arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Manuel Drees.
We point out that combinations of parameters that predict large counting rates in experiments searching for supersymmetric dark matter often tend to predict a very large branching ratio for the inclusive decay \bsg. The recent measurement of this branching ratio, therefore, indicates that searches for supersymmetric dark matter might be even more difficult than previously anticipated.
I discuss the minijet contribution to total photoproduction and photon--photon cross sections. While minijets with $p_T$ around 2 GeV have recently been observed directly in \gamgam\ experiments, the total \gamp\ cross section measured at HERA is in excellent agreement with predictions based on purely soft physics. Due to the large number of free parameters, predictions for the minijet contribution to total cross sections can be brought into agreement with these seemingly paradoxical observations. However, the currently used eikonalization procedure may not be applicable at all to a large part of the minijet contribution, making it very difficult to draw definite conclusions at present.
We point out that in processes involving the parton content of the photon the usual effective photon approximation should be modified. The reason is that the parton content of virtual photons is logarithmically suppressed compared to real photons. We describe this suppression using several simple, physically motivated ansätze. Although the parton content of the electron in general no longer factorizes into an electron flux function and a photon structure function, it can still be expressed as a single integral. Numerical examples are given for the \eplem\ collider TRISTAN as well as the $ep$ collider HERA.
We review high--energy scattering processes that are sensitive to the hadronic structure of the photon, describing theoretical predictions as well as recent experimental results. These processes include deep--inelastic electron--photon scattering at \eplem\ colliders; and the production of jets, heavy quarks and isolated photons in the collision of real photons at \eplem\ colliders, as well as in photon--proton collisions at $ep$ colliders. We also comment on ``minijet'' based calculations of total $γp$ and \gamgam\ cross--sections, and discuss the possibility that future linear \eplem\ colliders might produce very large photon fluxes due to the ``beamstrahlung'' phenomenon; in the most extreme cases, we predict more than one hadronic \gamgam\ event to occur at every bunch crossing.