Factorizations of skew braces

We introduce strong left ideals of skew braces and prove that they produce non-trivial decomposition of set-theoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. We study factorization of skew left braces through strong left ideals and we prove analogs of It\^{o}'s theorem in the context of skew left braces. As a corollary, we obtain applications to the retractability problem of involutive non-degenerate solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. Finally, we classify skew braces that contain no non-trivial proper ideals.Comment: 12 page

Electric dipole and magnetic quadrupole moments of the WW boson via a CP-violating HWWHWW vertex in effective Lagrangians

The possibility of nonnegligible $W$ electric dipole ($\widetilde{\mu}_W$) and magnetic quadrupole ($\widetilde{Q}_W$) moments induced by the most general $HWW$ vertex is examined via the effective Lagrangian technique. It is assumed that new heavy fermions induce an anomalous CP-odd component of the $HWW$ vertex, which can be parametrized by an $SU_L(2)\times U_Y(1)$-invariant dimension-six operator. This anomalous contribution, when combined with the standard model CP-even contribution, lead to CP-odd electromagnetic properties of the $W$ boson, which are characterized by the form factors $\Delta \widetilde{\kappa}$ and $\Delta \widetilde{Q}$. It is found that $\Delta \widetilde{\kappa}$ is divergent, whereas $\Delta \widetilde{Q}$ is finite, which reflects the fact that the latter cannot be generated at the one-loop level in any renormalizable theory. Assuming reasonable values for the unknown parameters, we found that $\widetilde{\mu}_W\sim 3-6\times 10^{-21}$ e-cm, which is eight orders of magnitude larger than the SM prediction and close to the upper bound derived from the neutron electric dipole moment. The estimated size of the somewhat less-studied $\widetilde{Q}_W$ moment is of the order of $-10^{-36}$ e-cm^2, which is fifteen orders of magnitude above the SM contribution.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, REVTEX styl

CP-odd static electromagnetic properties of the W gauge boson and the t quark via the anomalous tbW coupling

In the framework of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian, the one-loop induced effects of the anomalous $tbW$ coupling, which includes both left- and right-handed complex components, on the static electromagnetic properties of the $W$ boson and the $t$ quark are studied. The attention is focused mainly on the CP-violating electromagnetic properties. It is found that the $tbW$ anomalous coupling can induce both CP-violating moments of the $W$ boson, namely, its electric dipole ($\tilde{\mu}_W$) and magnetic quadrupole ($\tilde{Q}_W$) moments. As far as the $t$ quark is concerned, a potentially large electric dipole moment $(d_t)$ can arise due to the anomalous $tbW$ coupling. The most recent bounds on the left- and right-handed parameters from $B$ meson physics lead to the following estimates $\tilde{\mu}_W ~ 10^{-23}-10^{-22}$ e-cm and $\tilde{Q}_W~ 10^{-38}-10^{-37}$ e-cm$^2$, which are 7 and 14 orders of magnitude larger than the standard model (SM) predictions, whereas $d_t$ may be as large as $10^{-22}$ e-cm, which is about 8 orders of magnitude larger than its SM counterpart.Comment: This paper has been merged with hep-ph/0612171 for publication in Physical Review

A natural saline soil as a model for understanding to what extent the concentration of salt affects the distribution of microorganisms

Soils preserve and sustain life. Their health and functioning are crucial for crop production and for the maintenance of major ecosystem services. Human induced salinity is one of the main soil threats that reduces soil fertility and affect crop yields. In recent times, great attention has been paid to the general shortage of arable land and to the increasing demand for ecological restoration of areas affected by salinization processes. Despite the diffuse interest on the effects of salinization on plants\u2019 growth, and all the derived socioeconomic issues, very few studies analyzed the ecology of the microbial species in naturally saline soils and the resilience of biological fertility in these extreme habitats. Microorganisms inhabiting such environments may share a strategy, may have developed multiple adaptations for maintaining their populations, and cope eventually to extreme conditions by altruistic or cooperative behaviors for maintaining their metabolism active. The understanding and the knowledge of the composition and distribution of microbial communities in natural hypersaline soils can be interesting for ecological reasons but also to develop new restoration strategy where soil fertility was compromised by natural accidents or human mismanagement. The aim of this research was to provide specific information on saline soils in Italy, stressing mainly their distribution, the socioeconomic issues and the understanding of the characterizing ecological processes. Moreover, natural saline soils were used as a model for understanding to what extent the concentration of salt can affect some basic microbial processes. In the present study, physical, chemical and microbiological soil properties were investigated in the shallower horizons of natural salt affected soils in Sicily (Italy), where some ecological contrasting variables acted as strong drivers in fungal and bacterial spatial distribution. Furthermore, the interface between biological and geochemical components in the surface of that peculiar habitat was investigated to evaluate the organization and diversity of the phototrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms. Sixteen soil samples from A horizons were collected according to a random sampling scheme. Bacterial and archaeal communities were characterized by their 16S rDNA genes with T-RFLP method. A total of 92 genera were identified from the 16S pyrosequencing analysis suggesting that cyanobacteria and communities of sulfur bacteria might directly or indirectly promote the formation of protective envelope. Some bacterial phyla appeared spread in the whole area, whatever the salinity gradient, while other groups showed a distribution linked to very compartmentalised soil properties, such as the presence of saline crusts in the soil surface. Results show that saline soils couldn\u2019t contain just one single microbial community selected to withstand extreme osmotic phenomena, but many communities that can be variously correlated to one or more environmental parameters having great importance for the maintenance of the overall homeostasis

