ALBERT

Description: New Physics contributions to Δ F =2 transitions in the simplest extensions of the Standard Model (SM), the models with constrained Minimal Flavor Violation (CMFV), are parametrized by a single variable S ( v ), the value of the real box diagram function that in CMFV is bounded from below by its SM value S 0 ( x t ). With already very precise experimental values of ε K , Δ M d , Δ M s and precise values of the CP-asymmetry $S_{\psi K_{S}}$ and of $\hat{B}_{K}$ entering the evaluation of ε K , the future of CMFV in the Δ F =2 sector depends crucially on the values of | V cb |, | V ub |, γ , $F_{B_{s}} \sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{s}}}$ and $F_{B_{d}} \sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{d}}}$ . The ratio ξ of the latter two non-perturbative parameters, already rather precisely determined from lattice calculations, allows then together with Δ M s /Δ M d and $S_{\psi K_{S}}$ to determine the range of the angle γ in the unitarity triangle independently of the value of S ( v ). Imposing in addition the constraints from | ε K | and Δ M d allows to determine the favorite CMFV values of | V cb |, | V ub |, $F_{B_{s}}\sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{s}}}$ and $F_{B_{d}} \sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{d}}}$ as functions of S ( v ) and γ . The | V cb | 4 dependence of ε K allows to determine | V cb | for a given S ( v ) and γ with a higher precision than it is presently possible using tree-level decays. The same applies to | V ub |, | V td | and | V ts | that are automatically determined as functions of S ( v ) and γ . We derive correlations between $F_{B_{s}}\sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{s}}}$ and $F_{B_{d}} \sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{d}}}$ , | V cb |, | V ub | and γ that should be tested in the coming years. Typically $F_{B_{s}}\sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{s}}}$ and $F_{B_{d}} \sqrt{\hat{B}_{B_{d}}}$ have to be lower than their present lattice values, while | V cb | has to be higher than its tree-level determination, with a significance depending on the evolution of their errors. Within the SM this would imply values for $\mathcal{B}(K^{+}\rightarrow\pi^{+}\nu\bar{\nu})$ and $\mathcal{B}(K_{L}\rightarrow\pi^{0}\nu\bar{\nu})$ that are typically larger by (15–20) % than those presently quoted in the literature. The region in the space of these three parameters allowed by CMFV indicates tensions in this class of models and hints for the presence of new sources of flavor violation and/or new local operators in Δ F =2 data that are strongly suppressed in these models. As a byproduct we propose to reduce the present uncertainty in the charm contribution to ε K by using the experimental value of Δ M K .

Description: Within the framework of modified teleparallel gravity, we reconstruct a f ( T ) model corresponding to the QCD ghost dark energy scenario. For a spatially flat FRW universe containing only the pressureless matter, we obtain the time evolution of the torsion scalar T (or the Hubble parameter). Then, we calculate the effective torsion equation of state parameter of the QCD ghost f ( T )-gravity model as well as the deceleration parameter of the universe. Furthermore, we fit the model parameters by using the latest observational data including SNeIa, CMB and BAO data. We also check the viability of our model using a cosmographic analysis approach. Moreover, we investigate the validity of the generalized second law (GSL) of gravitational thermodynamics for our model. Finally, we point out the growth rate of matter density perturbation. We conclude that in QCD ghost f ( T )-gravity model, the universe begins a matter dominated phase and approaches a de Sitter regime at late times, as expected. Also this model is consistent with current data, passes the cosmographic test, satisfies the GSL and fits the data of the growth factor well as the ΛCDM model.

Description: Nitrate is a common pollutant in surface water and groundwater of agricultural areas. It is essential to monitor this pollutant in groundwater, especially when it is used for drinking purposes without treatment. The present study was carried out in an intensively irrigated area which forms a part of Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, India where groundwater meets all the water needs of the rural population living in this area. The objective was to assess the spatiotemporal variation in the concentration of nitrate in groundwater and soil. Based on the analysis of 496 groundwater samples collected from 45 wells over a period of 2 years from March 2008 to January 2010 by sampling every 2 months, it was observed that groundwater in 242 km 2 of the total 724 km 2 area had nitrate above the maximum permissible limit of 45 mg/l for drinking purposes. Nitrate concentration in groundwater showed a positive relation with potassium, chloride, and sulfate, indicating their source from fertilizers. Reasons for the high concentration of nitrate in domestic areas were the dumping of animal wastes and leakage from septic tanks. The pH of the soil samples showed that most of the area had basic soil. Apart from pH, organic carbon, available phosphorous, available potassium, ammoniacal nitrogen, and nitrate nitrogen were also analyzed in the 97 soil samples.

Description: Nearly 108-km lengths of Mersin shores are composed of natural beaches. The region is located between major tourist centers. In the future, this region is thought to be built with a great number of tourist facilities. Turkey’s largest seaport, Ataş refinery (Mersin International Port) is located in Mersin. Recently, Mersin is becoming of great importance to Turkey as the latter plans to construct its second nuclear power plant in the region. Therefore, as nuclear power plants are built to withstand environmental hazards, it is very important to analyze the seismic risk of the areas where the nuclear power plant will be constructed. The region is located between the East Anatolian Fault Zone and Center Anatolian Fault Zone. Based on the Turkey Earthquake Regions Map, Mersin is divided into second-, third-, and fourth-degree earthquake regions. In this study, we sampled earthquakes of magnitude of 4.0 or greater between 01 Jan 1900 and 31 Dec 2010 in the area; seismic hazard of Mersin province was estimated with probabilistic and statistical methods. The study area was selected as the coordinates between 36.03° and 37.42° North and 32.57° and 35.16° East. On the study area, different scaled magnitude values in the last 110 years converted to a common scale (Mw) and earthquake catalog was re-compiled and also seismic sources that may affect the area was determined. In this study, the seismic hazards of the region were obtained using the methods of probability and statistics. This study used three different attenuation relationships. Using the attenuation relationships suggested by Boore et al. (Seismol Res Lett 68(1):128–153, 1997 ) and Kalkan and Gülkan (Earthquake Spectra 20:1111–1138, 2004 ), the largest ground acceleration which corresponds to a recurrence period of 475 years was found as 0.08–0.09 g and Akkar and Çağnan (Bull Seismol Soc Am 100 6:2978–2995, 2010 ), 0.04 g for bedrock at the central district. When computing for seismic hazard curves, Mut district appears to have a greater seismic hazard compared with other districts. Moreover, according to the attenuation relationships, seismic hazard curves corresponding to a recurrence period of 475 years were obtained for the Mersin Central, Mut, Erdemli, Çamlıyayla, and Tarsus districts.

Description: This research work has an objective to determine the effective variables in socioeconomic category of Integrated Water Resources Management for Saf-Saf river basin characterized by fast growing demand of urban and rural populations and the demand of economic sectors including industry and agriculture. In this paper, the artificial neural network models were used to model and predict the relationship between water resources mobilization and socioeconomic variables in the Saf-Saf river basin. The study area chosen is Saf-Saf river basin and real data were collected from 30 municipalities for reference year 2010. The results indicate that the feed-forward multilayer perceptron models with back-propagation are useful tools to define and prioritize the most effective variable on water resources mobilization and use. The model evaluation shows that the correlation coefficients are more than 94 % for training, verification, and testing data. The model aims to link the water resources mobilization and driving forces variables with the objective to strengthen the Integrated Water Resources Management approach.

Description: Gazestan phosphate ore deposit (Central Iran) is an apatite deposit which is instrumental in selecting the method of excavation. The position of fault systems and the condition of rock quality also play a role in the method used for mineral resources and ore reserves estimation. Conversely, the Rock Quality Designation (RQD) is a parameter that provides a quantitative judgment of rock mass quality obtained from drill cores. This factor can be applied to detect the fractured zones which occur due to fault systems. Additionally, the faulted areas can be determined by surface geological map and a few by core drilling. Some of the faulted areas are not distinguishable in the surface and are covered by soils, especially within 3D modeling and visualization. In this study, an attempt has been made to establish a relationship between the RQD percentages which were geostatistically simulated and faulted areas through the region. In comparison, the results showed that low RQD domains (RQD 〈20 %) can be interpreted as fault zones; high RQD domains (RQD 〉50 %) correspond to less fractured areas, and the contact between high and low RQD domain is gradual. Therefore, this categorization of RQD domains can be incorporated to detect the faulted zones in 3D models for mine design. Based on the categorization, the uncertainty within the area was calculated to introduce two new core drilling points for the completion of this phase of exploratory grid from the fault structural viewpoint, in order to have a proper model of ore reserve to estimate. It was concluded that this procedure can be utilized for conceptual comprehension of fault trends in 3D modeling for the method selection of excavation and complete the estimation procedure phase.

Description: Morphometric analysis using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS), in the recent study, has become an efficient method in the assessment of groundwater potential of a river basin. The present study focused on the morphometric analysis of Araniar river basin using RS and GIS techniques in the identification of groundwater potential zones for effective planning and management of groundwater resources of the basin. The study area was divided into six subbasins for the purpose of micro-level morphometric analysis. The main stream of the basin is of fifth order and drainage patterns of subbasins are mostly of dendritic and parallel type. Based on the linear, areal and relief parameters of subbasins, the groundwater potential zones of the basin were identified and the results substantiated with geomorphology map derived from RS data. The elongated shape, favourable drainage network, permeable geologic formation and low relief of the subbasins WS3, WS5 and WS6 make them the promising groundwater potential zones of Araniar river basin. The statistical analysis and overlay analysis of the morphometric parameters also indicated the subbasins WS3, WS5 and WS6 as high groundwater potential zones. The groundwater potential zone map when overlaid with groundwater fluctuation map indicated the suitable sites for artificial recharge structures.

Description: Soil erosion is one of the most serious land degradation problems and the primary environmental issue in Mediterranean regions. Estimation of soil erosion loss in these regions is often difficult due to the complex interplay of many factors such as climate, land uses, topography, and human activities. The purpose of this study is to apply the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to predict surface runoff generation patterns and soil erosion hazard and to prioritize most degraded sub-catchment in order to adopt the appropriate management intervention. The study area is the Sarrath river catchment (1,491 km 2 ), north of Tunisia. Based on the estimated soil loss rates, the catchment was divided into four priority categories for conservation intervention. Results showed that a larger part of the watershed (90 %) fell under low and moderate soil erosion risk and only 10 % of the watershed was vulnerable to soil erosion with an estimated sediment loss exceeding 10 t ha −1  year −1 . Results indicated that spatial differences in erosion rates within the Sarrath catchment are mainly caused by differences in land cover type and gradient slope. Application of the SWAT model demonstrated that the model provides a useful tool to predict surface runoff and soil erosion hazard and can successfully be used for prioritization of vulnerable areas over semi-arid catchments.

Description: Loop quantum cosmology is considered in the inflation era. A slow roll scalar field solution with power law potential is presented in the neighborhood of the transition time, i.e. when the universe enters inflation phase from super-inflation. The compatibility of the model with Planck 2013 data is discussed. The domain of validity of the second and the generalized second laws of thermodynamics for this solution and some other examples is studied.

Description: In this work, we systematically investigate the one-loop corrections to $t\bar{t}$ production in the littlest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT) at the LHC for $\sqrt{s}=8,14~\mbox{TeV}$ . We focus on the effects of LHT particles on $t\bar{t}$ cross section, polarization asymmetries, spin correlation and charge asymmetry at the LHC. We also study the top quark forward–backward asymmetry at Tevatron and its correlations with the LHC observables. We found that: (1) the contributions of the LHT particles to $t\bar{t}$ production can only reach about 1 % at the 14 TeV LHC. Meanwhile, the anomalous top quark forward–backward asymmetry at Tevatron is also hardly to be explained in the LHT model. (2) The parity violating asymmetries in $t\bar{t}$ production, such as left–right asymmetry | A LR | and the polarization | P t | can, respectively, reach 1.1 % and 0.5 %, which may have the potential to provide a signal of LHT at the LHC.

