On the current correlators in QCD at finite temperature

Current correlators in QCD at a finite temperature $T$ are considered from the viewpoint of operator product expansion. It is stressed that at low $T$ the heat bath must be represented by hadronic, and not quark-gluon states. A possibility to express the results in terms of $T$-dependent resonance masses is discussed. It is demonstrated that in order $T^2$ the masses do not move and the only phenomenon which occurs is a parity and isospin mixing.Comment: 6 pages, TPI-MINN-92/64-

Next-to-leading-order temperature corrections to correlators in QCD

Corrections of order $T^4$ to vector and axial current correlators in QCD at a finite temperature $T<T_c$ are obtained using dispersion relations for the amplitudes of deep inelastic scattering on pions. Their relation with the operator product expansion is presented. An interpretation of the results in terms of $T$-dependent meson masses is given: masses of $\rho$ and $a_1$ start to move with temperature in order $T^4$.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, CERN-TH.7215/94, BUTP-94/

NonQCD contributions to heavy quark masses and sensitivity to Higgs mass

We find that if the Higgs mass is close to its present experimental lower limit (100 GeV),Yukawa interactions in the quark-Higgs sector can make substantial contributions to the heavy quark MS masses.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. Fixed a few typos (eqs (7),(34)

Long term variability of the Broad Emission Line profiles in AGN

Results of a long-term monitoring ($\gtrsim 10$ years) of the broad line and continuum fluxes of three Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), 3C 390.3, NGC 4151, and NGC 5548, are presented. We analyze the H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ profile variations during the monitoring period and study different details (as bumps, absorption bands) which can indicate structural changes in the Broad Line Region (BLR). The BLR dimensions are estimated using the time lags between the continuum and the broad lines flux variations. We find that in the case of 3C 390.3 and NGC 5548 a disk geometry can explain both the broad line profiles and their flux variations, while the BLR of NGC 4151 seems more complex and is probably composed of two or three kinematically different regions.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, New Astronomy Reviews (Proceeding of 7th SCSLSA), in pres

Spectral representation and QCD sum rules for nucleon at finite temperature

We examine the problem of constructing spectral representations for two point correlation functions, needed to write down the QCD sum rules in the medium. We suggest constructing them from the Feynman diagrams for the correlation functions. As an example we use this procedure to write the QCD sum rules for the nucleon current at finite temperature

On the hadronic contribution to sterile neutrino production

Sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range are considered to be a viable candidate for warm dark matter. The rate of their production through active-sterile neutrino transitions peaks, however, at temperatures of the order of the QCD scale, which makes it difficult to estimate their relic abundance quantitatively, even if the mass of the sterile neutrino and its mixing angle were known. We derive here a relation, valid to all orders in the strong coupling constant, which expresses the production rate in terms of the spectral function associated with active neutrinos. The latter can in turn be expressed as a certain convolution of the spectral functions related to various mesonic current-current correlation functions, which are being actively studied in other physics contexts. In the naive weak coupling limit, the appropriate Boltzmann equations can be derived from our general formulae.Comment: 28 pages. v2: small clarifications added, published versio

The Higher Derivative Expansion of the Effective Action by the String-Inspired Method, Part I

The higher derivative expansion of the one-loop effective action for an external scalar potential is calculated to order O(T**7), using the string-inspired Bern-Kosower method in the first quantized path integral formulation. Comparisons are made with standard heat kernel calculations and with the corresponding Feynman diagrammatic calculation in order to show the efficiency of the present method.Comment: 13 pages, Plain TEX, 1 figure may be obtained from the authors, HD-THEP-93-4

Computation of the winding number diffusion rate due to the cosmological sphaleron

A detailed quantitative analysis of the transition process mediated by a sphaleron type non-Abelian gauge field configuration in a static Einstein universe is carried out. By examining spectra of the fluctuation operators and applying the zeta function regularization scheme, a closed analytical expression for the transition rate at the one-loop level is derived. This is a unique example of an exact solution for a sphaleron model in $3+1$ spacetime dimensions.Comment: Some style corrections suggested by the referee are introduced (mainly in Sec.II), one reference added. To appear in Phys.Rev.D 29 pages, LaTeX, 3 Postscript figures, uses epsf.st

A Way to Reopen the Window for Electroweak Baryogenesis

We reanalyse the sphaleron bound of electroweak baryogenesis when allowing deviations to the Friedmann equation. These modifications are well motivated in the context of brane cosmology where they appear without being in conflict with major experimental constraints on four-dimensional gravity. While suppressed at the time of nucleosynthesis, these corrections can dominate at the time of the electroweak phase transition and in certain cases provide the amount of expansion needed to freeze out the baryon asymmetry without requiring a strongly first order phase transition. The sphaleron bound is substantially weakened and can even disappear so that the constraints on the higgs and stop masses do not apply anymore. Such modification of cosmology at early times therefore reopens the parameter space allowing electroweak baryogenesis which had been reduced substantially given the new bound on the higgs mass imposed by LEP. In contrast with previous attempts to turn around the sphaleron bound using alternative cosmologies, we are still considering that the electroweak phase transition takes place in a radiation dominated universe. The universe is expanding fast because of the modification of the Friedmann equation itself without the need for a scalar field and therefore evading the problem of the decay of this scalar field after the completion of the phase transition and the risk that its release of entropy dilutes the baryon asymmetry produced at the transition.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor changes, remark added at end of section 5 and in caption of figure 1; v3: references added, version to be publishe

Temperature Dependence of Electric and Magnetic Gluon Condensates

The contribution of Lorentz non-scalar operators to finite temperature correlation functions is discussed. Using the local duality approach for the one-pion matrix element of a product of two vector currents, the temperature dependence of the average gluonic stress tensor is estimated in the chiral limit to be $\langle{\bf E}^2 +{\bf B}^2\rangle_{T}=\frac{\pi^2}{10}bT^4$. At a normalization point $\mu=0.5$ GeV we obtain $b\approx 1.1$. Together with the known temperature dependence of the Lorentz scalar gluon condensate we are able to infer $\langle{\bf E}^2\rangle_T$ and $\langle{\bf B}^2\rangle_T$ separately in the low-temperature hadronic phase.Comment: 11 pages, TPI-MINN-92/37-