Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The desirability of finding approximation formulas for IÎ (p,q)is obviously not decreased by the author's difficulty in fitting the function over a larger area. This thesis, other than the area fitted, has pointed out some of the problems that must be solved before adequate approximations over a large range can be developed. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D. in Mathematics)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2004. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The Standard Model scalar potential contains a minimum at the Electroweak scale, responsible for the masses of the weak gauge bosons through the Higgs mechanism. However, if the Electroweak minimum is only a local minimum, and there exists a global minimum at a higher energy in the Higgs potential, then in a su ciently old universe we would expect the vacuum expectation value to be at the global minimum. The absence of a global minimum at higher energy is related to the condition that the Higgs self coupling is greater than or equal to zero for all energies. For any model that fails this, we expect new physics to enter before the energy at which the coupling becomes negative. We developed tools to automate the derivation of beta functions for renormalisable gauge theories, and used these to carry out evolution of the renormalisation group equations for the Standard Model and three extensions to the Standard Model | the Standard Model with a fourth generation, the Standard Model with right-handed neutrinos and a Left-Right Symmetric Model. We conclude that of these four models, the Standard Model is the only one in which all the couplings remain perturbative, and in which the Electroweak minimum is a global minimum.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία γίνεται μία (όσο το δυνατόν καλύτερη) καταγραφή των γνωστών αποτελεσμάτων, καθώς επίσης και αποτελεσμάτων που αφορούν τις k -ζήτα συναρτήσεις και k -υπεργεωμετρικές. Επιπλέον δίνουμε και νέες ανισότητες για τις Γk(x) και Bk(x, y) συναρτήσεις. / --

This paper consists of a discussion of the properties and applications of certain improper integrals, namely the gamma function and the beta function. There are also specific examples of application of these functions in certain fields of applied science.