Description: We evaluate the massless scalar field quasi-normal frequencies of Schwarzschild black hole in the quintessence background, using the third-order WKB approximation method. Results show that quintessence decreases the oscillation frequency while increases the damping time of the scalar field. Moreover, with the increase of the quintessential state parameter ω q (the ratio of the pressure to the energy density), the imaginary parts’ absolute values of the quasi-normal frequencies increase monotonously. This indicates that the scalar field decays more rapidly in the larger ω q quintessence state, which agrees with the cases of other perturbation fields for black holes in the quintessence background. For the special case of SdS black hole ( ω q =−1), the oscillation frequency and the damping rate increase with the decrease of the normalization factor c (corresponding to the cosmological constant Λ in SdS black hole).

Description: For neutrino mixing we propose to use the parameter set X i (=| V ei | 2 ) and Ω i (= ϵ ijk | V μj | 2 | V τk | 2 ), with two constraints. These parameters are directly measurable since the neutrino oscillation probabilities are their quadratic functions. Physically, the set Ω i signifies a quantitative measure of μ – τ asymmetry. Available neutrino data indicate that all the Ω i ’s are small (〈 O (10 −1 )), but with large uncertainties. The behavior of Ω i as functions of the induced neutrino mass in matter is found to be simple, which should facilitate the analyses of long baseline experiments.

Description: There exist dark-energy models that predict the occurrence of a “little rip”. At the point of a little rip the Hubble rate and its cosmic time derivative approach infinity, which is quite similar to the big rip singularity except that the former happens at infinite future and the latter at a finite cosmic time; both events happen in the future and at high energies. In the case of the big rip, a combination of ultra-violet and infra-red effects can smooth its doomsday. We therefore wonder if the little rip can also be smoothed in a similar way. We address the ultra-violet and infra-red effects in general relativity through a brane-world model with a Gauss–Bonnet term in the bulk and an induced gravity term on the brane. We find that the little rip is transformed in this case into a sudden singularity, or a “big brake”. Even though the big brake is smoother than the little rip in that the Hubble rate is finite at the event, the trade-off is that it takes place sooner, at a finite cosmic time. In our estimate, the big brake would happen at roughly 1300 Gyr.

Description: A novel single-particle technique to measure emittance has been developed and used to characterise seventeen different muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE). The muon beams, whose mean momenta vary from 171 to 281 MeV/ c , have emittances of approximately 1.2–2.3  π  mm-rad horizontally and 0.6–1.0  π  mm-rad vertically, a horizontal dispersion of 90–190 mm and momentum spreads of about 25 MeV/ c . There is reasonable agreement between the measured parameters of the beams and the results of simulations. The beams are found to meet the requirements of MICE.

Description: The effective Lagrangian with scalar and vector resonances that might result from new strong physics beyond the SM is formulated and studied. In particular, the scalar resonance representing the recently discovered 125-GeV boson is complemented with the SU (2) L + R triplet of hypothetical vector resonances. Motivated by experimental and theoretical considerations, the vector resonance is allowed to couple directly to the third quark generation only. The coupling is chiral-dependent and the interaction of the right top quark can differ from that of the right bottom quark. To estimate the applicability range of the effective Lagrangian the unitarity of the gauge boson scattering amplitudes is analyzed. The experimental fits and limits on the free parameters of the vector resonance triplet are investigated.

Description: Support for interactions of spin- $\frac{3}{2}$ particles is implemented in the FeynRules and ALOHA packages and tested with the MadGraph  5 and CalcHEP event generators in the context of three phenomenological applications. In the first, we implement a spin- $\frac{3}{2}$ Majorana gravitino field, as in local supersymmetric models, and study gravitino and gluino pair-production. In the second, a spin- $\frac{3}{2}$ Dirac top-quark excitation, inspired from compositeness models, is implemented. We then investigate both top-quark excitation and top-quark pair-production. In the third, a general effective operator for a spin- $\frac{3}{2}$ Dirac quark excitation is implemented, followed by a calculation of the angular distribution of the s -channel production mechanism.

Description: We look for possible spectral features and systematic effects in the Fermi LAT publicly available high-energy gamma-ray data by studying photons from the Galactic center, nearby galaxy clusters, nearby brightest galaxies, AGNs, unassociated sources, hydrogen clouds and from the Earth limb. Apart from the already known 130 GeV gamma-ray excesses from the first two sources, we find no statistically significant excesses from any of the cosmological sources nor from any control region. Therefore our main effort goes to the study of gamma rays appearing from the Earth limb. In the energy range of 30 to 200 GeV the Earth limb gamma-ray spectrum follows a power-law with spectral index 2.86±0.05 at 95 % CL, in a good agreement with the PAMELA measurement of the cosmic ray proton spectral index of 2.82–2.85, confirming the physical origin of the limb gamma-rays. In subsets of the Earth limb data at small photon incidence angle spectral features occur, including a feature at 130 GeV. We observe a systematic ∼2 σ -level difference in the Earth limb spectra with small and large incidence angles. The behavior of those spectral features as well as the background indicates that those may be statistical fluctuations or complicated unknown systematic effects of the Fermi LAT. In the latter case, only the Fermi LAT Collaboration can give the final answer having access to raw data and all details of the reconstruction.

Description: We consider the non-abelian self-dual two-form theory (Chu and Ko, J. High Energy Phys. 1205:028, 2012 ) and find new exact solutions. Our solutions are supported by Yang–Mills (anti)instantons in four dimensions and describe a wave moving in null directions. We argue and provide evidence that these instanton wave solutions correspond to an M-wave (MW) on the worldvolume of multiple M5-branes. When dimensionally reduced on a circle, the MW/M5 system is reduced to the D0/D4 system with the D0-branes represented by the Yang–Mills instanton of the D4-branes Yang–Mills gauge theory. We show that this picture is precisely reproduced by the dimensional reduction of our instanton wave solutions.

Description: An alternative method to account for the Gribov ambiguities in gauge theories is presented. It is shown that, to eliminate Gribov ambiguities, at infinitesimal level, it is required to break the BRST symmetry in a soft manner. This can be done by introducing a suitable extra constraint that eliminates the infinitesimal Gribov copies. It is shown that the present approach is consistent with the well established known cases in the literature, i.e., the Landau and maximal Abelian gauges. The method is valid for gauges depending exclusively on the gauge field and is restricted to classical level. However, occasionally, we deal with quantum aspects of the technique, which are used to improve the results.

Description: The Makran accretionary wedge has a much larger number of mud volcanoes then those reported earlier. Using high-resolution satellite images, over 70 active mud volcanoes were identified. These mud volcanoes occur within a well-defined zone; we call it the Makran zone of active mud volcanoes (MZAMV), which is parallel to the regional trend of the accretionary wedge. Mud volcanoes within the zone occur as clusters, which form linear belts parallel to the regional thrusts associated with anticlines. The MZAMV zone also includes the offshore mud volcanoes occurring in the shallow shelf area, including the recurrently emerging mud islands. Several occurrences of thick deposits of old mud volcanoes (Pleistocene or even older) are also present within this zone, which also display recognizable features that are characteristic of the fossil mud volcanoes. We propose that the MZAMV developed and evolved in response to the continued compression within the Makran accretionary wedge, which in turn, is a response of the subduction process. Mud diapirism has been an ongoing phenomena since Pleistocene or even earlier. The events of enhanced mud extrusion in mud volcanoes and/or emergence of island(s) have relevance with seismic phenomena and, therefore, may be closely monitored.

Description: Recently, new theories on underground geophysical and geochemical interactions which had been reported to occur during the preparation stages of earthquakes and the remotely measurable variations have been put to test and some warning factors were suggested as earthquake precursors. Data vendors are providing daily basis information from the earth's surface by combining remote sensing data and in situ observations. In this paper, we analyze atmospheric, oceanic, and surface changes in the ocean, coast, and land lying near the epicenters of two recent major earthquakes. The changes are studied in terms of the regional fault locations which have been reported by the U.S. Geological Survey as the shake triggering geological structures. Our detailed analyses showed anomalous increases of surface latent heat flux (SLHF) for both the earthquakes. Meaningfully limited to the geographical extents of the regional active faults, the SLHF variation patterns suggest pre-seismic activity 2–3 weeks before the main events. The agreement of these variations with abnormalities in other climatic and surface factors like relative humidity and temperature represents an unusual situation during the same period as well. Spatiotemporal variations of chlorophyll- a was also studied as another earthquake indicator. Abnormal rises in these factors are possibly caused by the formation of micro-cracks, heat production, evaporation, ionization, and upwelling of nutrient-rich water produced by pre-seismic activity prior to the main events.

Description: A complete and homogeneous magnitude earthquake catalogue spanning the period 1900 to 2010 was created. The catalogue covers the area 29° to 37.5° N and 39° to 48° E. Entries in the new earthquake catalogue were cross checked and additions made from various sources of earthquake records to ensure that repetitions are not included in this analysis. Events were considered duplicates if they had a time difference of 10 s or less and space origin difference of 0.5° or less. In a given set of duplicate events, an event, which had a magnitude and International Seismological Center source, was retained as the record of the event. The unified magnitude scale, the moment magnitude ( M w ), was applied throughout the catalogue. The M w for 18 events was reported. The M w for other events was estimated using empirical relations between m b , M s , M L , and M w . Magnitude of completeness, M c , was estimated using the maximum curvature. It was 4.3 M w . Finally, a list of 213 events from 1900 to 2010 with M w  ≥ 4.3 is presented. The list is considered complete for the period from 1962 to 2010.

Description: Dammam Dome is an oval-shaped structure that covers an area of about 500 km 2 and encompasses Al Khobar, Al Dhahran and part of Ad Dammam cities, east of Saudi Arabia. The dome characterizes by the presence of well developed fractures system that exposes at its apex and extends to its peripheries. Based on their size, trend and extent, fractures within Dammam Dome are divided into three types: regional (major) fractures, local (minor) fractures and very small size-localized fractures. This study discusses the criteria used in classifying those fractures, and the relationship of the regional (major) ones to the doming process. A model for the trends pattern of fracture is suggested for those fractures, and examined with the concentric and radial fracture pattern associated normally with dome structures. The suggested model is compatible and concordant with the dome model, which proves that the major fractures in the area are related to the dome emplacement and process. Outcomes and findings of this study are crucial for understanding the behavior and distribution of fractures associated with domes. Additionally, the suggested model of fractures and their trend pattern is important model in similar setting for hydrocarbon exploration and for any urban development and major constructions within the Dome vicinities.

Description: For studying recent crustal movements and their relation to earthquake occurrence in large scales, the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), Helwan, Cairo, Egypt started in 2006 the establishment of the Egyptian Permanent GPS Network (EPGN). Beginning with 4 stations in 2007, 15 stations were operational at the end of 2011. In addition, a station in Alexandria of the French “Centre d'Études Alexandrines” (CEALX) was added as station to the EPGN. Nowadays, 16 stations are operational and an extension to 20 in the near future is expected. The collected EPGN data of the last 6 years are used in this work to throw light upon the present state of recent crustal movement of the whole of Egypt. Bernese software V. 5.0 was used for processing the collected data according to the IGS standards. In addition, selected IGS, AFREF, and EPN sites are processed for reference frame definition. In this first comprehensive analysis of the permanent network, a complete and consistent evaluation resulted in the first estimates of present day horizontal velocities and coordinate time series.

