QCD and e+e- --> Baryon + anti-Baryon

We discuss the QCD constraints on e+e- --> baryon-anti-baryon close to threshold, in light of the puzzling experimental data which indicate that close to threshold sigma (e+e- --> n n-bar) > sigma (e+e- --> p p-bar). We focus on the process e+e- --> Delta Delta-bar, which is particularly simple from the theoretical point of view. In this case it is possible to make exact QCD predictions for the relative yields of the four members of the Delta multiplet, modulo one crucial dynamical assumption.Comment: extended discussion of quark loop suppression in baryons in the large-N_c limit; updated ref

Lower Limits on Soft Supersymmetry-Breaking Scalar Masses

Working in the context of the CMSSM, we argue that phenomenological constraints now require the universal soft supersymmetry-breaking scalar mass m_0 be non-zero at the input GUT scale. This conclusion is primarily imposed by the LEP lower limit on the Higgs mass and the requirement that the lightest supersymmetric particle not be charged. We find that m_0 > 0 for all tan beta if mu 0 only when tan beta sim 8 and one allows an uncertainty of 3+ GeV in the theoretical calculation of the Higgs mass. Upper limits on flavour-changing neutral interactions in the MSSM squark sector allow substantial violations of non-universality in the m_0 values, even if their magnitudes are comparable to the lower limit we find in the CMSSM. Also, we show that our lower limit on m_0 at the GUT scale in the CMSSM is compatible with the no-scale boundary condition m_0 = 0 at the Planck scale.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 6 eps figure

VEGA Pathfinder navigation for Giotto Halley encounter

Results of the VEGA Pathfinder concept which was used to successfully target the European Space Agnecy's Giotto spacecraft to a 600 km encounter with the comet Halley are presented. Pathfinder was an international cooperative navigation activity involving USSR, European and U.S. space agencies. The final Giotto targeting maneuver was based on a comet location determined from optical data acquired by the earlier arriving Soviet VEGA spacecraft. Inertial pointing angles extracted from optical images of the comet nucleus were combined with a precise estimate of the VEGA encounter orbits determined using VLBI data acquired by NASA's Deep Space Network to predict the location of Halley at Giotto encounter. This article describes the VLBI techniques used to determine the VEGA orbits and shows that the insensitivity of the VLBI data strategy to unmodeled dynamic error sources resulted in estimates of the VEGA orbits with an accuracy of 50 km

Astroparticle Aspects of Supersymmetry

After recalling the motivations for expecting supersymmetry to appear at energies below 1 TeV, the reasons why the lightest supersymmetric particle is an ideal candidate for cold dark matter are reviewed from a historical perspective. Recent calculations of the relic density including coannihilations and rapid annihilations through direct-channel Higgs boson poles are presented. The experimental constraints from LEP and elsewhere on supersymmetric dark matter are reviewed, and the prospects for its indirect or direct detection are mentioned. The potential implications of a Higgs boson weighing about 115 GeV and the recent measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon are summarized.Comment: 12 pages, 10 eps figures, invited plenary talk at conference on 30 Years Of Supersymmetry, Oct. 2000, Minneapolis, Minnesot

A cosmic equation of state for the inhomogeneous Universe: can a global far-from-equilibrium state explain Dark Energy?

A system of effective Einstein equations for spatially averaged scalar variables of inhomogeneous cosmological models can be solved by providing a `cosmic equation of state'. Recent efforts to explain Dark Energy focus on `backreaction effects' of inhomogeneities on the effective evolution of cosmological parameters in our Hubble volume, avoiding a cosmological constant in the equation of state. In this Letter it is argued that, if kinematical backreaction effects are indeed of the order of the averaged density (or larger as needed for an accelerating domain of the Universe), then the state of our regional Hubble volume would have to be in the vicinity of a far-from-equilibrium state that balances kinematical backreaction and average density. This property, if interpreted globally, is shared by a stationary cosmos with effective equation of state $p_{\rm eff} = -1/3 \rho_{\rm eff}$. It is concluded that a confirmed explanation of Dark Energy by kinematical backreaction may imply a paradigmatic change of cosmology.Comment: 7 pages, matches published version in Class. Quant. Gra

Full one-loop amplitudes from tree amplitudes

We establish an efficient polynomial-complexity algorithm for one-loop calculations, based on generalized $D$-dimensional unitarity. It allows automated computations of both cut-constructible {\it and} rational parts of one-loop scattering amplitudes from on-shell tree amplitudes. We illustrate the method by (re)-computing all four-, five- and six-gluon scattering amplitudes in QCD at one-loop.Comment: 27 pages, revte

A Numerical Unitarity Formalism for Evaluating One-Loop Amplitudes

Recent progress in unitarity techniques for one-loop scattering amplitudes makes a numerical implementation of this method possible. We present a 4-dimensional unitarity method for calculating the cut-constructible part of amplitudes and implement the method in a numerical procedure. Our technique can be applied to any one-loop scattering amplitude and offers the possibility that one-loop calculations can be performed in an automatic fashion, as tree-level amplitudes are currently done. Instead of individual Feynman diagrams, the ingredients for our one-loop evaluation are tree-level amplitudes, which are often already known. To study the practicality of this method we evaluate the cut-constructible part of the 4, 5 and 6 gluon one-loop amplitudes numerically, using the analytically known 4, 5 and 6 gluon tree-level amplitudes. Comparisons with analytic answers are performed to ascertain the numerical accuracy of the method.Comment: 29 pages with 8 figures; references updated in rsponse to readers' suggestion

On the Solution to the Polonyi Problem with OO(10~TeV) Gravitino Mass in Supergravity

We study the solution to the Polonyi problem where the Polonyi field weighs as $O(10{\rm TeV})$ and decays just before the primordial nucleosynthesis. It is shown that in spite of a large entropy production by the Polonyi field decay, one can naturally explain the present value of the baryon-to-entropy ratio, $n_B/s \sim (10^{-10}-10^{-11})$ if the Affleck-Dine mechanism for baryogenesis works. It is pointed out, however, that there is another cosmological problem related to the abundance of the lightest superparticles produced by the Polonyi decay