Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Physics Of Moving Bodies, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

An alternative theoretical development of Special Relativity is presented in which Electrodynamics is not invoked. In deriving the Lorentz transformation in this manner, the existence of a maximal speed for all physical phenomena stands out. The mass-energy relation is also derived without reference to light.

Un développement théorique alternative de la relativité restreinte est présenté dans lequel l’électrodynamique n’est pas invoquée. En dérivant la transformation de Lorentz de cette manière, l’existence d’une vitesse maximale pour tous les phénomènes physiques ressort. La relation masse-énergie est également dérivée sans référence à la lumière.

Enzyme Entrapment In Polyaniline Films Observed Via Florescence Anisotropy And Antiquenching, Louis R. Nemzer, Marissa Mccaffrey, Arthur J. Epstein

Louis R Nemzer

The facile entrapment of oxidoreductase enzymes within polyaniline polymer films by inducing hydrophobic collapse using phosphate buffered saline (PBS) has been shown to be a cost-effective method for fabricating organic biosensors. Here, we use fluorescence anisotropy measurements to verify enzyme immobilization and subsequent electron donation to the polymer matrix, both prerequisites for an effective biosensor. Specifically, we measure a three order of magnitude decrease in the ratio of the fluorescence to rotational lifetimes. In addition, the observed fluorescence antiquenching supports the previously proposed model that the polymer chain assumes a severely coiled conformation when exposed to PBS. These results help …

Can A Road-Driven Car Outrace A Free-Falling Car?, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Motivated by an advertising scenario in which a luxury sports sedan races against a similar car falling under the influence of gravity, a calculation using undergraduate physics and calculus is performed to theoretically predict the outcome.

Conicoid Mirrors, Diego Castano, Lawrence Carl Hawkins

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

The first-order equation relating object and image location for a mirror of arbitrary conic-sectional shape is derived. It is also shown that the parabolic reflecting surface is the only one free of aberration and only in the limiting case of distant sources.

B→Sγ Constraints On The Minimal Supergravity Model With Large Tanβ, Howard Baer, Michal Brhlik, Diego Castano, Xerxes Tata

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

In the minimal supergravity model (MSUGRA), as the parameter tanβ increases, the charged Higgs boson and light bottom squark masses decrease, which can potentially increase contributions from tH±, ̃gbj and Zibj loops in the decay →bsγ. We update a previous QCD improved →bsγ decay calculation to include in addition the effects of gluino and neutralino loops. We find that, in the MSUGRA model, loops involving charginos also increase, and dominate over tW, tH±, ̃g̃q and Zĩq contributions for tanβ≳5−10. We find for large values of tanβ∼35 that most of the parameter space of the MSUGRA model for μ<0 is ruled out due to too large a value of branching ratio B(→bsγ). For μ>0 and …

Naturalness Lowers The Upper Bound On The Lightest Higgs Boson Mass In Supersymmetry, Greg W. Anderson, Diego Castano, Antonio Riotto

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

We quantify the extent to which naturalness is lost as experimental lower bounds on the Higgs boson mass increase, and we compute the natural upper bound on the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson mass. We find that it would be unnatural for the mass of the lightest supersymmetric Higgs boson to saturate its maximal upper bound. In the absence of significant fine-tuning, the lightest Higgs boson mass should lie below 120 GeV, and in the most natural cases it should be lighter than 108 GeV. For modest tanβ, these bounds are significantly lower. Our results imply that a failure to observe …

Constraints On The Minimal Supergravity Model From Non-Standard Vacua, Howard Baer, Michal Brhlik, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

We evaluate regions of parameter space in the minimal supergravity model where "unbounded from below" (UFB) or charge or color-breaking minima (CCB) occur. Our analysis includes the most important terms from the one-loop effective potential. We note a peculiar discontinuity of results depending on how renormalization group improvement is performed: One case leads to a UFB potential throughout the model parameter space, while the other typically agrees quite well with similar calculations performed using only the tree level potential. We compare our results with constraints from cosmology and naturalness and find a preferred region of parameter space which implies m …

Consequences Of Supergravity With Gauged U(1)R Symmetry, Diego Castano, D. Z. Freedman, C. Manuel