Description: The organic matter content of the Paleocene Aaliji Formation has been studied from the Qm-1 well in the Qumar Oil Field, NE Iraq. A palynofacies analysis revealed the obvious domination of amorphous organic matter (AOM) in the samples studied in addition to the different ratios of palynomorphs, phytoclasts and opaque organic material. The deposition of the various percentages of organic matter components and types of palynomorphs appear to have occurred in a proximal suboxic–anoxic basinal environment. The samples analysed showed relatively low percentages of total organic carbon, indicating a generally poor source rock. The thermal alteration index for the palynomorphs (dinoflagellates) observed and identified ranged between 2, 2+ and 3−, indicating an immature to early stage of maturity for the section studied. No clear differentiation between the stages of maturity within the section was identified. The reflectance measured for a few vitrinite particles at a depth of 2,900 m showed uncertainly of 0.46 % Ro, indicating a still thermally immature stage. The values obtained from pyrolysis analysis also supported the formation being in the early stages of maturity, i.e. an immature condition, with T max values between 416 and 435 °C. The quality of the organic matter examined and analysed appeared to be mostly type III gas-prone kerogen, as discerned from the hydrogen index, oxygen index and other pyrolysis parameters. The parameters obtained and calculated from gas chromatography analysis performed on a sample at a depth of 2,900 m found marginally mature marine source organic matter.

Description: We calculate the branching ratio of a bottom hadron decaying into a charmed hadron and a charged ρ meson within the QCD factorization approach. We consider the effect of the finite width correction of the ρ meson. Our numerical calculation shows an obvious correction because of this effect. We find that the finite width effect of the ρ meson reduces the branching ratios by about 9 % to 11 % for bottom meson decay channels: $B^{+}\to\overline{D^{0}}\rho^{+}$ , B 0 → D − ρ + , and $B^{0}_{s}\to D^{-}_{s}\rho^{+}$ , and increases the branching ratio by about 10 % for $\varLambda_{b}^{0}\to\varLambda_{c}^{+}\rho^{-}$ .

Description: In this paper, we carry out a numerical and systematic analysis of the neutrino mass textures, which contain one vanishing minor and equality between two cofactors. Among 60 logically possible textures, only eight of them are excluded for both the normal and inverted hierarchy by the current experimental data at 3 σ level. We also demonstrate that the future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, especially for the measurement of the θ 23 mixing angle, will play an important role in the model selection. The phenomenological implications from neutrinoless double-beta decay and the cosmology observation are also examined. A discussion of the flavor symmetry realization of the textures is also given.

Description: As a direct consequence of multiple periods of stress applied on areas with tectonic superposition, the multiple-periods fractures have complex abutting relationships, and the field study of fractures is usually restricted by outcrop conditions, such as section direction. Therefore, previous studies of superposed stress fields based on fractures have been generally performed in areas with proper observation conditions and clear abutting relationships. In contrast, in many other areas, the identification of fracture development period based on field observation is often infeasible. Compared to abutting relationships, fracture fabrics obtained from field measurement are not affected by the restriction of outcrops and consequently are more representative of the fractures. According to the analysis of fracture fabrics and fracture features, this paper has separated and extracted the superposed fracture sets and identified the fracture development period in the area without available abutting relationships. Taking the southern segment of the Longmen Mountain thrust belt as an example, fractures of two development periods are identified and timed in the tectonic superposition area between two adjacent fold belts. The analysis of stress direction in each period suggests that the structural boundaries, consisting of such pre-existing structures as faults and anticlines, could have induced directional rotation in the subsequent stress. An equivalent result was achieved using a finite element simulation of the stress field. Based on the stress analysis of the field sites and the stress field simulation, the stress variation in the tectonic superposition area is well modeled.

Description: Dust storm is one of the most important environmental problems in the west of Iran. To indicate the environmental impact of these phenomena, the characterization of dust storm loads is vital. The objective of this study is to identify the mineralogical and chemical composition, trace elements, and microorganisms of dust particles deposited during a springtime dust storm event over the west of Iran to obtain total suspended particulate. Dust samples were collected from four cities in the west of Iran during dust storms in two spring seasons of 2011 and 2012. In addition to determining the sources of dust samples on the dates of sampling, synthetic approaches including remote sensing technique of dust detection, physical–meteorological model called HYSPLIT, and analysis of weather map were used. XRD analyses of airborne dust samples indicate that the mineralogy of airborne dusts is dominated by calcite and quartz; additionally, gypsum, albeit, muscovite, clinochlore, and dolomite are other minerals in springtime dust storm. XRF analyses indicate that the most important chemical components of airborne dusts are SiO 2 , CaO, Al 2 O 3 , Fe 2 O 3 , and MgO. The Atomic Absorption analysis was performed to determine the concentration of heavy metals including Fe, Cr, Pb, Zn, Cd, Co, Cu, and Ni. Concentration of heavy metals was Fe 〉 Zn 〉 Cr 〉 Ni 〉 Pb 〉 Cu 〉 Co 〉 Cd, respectively, and average concentration of heavy metals on Middle East springtime dust storm (MESDS) occurrences were higher than values proposed by the World Health Organization. Microorganism analysis shows that the Bacillus species (41.25 %) is dominant, then Micrococcus (10.3 %), Staphylococcus sp. (7.61 %), Klebsiella (4 %), Escherichia coli (2.7 %), and Enterobacter sp. (1.8 %); Aspergillus sp. (21.07 %), Candida albicans (5.7 %), Rhizopus (2.24 %), Penicillium sp. (1.04 %), and Mucor (0.89 %) genera were fungal species that were isolated in the (MESDS). Basic sources for scattering of dust in the west and southwest of Iran are Iraqi desert, desert lands in the north and northeast of Arabian Peninsula, east and southeast of Syria, also occasionally Sahara desert and Khuzestan province in southwestern of Iran.

Description: The present study provides assessment of wasteland development in Bihar State based on satellite data. Wasteland covers 6.90 % (6,501 km 2 ) of the state area and exhibits dominance of waterlogged areas in North Bihar (25.28 %) and scrubland (26.61 %) in South Bihar. The waterlogged areas in the state are dominantly associated with northern Bihar plains (94 %) with minor development (6 %) in southern Bihar plains. Such unequal distribution of waterlogged land areas in northern and southern Bihar plains is largely governed by high cumulative discharge generated in the large catchment area in Himalayan mountain ranges in the upland areas of northern Bihar plains in contrast to low cumulative discharge generated within small catchments in the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the southern Bihar plains. It is evaluated that the relief and groundwater level define the primary controlling factors, whereas rainfall, watershed area, and upland/plain ratio exert secondary control. Lower relief areas with high rainfall exhibit high soil moisture thereby inducing conditions of waterlogging. The study signifies the potential of satellite image-based evaluation of waterlogging through the use of Digital Elevation Model, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission-based rainfall measurement, and temporal waterlogging assessment together with other terrain parameters for conceptual understanding of waterlogging in northern Bihar plains.

Description: In this article, we calculate the $B_{c}^{*} \to B_{c}$ electromagnetic form-factor with the three-point QCD sum rules and then study the radiative decays $B_{c}^{*\pm} \to B_{c}^{\pm} \gamma$ . Experimentally, we can study the radiative transitions using the decay cascades $B_{c}^{*\pm}\to B_{c}^{\pm} \gamma\to J/\psi\ell^{\pm}\bar{\nu}_{\ell} \gamma\to\mu^{+} \mu^{-} \ell^{\pm}\bar{\nu}_{\ell} \gamma$ in the future at the LHCb.

Description: A consistent theory of massive gravity, where the graviton acquires mass by spontaneously breaking diffeomorphism invariance, is now well established. We supersymmetrize this construction using N =1 fields. Coupling to N =1 supergravity is done by applying the rules of tensor calculus to construct an action invariant under local N =1 supersymmetry. The supersymmetric action is shown, at the quadratic level, to be free of ghosts and have as its spectrum a massive graviton, two gravitinos (with different masses) and a massive vector.

Description: We examine the ATLAS and CMS 7 & 8 TeV multijet supersymmetry (SUSY) searches requiring the incidence of a single lepton in the framework of the supersymmetric grand unified model No-Scale Flipped SU (5) with extra vector-like flippon multiplets derived from F-Theory, or $\mathcal{F}\mbox{--} \mathit{SU}(5)$ for short. Investigated are five multijet + lepton SUSY searches: 4.7 fb −1 ATLAS 7 TeV gluino and light stop searches, as well as 13 fb −1  ATLAS and 9.7 fb −1  CMS 8 TeV light stop searches. Most significantly, all five leptonic SUSY searches represent statistically independent data samples. Findings show that all five orthogonal sets of leptonic LHC observations give a lower bound to the gaugino mass scale at M 1/2 ≥680 GeV, with all the current best fits correlating within a narrow region. Furthermore, eight statistically independent LHC SUSY search regions (leptonic + all-hadronic) accessible to the No-Scale $\mathcal{F}\mbox{--} \mathit{SU}(5)$ model space intersect with all the currently operating beyond the Standard Model experiments within the range of M 1/2 =680–850 GeV, with the upper bound established by the lower experimental limit of the anomalous magnetic moment (g μ −2)/2 of the muon. We emphasize that this region of the $\mathcal{F}\mbox{--} \mathit{SU}(5)$ model space may not be fully probed by leptonic SUSY searches at the LHC until the 13 TeV LHC energizes in 2015. Additionally, we describe an efficient technique for the effective statistical disentanglement of searches sensitive to mutually overlapping event spaces.

Description: The present work focuses on the evaluation of the groundwater quality by chemical and bacteriological analyses to ensure its suitability for drinking and irrigation. Twenty groundwater samples were collected and analyzed from Manfalut district, Assiut, Egypt. Several water quality parameters were determined; the results show higher concentration of total dissolved solids (50 %), electrical conductivity (55 %), chloride (20 %), total hardness (20 %), and bicarbonate (55 %). This indicates signs of deterioration regarding drinking and domestic uses. Salinity hazard, sodium absorption ratio, sodium (Na) percentage, and residual Na carbonate were used to evaluate groundwater quality for irrigation. The values of electrical conductivity and SAR of groundwater samples were estimated illustrating that the most dominant classes are C2S1 (45 %; medium-salinity-low SAR), C3S1 (50 %; high-salinity-low SAR), and C4S1 (5 %; very high-salinity-low SAR). Bacteriological analysis was also conducted for 20 groundwater wells from December 2011 to May 2012. Seven samples (35 %) are contaminated by bacteria (total and fecal coliforms); these wells are not suitable for drinking. The analysis exhibits that bacterial contamination was the maximum in wells located at the center of the study area; this may be due to using the residential septic tanks. It was also discovered that the quality of groundwater is suitable for irrigation in the target aquifer except in a few locations. As for drinking, about 55 % of the samples are not suitable. However, the groundwater wells which are located in the center of the study area are suitable for drinking according to the hydochemical analysis. It was found that some of these wells are not suitable based on bacteriological analysis.

Description: The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model in the estimation of the deformation modulus of rock mass. ANFIS is a powerful processing tool which is used for the modeling of complex problems where the relationship between the model variables is unknown. For this reason, this model seems to be suited for the estimation of deformation modulus. In this paper, the ANFIS model was constructed and compared with empirical relation that was suggested for indirect estimation of this parameter. In the ANFIS model, five parameters, including depth, uniaxial compressive strength of intact rock, RQD, spacing of discontinuities, and the condition of discontinuities are considered. These parameters are the most effective parameters in the estimation of deformation modulus. Employing the ANFIS model for the estimation of rock mass deformation modulus shows a reliable performance. The values of correlation coefficient, variance accounted for, and root mean square error of the results for ANFIS model is obtained as 0.86, 85.3%, and 2.73, respectively, which indicates precise and correlate results.

