaxion

We present a dynamical cosmological solution that simultaneously accounts for the early inflationary stage of the Universe and solves the supersymmetric little hierarchy problem via the relaxion mechanism. First, we consider an inflationary potential arising from the $D$-term of a new $U(1)$ gauge symmetry with a Fayet--Iliopolous term, that is independent of the relaxion. A technically natural, small $U(1)$ gauge coupling, $g\lesssim 10^{-8}$, allows for a low Hubble scale of inflation, $H_I\lesssim 10^5$ GeV, which is shown to be consistent with Planck data. This feature is then used to realize a supersymmetric two-field relaxion mechanism, where the second field is identified as the inflaton provided that $H_I\lesssim 10$ GeV. The inflaton controls the relaxion barrier height allowing the relaxion to evolve in the early Universe and scan the supersymmetric soft masses. After electroweak symmetry is broken, the relaxion settles at a local supersymmetry-breaking minimum with a range of $F$-term values that can naturally explain supersymmetric soft mass scales up to $10^6$ GeV.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure

Lyceum: internet voice groupware for distance learning

This paper describes the design, implementation and deployment of Lyceum, a groupware system providing students and tutors with real time voice conferencing and visual workspace tools, over the standard internet. Lyceum uses a Java client/server architecture to tackle a formidable set of networking requirements: multi-way voice communication with synchronous shared displays, scalable to hundreds of simultaneous users, running over normal modem connections via unknown internet service providers, on home PCs. Additionally, the design had to support multiple courses with different requirements. We describe the interdisciplinary requirements analysis, and iterative design process, by which an academic course team was able to specify and evaluate prototypes. We present the systemís architecture, describe the technical successes and failures from Lyceumís first large scale deployment, and summarise its affordances for interaction and learning

Naturalizing Supersymmetry with a Two-Field Relaxion Mechanism

We present a supersymmetric version of a two-field relaxion model that naturalizes tuned versions of supersymmetry. This arises from a relaxion mechanism that does not depend on QCD dynamics and where the relaxion potential barrier height is controlled by a second axion-like field. During the cosmological evolution, the relaxion rolls with a nonzero value that breaks supersymmetry and scans the soft supersymmetric mass terms. Electroweak symmetry is broken after the soft masses become of order the supersymmetric Higgs mass term and causes the relaxion to stop rolling for superpartner masses up to $\sim 10^9$ GeV. This can explain the tuning in supersymmetric models, including split-SUSY models, while preserving the QCD axion solution to the strong CP problem. Besides predicting two very weakly-coupled axion-like particles, the supersymmetric spectrum may contain an extra Goldstino, which could be a viable dark matter candidate.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figures; v2: bounds and figures correcte