Scalar Nonets in Pole-Dominated QCD Sum Rules

The light scalar nonets are studied using the QCD sum rules for the tetraquark operators. The operator product expansion for the correlators is calculated up to dimension 12 and this enables us to perform analyses retaining sufficient pole-dominance. To classify the light scalar nonets, we investigate the dependence on current quark mass and flavor dynamics. Especially, to examine the latter, we study separately SU(3) singlet and octet states, and show that the number of annihilation diagrams is largely responsible for their differences, which is also the case even after the inclusion of the finite quark mass. Our results support the tetraquark picture for isosinglets, while that for octets is not conclusive yet.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure, Talk given at Chiral Symmetry in Hadron and Nuclear Physics (Chiral07), November 13-16, 2007, Osaka Univ., Japa

Covering the Fermi Surface with Patches of Quarkyonic Chiral Spirals

We argue that in cold, dense quark matter, in the limit of a large number of colors the ground state is unstable with respect to creation of a complicated Quarkyonic Chiral Spiral (QCS) state, in which both chiral and translational symmetries are spontaneously broken. The entire Fermi surface is covered with patches of QCSs, whose number increases as the quark density does. The low energy excitations are gapless, given by Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten model plus transverse kinetic terms localized about different patches.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Brane-induced Skyrmion on S^3: baryonic matter in holographic QCD

We study baryonic matter in holographic QCD with D4/D8/\bar{D8} multi-D brane system in type IIA superstring theory. The baryon is described as the "brane-induced Skyrmion", which is a topologically non-trivial chiral soliton in the four-dimensional meson effective action induced by holographic QCD. We employ the "truncated-resonance model" approach for the baryon analysis, including pion and \rho meson fields below the ultraviolet cutoff scale M_KK \sim 1GeV, to keep the holographic duality with QCD. We describe the baryonic matter in large N_c as single brane-induced Skyrmion on the three-dimensional closed manifold S^3 with finite radius R. The interactions between baryons are simulated by the curvature of the closed manifold S^3, and the decrease of the size of S^3 represents the increase of the total baryon-number density in the medium in this modeling. We investigate the energy density, the field configuration, the mass and the root-mean-square radius of single baryon on S^3 as the function of its radius R. We find a new picture of "pion dominance" near the critical density in the baryonic matter, where all the (axial) vector meson fields disappear and only the pion field survive. We also find the "swelling" phenomena of the baryons as the precursor of the deconfinement, and propose the mechanism of the swelling in general context of QCD. The properties of the deconfinement and the chiral symmetry restoration in the baryonic matter are examined by taking the proper order parameters. We also compare our truncated-resonance model with another "instanton" description of the baryon in holographic QCD, considering the role of cutoff scale M_KK.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

Community perceptions of a malaria vaccine in the Kintampo districts of Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa despite tools currently available for its control. Making malaria vaccine available for routine use will be a major hallmark, but its acceptance by community members and health professionals within the health system could pose considerable challenge as has been found with the introduction of polio vaccinations in parts of West Africa. Some of these challenges may not be expected since decisions people make are many a time driven by a complex myriad of perceptions. This paper reports knowledge and perceptions of community members in the Kintampo area of Ghana where malaria vaccine trials have been ongoing as part of the drive for the first-ever licensed malaria vaccine in the near future. METHODS: Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the data collection processes. Women and men whose children were or were not involved in the malaria vaccine trial were invited to participate in focus group discussions (FGDs). Respondents, made up of heads of religious groupings in the study area, health care providers, traditional healers and traditional birth attendants, were also invited to participate in in-depth interviews (IDIs). A cross-sectional survey was conducted in communities where the malaria vaccine trial (Mal 047RTS,S) was carried out. In total, 12 FGDs, 15 IDIs and 466 household head interviews were conducted. RESULTS: Knowledge about vaccines was widespread among participants. Respondents would like their children to be vaccinated against all childhood illnesses including malaria. Knowledge of the long existing routine vaccines was relatively high among respondents compared to hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B vaccines that were introduced more recently in 2002. There was no clear religious belief or sociocultural practice that will serve as a possible barrier to the acceptance of a malaria vaccine. CONCLUSION: With the assumption that a malaria vaccine will be as efficacious as other EPI vaccines, community members in Central Ghana will accept and prefer malaria vaccine to malaria drugs as a malaria control tool. Beliefs and cultural practices as barriers to the acceptance of malaria vaccine were virtually unknown in the communities surveyed

How large is "large NcN_c" for Nuclear matter?