Description: Satellite images from 2000 to 2010 were used to identify major dust trajectories within seven major deserts in the world. The fallen dust from these trajectories were collected and analyzed. The fallen dust rates tend to be lower downwind. The average samples of the world's fallen dust are negatively skewed trimodal with dominancy of silt size fractions (61 %). Most of the fallen dust within major dust trajectories is fining downwind. The fallen dust from the eastern zones (Taklimakan, Gobi, and Australian deserts) are characterized by higher percentages of feldspars and clay minerals, low carbonate content, and grain surface area in comparison to the Western zones (Sahara and Arabian deserts). The Western Sahara Desert dust is differentiated by the highest depositional rates and average quartz percentage (66 %). The dust samples in this zone contain low carbonates and grain surface area compared to dust from the Eastern Sahara Desert. The dust samples within Northern Arabia and Ethiopian-south Arabia zones show the highest average of carbonate amounts and grain surface area.

Description: In the present study, the two-dimensional blast model has been simulated using finite element software Abaqus/CAE. The John–Wilkins–Lee equation of state has been used to calculate the pressure caused by the release of the chemical energy of the explosive. Detonation point from center of hole has been defined for the traveling path of explosive energy. Elastoplastic dynamic failure constitutive with kinematic hardening model was adopted for rock mass responses under high explosive pressure to understand the mechanism of blast phenomena. In this model, it is assumed that failure of rock occurs under tensile failure when yield plastic stress exceeded to its static tensile strength. The hydrostatic pressure was used as a failure measure to model dynamic spall or a pressure cut off. Variation of detonation velocity has been measured in terms of simulation blast output energies index results.

Description: The presence of geological units with different grade characteristics mostly leads to problems during the grade modeling process. In special cases, if the area under study has units with small thickness and low grade with respect to the dominant unit of the area, it is difficult to reproduce different grade contents in these units in the simulated grade models because of the low thickness and lack of data in these units. In this study, the local moment constraints method, based on the definition of soft conditioning data reflecting geological knowledge, is investigated for improving simulated grade models under the mentioned conditions. This method is applied for grade simulation at the 1,750 m level of Sungun porphyry copper mine. The studied area is divided into two rock type domains: Sungun porphyry and Dyke. The Sungun porphyry unit is the dominant rock type in the considered area and has, on average, a higher copper grade, while dykes discontinue Sungun porphyry rock units sporadically and most of them are barren of mineralization. It is demonstrated that the use of soft conditioning data makes the simulated grade model closer to reality and improves the reproduction of grade contents considering the rock type units in the area. In the next step, the results obtained from conditional simulation are used for mineral resources classification. To this end, the conditional coefficient of variation is chosen as a criterion for measuring uncertainty and for defining the resources classes. Then, it is shown that uncertainty can be considerably reduced in the prepared models if soft data are considered; as a result, an increase in measured resource classification is observed.

Description: Phenol is one of the aromatic hydrocarbons. Phenol and its derivatives are highly toxic. These pollutants can be observed in the effluents of many industries. This research investigates the removal of phenol by the use of activated sludge in a batch system. The effects of influencing factors on biodegradation efficiency have been evaluated. The main factors considered in this study were the volume of acclimatized activated sludge inoculation, pH, temperature, and initial concentration of phenol. The inoculation volumes of 1, 3, and 5 mL of acclimatized activated sludge were taken into account. Different pH values of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were examined. The experiments were conducted for temperatures of 25, 30, 35, and 40 °C and initial phenol concentrations of 400, 800, 1,000, and 1,500 ppm. The results show that the acclimatized activated sludge has a high capacity for the removal of phenol. From a 100-mL aqueous solution was removed 1,500 ppm of phenol after 80 h. Furthermore, maximum phenol removal was observed for an inoculation volume of 5 mL for three different phenol concentrations of 100, 400, and 800 ppm. The best pH was 7 for the biodegradation process, and the optimum temperature was 30 °C. It was further found that an increase in the phenol concentration increased its removal time. Moreover, the activated sludge could effectively remove about 99.9 % of phenol from a synthetic aqueous solution in a batch system.

Description: Representative sandstone samples were collected from the surface-type section of the Shajara Formation of the Permo-Carboniferous Unayzah Group for reservoir characterization through fractal dimension investigation. Two models based on mercury intrusion technique were employed to represent the pores characteristics of these sandstones. The results show that realistic dimensions and outstanding fractal features of porous structures in Shajara sandstones, when these materials are correlated by thermodynamic model and 3-D fractal model of mercury intrusion. On the basis of sub-Unayzah unconformity, sub-Middle Shajara local unconformity, mudstone of the Middle Shajara and sub-Khuff unconformity, the three porous and permeable sandstone units of Shajara Formation were treated separately and classified here into three fractal dimension units. The units from base to top are: Lower Shajara Fractal Dimension Unit, Middle Shajara Fractal Dimension Unit, and Upper Shajara Fractal Dimension Unit. The thermodynamic model and 3-D fractal model were effectively used to characterize the porous structures of Shajara sandstones in logical and quantitative way.

Description: The present work deals with the geologic setting and mineralogical and geochemical study of Late Precambrian magmatic rocks especially the felsic dike swarms of northeast Aqaba complex in South Jordan. The northeast Aqaba complex represents one of the most significant regions in the South Jordan basement. The basement rocks in the studied region are composed of schists, gneisses, migmatites, met gabbros, diorite, and granite. It is invaded by post-orogenic dike swarms. The post-orogenic dike swarms have been recognized as felsic dikes of dacite, rhyodacite, and rhyolite composition. They are composed of plagioclase, K-feldspar, quartz, biotite, and hornblenble with a porphyritic texture. Chemically, they are enriched in compatible elements especially in the large ion lithophile elements such as K, Rb, and Ba. The values of A/NK are more than A/CNK, indicating that dacitic dike swarms have metaluminous nature. Meanwhile, the values of A/NK are less than A/CNK in rhyodacitic and rhyolitic dike swarms of prealuminous nature. This felsic dike can be related to an intercontinental setting that was accompanied by a chemical evolution of the extensional movements and is formed by partial melting of crustal rocks, which are already known from other areas in the northeast portion of the Arabian-Nubian Shield.

Description: The research site is the whole landmass of the Federal College of Education, Zaria, seated on basement complex of north-central Nigeria. Direct current resistivity geophysical method was employed to characterise parameters such as the basement depth and topography, aquifer depth and thickness, weathered basement distribution as well as mapping of orientations of fractures and faults present in the premises using radial sounding technique. The conventional vertical electrical sounding (VES) Schlumberger array was carried out at 40 stations, and eight of which were radial stations. Radial sounding was used to establish resistivity anisotropy which gives clue for the choice of consistent VES profile direction used throughout the fieldwork. Results from the resistivity interpretation suggest three layers in most parts of the premises with some minor occurrence of two and four layers. The first layer (topsoil) has its thickness ranging between 3.5 and 14.0 m; second layer (weathered basement) thickness ranges between 9.0 and 36.5 m, while the third layer (fresh basement) is deepest (40.1 m) towards the eastern corner of the area. The aquifer depth ranges from 1.5 to 4.0 m with a thickness range of 5.0 to 14.0 m. The thickest aquifer occurs around the centre to the west in the area. Results from radial sounding show presence of resistivity anisotropy, an insight to fracturing and faulting; this is more pronounced around the west-central part of the premises.

Description: Ras Banas Peninsula is a large triangular tract of land jutting out into the Red Sea. It extends about 40 km eastward out of the general trend of the Red Sea coast of Egypt, covering an area of about 600 km 2 . Three sandy spits are jutting out from the main body of the peninsula into the Red Sea, possibly representing relics of structural trends, two of which are located at the western part and the third one is extending from the eastern edge forming a further seaward extension of the main body. A series of isometric and contour maps of the whole area under investigation are provided in digitized visual form of geomorphologic features, landforms and slope configuration. According to difference in relief, the study area can be subdivided into three topographic divisions, namely coastal plain (〈50 m), medium-height land (50–150 m) and hinterland (〉150 m). Drainage and lineament maps of the drainage networks were prepared from the topographic map and satellite images of the area. The prepared lineament map shows four main trends that control the configuration of the drainage system in the study area. These trends are Aqaba trend (NE–SW to NNE–SSW), Red Sea trend (NW–SE to NNW–SSE), Nubian trend (N–S), and Tethyan trend (E–W). It is clear that the structural trends, lithology and general slope are the main controls of developing parallel and dendritic drainage patterns in the area. Both geomorphology and drainage system configuration have great influences on the land use and natural hazards affecting the peninsula especially torrential floods and sea level fluctuations.

Description: Gluon production on two scattering centers is studied in the formalism of reggeized gluons. Different contributions to the inclusive cross section are derived with the help of the Lipatov effective action. The AGK relations between these contributions are established. The inclusive cross section found is compared to the one in the dipole picture and demonstrated to be the same.

Description: The S-wave charmonium decaying to a P-wave and S-wave light hadron pairs are supposed to be suppressed by the helicity selection rule in the perturbative QCD framework. With an effective Lagrangian method, we show that the intermediate charmed meson loops can provide a possible mechanism for the evasion of the helicity selection rule, and result in sizeable decay branching ratios in some of those channels. The theoretical predictions can be examined by the forthcoming BES-III data in the near future.

Description: It is believed that choked gamma-ray bursts (CGRBs) are the potential candidates for the production of high energy neutrinos in GeV–TeV energy range. These CGRBs outnumber the successful GRBs by many orders. So it is important to observe neutrinos from these cosmological objects with the presently operating neutrino telescope IceCube. We study the three-flavor neutrino oscillation of these high energy neutrinos in the presupernova star environment which is responsible for the CGRB. For the presupernova star we consider three different models and calculate the neutrino oscillation probabilities, as well as neutrino flux on the surface of these star. The matter effect modifies the neutrino flux of different flavors on the surface of the star. We have also calculated the flux of these high energy neutrinos on the surface of the Earth. We found that for neutrino energies below ≤10 TeV the flux ratio does not amount to 1:1:1, whereas for higher energy neutrinos it does.

Description: In this work we consider the evolution of the interactive dark fluids in the background of homogeneous and isotropic FRW model of the universe. The dark fluids consist of a warm dark matter and a dark energy and both are described as perfect fluid with barotropic equation of state. The dark species interact non-gravitationally through an additional term in the energy conservation equations. An autonomous system is formed in the energy density spaces and fixed points are analyzed. A general expression for the deceleration parameter has been obtained and it is possible to have more than one zero of the deceleration parameter. Finally, vanishing of the deceleration parameter has been examined with some examples.

Description: The most appropriate method in designing the adsorption systems and assessing the performance of the adsorption systems is to have an idea on adsorption isotherms. Comparison analysis of linear least square method and nonlinear method for estimating the isotherm parameters was made using the experimental equilibrium data of Zn(II) and Cu(II) onto kaolinite. Equilibrium data were fitted to Freundlich, Langmuir, and Redlich–Peterson isotherm equations. In order to confirm the best-fit isotherms for the adsorption system, the data set using the chi-square ( χ 2 ), combined with the values of the determined coefficient ( r 2 ) was analyzed. Nonlinear method was found to be a more appropriate method for estimating the isotherm parameters. The best fitting isotherm was the Langmuir and Redlich–Peterson isotherm. The Redlich–Peterson is a special case of Langmuir when the Redlich–Peterson isotherm constant g was unity. The sorption capacity of kaolinite to uptake metal ions in the increasing order was given by Cu (4.2721 mg/g) 〈 Zn (4.6710 mg/g).

