Search for long-lived states in antiprotonic lithium

The spectrum of the (L_i^3 + p-bar + 2e) four-body system was calculated in an adiabatic approach. The two-electron energies were approximated by a sum of two single-electron effective charge two-center energies as suggested in [6]. While the structure of the spectrum does not exclude the existence of long-lived states, their experimental observability is still to be clarified

Development and validation of the student attitudes and beliefs about authorship scale: a psychometrically robust measure of authorial identity

One approach to plagiarism prevention focuses on improving students’ authorial identity, but work in this area depends on robust measures. This paper presents the development of a psychometrically robust measure of authorial identity - the Student Attitudes and Beliefs about Authorship Scale. In the item generation phase, a pool of items was developed and assessed for content validity by subject matter experts. In the exploratory phase, data from 439 higher education students were used to identify a latent variable model with three factors: ‘authorial confidence’, ‘valuing writing’ and ‘identification with author’. In the confirmatory phase, data from 306 higher education students were used to test the three-factor model's reliability and validity. The three-factor structure was confirmed, and the results showed the SABAS has a stronger psychometric basis than previously available measures. This measure of authorial identity can be used with confidence in research and pedagogy to help students improve their authorial identity

Development and validation of a short-form Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ-14)

Attitudes to pain medication are important aspects of adjustment to chronic pain. They are measured by the 47-item Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ). To measure those attitudes more quickly and easily, we developed and evaluated a 14-item PMAQ using data from three separate surveys of people with pain in the general population. In survey 1, participants (n=295) completed the 47-item PMAQ and measures of pain, analgesic use, analgesic dependence and attitudes to self-medication. For each of the seven PMAQ scales, the two items that best preserved the content of the parent scales were identified using correlation and regression. The 2-item and parent scales had very similar relationships with other measures, indicating validity had been maintained. The resulting 14-item PMAQ was then completed by participants in survey 2 (n=241) and survey 3 (n=147), along with the same other measures as in survey 1. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 14-item PMAQ retained the 7-factor structure of the 47-item version, and correlations with other measures showed it retained the validity of the 47-item version. The PMAQ scale Need was the most significant independent predictor of analgesic dependence in each of four separate multiple regression analyses. This short form of the PMAQ allows attitudes to pain medications to be measured in a valid and more efficient way.Survey 1 was part of Doctoral research undertaken by Omimah Said. Survey 2 was part of a study funded by a small grant awarded to James Elander and Omimah Said from the University of Derby’s Research for Learning and Teaching Fund. Survey 3 was part of a study funded by a British Psychological Society Undergraduate Research Assistantship bursary awarded to Ada Dys, and by a University of Derby Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme bursary awarded to Hannah Collins

Glueball masses in the large N limit

The lowest-lying glueball masses are computed in SU($N$) gauge theory on a spacetime lattice for constant value of the lattice spacing $a$ and for $N$ ranging from 3 to 8. The lattice spacing is fixed using the deconfinement temperature at temporal extension of the lattice $N_T = 6$. The calculation is conducted employing in each channel a variational ansatz performed on a large basis of operators that includes also torelon and (for the lightest states) scattering trial functions. This basis is constructed using an automatic algorithm that allows us to build operators of any size and shape in any irreducible representation of the cubic group. A good signal is extracted for the ground state and the first excitation in several symmetry channels. It is shown that all the observed states are well described by their large $N$ values, with modest ${\cal O}(1/N^2)$ corrections. In addition spurious states are identified that couple to torelon and scattering operators. As a byproduct of our calculation, the critical couplings for the deconfinement phase transition for N=5 and N=7 and temporal extension of the lattice $N_T=6$ are determined.Comment: 1+36 pages, 22 tables, 21 figures. Typos corrected, conclusions unchanged, matches the published versio

Analytic structure and power-series expansion of the Jost function for the two-dimensional problem

For a two-dimensional quantum mechanical problem, we obtain a generalized power-series expansion of the S-matrix that can be done near an arbitrary point on the Riemann surface of the energy, similarly to the standard effective range expansion. In order to do this, we consider the Jost-function and analytically factorize its momentum dependence that causes the Jost function to be a multi-valued function. The remaining single-valued function of the energy is then expanded in the power-series near an arbitrary point in the complex energy plane. A systematic and accurate procedure has been developed for calculating the expansion coefficients. This makes it possible to obtain a semi-analytic expression for the Jost-function (and therefore for the S-matrix) near an arbitrary point on the Riemann surface and use it, for example, to locate the spectral points (bound and resonant states) as the S-matrix poles. The method is applied to a model simlar to those used in the theory of quantum dots.Comment: 42 pages, 9 figures, submitted to J.Phys.

Towards multi-scale dynamics on the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler

We construct explicitly a new class of backgrounds in type-IIB supergravity which generalize the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler. We apply a solution-generating technique that, starting from a large class of solutions of the wrapped-D5 system, yields the new solutions, and then proceed to study in detail their properties, both in the IR and in the UV. We propose a simple intuitive field theory interpretation of the rotation procedure and of the meaning of our new solutions within the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin ansatz, in particular in relation to the duality cascade in the Klebanov-Strassler solution. The presence in the field theory of different VEVs for operators of dimensions 2, 3 and 6 suggests that this is an important step towards the construction of the string dual of a genuinely multi-scale (strongly coupled) dynamical model.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures. References added, version to appear in JHE

Logarithmic perturbation theory for quasinormal modes

Logarithmic perturbation theory (LPT) is developed and applied to quasinormal modes (QNMs) in open systems. QNMs often do not form a complete set, so LPT is especially convenient because summation over a complete set of unperturbed states is not required. Attention is paid to potentials with exponential tails, and the example of a Poschl-Teller potential is briefly discussed. A numerical method is developed that handles the exponentially large wavefunctions which appear in dealing with QNMs.Comment: 24 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses ioplppt.sty and epsfig.st

Holographic Conformal Window - A Bottom Up Approach

We propose a five-dimensional framework for modeling the background geometry associated to ordinary Yang-Mills (YM) as well as to nonsupersymmetric gauge theories possessing an infrared fixed point with fermions in various representations of the underlying gauge group. The model is based on the improved holographic approach, on the string theory side, and on the conjectured all-orders beta function for the gauge theory one. We first analyze the YM gauge theory. We then investigate the effects of adding flavors and show that, in the holographic description of the conformal window, the geometry becomes AdS when approaching the ultraviolet and the infrared regimes. As the number of flavors increases within the conformal window we observe that the geometry becomes more and more of AdS type over the entire energy range.Comment: 20 Pages, 3 Figures. v2: references adde

The decline and rise of neighbourhoods: the importance of neighbourhood governance

There is a substantial literature on the explanation of neighbourhood change. Most of this literature concentrates on identifying factors and developments behind processes of decline. This paper reviews the literature, focusing on the identification of patterns of neighbourhood change, and argues that the concept of neighbourhood governance is a missing link in attempts to explain these patterns. Including neighbourhood governance in the explanations of neighbourhood change and decline will produce better explanatory models and, finally, a better view about what is actually steering neighbourhood change