A fast and cost-effective approach to develop and map EST-SSR markers: oak as a case study

Background: Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) are a source of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) that can be used to develop molecular markers for genetic studies. The availability of ESTs for Quercus robur and Quercus petraea provided a unique opportunity to develop microsatellite markers to accelerate research aimed at studying adaptation of these long-lived species to their environment. As a first step toward the construction of a SSR-based linkage map of oak for quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping, we describe the mining and survey of EST-SSRs as well as a fast and cost-effective approach (bin mapping) to assign these markers to an approximate map position. We also compared the level of polymorphism between genomic and EST-derived SSRs and address the transferability of EST-SSRs in Castanea sativa (chestnut). Results: A catalogue of 103,000 Sanger ESTs was assembled into 28,024 unigenes from which 18.6% presented one or more SSR motifs. More than 42% of these SSRs corresponded to trinucleotides. Primer pairs were designed for 748 putative unigenes. Overall 37.7% (283) were found to amplify a single polymorphic locus in a reference fullsib pedigree of Quercus robur. The usefulness of these loci for establishing a genetic map was assessed using a bin mapping approach. Bin maps were constructed for the male and female parental tree for which framework linkage maps based on AFLP markers were available. The bin set consisting of 14 highly informative offspring selected based on the number and position of crossover sites. The female and male maps comprised 44 and 37 bins, with an average bin length of 16.5 cM and 20.99 cM, respectively. A total of 256 EST-SSRs were assigned to bins and their map position was further validated by linkage mapping. EST-SSRs were found to be less polymorphic than genomic SSRs, but their transferability rate to chestnut, a phylogenetically related species to oak, was higher. Conclusion: We have generated a bin map for oak comprising 256 EST-SSRs. This resource constitutes a first step toward the establishment of a gene-based map for this genus that will facilitate the dissection of QTLs affecting complex traits of ecological importance

Muon anomalous magnetic dipole moment in supersymmetric theories

We study the muon anomalous magnetic dipole moment in supersymmetric theories. The impact of the recent Brookhaven E821 experimental measurement on both model-independent and model-dependent supersymmetric parameter spaces is discussed in detail. We find that values of tan\beta as low as 3 can be obtained while remaining within the E821 one-sigma bound. This requires a light smuon; however, we show that, somewhat surprisingly, no model-independent bound can be placed on the mass of the lightest chargino for any tan\beta greater than or equal to 3. We also show that the maximum contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment are insensitive to CP-violating phases. We provide analyses of the supersymmetric contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment in dilaton-dominated supergravity models and gauge-mediated supersymmetry-breaking models. Finally, we discuss how other phenomena, such as $B(b\to s\gamma)$, relic abundance of the lightest superpartner, and the Higgs mass may be correlated with the anomalous magnetic moment, but do not significantly impact the viability of a supersymmetric explanation, or the mass limits obtainable on smuons and charginos.Comment: 28 page

Very light CP-odd scalar in the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model

We show that a general two-Higgs-doublet model (THDM) with a very light CP-odd scalar (A) can be compatible with the rho parameter, Br(b --> s\gamma), R_b, A_b, (g-2) of muon, Br(Upsilon --> A gamma), and the direct search via the Yukawa process at LEP. For its mass around 0.2 GeV, the muon (g-2) and Br(Upsilon --> A \gamma) data require tan(beta) to be about 1. Consequently, A can behave like a fermiophobic CP-odd scalar and predominantly decay into a photon pair ("gamma gamma"), which registers in detectors of high energy collider experiments as a single photon signature when the momentum of A is large. We compute the partial decay width of Z --> A A A and the production rate of f \bar{f} --> Z A A --> Z +"gamma gamma", f^' {\bar f} --> W^{\pm} A A --> W^\pm + "gamma gamma" and f \bar f --> H^+ H^- --> W^+ W^- A A --> W^+ W^- + "gamma gamma" at high energy colliders such as LEP, Tevatron, LHC, and future Linear Colliders. Other production mechanisms of a light A, such as gg --> h --> AA --> "gamma gamma", are also discussed.Comment: Some improvementes, references updated, 3 new figures, one new appendix, abstract and conclusions unchaged. Version to appear in Physical Review

Three-gluon vertex in arbitrary gauge and dimension

One-loop off-shell contributions to the three-gluon vertex are calculated, in arbitrary covariant gauge and in arbitrary space-time dimension, including quark-loop contributions (with massless quarks). It is shown how one can get the results for all on-shell limits of interest directly from the general off-shell expression. The corresponding general expressions for the one-loop ghost-gluon vertex are also obtained. They allow for a check of consistency with the Ward--Slavnov--Taylor identity.Comment: 41 pages, LaTex, plus 3 figures in separate file. Misprints (signs) in eqs.(4.26), (C.2), (C.4), (C.5) are corrected. To appear in Phys. Rev.