Improved SUSY QCD corrections to Higgs boson decays into quarks and squarks

We improve the calculation of the supersymmetric $O(\alpha_s)$ QCD corrections to the decays of Higgs bosons into quarks and squarks in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. In the on-shell renormalization scheme these corrections can be very large, which makes the perturbative expansion unreliable. This is especially serious for decays into bottom quarks and squarks for large $\tan\beta$. Their corrected widths can even become negative. We show that this problem can be solved by a careful choice of the tree-level Higgs boson couplings to quarks and squarks, in terms of the QCD and SUSY QCD running quark masses, running trilinear couplings $A_q$, and on-shell left-right mixing angles of squarks. We also present numerical results for the corrected partial decay widths for the large $\tan\beta$ case.Comment: Version to be published in PR

Production of Stop, Sbottom, and Stau at LEP2

We present a comprehensive study of pair production and decay of stops, sbottoms, and staus in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation at LEP2. We give numerical predictions within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model for cross sections and decay rates, and discuss the important signatures. In the case of stau production we also study the polarization of the tau in the decays stau_1 -> tau + neutralino_{1,2}.Comment: 15 pages, LateX, 13 figures appended as uuencoded PS-file. LateX file and figures are also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://info.oeaw.ac.at/pub/hephy-pub/64

A widely tunable few electron droplet

Quasi-static transport measurements are employed to characterize a few electron quantum dot electrostatically defined in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. The gate geometry allows observations on one and the same electron droplet within a wide range of coupling strengths to the leads. The weak coupling regime is described by discrete quantum states. At strong interaction with the leads Kondo phenomena are observed as a function of a magnetic field. By varying gate voltages the electron droplet can, in addition, be distorted into a double quantum dot with a strong interdot tunnel coupling while keeping track of the number of trapped electrons.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Hopping conductivity in heavily doped n-type GaAs layers in the quantum Hall effect regime

We investigate the magnetoresistance of epitaxially grown, heavily doped n-type GaAs layers with thickness (40-50 nm) larger than the electronic mean free path (23 nm). The temperature dependence of the dissipative resistance R_{xx} in the quantum Hall effect regime can be well described by a hopping law (R_{xx} \propto exp{-(T_0/T)^p}) with p=0.6. We discuss this result in terms of variable range hopping in a Coulomb gap together with a dependence of the electron localization length on the energy in the gap. The value of the exponent p>0.5 shows that electron-electron interactions have to be taken into account in order to explain the occurrence of the quantum Hall effect in these samples, which have a three-dimensional single electron density of states.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Electroweak radiative corrections to single Higgs-boson production in e+e- annihilation

We have calculated the complete electroweak O(alpha) radiative corrections to the single Higgs-boson production processes e+ e- --> nu_l anti-nu_l H (l=e,mu,tau) in the electroweak Standard Model. Initial-state radiation beyond O(alpha) is included in the structure-function approach. The calculation of the corrections is briefly described, and numerical results are presented for the total cross section. In the G_mu scheme, the bulk of the corrections is due to initial-state radiation, which affects the cross section at the level of -7% at high energies and even more in the ZH threshold region. The remaining bosonic and fermionic corrections are at the level of a few per cent. The confusing situation in the literature regarding differing results for the fermionic corrections to this process is clarified.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 7 postscript files, some references added, final version to appear in Phys.Lett.