Description: We calculate partial Bayes factors to quantify how the feasibility of the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM) has changed in the light of a series of observations. This is done in the Bayesian spirit where probability reflects a degree of belief in a proposition and Bayes’ theorem tells us how to update it after acquiring new information. Our experimental baseline is the approximate knowledge that was available before LEP, and our comparison model is the Standard Model with a simple dark matter candidate. To quantify the amount by which experiments have altered our relative belief in the CMSSM since the baseline data we compute the partial Bayes factors that arise from learning in sequence the LEP Higgs constraints, the XENON100 dark matter constraints, the 2011 LHC supersymmetry search results, and the early 2012 LHC Higgs search results. We find that LEP and the LHC strongly shatter our trust in the CMSSM (with M 0 and M 1/2 below 2 TeV), reducing its posterior odds by approximately two orders of magnitude. This reduction is largely due to substantial Occam factors induced by the LEP and LHC Higgs searches.

Description: Further investigation of the participant plane correlations within a Glauber model framework is presented, focusing on correlations between three or four participant planes of different order. A strong correlation is observed for $\cos(2\varPhi_{2}^{*}+3\varPhi _{3}^{*}-5\varPhi_{5}^{*})$ which is a reflection of the elliptic shape of the overlap region. The correlation between the corresponding experimental event plane angles can be easily measured. Strong correlations of similar geometric origin are also observed for $\cos(2\varPhi_{2}^{*}+4\varPhi _{4}^{*}- 6\varPhi_{6}^{*})$ , $\cos(2\varPhi_{2}^{*}-3\varPhi_{3}^{*}-4\varPhi_{4}^{*}+5\varPhi_{5}^{*})$ , $\cos(6\varPhi_{2}^{*}+3\varPhi_{3}^{*}- 4\varPhi_{4}^{*}- 5\varPhi_{5}^{*})$ , $\cos(\varPhi_{1}^{*}-2\varPhi_{2}^{*}-3\varPhi_{3}^{*}+4\varPhi _{4}^{*})$ , $\cos(\varPhi_{1}^{*}+6\varPhi_{2}^{*}-3\varPhi _{3}^{*}-4\varPhi_{4}^{*})$ , and $\cos(\varPhi_{1}^{*}+2\varPhi_{2}^{*}+3\varPhi_{3}^{*}-6\varPhi _{6}^{*})$ , which are also measurable. Experimental measurements of the corresponding event plane correlators in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC may improve our understanding of the physics underlying the measured higher order flow harmonics.

Description: Assuming the newly observed Z c (3900) to be a molecular state of $D\bar{D}^{*}(D^{*} \bar{D})$ , we calculate the partial widths of Z c (3900)→ J / ψ + π ; ψ ′+ π ; η c + ρ and $D\bar{D}^{*}$ within the light-front model (LFM). Z c (3900)→ J / ψ + π is the channel by which Z c (3900) was observed, our calculation indicates that it is indeed one of the dominant modes whose width can be in the range of a few MeV depending on the model parameters. Similar to Z b and $Z_{b}'$ , Voloshin suggested that there should be a resonance $Z_{c}'$ at 4030 MeV, which can be a molecular state of $D^{*}\bar{D}^{*}$ . Then we go on calculating its decay rates to all the aforementioned final states and the $D^{*}\bar{D}^{*}$ as well. It is found that if Z c (3900) is a molecular state of ${1\over\sqrt{2}}(D\bar{D}^{*}+D^{*}\bar{D})$ , the partial width of $Z_{c}(3900)\to D\bar{D}^{*}$ is rather small, but the rate of Z c (3900)→ ψ (2 s ) π is even larger than Z c (3900)→ J / ψπ . The implications are discussed and it is indicated that with the luminosity of BES and BELLE, the experiments may finally determine if Z c (3900) is a molecular state or a tetraquark.

Description: This study was based on the results of geochemical analysis of 332 core and 10 cutting rock samples from Triassic Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Triassic age, in addition to seismic sections, logs, initial drilling results, final reports of oil wells, and previous studies. Constructing models from these data are to assess new oil reservoirs, evaluation, and development of the existing oil reservoirs and hydrocarbon potential, and suggesting petroleum systems in order to reduce exploration risk and develop simple risk assessment of oil fields in the studied area. In general, Abu-Jir fault zone divides the studied area into two petroleum provinces: Mesopotamian Foredeep Basin and Widyan Basin–Interior Platform. The Mesopotamian Fordeep basin are thick stratigraphic sequences with no exploration for oil or gas source rock intervals within the Paleozoic sequence. while the Mesozoic sequence offers the best potential. The transitional sequence of the Triassic period is expected to contain occasional fair to good quantity of oil source rock intervals. The Widyan Basin–Interior Platform is an area with possible deployment of low to moderate risk of Paleozoic play and Lower Mesozoic plays with fair Triassic and Mesozoic objectives. Oil has generated and expelled into traps in the studied area during two phases; the first is during Early Palaeogene that accumulated in traps of the Cretaceous structural deformation, while the second is during Late Neogene.

Description: A search for a charged Higgs boson ( H + ) in $t\bar{t}$ decays is presented, where one of the top quarks decays via t → H + b , followed by H + → two jets ( $c\bar{s}$ ). The other top quark decays to Wb , where the W  boson then decays into a lepton ( e / μ ) and a neutrino. The data were recorded in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7~\mathrm {TeV}$ by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2011, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb −1 . With no observation of a signal, 95 % confidence level (CL) upper limits are set on the decay branching ratio of top quarks to charged Higgs bosons varying between 5 % and 1 % for H + masses between 90 GeV and 150 GeV, assuming $\mathcal{B}(H^{+} \rightarrow c\bar{s})=100~\%$ .

Description: At a future linear collider very precise measurements, typically with errors of 〈1 %, are expected to be achievable. Such an accuracy gives sensitivity to the quantum corrections, which therefore must be incorporated in theoretical calculations in order to determine the underlying new physics parameters from prospective linear collider measurements. In the context of the chargino–neutralino sector of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, this involves fitting one-loop predictions to prospective measurements of the cross sections, forward–backward asymmetries and of the accessible chargino and neutralino masses. Taking recent results from LHC SUSY and Higgs searches into account we consider three phenomenological scenarios, each with characteristic features. Our analysis shows how an accurate determination of the desired parameters is possible, providing in addition access to the stop masses and mixing angle.

Description: A planar boundary introduced à la Symanzik in the 5D topological BF theory, with only the requirements of locality and power counting, allows to uniquely determine a gauge invariant, non-topological 4D Lagrangian. The boundary condition on the bulk fields is interpreted as a duality relation for the boundary fields, in analogy with the fermionization duality which holds in the 3D case. This suggests that the 4D degrees of freedom might be fermionic, although starting from a bosonic bulk theory. The method we propose to dimensionally reduce a Quantum Field Theory and to identify the resulting degrees of freedom can be applied to a generic spacetime dimension.

Description: The recent development of digital representation has stimulated the development of automatic extraction of topographic and hydrologic information from digital elevation model input, using geographic information system (GIS) and hydrologic models that integrate multiple databases within a minimal time. The objective of this investigation is to compare the drainage extracted from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data with the drainage digitized from topographic data (1:50,000) and also to draw attention to the functions of an add-on tool in ArcGIS 9.2 (Arc Hydro v.2) of Kuttiyadi River basin. The analysis reveals that the watershed extracted from the SRTM digital elevation model (DEM) (90 m resolution) is having an area of 668 km 2 and that from toposheet is 676 km 2 . The river mouth in the drainage network from the SRTM DEM is found to be shifted to the northern side from where it actually exists. The drainage network from SRTM DEM at stream threshold 15 (0.0002 % of maximum flow accumulation) is delivering best results than the other threshold value in comparison with the drainage pattern derived from toposheets. The study reveals the importance, reliability, and quaintness of drainage network and watershed derived from the SRTM using the Arc Hydro Tool, an extension for Environmental Systems Research Institute ArcGIS. The advantage of the Arc Hydro Tool is that it would help a novice with little GIS knowledge to run the model to obtain watershed and drainage network.

Description: The objective of this paper is to derive and analyze the present and future climate projections over the region of wheat production over Iran. In addition, the projected future climate fluctuation results will be used to assist the maximum performance of wheat and to be used as the main basis for planning changes in the farming calendar in Iran. Observed climate (temperature and degree day) changes during the period (1951–2009) will be discussed. Projected future changes up to 2100 based on the MAGICC/SCENGEN 5.3 compound model was utilized. Furthermore, 18 scenarios were used to derive a single GCM model referred to as the United Kingdom Hadley Center Global Environment Model, which will be used to select the worst, best, and average scenario.

Description: Petrographical and geochemical studies of Silurian Niur sandstones, Derenjal Mountains, Central Iran, were carried out to infer their provenance and tectonic setting. Modal analysis data of 37 medium sand size and well-sorted samples revealed that most quartz is composed of monocrystalline grains with straight to slightly undulos extinction and about 3 % polycrystalline quartz has inclusions, such as rutile needles. The sandstones are classified as quartzarenite, sublitharenite, and subarkose types based on framework composition and geochemistry. Petrographic studies reveal that these sandstones contain quartz, feldspars, and fragments of sedimentary rocks. The detrital modes of these sandstones indicate that they were derived from recycled orogen and stable cratonic source. Major and trace element contents of them are generally depleted (except SiO 2 ) relative to upper continental crust which is mainly due to the presence of quartz and absence of Al-bearing minerals. Modal composition (e.g., quartz, feldspar, and lithic fragments) and discrimination diagrams based on major elements, trace elements (Ti, La, Th, Sc, and Zr), and also such ratios as La/Sc, Th/Sc, La/Co, and Th/Co, in sandstones suggest a felsic igneous source rock and quartzose polycyclic sedimentary provenance in a passive continental margin setting. Furthermore, high Zr/Sc values in these sandstones are considered as a sign of recycling. We indicated paleo-weathering conditions by modal compositions, the CIA index and Al 2 O 3  + K 2 O + Na 2 O% vs. SiO 2 % bivariate for these sandstones. Based on these results, although recycling is important to increase the maturity of the Niur sandstones, humid climate conditions in the source area have played a decisive role.

Description: The pattern of local seismicity (110 events) and the source parameters of 26 local events (1.0 ≤ Mw ≤ 2.5) that occurred during May 2008 to April 2009 in Bilaspur region of Himachal Lesser Himalaya were determined. The digital records available from one station have been used to compute the source parameters and f max based on the Brune source model (1970) and a high-frequency diminution factor (Boore 1983 ) above f max . The epicentral distribution of events within 30 km of local network is broadly divided into three clusters of seismic activity: (1) a cluster located to the south of the Jamthal (JAMT) station and falls to the north of the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) which seems to reflect the contemporary local seismicity of the segment of the MBT, (2) an elongated zone of local seismicity NE–SW trending, delineated NE of JAMT station that falls in the Lesser Himalaya between the MBT and the Main Central Thrust, and (3) NE–SW trending zone of local seismic activity located at about 10 km east of NHRI station and about 15 km northeast of NERI station and extending over a distance of about 20 km. Majority of events occur at shallow depths up to 20 km, and the maximum number of events occurs in the focal depth range between 10 and 15 km. The entire seismic activity is confined to the crust between 5 and 45 km. The average values of these source parameters range from 3.29 × 10 17 to 3.73 × 10 19  dyne-cm for seismic moment, 0.1 to 9.7 bars for stress drops, and 111.78 to 558.92 m for source radii. The average value of f max for these events varies from 7 to 18 Hz and seems to be source dependent.

