Compositeness Effects in the Anomalous Weak-Magnetic Moment of Leptons

We investigate the effects induced by excited leptons, at the one-loop level, in the anomalous magnetic and weak-magnetic form factors of the leptons. Using a general effective Lagrangian approach to describe the couplings of the excited leptons, we compute their contributions to the weak-magnetic moment of the $\tau$ lepton, which can be measured on the $Z$ peak, and we compare it with the contributions to $g_\mu - 2$, measured at low energies.Comment: Latex File using Rev Tex. 16 pages 5 .eps figure

Standard Model: An Introduction

We present a primer on the Standard Model of the electroweak interaction. Emphasis is given to the historical aspects of the theory's formulation. The radiative corrections to the Standard Model are presented and its predictions for the electroweak parameters are compared with the precise experimental data obtained at the Z pole. Finally, we make some remarks on the perspectives for the discovery of the Higgs boson, the most important challenge of the Standard Model.Comment: 101 pages, 14 figures, To be published in "Particle and Fields", Proceedings of the X J. A. Swieca Summer School (World Scientific, Singapore, 2000

Qualitative Analysis of Polycycles in Filippov Systems

In this paper, we are concerned about the qualitative behaviour of planar Filippov systems around some typical minimal sets, namely, polycycles. In the smooth context, a polycycle is a simple closed curve composed by a collection of singularities and regular orbits, inducing a first return map. Here, this concept is extended to Filippov systems by allowing typical singularities lying on the switching manifold. Our main goal consists in developing a method to investigate the unfolding of polycycles in Filippov systems. In addition, we applied this method to describe bifurcation diagrams of Filippov systems around certain polycycles

Fermion Helicity Flip in Weak Gravitational Fields

The helicity flip of a spin-${\textstyle \frac{1}{2}}$ Dirac particle interacting gravitationally with a scalar field is analyzed in the context of linearized quantum gravity. It is shown that massive fermions may have their helicity flipped by gravity, in opposition to massless fermions which preserve their helicity.Comment: RevTeX 3.0, 8 pages, 3 figures (available upon request), Preprint IFT-P.013/9