Deciphering 40 TeV rapidity gap physics with 2 TeV jet events

Rapidity gaps may provide an adequate signature for electroweak processes at supercolliders, including the production of the Higgs particle. We show how this important issue can be studied in the dijet final states of operating proton-antiproton colliders and present quantitative predictions.

Radiative Omega(-)->Xi(-)gamma decay and physics beyond the standard model

We investigate the impact of new physics beyond the standard model to the s → dγ process, which is responsible for the short-distance contribution to the radiative decay Ω-Ξ-γ. We study three representative extensions of the standard model: namely, a one-family technicolor model, a two-Higgs-doublet model, and a model containing scalar leptoquarks. When constraints arising from the observed b→sγ transition and the upper limit on D0-D̄0 mixing are taken into account, we find no significant contributions of new physics to the s→dy process.

Excited fermion contribution to Z(0) physics at one loop

We investigate the effects induced by excited leptons at the one-loop level in the observables measured on the Ζ peak at LEP. Using a general effective Lagrangian approach to describe the couplings of the excited leptons, we compute their contributions to both oblique parameters and Ζ partial widths. Our results show that the new effects are comparable to the present experimental sensitivity, but they do not lead to a significant improvement on the available constraints on the couplings and masses of these states.

Renormalization-group calculation of dynamical properties for impurity models

The numerical renormalization-group method was originally developed to calculate the thermodynamical properties of impurity Hamiltonians. A recently proposed generalization capable of computing dynamical properties is discussed. As illustrative applications, essentially exact results for the impurity specttral densities of the spin-degenerate Anderson model and of a model for electronic tunneling between two centers in a metal are presented. © 1991.

Linking natural supersymmetry to flavour physics

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Establishing common elements among some science education references as a resource to design a Didactics of Physics program for teachers initial education

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Future Brazilian teachers imaginaries about physics teaching in adults education

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Pedagogical practices carried out during an in-service teachers education project: approaching history and philosophy of science to physics teaching

We report here part of a research project developed by the Science Education Research Group, titled: "Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and formative processes in Science and Mathematics Education" which main goal is the development of coordinated research that can generate a set of subsidies for a reflection on the processes of teacher training in Sciences and Mathematics Education. One of the objectives was to develop continuing education activities with Physics teachers, using the History and Philosophy of Science as conductors of the discussions and focus of teaching experiences carried out by them in the classroom. From data collected through a survey among local Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers in Bauru, a São Paulo State city, we developed a continuing education proposal titled “The History and Philosophy of Science in the Physics teachers’ pedagogical practice”, lasting 40 hours of lessons. We followed the performance of five teachers who participated in activities during the 2008 first semester and were teaching Physics at High School level. They designed proposals for short courses, taking into consideration aspects of History and Philosophy of Science and students’ alternative conceptions. Short courses were applied in real classrooms situations and accompanied by reflection meetings. This is a qualitative research, and treatment of data collected was based on content analysis, according to Bardin [1].

Physics teachers initial education and professional performance: what do future teachers have to say?

This research deals with the discussion about Physics teachers’ undergraduate education and professional performance related to the knowledge acquired during this initial education. More specifically, we try to answer questions like: How do future teachers evaluate the knowledge acquired during their initial education as in terms of specific knowledge as pedagogical knowledge? What are their formative needs and future expectatives about professional performance and the school teaching environment? Data was constituted from a sample of 26 future high school physics teachers, one semester long, that were taking the supervised curricular training in a undergraduate Physics education program (called Licenciatura in Brazil), in São Paulo State public university. Besides the final report of this training, future teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire aiming to take their conceptions about their initial education program, their formative needs, future professional expectatives and high school teaching environment. According to the future teachers, the program they were about to finish was satisfactory in terms of Physics specific contents; however, about the pedagogical content knowledge and the pedagogical practice, they showed to be unsatisfied and insecure. The majority of the questionnaire responses demonstrated that they feel lack of teaching experience. Moreover, teachers emphasize other factors related to the future professional performance: possible difficulties to deal with students’ indiscipline, schools’ bad physical structure, limited number of Physics classes in high school level, lack of didactical laboratories and also they seem to be frightened that the expertise teachers do not be collaborative with the new ones. In this sense, the research outcomes shows the necessity of discussions about questions involving teachers knowledge, related to either, the Physics conceptual domain and the pedagogical one, since it matters directly to future teachers professional performance. Discussions in this sense can also help evaluation and restructuration of programs designed to initial and continuous teachers’ education.

Uma abordagem de potencial e massa efetiva e a descrição de espaço de fase quântico para tratar sistemas de spins: Caracterizando o tunelamento de spin e propriedades da molécula de Fe8

Pós-graduação em Física - IFT