Description: The Al-Hada highway that descends towards the west of the city of At-Taif is a major connecting highway in the western part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is one of the series of descending roads connecting the holy city of Makkah and the city of Jeddah with the city of At-Taif and the cities farther south along the escarpment. The length of the Al-Hada highways is about 22 km. The Al-Hada highway has been historically exposed to landslides and other geohazards since the day it was opened to public some 60 years ago. The road has been reconstructed and many slope instabilities have been remediated and the road has been expanded to two lanes in each direction. Heavy rainfalls occurred on the 14th of April 2012 in the province of At-Taif, causing huge debris flows in two places along the Al-Hada highway. As a result of that, these debris flows closed all four lanes of the highway for 2 weeks in order to remove the debris. The current research deals with mapping of all debris flows along Al-Hada highway and determining their volumes and their impact on the road. Finally, suitable solutions have been suggested to address these critical sites to minimize and/or avoid the debris flow hazards in the future.

Description: Studying the mechanical characteristics of weak sedimentary rocks is a burning issue in civil and mining engineering designs and analysis since obtaining rock mechanical properties of these has always faced lots of problems and uncertainties due to the structural weaknesses. One of the main causes of these problems is the difficulty of preparing high-quality core specimens recommended by testing standards or suggested methods for uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). For resolving this issue, in this study, common methods for indirect estimation of UCS of weak rocks were initially studied, their merits and demerits were analyzed, and then, in light of their positive and negative points, a new modified device was designed with a different mechanical structure and force exertion system, which could be practically used to present a new method for indirect estimation of UCS. Thus, in this study, we initially had a general view of the new dynamic needle penetrometer and its modified parts and their capabilities. After introduction, as the first phase of the practical studies on this, dynamic needle penetration resistance (DNPR) was measured, as the dynamic needle penetrometer test result, from 65 specimens collected from three different projects. Then, the relationships between DNPR and UCS of the rock specimens and the regressions of correlations were statistically analyzed. Finally, a linear equation with considerable accuracy resulted from analysis, and using this led to solving the main problem of this research by proposing a developed method for indirect estimation of uniaxial compressive strength of weak rocks.

Description: The development of limestone mining activities in Katni, Madhya Pradesh becomes necessary to increase the depth of exploration to produce ore. Increase in the exploration depth means that mining pits were subjected to water inrush. A hydrological and a hydrogeological model for the Katni area have been developed using USGS flow code, MODFLOW 2000. Collected GIS-based information was synthesized in a finite difference numerical model. The regional steady flow was calibrated under pre-development conditions assuming an equivalent porous medium approach. Water budget calculations show that the total groundwater flow into the aquifer system due to interaction with river amounts to 14,783 m 3 /day. Infiltration from precipitation provides 1,600 m 3 /day of the groundwater supply, while 1,446 m 3 /day comes from lateral inflow and the remaining. The inflows into mine pit area amounts to 15,725 m 3 /day. Although the karstic nature of the limestone aquifer the equivalent porous medium flow model is appropriate to represent hydraulic heads and recharge/discharge relationships on a regional scale. The results of this study can be used to predict the required amounts of pumping and the possible locations to dewater the groundwater in the mining pits.

Description: Baghdad City is characterized by high population density and wide variation in land use. It is covered by Quaternary flood plain deposits of variable nature where silt is the predominant component. The shallow aquifer is unconfined to semi-confined at some locations. The hydraulic properties of the aquifer are highly variable in the study area. A study of this groundwater shallow aquifer and the hydrochemical relation with the Tigris River were conducted using geochemical modeling approach. Baghdad Meteoric Water Line (BMWL) was also constructed using data of stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrochemical parameters of the Tigris River show significant differences at high and low flow conditions, and there are clear difference among the selected stations. Groundwater parameters show also significant spatial and temporal variations in major and minor elements concentrations. Geochemical modeling results indicate that dissolution of dolomite, gypsum, chlorite, siderite, chalcedony, cation exchange of Ca 2+ /Na + and precipitation of calcite, illite, kaolinite, and hematite are the main chemical reactions in the Rasafa side, whereas no specific reactions can be shown in the Karkh side. Mixing models of the shallow groundwater and Tigris River water show various patterns affected by other factors such as the aquifer recharge and evaporation, especially at the most shallow parts. The BMWL has been defined by the equation $ {\delta^2}\mathrm{H} = 8.6\ {\delta^{18}}\mathrm{O} + 17.48 $ and the stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen reveal different signatures in the Karkh and Rasafa sides, where clear zonation at Rasafa can be observed. We conclude that recharge water undergoes significant evaporation through its transit to the aquifer.

Description: Al-Wehda dam is an impoundment on the Yarmouk River basin north of Jordan, which came recently into operation. The reservoir is designated to provide water for agricultural, domestic, and industrial uses. Evaluation of seasonal trends in water quality of Al-Wehda dam over the year 2010 showed strong influences by weathering and leaching of geologic units along with discharge of effluents from the adjacent agricultural lands. Seasonal trends in TDS level showed slight variations, though its concentrations have been affected by events of rainfall and evaporation. The presence of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) promoted the development of photosynthetic algae. Temporal fluctuations in TN, TP, chlorophyll a , COD, and BOD have been observed with peaks occurred in spring season. TN to TP ratios varied seasonally with a minimum ratio observed in spring concurrent with algal bloom. Eutrophication tends to occur throughout the year, though its intensity increased in springtime. A variety of water quality parameters has been used to evaluate water for irrigation use during summer time when the water demand for irrigation increased. Of all parameters evaluated, Na% and TH indicated that the reservoir water is not suitable for irrigation purposes.

Description: Ten samples from the Upper Jurassic Naokelekan and Barsarin Formations in an outcrop section near Sargelu Village were studied to evaluate their thermal maturity using vitrinite reflectance method. The studied beds appeared to be mature and within the oil generation window (0.79–1.25 % vitrinite reflectance in immersion oil (Ro)). Some of the reflectance histograms showed bimodal distribution indicating existence of nonindigenous populations which were all ignored during the measurements of the mean value of Ro. Comparison between the results obtained from vitrinite reflectance method and some other methods like pyrolysis and gas chromatography showed variations which finally more reality believed to be for the vitrinite reflectance method.

Description: Specific energy (SE) measurements of circular saws were conducted on 12 different carbonate rocks. Rock samples were collected from the factories for laboratory tests. Bulk density, apparent porosity, uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, flexural strength, Schmidt rebound hardness, Shore hardness, point load strength index, Los Angeles abrasion values, and P-wave velocity values were determined in the laboratory. SE and rock properties were evaluated using simple regression analysis and empirical equations were developed. The equations were verified by statistical tests. Regression analysis showed that high correlations exist between SE and uniaxial compressive strength, Shore and Schmidt hardness, bulk density, apparent porosity, and flexural strength. It was found that the SE value of rocks in cutting process was highest for those rocks having the high density, compressive strength, flexural strength, Schmidt and Shore hardness, point load strength index, and P-wave velocity values.

Description: Estimation of rock load is a very important issue because the selection of a support system is highly related to this parameter. Several methods are used to estimate this parameter such as experimental, empirical, and numerical methods. This study propose a new empirical method to estimate the rock load in squeezing ground condition using actual collapses data of Emamzade Hashem tunnel of Iran based on the ration of the post-failure residual strain energy to the pre-failure stored strain energy. Prediction of squeezing ground condition in this study is performed based on Jethwa, Singh, and Hoek criterions. Results show that some sections in shale and sandstone of the Shemshak formation are prone to squeezing. Finally, the relation between the rock load and the ratio of the post-failure residual strain energy to the pre-failure stored strain energy, Ψ , in squeezing ground condition is estimated. Based on the statistical analysis, the maximum correlation between both parameters is achieved when Alejano’s equations are used to estimate the drop modulus. As the rock mass behavior changes from elastic–plastic to elastic–brittle, the drop modulus changes from 0 to infinite. The reason is that by increasing the quality of rock mass and reducing the minimum principal stresses, the ratio of post-failure residual strain energy to pre-failure stored strain energy and rock load height ( H p ) reduce. So, regression analysis is used to investigate the relation between the rock load height and the ratio of post-failure residual strain energy to pre-failure stored strain energy, and finally, a formulation is presented to determine rock load height based on power function.

Description: Estimation of floods in a hydrological basin is essential for efficient flood management and development planning. Several approaches have been proposed to estimate flood peak discharge based on topographic and morphometric characteristics of ungauged hydrological basins. Two global approaches, namely the rational and the curve number methods, along with four national regression models have been compared over Makkah metropolitan area, Saudi Arabia. The curve number methodology has been taken as the basis of comparison due to its precision and wide utilization. Results show that the rational method produces differences equal to 44% in terms of peak discharges. Moreover, the best national regression model gives difference in the order of 18% with respect to the curve number results. Other national models give results very far away from those of the curve number (up to 95%), which can be considered as measures for their awful accuracy. Hence, the curve number is recommended as an optimum methodology for flood estimation, in Makkah city, in case of availability of geological, metrological, land use, and topographic datasets. Otherwise, a specific national regression model (Al-Subai) may be utilized in a simple way.

Description: The study is carried out to detect the subsurface structures that have geological and economic importance by interpreting the available seismic reflection data of an area estimated to be about 1,752 km 2 . The study comprises of the Kalar–Khanaqin and surrounding area, which is located at Zagros folded zone. Twenty-five seismic sections had been interpreted. The total length of all the seismic lines is about 650.4 km. Interpretation of the seismic data is focused on two reflectors, lower Fars and Jeribe formation. The lower Fars reflector picked at the two-way time ranging from 0.1 to 2.6 second, while the Jeribe reflector picked at the two-way time ranging from 1.0 to 2.7 second. The constructed maps denote to the existence of many closed and nose structures, in addition, to numerous fault types. All these features were detected in the area having the NW–SE trend. The depth of the lower Fars formation is ranging from 100.0 to 4,800.0 m, while the depth of the Jeribe formation is ranging from 1,700.0 to 5,000.0 m. The depth maps for the two formations also refer to the similarity of the major geological structures. These structures appear in both formations with existence of slight variation in dimensions. The closed structure no. (1) is located at the north of the study area. The nose structure no. (2) is located at the south of the area. At the west of the area, the elongated structure no. (3). The longitudinal reveres fault intersects the SW limb of the structure. The SW limb of elongated structure no. (4), intersect by longitudinal reveres fault, is located at the east of the area. There is also the semi-closed structure no. (5), which appears at the west of the area around the Qr-1 well. Most of detected faults are of reverse and thrust types having a variable amount of throws and horizontal displacements. Some seismic sections explained the existence of the decollement surface within lower Fars formation, which caused the thrusting and faulting of the overlaying beds.

Description: In this work we study a Hořava-like 5-dimensional model in the context of braneworld theory. The equations of motion of such model are obtained and, within the realm of warped geometry, we show that the model is consistent if and only if λ takes its relativistic value 1. Furthermore, we show that the elimination of problematic terms involving the warp factor second order derivatives are eliminated by imposing detailed balance condition in the bulk. Afterwards, Israel’s junction conditions are computed, allowing the attainment of an effective Lagrangian in the visible brane. In particular, we show that the resultant effective Lagrangian in the brane corresponds to a (3+1)-dimensional Hořava-like model with an emergent positive cosmological constant but without detailed balance condition. Now, restoration of detailed balance condition, at this time imposed over the brane, plays an interesting role by fitting accordingly the sign of the arbitrary constant β , insuring a positive brane tension and a real energy for the graviton within its dispersion relation. Also, the brane consistency equations are obtained and, as a result, the model admits positive brane tensions in the compactification scheme if, and only if, β is negative and the detailed balance condition is imposed.

Description: We have included the effective description of squark interactions with charginos/neutralinos in the MadGraph MSSM model. This effective description includes the effective Yukawa couplings, and another logarithmic term which encodes the supersymmetry-breaking. We have performed an extensive test of our implementation analyzing the results of the partial decay widths of squarks into charginos and neutralinos obtained by using FeynArts/FormCalc programs and the new model file in MadGraph. We present results for the cross-section of top-squark production decaying into charginos and neutralinos.

