Supersymmetric Higgs bosons in weak boson fusion.
We compute the complete supersymmetric next-to-leading-order corrections to the production of a light Higgs boson in weak-boson fusion. The size of the electroweak corrections is of similar order as the next-to-leading-order corrections in the standard model. The supersymmetric QCD corrections turn out to be significantly smaller than expected and than their electroweak counterparts. These corrections are an important ingredient to a precision analysis of the (supersymmetric) Higgs sector at the LHC, either as a known correction factor or as a contribution to the theory error.

title: Di-boson and Tri-boson production at the LHC
abstract: The status of di-boson and tri-boson production is shortly review. Using the VBFNLO and the LOOPSIM package, approximated results at NNLO QCD are given for WZ production. Results for waa + jet at NLO QCD are also shown.

title: Physics beyond the standard model: supersymmetry
abstract: This collection of studies on new physics at the LHC constitutes the report of the supersymmetry working group at the Workshop 'Physics at TeV Colliders', Les Houches, France, 2007. They cover the wide spectrum of phenomenology in the LHC era, from alternative models and signatures to the extraction of relevant observables, the study of the MSSM parameter space and finally to the interplay of LHC observations with additional data expected on a similar time scale. The special feature of this collection is that while not each of the studies is explicitly performed together by theoretical and experimental LHC physicists, all of them were inspired by and discussed in this particular environment.

title: NLO QCD corrections to $W^\pm Z\gamma$ production with leptonic decays
abstract: We present a computation of the O(alpha_s) QCD corrections to W^\pm Z \gamma production at the Large Hadron Collider. The photon is considered as real, and we include full leptonic decays for the W and Z bosons. Based on the structure of the VBFNLO program package, we obtain numerical results through a fully flexible Monte Carlo program, which allows to implement general cuts and distributions of the final-state particles. The NLO QCD corrections are sizable and strongly exceed the theory error obtained by a scale variation of the leading-order result. Also, the shapes of relevant observables are significantly altered.

title: Complete one-loop calculation of the T-violating D-parameter in neutron decay in the MSSM
abstract: We investigate the violation of time reversal invariance in the decay of the free neutron in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The coefficient of the triple product of the neutron spin and the momenta of electron and neutrino, the so-called D parameter, is computed at one-loop order including all diagrams. We find that D is mainly sensitive to the trilinear A coupling in the squark sector and to the phase of the coefficient $\mu$ which mixes the two Higgs superfields. The maximal MSSM contribution using parameters still allowed by experiment is however at $D \approx 10^{-7}$, while QED final state interactions give a value of $D_{\mathrm {fsi}} = - 2.3 \cdot 10^{-5}$. Explicit expressions for all relevant diagrams are given in an appendix.

title: Helmholtz Alliance Linear Collider Forum
abstract: Supersymmetric scenarios with a very weakly interacting lightest superpartner (LSP) - like the gravitino or axino - naturally give rise to a long-lived next-to-LSP (NLSP). If the NLSP is a charged slepton it leaves a very distinct signature in a collider experiment. At the ILC/CLIC it will be possible to capture a significant fraction of the produced charged sleptons and observe their decays. These decays potentially reveal the nature of the LSP and thus provide a unique possibility to measure the properties of a very weakly interacting LSP which otherwise is most likely hidden from any other observation, like direct or indirect dark matter searches. We review the proposals that have been made to measure the LSP properties at the ILC/CLIC and compare its potential to the capability of the LHC.

title: Non-equilibrium effects on line-of-sight size estimates of QSO absorption systems
abstract: Estimates of the linear extent of heavy-element absorption systems along the line-of-sight to a QSO often assume that the cloud is photoionized and that the temperature takes the equilibrium value where photo-heating balances line cooling. We show that rather small deviations from this photoionization equilibrium temperature caused by additional heating processes will lead to an overestimate of the neutral hydrogen fraction and thus to an underestimate of the thickness of the absorber by about two orders of magnitude. Such temperature deviations are indicated both by observations and numerical simulations. This interpretation reconciles the discrepancy between the rather small extent of heavy-element-absorption systems parallel to the line-of-sight obtained from a standard photoionization analysis and the much larger transverse sizes estimates inferred from the observation of common absorption in the spectra of close quasar pairs.

