Topics in Theoretical Physics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We propose to investigate a number of topics in theoretical physics. One concerns the origin of the violation of time- reversal symmetry, one of the greatest mysteries in physics, and observed in decays of the K-meson. The nature of this violation isn't well understood. A particular rare decay of the K-meson is extremely sensitive to time-reversal violation, but is very difficult to detect. Recently, it has been realized that it may be measurable at TUNAF or BNL. We plan to calculate the decay rate in a wide variety of models of particle interactions. Another topic concerns neutrinos scattering off the deuteron, where more protons are produced in the forward direction than one expects. This is often attributed to rescattering in the deuterium nucleus. Relativistic effects also affect the expectations, and we wish to determine the size of these effects. This is the largest uncertainty in determining the reaction rate of neutrinos off neutrons and protons. Still another topic concerns a popular theory in particle physics, based on supersymmetry. Although most new particles predicted by supersymmetry are very heavy, there remains the possibility that one, the gluino, is light, and detectable at TUNAF and/or BNL. We've examined this previously and will work closely with experimenters in planned searchers.