Description: We present the NLO SUSY-QCD corrections to the production of a pair of the lightest neutralinos plus one jet at the LHC, appearing as a monojet signature in combination with missing energy. We fully include all non-resonant diagrams, i.e. we do not assume that production and decay factorise. We derive a parameter point based on the p19MSSM which is compatible with current experimental bounds and show distributions based on missing transverse energy and jet observables. Our results are produced with the program GoSam Cullen et al. (Eur. Phys. J. C 72:1889, 2012 ) for automated one-loop calculations in combination with MadDipole/MadGraph for the real radiation part.

Description: We present a new environment for computations in particle physics phenomenology employing recent developments in cloud computing. On this environment users can create and manage “virtual” machines on which the phenomenology codes/tools can be deployed easily in an automated way. We analyze the performance of this environment based on “virtual” machines versus the utilization of physical hardware. In this way we provide a qualitative result for the influence of the host operating system on the performance of a representative set of applications for phenomenology calculations.

Description: A Monte Carlo event generator is implemented for a two-Higgs-doublet model with maximal CP symmetry, the MCPM. The model contains five physical Higgs bosons; the  ρ ′, behaving similarly to the standard-model Higgs boson, two extra neutral bosons h ′ and  h ″, and a charged pair  H ± . The special feature of the MCPM is that, concerning the Yukawa couplings, the bosons  h ′, h ″ and H ± couple directly only to the second-generation fermions but with strengths given by the third-generation-fermion masses. Our event generator allows the simulation of the Drell–Yan-type production processes of h ′, h ″ and H ± in proton–proton collisions at LHC energies. Also the subsequent leptonic decays of these bosons into the μ + μ − , μ + ν μ and $\mu^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ channels are studied as well as the dominant background processes. We estimate the integrated luminosities needed in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 8 and 14 TeV for significant observations of the Higgs bosons h ′, h ″ and H ± in these muonic channels.

Description: We study a radiative inverse seesaw model with local B – L symmetry, in which we extend the neutrino mass structure that is generated through a kind of inverse seesaw framework to the more generic one than our previous work. We focus on the real part of bosonic particle as a dark matter and investigate the features in $\mathcal{ O}\mbox {(1--80)}~\mbox{GeV}$ mass range, reported by the experiments such as CoGeNT and XENON (2012).

Description: We investigate the stability of the holographic description of the universe. By treating the perturbation globally, we discover that this description is stable, which is support for the holographic description of the universe.

Description: Direct searches at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have pushed the lower limits on the masses of the gluinos ( $\tilde{g}$ ) and the squarks of the first two generations ( $\tilde{q}$ ) to the TeV range. On the other hand, the limits are rather weak for the third generation squarks and masses around a few hundred GeV are still allowed. A comparatively light third generation of squarks is also consistent with the lightest Higgs boson with mass ∼125 GeV. In view of this, we consider the direct production of a pair of sbottom quarks ( $\tilde{b}_{1}$ ) at the LHC and study their collider signatures. We focus on the scenario where the $\tilde{b}_{1}$ is not the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and hence can also decay to channels other than the commonly considered decay mode to a bottom quark and the lightest neutralino ( $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}$ ). For example, we consider the decay modes containing a bottom quark and the second neutralino ( $\tilde{b}_{1} \to b \tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ ) and/or a top quark and the lightest chargino ( $\tilde{b}_{1} \to t \tilde{\chi}^{\pm}_{1}$ ) following the leptonic decays of the neutralino, chargino and the top quark giving rise to a four leptons ( ℓ ) + two b -jets + missing transverse momentum ( ) final state. We show that a sbottom mass ≲550 GeV can be probed in this channel at the 14 TeV LHC energy with integrated luminosity ≲100 fb −1 .

Description: The MEG (Mu to Electron Gamma) experiment has been running at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland since 2008 to search for the decay μ + →e + γ by using one of the most intense continuous μ + beams in the world. This paper presents the MEG components: the positron spectrometer, including a thin target, a superconducting magnet, a set of drift chambers for measuring the muon decay vertex and the positron momentum, a timing counter for measuring the positron time, and a liquid xenon detector for measuring the photon energy, position and time. The trigger system, the read-out electronics and the data acquisition system are also presented in detail. The paper is completed with a description of the equipment and techniques developed for the calibration in time and energy and the simulation of the whole apparatus.

Description: We present a study on the beam single spin asymmetries $A_{LU}^{\sin\phi_{h}}$ of π + , π − and π 0 production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering process, by considering Collins effect and the g ⊥ D 1 term simultaneously. We calculate the twist-3 distributions $e(x, \boldsymbol{k}_{T}^{2})$ and $g^{\perp}(x, \boldsymbol{k}_{T}^{2})$ for the valence quarks inside the proton in a spectator model. We consider two different options for the form of diquark propagator, as well as two different choices for the model parameters in the calculation. Using the model results, we estimate the beam spin asymmetries $A_{LU}^{\sin\phi_{h}}$ for the charged and neutral pions and compare the results with the measurement from the HERMES Collaboration. We also make predictions on the asymmetries at CLAS with a 5.5 GeV beam using the same model results. It is found that different choices for the diquark propagator will not only lead to different expressions for the distribution functions, but also result in different sizes of the asymmetries. Our study also shows that, although the spectator model calculation can describe the asymmetries for certain pion production in some kinematic regions, it seems difficult to explain the asymmetries of pion production for all three pions in a consistent way from the current versions.

Description: Using the full set of the LHC Higgs data from the runs at 7 and 8 TeV center of mass energies that have been released by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, we determine the couplings of the Higgs particle to fermions and gauge bosons as well as its parity or CP composition. We consider ratios of production cross sections times decay branching fractions in which the theoretical (and some experimental) uncertainties as well as some ambiguities from new physics cancel out. A fit of both the signal strengths in the various search channels that have been conducted, H → ZZ , WW , γγ , ττ and $b\bar{b}$ , and their ratios shows that the observed ∼126 GeV particle has couplings to fermions and gauge bosons that are Standard Model-like already at the 68 % confidence level (CL). From the signal strengths in which the theoretical uncertainty is taken to be a bias, the particle is shown to be at most 68 % CP-odd at the 99 %CL and the possibility that it is a pure pseudoscalar state is excluded at the 4 σ level when including both the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The signal strengths also measure the invisible Higgs decay width which, with the same type of uncertainty analysis, is shown to be $\varGamma_{H}^{\mathrm{inv}}/ \varGamma_{H}^{\mathrm{SM}} \leq0.52$ at the 68 %CL.

Description: Geochemical mobilization of heavy metals in water has been cited as an important factor in many diseases of Sohag Governorate, Egypt. Forty-two groundwater samples were collected from the Quaternary aquifer and eight samples from surface water of Sohag governorate. The results recorded high contamination with cadmium and lead. Besides, about 50 % of samples are contaminated with iron and manganese at an alert level. All the metals under study exhibited an asymmetric statistical distribution in the investigated area. The study identified positive relationship between contaminated water (surface and groundwater) of Sohag with Cd ( r s  = 0.43) as well as Pb ( r s  = 0.21) and renal failure rate (R.F.R. = 26 patients/10 5 capita). The spatial distribution of these two metals (Cd and Pb) showed that they accumulated in the southern part of Sohag Governorate around Albalina District and in the northwestern part at Gehina District, which have the highest R.F.R. This study highlighted the need for more detailed research to assess the different pollutants and their relation to chronic diseases.

Description: The source process and parameters for a moderate earthquake of magnitude Ml 4.1 that occurred on the Kalabsha fault at the Aswan area are analyzed. The derived focal mechanisms of this event and other two aftershocks using polarities of P, SV, and SH waves show strike-slip fault with minor vertical movement of normal type. The solutions give two nodal planes trending ENE–WSW and NNW–SSE in close agreement with the surface traces of the faults crossing the area. The movement is right lateral along the first plane while left lateral along the second one. The rupture process characterization of this event has been investigated by using the empirical Green’s function deconvolution method. By inversion only for the P wave part of the records of these three events (main and other two aftershocks), the source time function for the master events and the azimuthally variations in the (RSTF) pulse amplitude are retrieved for estimating the rupture directivities. The estimated rupture direction is combined with the P-wave focal mechanisms for the three events to identify the fault plane solution for these earthquakes. Based on the width, amplitudes, and numbers of the isolated source time functions, a complex bi-lateral rupture of the studied earthquake is delineated. The source parameters of the master event is calculated and the derived corner frequencies f o for P-wave spectra show a value of 6.6 Hz; the seismic moment ( M o ) is 4.2 × 10 22  Nm; the average displacement ( U ) is 0.5 m; fault radius ( r ) 40 m; the average value of the stress drops ( Δσ ) is 0.6 Mpa, and the moment magnitude ( M w ) is 4.4.

Description: Precise calculation of statistical characteristics of Cu- and Mo-grade datasets was performed and results were interpreted geologically. The nature of Cu and Mo distributions were initially identified and the distributions were normalized through statistical treatment. Subsequently, the variograms were calculated for each exploration borehole and showed that both Cu and Mo geochemical variates have a spatial correlation, the result upon which the k-means clustering analysis for the whole Cu- and Mo-grade values in the area (see the text) became feasible. Based on the different geochemical behaviors of Mo and Cu, pervasive secondary hydrothermal activity which may exist for long periods, can remobilize Cu from deep parts of mineralization to the shallower levels while Mo is not remobilized significantly. However, in this paper, statistical analysis suggested that hydrothermal activity associated with secondary waters in Parkam was not effective enough to remobilize and enrich Cu. Yet the lower variation (variance) of Cu may indicate some sort of remobilization and enrichment of this element in the system (compared to Mo with higher variance); however, the process did not make the system evolve economically.

Description: In this work, we consider a network of cosmic strings to explain a possible deviation from Λ CDM behaviour. We use different observational data to constrain the model and show that a small but non-zero contribution from the string network is allowed by the observational data, which can result in a reasonable departure from Λ CDM evolution. But by calculating the Bayesian evidence, we show that the present data still strongly favour the concordance Λ CDM model irrespective of the choice of the prior.

Description: The caves that are present within the Injana Formation (Upper Miocene–Pliocene) which sometimes extend to be hosted within the Dibdibba Formation (Pliocene–Pleistocene) in the Tar Al-Najaf and Tar Al-Sayyed within the Najaf–Karbala district have been studied. The study aims to assess the genesis of caves and diagnose the factors affecting the building and the destruction of these caves through geologic time. For this reasons, intensive fieldwork as well as the mineralogical composition and microscopic interpretation were achieved to facilitate the investigation of cave-forming factors. Calcite, quartz, feldspar, dolomite, as well as clay minerals are the constituents of Injana Formation in the study area. The amount of insoluble residue is usually higher in weathered carbonates and in some other cases in fresh carbonate, which is not very common but it may occur. Caves appear to be hosted within the claystone beds and concentrated within Injana Formation, whereas the Dibdibba Formation seems to form the roof of the caves. The mechanism of building caves starts by microdissolution forming microfractures. Then with time, they have developed to be vertical joints. These joints were gradually enlarged as a result of claystone exfoliation along joint planes. Chemical weathering, physical weathering, and sedimentary structure (mud balls) play a key role in the processes of cave evolution. Some caves appear to be irregular, but others tend to be regular with rectangular shape, enough for hosting human beings. These caves may have been used as homes for the ancient human for his protection and improvement of his life. At the same time as the caves were formed, there were other natural factors working continuously that destroy the cave. These factors are dissolution, soil creep, and mass sliding. This work highly recommends for further contributions in terms of the archaeological investigation on these caves to discover the ancient civilization in this area, if any.