title: Metallic Absorbers and the Evolution of Galaxy Haloes and the Metagalactic Ionizing Background
abstract: An extremely careful separation of the weak metal-line systems relating to the Lyman forest absorbers into individual ``single-phase ionization'' components with accurate parameters has yielded a large sample in the wide redshift range 1.9 < z < 4.4. The systems typically span several hundred km/s and within each the components show a strong coherence in their ionization properties. No sudden evolution is found in the column density ratio N(Si IV)/N(C IV), contrary to previous indication of a large change near z = 3, although there is an apparent rise below z~2.2 and above z~3.8. A smooth not sudden spectral evolution is reflected in the z distribution of N(N V)/N(C IV). Comparisons of N(Si IV)/N(C IV) vs N(C II)/N(C IV) from the observations with CLOUDY derived values using several model ionizing spectra show the general dominance of a QSO ionizing background at the lower redshifts while an additional strong and eventually dominating stellar contribution is required progressively to higher redshifts.

title: Lower redshift analogues of the sources of reionization
abstract: Known populations of QSOs appear to fall short of producing the ionizing flux required for re-ionizing the universe. The alternative, galaxies as sources of ionizing photons, suffers from the problem that known types of galaxies are almost completely opaque to ionizing photons. For reionization to happen, either large numbers of (largely undiscovered) sources are required, or the known populations of galaxies need to have had a much larger escape fraction for ionizing radiation in the past. We discuss recent discoveries of faint z ∼ 3 Lyman α emitters with asymmetric, extended Lyα emission regions, which apparently are related to interacting galaxies. The unusually shaped Lyα line profiles and the underlying stellar populations of these objects suggest the presence of damaged gaseous halos, infall of gas, tidal or stripped stellar features and young populations of hot stars that would all be conducive to the release of ionizing radiation into intergalactic space. As galaxy interactions and mergers increase with redshift, these effects can only become more important at earlier times, and so these interacting z ∼ 3 objects may be late, lower redshift analogues of the sources of reionization.Known populations of QSOs appear to fall short of producing the ionizing flux required for re-ionizing the universe. The alternative, galaxies as sources of ionizing photons, suffers from the problem that known types of galaxies are almost completely opaque to ionizing photons. For reionization to happen, either large numbers of (largely undiscovered) sources are required, or the known populations of galaxies need to have had a much larger escape fraction for ionizing radiation in the past. We discuss recent discoveries of faint z ∼ 3 Lyman α emitters with asymmetric, extended Lyα emission regions, which apparently are related to interacting galaxies. The unusually shaped Lyα line profiles and the underlying stellar populations of these objects suggest the presence of damaged gaseous halos, infall of gas, tidal or stripped stellar features and young populations of hot stars that would all be conducive to the release of ionizing radiation into intergalactic space. As galaxy interactions and mergers increa...

title: AN HST SEARCH FOR SUPERNOVAE ACCOMPANYING X-RAY FLASHES
abstract: We present the results from a Hubble Space Telescope ACS search for supernovae associated with X-ray flashes 020903, 040701, 040812, and 040916. We find strong evidence that XRF 020903 (z = 0.25) was associated with a SN 1998bw-like supernova and confirm this using optical spectroscopy at t ~ 25 days. We find no evidence, however, for SN 1998bw-like supernovae associated with the other three events. In the case of XRF 040701 (z = 0.21), we rule out even a faint supernova similar to SN 2002ap, using template light curves for several local Type Ic supernovae. For the two cases in which the redshift is not known, XRFs 040812 and 040916, we derive robust redshift limits, assuming that they were accompanied by supernovae similar to SN 1998bw, and compare these limits with photometric redshift constraints provided by their host galaxies. We supplement this analysis with results for three additional events (XRFs 011030, 020427, and 030723) and discuss the observed diversity of supernovae associated with X-ray flashes and gamma-ray bursts. We conclude that XRF-SNe exist but can be significantly fainter than SN 1998bw, possibly consistent with the observed spread in local Type Ibc supernovae.

title: Integrability of the holomorphic anomaly equations
abstract: We show that modularity and the gap condition make the holomorphic anomaly equation completely integrable for non-compact Calabi-Yau manifolds. This leads to a very efficient formalism to solve the topological string on these geometries in terms of almost holomorphic modular forms. The formalism provides in particular holomorphic expansions everywhere in moduli space including large radius points, the conifold loci, Seiberg-Witten points and the orbifold points. It can be also viewed as a very efficient method to solve higher genus closed string amplitudes in the 1/N2 expansion of matrix models with more then one cut.