Flavor and CP violating physics from new supersymmetric thresholds

Treating the MSSM as an effective theory, we study the implications of having dimension five operators in the superpotential for flavor and CP-violating processes, exploiting the linear decoupling of observable effects with respect to the new threshold scale \Lambda. We show that the assumption of weak scale supersymmetry, when combined with the stringent limits on electric dipole moments and lepton flavor-violating processes, provides sensitivity to \Lambda as high as 10^7-10^9 GeV, while the next generation of experiments could directly probe the high-energy scales suggested by neutrino physics.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Notes on the Norman vocabulary

The Norman Manuscript, containing- a vocabulary and notes on customs in use among Tasmanian Aboriginals, was recently discovered among the archives deposited in the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart, and is now published in full in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Tasmania. It is of great value, as containing what is probably the only vocabulary now extant in the original manuscript, and also a number of incidental notes written by the same hand

Multi-lepton Signatures of a Hidden Sector in Rare B Decays

We explore the sensitivity of flavour changing b -> s transitions to a (sub-)GeV hidden sector with generic couplings to the Standard Model through the Higgs, vector and axion portals. The underlying two-body decays of B mesons, B -> X_s S and B0 -> SS, where S denotes a generic new GeV-scale particle, may significantly enhance the yield of monochromatic lepton pairs in the final state via prompt decays of S to a dilepton pair. Existing measurements of the charged lepton spectrum in neutral-current semileptonic B decays provide bounds on the parameters of the light sector that are significantly more stringent than the requirements of naturalness. New search modes, such as B -> X_s + n(l+l-) and B0 -> n(l+l-) with n > 1 can provide additional sensitivity to scenarios in which both the Higgs and vector portals are active, and are accessible to (super-)B factories and hadron colliders.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; v2: reference added, minor correction

Resonant scattering and recombination of pseudo-degenerate WIMPs

We consider the direct and indirect detection signatures of WIMPs \chi^0 in kinematic regimes with a heavier, but nearly degenerate, charged state \chi^{+-}. For small splittings of O(10) MeV, the scattering of WIMPs off nuclei may be dominated by inelastic recombination processes mediated by the formation of (\chi^- N) bound states, leading to a distinct signature for direct detection. These cross-sections are bound primarily by limits on the abundance of heavy isotopes, and may be considerably larger than the elastic scattering cross section in more conventional models. If the mass splitting is too large for recombination to occur, there may still be a significant resonant enhancement of loop-induced electromagnetic form-factors of the WIMP, which can enhance the elastic scattering cross-section. We also discuss how this regime affects the annihilation cross-section and indirect detection signatures, and note the possibility of a significant mono-energetic \gamma-signal, mediated by resonant processes near the (\chi^+\chi^-) bound state threshold.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; v2: typos corrected, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Discovery of spatial periodicities in a coronal loop using automated edge-tracking algorithms

A new method for automated coronal loop tracking, in both spatial and temporal domains, is presented. Applying this technique to TRACE data, obtained using the 171 Å filter on 1998 July 14, we detect a coronal loop undergoing a 270 s kink-mode oscillation, as previously found by Aschwanden et al. However, we also detect flare-induced, and previously unnoticed, spatial periodicities on a scale of 3500 km, which occur along the coronal loop edge. Furthermore, we establish a reduction in oscillatory power for these spatial periodicities of 45% over a 222 s interval. We relate the reduction in detected oscillatory power to the physical damping of these loop-top oscillations

Common Genetic Variant Association with Altered HLA Expression, Synergy with Pyrethroid Exposure, and Risk for Parkinson's Disease: An Observational and Case-Control Study.

Background/objectivesThe common non-coding single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3129882 in HLA-DRA is associated with risk for idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). The location of the SNP in the major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) locus implicates regulation of antigen presentation as a potential mechanism by which immune responses link genetic susceptibility to environmental factors in conferring lifetime risk for PD.MethodsFor immunophenotyping, blood cells from 81 subjects were analyzed by qRT-PCR and flow cytometry. A case-control study was performed on a separate cohort of 962 subjects to determine association of pesticide exposure and the SNP with risk of PD.ResultsHomozygosity for G at this SNP was associated with heightened baseline expression and inducibility of MHC class II molecules in B cells and monocytes from peripheral blood of healthy controls and PD patients. In addition, exposure to a commonly used class of insecticide, pyrethroids, synergized with the risk conferred by this SNP (OR = 2.48, p = 0.007), thereby identifying a novel gene-environment interaction that promotes risk for PD via alterations in immune responses.ConclusionsIn sum, these novel findings suggest that the MHC-II locus may increase susceptibility to PD through presentation of pathogenic, immunodominant antigens and/or a shift toward a more pro-inflammatory CD4+ T cell response in response to specific environmental exposures, such as pyrethroid exposure through genetic or epigenetic mechanisms that modulate MHC-II gene expression