Description: The Pol Dokhtar section of southern Lorestan, faulted Zagros range of southwestern Iran, contains one of the most complete Early Campanian to Danian sequences. The lack of a good fundamental paleontological study is a strong motivation for investigating calcareous nannofossils in southwestern Iran. The majority of the section is made of shale, marl, and partly of marly limestone and clay limestone, respectively. As a result of this study, 24 genera and 45 species of nannofossils have been identified and presented for the first time. This confirms the existence of biozone CC18 of zonation scheme of Sissingh (Geologie en Minjbouw 56:37–65, 1977 ) to NP1 of zonation of Martini, which suggests the age of Early Campanian to Danian. All Early Campanian to Danian calcareous nannofossil biozones from CC18 (equivalent to the Aspidolithus parcus zone) to NP1 (equivalent to the Markalius inversus zone) are discussed. Also, the zonal subdivision of this section based on calcareous nannofossils has shown continuity in Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary in south part of Lorestan Province. We can also learn about the predominant conditions of the studied sedimentary basin that was in fact part of the Neotethys basin with the existence of indexed species calcareous nannofossils that indicate warm climate and high water depths of the basin in low latitudes.

Description: The separation of residual gravity anomaly from regional gravity has considerably been studied for many years in gravity explorations. In addition, it is considered as a critical step in gravity data inversion. Some techniques have been developed for regional–residual anomaly separation both in space and frequency domains. One of these techniques for computing the regional anomaly is nonlinear filtering. In this paper, some techniques such as low-pass filtering, Butterworth, upward continuation, and nonlinear filtering are used to on synthetic gravity data in present of random noise and noise free for the purpose of residual–regional anomaly separation. The obtained results of techniques are compared with each other. The results have shown that separation methods are so efficient where synthetic models are located in shallow depth. Moreover, it is found that in comparison with other separation techniques, nonlinear filtering is more efficient in residual–regional anomaly separation and upward continuation technique is more efficient than Butterworth filter and low-pass filter. In addition, all of the obtained results have shown that Butterworth and low-pass filters are the same.

Description: The present comparative study is multi-temporal in nature. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), remote sensing, and GIS were used to model the soil loss estimation for soil conservation and vegetation rehabilitation in Nun Nadi watershed for the years 2000 and 2009. The estimated mean soil loss for the year 2000 and 2009 is 3,283.11 and 1,419.39 Mg ha −1  year −1 , respectively. The study finds that about 80 % area has low or least risk of erosion and about 7 % is exposed to high or very high risk which indicates the improvement in terms of soil loss if we compare the data of both the time periods. The findings show that the rainfall, LULC change, and elevation are the main responsible factors for the soil loss in Nun Nadi watershed. Conservation measures have been adopted; however, the problem still remains serious and demands urgent attention.

Description: Nowadays, self-compacting concrete is used in reinforced concrete structure with heavy bars. This type of concrete is widely accepted throughout the world; therefore, it can be used as an attractive solution for inner lining of tunnels. Regarding the effect of fibers in improving the concrete properties the effect of using polypropylene fiber on the behavior of arch specimens are investigated in laboratory. Therefore, specimens with dimensions of 1 m diameter, 0.5 m width, and 10 cm thickness with various reinforcing bars in arch forms were prepared and their flexural strength was investigated. The results show high ability of self-compacting concrete for the inner coverage of tunnels and its increasing strength is due to use of fibers. In addition, the results indicate that by adding fibers in the amount of 0.1 % of cement weight and reinforcing bars of size number 10, the required flexural strength would be obtained.

Description: In this study, the hydrodynamics of lower Ganges basin in India has been monitored using radar altimetry data from environmental satellite (ENVISAT) mission and microgravity data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. River stage time series have been constructed for different virtual stations on the lower Ganges. Time series for the integrated water volume changes from microgravity measurements have also been constructed to characterize the seasonal and interannual fluctuation patterns in water storage and flux. The ENVISAT dataset indicates an average seasonal river stage fluctuation of 8 m in the lower Ganges River. The GRACE dataset reveals a seasonal fluctuation ranging from 0.18 to 0.40 m in the vertically integrated total water storage in the lower Ganges basin. The two independent datasets show broad similarity in the lower Ganges basin and outline the importance of space-based techniques for monitoring continental water resources.

Description: Organic geochemical analysis and palynological studies of the organic matters of subsurface Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous Formations for two wells in Ajeel oil field, north Iraq showed evidences for hydrocarbon generation potential especially for the most prolific source rocks Chia Gara and Sargelu Formations. These analyses include age assessment of Upper Jurassic (Tithonian) to Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian) age and Middle Jurassic (Bathonian–Tithonian) age for Chia Gara and Sargelu Formations, respectively, based on assemblages of mainly dinoflagellate cyst constituents. Rock-Eval pyrolysis have indicated high total organic carbon (TOC) content of up to 18.5 wt%, kerogen type II with hydrogen index of up to 415 mg HC/g TOC, petroleum potential of 0.70–55.56 kg hydrocarbon from each ton of rocks and mature organic matter of maximum temperature reached (T max ) range between 430 and 440 °C for Chia Gara Formation, while Sargelu Formation are of TOC up to 16 wt% TOC, Kerogen type II with hydrogen index of 386 mg HC/g TOC, petroleum potential of 1.0–50.90 kg hydrocarbon from each ton of rocks, and mature organic matter of T max range between 430 and 450 °C. Qualitative studies are done in this study by textural microscopy used in assessing amorphous organic matter for palynofacies type belonging to kerogen type A which contain brazinophyte algae, Tasmanites , and foraminifera test linings, as well as the dinoflagellate cysts and spores, deposited in dysoxic–anoxic environment for Chia Gara Formation and similar organic constituents deposited in distal suboxic–anoxic environment for Sargelu Formation. The palynomorphs are of dark orange and light brown, on the spore species Cyathidites australis , that indicate mature organic matters with thermal alteration index of 2.7–3.0 for the Chia Gara Formation and 2.9–3.1 for the Sargelu Formation by Staplin's scale. These characters have rated the succession as a source rock for very high efficiency for generation and expulsion of oil with ordinate gas that charged mainly oil fields of Baghdad, Dyala (Bۥaquba), and Salahuddin (Tikrit) Governorates. Oil charge the Cretaceous-Tertiary total petroleum system (TPS) are mainly from Chia Gara Formation, because most oil from Sargelu Formation was prevented passing to this TPS by the regional seal Gotnia Formation. This case study of mainly Chia Gara oil source is confirmed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis for oil from reservoirs lying stratigraphically above the Chia Gara Formation in Ajeel and Hamrine oil fields, while oil toward the north with no Gotnia seal could be of mainly Sargelu Formation source.

Description: A Higgs-like particle with a mass of about 125.5 GeV has been discovered at the LHC. Within the current experimental uncertainties, this new state is compatible with both the predictions for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson and with the Higgs sector in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We propose new low-energy MSSM benchmark scenarios that, over a wide parameter range, are compatible with the mass and production rates of the observed signal. These scenarios also exhibit interesting phenomenology for the MSSM Higgs sector. We propose a slightly updated version of the well-known $m_{h}^{\max}$ scenario, and a modified scenario ( $m_{h}^{\mathrm{mod}}$ ), where the light $\mathcal{CP}$ -even Higgs boson can be interpreted as the LHC signal in large parts of the M A –tan β plane. Furthermore, we define a light stop scenario that leads to a suppression of the lightest $\mathcal{CP}$ -even Higgs gluon fusion rate, and a light stau scenario with an enhanced decay rate of h → γγ at large tan β . We also suggest a τ - phobic Higgs scenario in which the lightest Higgs can have suppressed couplings to down-type fermions. We propose to supplement the specified value of the μ  parameter in some of these scenarios with additional values of both signs. This has a significant impact on the interpretation of searches for the non-SM-like MSSM Higgs bosons. We also discuss the sensitivity of the searches to heavy Higgs decays into light charginos and neutralinos, and to decays of the form H → hh . Finally, in addition to all the other scenarios where the lightest $\mathcal{CP}$ -even Higgs is interpreted as the LHC signal, we propose a low - M H scenario, where instead the heavy $\mathcal{CP}$ -even Higgs boson corresponds to the new state around 125.5 GeV.

Description: An inclusive search for supersymmetric processes that produce final states with jets and missing transverse energy is performed in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 11.7 fb −1 collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. In this search, a dimensionless kinematic variable, α T , is used to discriminate between events with genuine and misreconstructed missing transverse energy. The search is based on an examination of the number of reconstructed jets per event, the scalar sum of transverse energies of these jets, and the number of these jets identified as originating from bottom quarks. No significant excess of events over the standard model expectation is found. Exclusion limits are set in the parameter space of simplified models, with a special emphasis on both compressed-spectrum scenarios and direct or gluino-induced production of third-generation squarks. For the case of gluino-mediated squark production, gluino masses up to 950–1125 GeV are excluded depending on the assumed model. For the direct pair-production of squarks, masses up to 450 GeV are excluded for a single light first- or second-generation squark, increasing to 600 GeV for bottom squarks.

Description: In a recent work a modified BPHZ scheme has been introduced and applied to one-loop Feynman graphs in non-commutative ϕ 4 -theory. In the present paper, we first review the BPHZ method and then we apply the modified BPHZ scheme as well as Zimmermann’s forest formula to the sunrise graph, i.e. a typical higher-loop graph involving overlapping divergences. Furthermore, we show that the application of the modified BPHZ scheme to the IR-singularities appearing in non-planar graphs (UV/IR mixing problem) leads to the introduction of a 1/ p 2 term and thereby to a renormalizable model. Finally, we address the application of this approach to gauge field theories.

Description: We investigate the existence of possible stable strange matter and related stability windows at finite temperature for different models that are generally applied to describe quark stars, namely, the quark-mass density dependent model, the MIT bag model and the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model. We emphasize that, although the limits for stable strange matter depend on a comparison with the ground state of 56 Fe, which is a zero temperature state, the quantity that has to be used in the search for strange matter in proto-quark stars is the free energy and we analyze stability windows up to temperatures of the order of 40 MeV. The effects of strong magnetic fields on stability windows are computed and the resulting mass-radius relations for different stages of the proto-quark star are analyzed.

Description: We review and update current limits on possible anomalous couplings of the top quark to gauge bosons. We consider data from top quark decay (as encoded in the \(W\) -boson helicity fractions) and single-top production (in the \(t\) -, \(s\) - and \(Wt\) -channels). We find improved limits with respect to previous results (in most cases of almost one order of magnitude) and extend the analysis to include four-quark operators. We find that new electroweak physics is constrained to live above an energy scale between 430 GeV and 3.2 TeV (depending on the form of its contribution). For comparison, strongly interacting new physics is bounded by scales higher than 1.3 or 1.5 TeV (again depending on its contribution).

Description: Based on the truncated Dyson–Schwinger equations for fermion and massive boson propagators in QED \(_3\) , the fermion chiral condensate and the mass singularities of the fermion propagator via the Schwinger function are investigated. It is shown that the critical point of the chiral phase transition is apparently different from that of the deconfinement phase transition and in Nambu phase the fermion is confined only for small gauge-boson mass.

Description: Motivated by the discrepancies noted recently between the theoretical calculations of the electromagnetic \(\omega \pi \) form factor and certain experimental data, we investigate this form factor using analyticity and unitarity in a framework known as the method of unitarity bounds. We use a QCD correlator computed on the spacelike axis by operator product expansion and perturbative QCD as input, and exploit unitarity and the positivity of its spectral function, including the two-pion contribution that can be reliably calculated using high-precision data on the pion form factor. From this information, we derive upper and lower bounds on the modulus of the \(\omega \pi \) form factor in the elastic region. The results provide a significant check on those obtained with standard dispersion relations, confirming the existence of a disagreement with experimental data in the region around \(0.6\, \text {GeV}\) .