Abstract: In this work we consider the renormalization of the chiral two-pion exchange potential with explicit Delta excitations for nucleon-nucleon scattering at next-to-leading (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading order (N(2)LO). Because of the singular nature of the chiral potentials, correlations between different partial waves are generated. In particular, we show that two-body scattering by a short distance power like singular attractive interaction can be renormalized in all partial waves with a single counterterm, provided the singularities are identical. A parallel statement holds in the presence of tensor interactions when the eigenpotentials in the coupled channel problem also coincide. Although this construction reduces the total number of counterterms to 11 in the case of nucleon-nucleon scattering with chiral two-pion exchange interactions with Delta degrees of freedom, the differences in the scattering phases as compared to the case with the uncorrelated partial-wave renormalization become smaller as the angular momentum is increased in the elastic scattering region.

Abstract: In combination with supersymmetry, flavor symmetry may relate quarks with leptons, even in the absence of a grand-unification group. We propose an SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) model where both supersymmetry and the assumed A(4) flavor symmetries are softly broken, reproducing well the observed fermion mass hierarchies and predicting: (i) a relation between down-type quarks and charged lepton masses, and (ii) a correlation between the Cabibbo angle in the quark sector and the reactor angle theta(13) characterizing CP violation in neutrino oscillations.

Abstract: While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began taking data in 2009, scenarios for a machine upgrade to achieve a much higher luminosity are being developed. In the current planning, it is foreseen to increase the luminosity of the LHC at CERN around 2018. As radiation damage scales with integrated luminosity, the particle physics experiments will need to be equipped with a new generation of radiation hard detectors. This article reports on the status of the R&D projects on radiation hard silicon strips detectors for particle physics, linked to the Large Hadron Collider Upgrade, super-LHC (sLHC) of the ATLAS microstrip detector. The primary focus of this report is on measuring the radiation hardness of the silicon materials and the detectors under study. This involves designing silicon detectors, irradiating them to the sLHC radiation levels and studying their performance as particle detectors. The most promising silicon detector for the different radiation levels in the different regions of the ATLAS microstrip detector will be presented. Important challenges related to engineering layout, powering, cooling and reading out a very large strip detector are presented. Ideas on possible schemes for the layout and support mechanics will be shown.