We argue that a so far neglected dimensionless scale, the number of neighbors in a closely packed system, is relevant for the convergence of the large $N_c$ expansion at high chemical potential. It is only when the number of colors is large w.r.t. this new scale (\sim \order{10}) that a convergent large $N_c$ limit is reached. This provides an explanation as to why the large $N_c$ expansion, qualitatively successful in in vacuum QCD, fails to describe high baryo-chemical potential systems, such as nuclear matter. It also means that phenomenological claims about high density matter based on large $N_c$ extrapolations should be treated with caution.Comment: Proceedings of CPOD2010 conference, in Dubna. Results based on Phys.Rev.C82, 055202 (2010), http://arxiv.org/abs/1006.247

Impact of biomass fuels on pregnancy outcomes in central East India

Background: Smoke from biomass burning has been linked to reduced birth weight; association with other birth outcomes is poorly understood. Our objective was to evaluate effects of exposure to biomass smoke on birth weight, preterm birth and stillbirth. Methods: Information on household cooking fuel was available for secondary analysis from two cohorts of pregnant women enrolled at delivery in India (n = 1744). Birth weight was measured and the modified Ballard performed to assess gestational age. Linear and logistic regression models were used to explore associations between fuel and birth outcomes. Effect sizes were adjusted in multivariate models for socio-demographic characteristics using propensity score techniques and for medical/obstetric covariates. Results: Compared to women who use gas (n = 265), women cooking with wood (n = 1306) delivered infants that were on average 112 grams lighter (95% CI -170.1, -54.6) and more likely to be preterm (OR 3.11, 95% CI 2.12, 4.59). Stillbirths were also more common in the wood group (4% versus 0%, p < 0.001). In adjusted models, the association between wood use and birth weight was no longer significant (14 g reduction; 95% CI -93, 66); however, the increased odds for preterm birth persisted (aOR 2.29; 95% CI 1.24, 4.21). Wood fuel use did not increase the risk of delivering either a low birth weight or small for gestational age infant. Conclusions: The association between wood fuel use and reduced birth weight was insignificant in multivariate models using propensity score techniques to account for socio-demographic differences. In contrast, we demonstrated a persistent adverse impact of wood fuel use on preterm delivery. If prematurity is confirmed as a consequence of antenatal exposure to household air pollution, perinatal morbidity and mortality from household air pollution may be higher than previously appreciated

Gross-Neveu Models, Nonlinear Dirac Equations, Surfaces and Strings

Recent studies of the thermodynamic phase diagrams of the Gross-Neveu model (GN2), and its chiral cousin, the NJL2 model, have shown that there are phases with inhomogeneous crystalline condensates. These (static) condensates can be found analytically because the relevant Hartree-Fock and gap equations can be reduced to the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, whose deformations are governed by the mKdV and AKNS integrable hierarchies, respectively. Recently, Thies et al have shown that time-dependent Hartree-Fock solutions describing baryon scattering in the massless GN2 model satisfy the Sinh-Gordon equation, and can be mapped directly to classical string solutions in AdS3. Here we propose a geometric perspective for this result, based on the generalized Weierstrass spinor representation for the embedding of 2d surfaces into 3d spaces, which explains why these well-known integrable systems underlie these various Gross-Neveu gap equations, and why there should be a connection to classical string theory solutions. This geometric viewpoint may be useful for higher dimensional models, where the relevant integrable hierarchies include the Davey-Stewartson and Novikov-Veselov systems.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figur

Holographic chiral magnetic spiral

We study the ground state of baryonic/axial matter at zero temperature chiral-symmetry broken phase under a large magnetic field, in the framework of holographic QCD by Sakai-Sugimoto. Our study is motivated by a recent proposal of chiral magnetic spiral phase that has been argued to be favored against previously studied phase of homogeneous distribution of axial/baryonic currents in terms of meson super-currents dictated by triangle anomalies in QCD. Our results provide an existence proof of chiral magnetic spiral in strong coupling regime via holography, at least for large axial chemical potentials, whereas we don't find the phenomenon in the case of purely baryonic chemical potential.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure