809980
Long-distance effects in rare K decays
Rare K decays provide for very clean tests of the Standard Model, and are especially suited to search for New Physics signal. In this talk, recent progresses in the estimation of long-distance effects induced by light quarks in KL to pi0 mu+ mu- and K+ to pi+ nu nu are reported.
17016705
Minimal flavor violation in supersymmetric theories
The minimal flavor violation hypothesis is presented in the context of the MSSM. Its fundamental principles are introduced and motivated, and its phenomenological consequences for FCNC and CP-violating observables as well as for R-parity violating processes are briefly described.
9465593
EDM constraints on flavored CP-violating phases
Abstract The CP-violating phenomenology of the MSSM with Minimal Flavor Violation (MFV) in the lepton sector is revisited. To this end, the most general parametrizations of the slepton soft-breaking terms are constructed assuming a seesaw mechanism of type I. After a critical reassessment of how the CP-symmetry is broken within the MFV framework, all possible CP-violating phases are introduced. From the strong hierarchy of their contributions to the Electric Dipole Moments (EDMs), these phases are split into three classes: flavor-blind, flavor-diagonal and flavor off-diagonal. In particular, the phases from the neutrino sector belong to the last class; they start to contribute only at the second order in the mass-insertion approximation and have thus a negligible effect. It is then shown that to each class of phases corresponds a unique largely dominant term in the MFV expansion. Numerically, for a realistic range of MSSM and neutrino parameters, such that B ( μ → e γ ) does not exceed its experimental bound, the three types of phases are found to be allowed by the current bound on the electron EDM, though the next generation of experiments should constrain tightly the flavor-blind phase. Finally, we relax the MFV hypothesis and show how in the general MSSM, the MFV operator basis can be used to judge of the naturality of the slepton soft-breaking terms.
14402674
Supersymmetric models with minimal flavor violation and their running
We revisit the formulation of the principle of minimal flavor violation (MFV) in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, both at moderate and large tan β, and with or without new CP-violating phases. We introduce a counting rule which keeps track of the highly hierarchical structure of the Yukawa matrices. In this manner, we are able to control systematically which terms can be discarded in the soft SUSY breaking part of the Lagrangian. We argue that for the implementation of this counting rule, it is convenient to introduce a new basis of matrices in which both the squark (and slepton) mass terms as well as the trilinear couplings can be expanded. We derive the RGE for the MFV parameters and show that the beta functions also respect the counting rule. For moderate tan β, we provide explicit analytic solutions of these RGE and illustrate their behavior by analyzing the neighborhood (also switching on new phases) of the SPS-1a benchmark point. We then show that even in the case of large tan β, the RGE remain valid and that the analytic solutions obtained for moderate tan β still allow us to understand the most important features of the running of the parameters, as illustrated with the help of the SPS-4 benchmark point.
17438804
What could be learnt from positronium for quarkonium
In order to fulfill Low's theorem requirements, a new lowest order basis for bound state decay computations is proposed, in which the binding energy is treated non-perturbatively. The properties of the method are sketched by reviewing standard positronium decay processes. Then, it is shown how applying the method to quarkonia sheds new light on some longstanding puzzles. Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. Talk given at the ETH Workshop on Positronium Physics, May 30-31, 2003, Zurich, Switzerland
7813136
Recent progress on supersymmetric effects in rare K decays
The dominant MSSM effects in the rare K decays, K+ --> pi+ nu nu bar, KL --> pi0 nu nu bar, KL --> pi0 e+ e- and KL --> pi0 mu+ mu-, are discussed both within and without the minimal flavor violation hypothesis, at moderate and large tangent beta. In each case, the sensitivities to MSSM soft-breaking terms are compared, laying emphasis on possible correlations among observables. In most scenarios, rare K decays offer unique windows into the Delta S=1 sector of the soft-breaking terms. Therefore, together with B-physics and collider observables, these modes will be essential for reconstructing the still elusive SUSY-breaking mechanism.
125682886
Calibration of the MINOS detectors and extraction of neutrino oscillation parameters
120652887
STATUS OF THE MINOS EXPERIMENT
The MINOS experiment is designed to search for neutrino oscillations. A neutrino beam from Fermilab is observed by the Near and Far detectors, separated by 735km. A comparison of the observed neutrino events at the two locations allows a measurement of the oscillation parameters to be made. Commissioning of the Near detector is underway and the Far detector is collecting cosmic ray and atmospheric neutrino data. Analysis of the atmospheric neutrino events has begun and neutrino, antineutrino event separation has been achieved. Data collection with the NuMI beam will begin in December 2004.