Leading Order QCD Shear Viscosity from the 3PI Effective Action

In this article we calculate the leading order shear viscosity in QCD using the resummed 3PI effective action. We work to 3-loop order in the effective action. We show that the integral equations that resum the pinching and collinear contributions are produced naturally by the formalism. All leading order terms are included, without the need for any kind of power counting arguments.Comment: 23 pages, 27 figure

Graviton loops and brane observables

We discuss how to consistently perform effective Lagrangian computations in quantum gravity with branes in compact extra dimensions. A reparametrization invariant and infrared finite result is obtained in a non trivial way. It is crucial to properly account for brane fluctuations and to correctly identify physical observables. Our results correct some confusing claims in the literature. We discuss the implications of graviton loops on electroweak precision observables and on the muon g-2 in models with large extra dimensions. We model the leading effects, not controlled by effective field theory, by introducing a hard momentum cut-off.Comment: 9 pages + 4 eps figures, JHEP style latex document. The paper is composed by a theoretical part, followed (after page 21) by a phenomenological part. v2: version published in JHEP, few typos corrected. v3: few additional typos corrected in the Appendi

Hadron structure after 25 years of QCD

We briefly review the status of our understanding of hadron structure based on QCD. This includes the role of symmetries, especially chiral symmetry, and the insights provided by lattice QCD. The main focus is on baryon structure and especially the nucleon, but this cannot be treated realistically without reference to spectroscopy. Our aim is to highlight recent insights and promising directions for future work.Comment: Invited talk presented at the 16th Int. Conf. on Few Body Problems (Taipei, March 6-10, 2000); 13 pages, 3 figure

Composite fermions in Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

If the electroweak symmetry is broken by some unspecified strong dynamics, composite fermions may exist with definite transformation properties under SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R/SU(2)_{L+R} and may play a role in giving masses by mixing to all the standard quarks and leptons. Assuming this to be the case, we analyze the role of Singlets, Doublets and Triplets in the ElectroWeak Precision Tests and in Flavour Physics. Doublets and Triplets are generically disfavoured. In the Singlet case, we specify the breaking patterns of the flavour group that allow to keep the CKM picture of flavour physics and we discuss the effects of the mixing between composite and elementary fermions. These mixings affect in particular the rather peculiar LHC phenomenology of the composite fermions.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures (v2: minor modifications, published version