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

The structure of gauged R-supergravity Lagrangians is reviewed, and we consider models with a hidden sector plus light fields of the MSSM. A simple potential for the hidden sector is presented which has a global minimum with zero cosmological constant and spontaneously broken SUSY and R-symmetry. The U(1)_R vector multiplet acquires a Planck scale through the Higgs mechanism, and it decouples at low energy. Due to very interesting cancellations, the U(1)_RD-terms also drop out at low energy. Thus no direct effects of the gauging of R-symmetry remain in the low-energy effective Lagrangian, …

Naturalness And Superpartner Masses Or When To Give Up On Weak Scale Supersymmetry, Greg W. Anderson, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Superpartner masses cannot be arbitrarily heavy if supersymmetric extensions of the standard model explain the stability of the gauge hierarchy. This ancient and hallowed motivation for weak scale supersymmetry is often quoted, yet no reliable determination of this upper limit on superpartner masses exists. In this paper we compute upper bounds on superpartner masses in the minimal supersymmetric model, and we identify which values of the superpartner masses correspond to the most natural explanation of the hierarchy stability. We compare the most natural value of these masses and their upper limits to the physics reach of current and future colliders. …

Measure Of Fine Tuning, Greg W. Anderson, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Fine-tuning criteria are frequently used to place upper limits on the masses of superpartners in supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. However, commonly used prescriptions for quantifying naturalness have some important shortcomings. Motivated by this, we propose new criteria for quantifying fine tuning that can be used to place upper limits on superpartner masses with greater fidelity. In addition, our analysis attempts to make explicit the assumptions implicit in quantifications of naturalness. We apply our criteria to the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, and we find that the scale of supersymmetry breaking can be larger than previous methods …

Challenging Weak-Scale Supersymmetry At Colliders, Greg W. Anderson, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Experimental searches for supersymmetry are entering a new era. As future experiments explore the mass range above the current lower bounds on superpartner masses, a failure to observe signals of superpartner production will begin to erode the central motivation for supersymmetry at the weak scale. In this article we present a detailed examination of which regions of supersymmetric parameter space are most natural and the extent to which weak-scale supersymmetry becomes unnatural if no superpartners are observed at CERN LEP II, the Fermilab Tevatron, possible upgrades of these machines, and the CERN LHC.

Discrete Symmetries And Isosinglet Quarks In Low-Energy Supersymmetry, Diego Castano, Stephan P. Martin

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Many extensions of the minimal supersymmetric standard model contain superfields for quarks which are singlets under weak isospin with electric charge -13. We explore the possibility that such isosinglet quarks have low or intermediate scale masses, but do not mediate rapid proton decay because of a discrete symmetry. By imposing the discrete gauge anomaly cancellation conditions, we show that the simplest way to achieve this is to extend the Z₃ “baryon parity” of Ibáñez and Ross to the isosinglet quark superfields. This can be done in three distinct ways. This strategy is not consistent with grand unification with a …

Renormalization Group Study Of The Standard Model And Its Extensions: The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, Diego Castano, E. J. Piard, P. Raymond

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

In this paper we summarize the minimal supersymmetric standard model as well as the renormalization group equations of its parameters. We proceed to examine the feasibility of the model when the breaking of supersymmetry is parametrized by the soft terms suggested by supergravity theories. In such models, the electroweak symmetry is exact at the tree level and is broken spontaneously at one-loop order. We make the additional assumption that the GUT-inspired relation m_b=m_τ be valid at the scale where the gauge coupling constants unify, which constrains the value of the top quark mass. For all types of …

Mass And Mixing-Angle Patterns In The Standard Model And Its Minimal Supersymmetric Extension, H. Arason, Diego Castano, E. J. Piard, P. Ramond

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Using renormalization group techniques, we examine several interesting relations among masses and mixing angles of quarks and leptons in the standard model. We extend the analysis to the minimal supersymmetric extension to determine its effect on these mass relations. Remarkably supersymmetry allows for these relations to be satisfied at a single grand unified scale.

Renormalization-Group Study Of The Standard Model And Its Extensions: The Standard Model, H. Arason, Diego Castano, B. Kesthelyi, S. Mikaelian, E. J. Piard, P. Ramond, B. D. Wright

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

In this paper we present a comprehensive analysis of the running of all the couplings of the standard model to two loops, including threshold effects. Our purpose is twofold—to determine what the running of these parameters may indicate for the physics of the standard model and to provide a template for the study of its extensions up to the Planck mass.