Inelastic final-state interaction

The final-state interaction in multichannel decay processes is sytematically studied with application to B decay in mind. Since the final-state inteaction is intrinsically interwoven with the decay interaction in this case, no simple phase theorem like "Watson's theorem" holds for experimentally observed final states. We first examine in detail the two-channel problem as a toy-model to clarify the issues and to remedy common mistakes made in earlier literature. Realistic multichannel problems are too challenging for quantitative analysis. To cope with mathematical complexity, we introduce a method of approximation that is applicable to the case where one prominant inelastic channel dominates over all others. We illustrate this approximation method in the amplitude of the decay B to pi K fed by the intermediate states of a charmed meson pair. Even with our approximation we need more accurate information of strong interactions than we have now. Nonethless we are able to obtain some insight in the issue and draw useful conclusions on general fearyres on the strong phases.Comment: The published version. One figure correcte

Black Hole Final State Conspiracies

The principle that unitarity must be preserved in all processes, no matter how exotic, has led to deep insights into boundary conditions in cosmology and black hole theory. In the case of black hole evaporation, Horowitz and Maldacena were led to propose that unitarity preservation can be understood in terms of a restriction imposed on the wave function at the singularity. Gottesman and Preskill showed that this natural idea only works if one postulates the presence of "conspiracies" between systems just inside the event horizon and states at much later times, near the singularity. We argue that some AdS black holes have unusual internal thermodynamics, and that this may permit the required "conspiracies" if real black holes are described by some kind of sum over all AdS black holes having the same entropy.Comment: Various minor improvements, references added, 25 page

The Hadronic Final State at HERA

The hadronic final state in electron-proton collisions at HERA has provided a rich testing ground for development of the theory of the strong force, QCD. In this review, over 200 publications from the H1 and ZEUS Collaborations are summarised. Short distance physics, the measurement of processes at high energy scales, has provided rigorous tests of perturbative QCD and constrained the structure of the proton as well as allowing precise measurements of the strong coupling constant to be made. Non-perturbative or low energy processes have also been investigated and results on hadronisation interpreted together with those from other experiments. Searches for exotic QCD objects, such as pentaquarks, glueballs and instantons have been performed. The subject of diffraction has been re-invigorated through its precise measurement, such that it can now be described by perturbative QCD. After discussion of HERA, the H1 and ZEUS detectors and the techniques used to reconstruct differing hadronic final states, the above subject areas are elaborated. The major achievements are then condensed further in a final section summarising what has been learned.Comment: 60 pages, 65 figures, submitted to Reviews of Modern Physics. Updated version includes comments to the text from journal referee

Final State of Gregory-Laflamme Instability

We describe the behavior of a perturbed 5-dimensional black string subject to the Gregory-Laflamme instability. We show that the horizon evolves in a self-similar manner, where at any moment in the late-time development of the instability the horizon can be described as a sequence of 3-dimensional spherical black holes of varying size, joined by black string segments of similar radius. As with the initial black string, each local string segment is itself unstable, and this fuels the self-similar cascade to (classically) arbitrarily small scales; in the process the horizon develops a fractal structure. In finite asymptotic time, the remaining string segments shrink to zero-size, yielding a naked singularity. Since no fine-tuning is required to excite the instability, this constitutes a generic violation of cosmic censorship. We further discuss how this behavior is related to satellite formation in low-viscosity fluid streams subject to the Rayleigh-Plateau instability, and estimate the fractal dimension of the horizon prior to formation of the naked singularity.Comment: 27 pages, 6 Figures. Chapter of the book `Black Holes in Higher Dimensions' to be published by Cambridge University Press (editor: G. Horowitz

Final state interaction in kaons decays

The kaons decays to the pairs of charged and neutral pions are considered in the framework of the non-relativistic quantum mechanics. The general expressions for the decay amplitudes to the two different channels accounting for the strong interaction between pions are obtained. The developed approach allows one to estimate the contribution of terms of any order in strong interaction and correctly takes into account the electromagnetic interaction between the pions in the final state.Comment: 8 page

Final State Interactions in Kaon Decays

We quantify the important effect of strong final state interactions in the weak $K\to 2\pi$ amplitudes, using the measured $\pi$-$\pi$ phase shifts with J=0 and $I=0,2$. The main results of this analysis, with their implications for $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ and the $\Delta I =1/2$ rule, have been already presented in a previous paper [1]. Here we provide a detailed formal derivation of those results and further discuss the Standard Model prediction of $\epsilon'/\epsilon$.Comment: 30 pages, 1 eps figur

Chromo-polarizability and pipi final state interaction

The chromo-polarizability of a quarkonium state is a measure of the amplitude of the $E1$-$E1$ chromo-electric interaction of the quarkonium with soft gluon fields and can be measured in the heavy quarkonium decays. Based on the chiral unitary approach, formulas with modification caused by the $S$ wave $\pi\pi$ final state interaction (FSI) for measuring the chromo-polarizabilities are given. It is shown that the effect of the $S$ wave $\pi\pi$ FSI is very important in extracting chromo-polarizabilities from the experimental data. The resultant values with the FSI are reduced to about 1/3 of those determined without the FSI. The consequences of the FSI correction in the $J/\psi$-nucleon scattering near the threshold are also discussed. The estimated lower bound of the total cross section is reduced from about 17 mb to 2.9 mb, which agrees with the experimental data point and is compatible with the previously estimated values in the literature. In order to understand the interaction of heavy quarkonia with light hadrons at low energies better and to obtain the chromo-polarizabilities of quarkonia accurately, more data should be accumulated. This can be done in the $J/\psi \to \pi^+\pi^-l^+l^-$ decay at BES-III and CLEO-c and in the $\Upsilon \to \pi^+\pi^-l^+l^-$ decay at B factories.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, ReVTeX4. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.