Near-threshold K+K^{+} Production in Heavy-ion Collisions

Within a hadronic transport model we study in detail contributions to kaon yields and momentum spectra from various baryon (resonance)-baryon (resonance) and $\pi N$ interactions in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies near the free-space kaon production threshold. It is found that the finite lifetime of baryon resonances affects significantly the shape of kaon spectra, and the high energy parts of the kaon spectra are dominated by kaons from $\pi N\rightarrow \Lambda K^{+}$ processes. $N^{*}(1440)$ resonances are found to contribute about 10\% to the kaon yield. Effects of boosting the Fermi momentum distributions of the two colliding nuclei into their center of mass frame, centrality of the reaction as well as the nuclear equation of state on kaon yields and spectra are also discussed. Model calculations on $K^{+}$, $\pi^{+}$ and $\pi^{-}$ spectra for the reaction of Au+Au at $E_{beam}/A= 1.0$ GeV are compared with the experimental data from the KaoS collaboration.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures available upon request. TAMU preprint #940403

Non-relativistic effective theory of dark matter direct detection

Dark matter direct detection searches for signals coming from dark matter scattering against nuclei at a very low recoil energy scale ~ 10 keV. In this paper, a simple non-relativistic effective theory is constructed to describe interactions between dark matter and nuclei without referring to any underlying high energy models. It contains the minimal set of operators that will be tested by direct detection. The effective theory approach highlights the set of distinguishable recoil spectra that could arise from different theoretical models. If dark matter is discovered in the near future in direct detection experiments, a measurement of the shape of the recoil spectrum will provide valuable information on the underlying dynamics. We bound the coefficients of the operators in our non-relativistic effective theory by the null results of current dark matter direct detection experiments. We also discuss the mapping between the non-relativistic effective theory and field theory models or operators, including aspects of the matching of quark and gluon operators to nuclear form factors.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures, Appendix C.3 revised, acknowledgments and references adde

Factorization of shell-model ground-states

We present a new method that accurately approximates the shell-model ground-state by products of suitable states. The optimal factors are determined by a variational principle and result from the solution of rather low-dimensional eigenvalue problems. The power of this method is demonstrated by computations of ground-states and low-lying excitations in sd-shell and pf-shell nuclei.Comment: 5+epsilon pages, 5 eps-figures. Main additions: wave-function overlaps, angular momentum expectation values, application to Ni56. To be published as Rapid Communication in PR

Products of Nearly Holomorphic Eigenforms

We prove that the product of two nearly holomorphic Hecke eigenforms is again a Hecke eigenform for only finitely many choices of factors.Comment: 8 page

Effects of Long-Range Nonlinear Interactions in Double-Well Potentials

We consider the interplay of linear double-well-potential (DWP) structures and nonlinear longrange interactions of different types, motivated by applications to nonlinear optics and matter waves. We find that, while the basic spontaneous-symmetry-breaking (SSB) bifurcation structure in the DWP persists in the presence of the long-range interactions, the critical points at which the SSB emerges are sensitive to the range of the nonlocal interaction. We quantify the dynamics by developing a few-mode approximation corresponding to the DWP structure, and analyze the resulting system of ordinary differential equations and its bifurcations in detail. We compare results of this analysis with those produced by the full partial differential equation, finding good agreement between the two approaches. Effects of the competition between the local self-attraction and nonlocal repulsion on the SSB are studied too. A far more complex bifurcation structure involving the possibility for not only supercritical but also subcritical bifurcations and even bifurcation loops is identified in that case.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Large-space shell-model calculations for light nuclei

An effective two-body interaction is constructed from a new Reid-like $NN$ potential for a large no-core space consisting of six major shells and is used to generate the shell-model properties for light nuclei from $A$=2 to 6. (For practical reasons, the model space is partially truncated for $A$=6.) Binding energies and other physical observables are calculated and compare favorably with experiment.Comment: prepared using LaTex, 21 manuscript pages, no figure

Electroweak Corrections to the Charged Higgs Boson Decay into Chargino and Neutralino

The electroweak corrections to the partial widths of the $H^+ \to \tilde{\chi}^+_i \tilde{\chi}_j^0 (i=1,j=1,2)$ decays including one-loop diagrams of the third generation quarks and squarks, are investigated within the Supersymmetric Standard Model. The relative corrections can reach the values about 10%, therefore they should be taken into account for the precise experimental measurement at future colliders.Comment: 21 pages, 6 eps figures, 1 Latex fil

Communication and mutual resource exchange in north Florida hermit crabs

The patterns of shell exchange in three species of hermit crabs which overlap in distribution and shell use were observed in the laboratory. Crabs showed no tendency to initiate more exchanges with conspecifics as compared with nonconspecific individuals and there were no specific size dominance effects. Lack of common communicatory patterns between Clibararius vittatus and Pagurus pollicaris was correlated with minimal actual exchange, while Pagurus impressus exchanged with both species and executed patterns in common with both. The pattern of shell exchanges and preferences indicated that, in some cases, both individuals may gain in interspecific exchanges.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46904/1/265_2004_Article_BF00569198.pd

Menus for Feeding Black Holes

Black holes are the ultimate prisons of the Universe, regions of spacetime where the enormous gravity prohibits matter or even light to escape to infinity. Yet, matter falling toward the black holes may shine spectacularly, generating the strongest source of radiation. These sources provide us with astrophysical laboratories of extreme physical conditions that cannot be realized on Earth. This chapter offers a review of the basic menus for feeding matter onto black holes and discusses their observational implications.Comment: 27 pages. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Also to appear in hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI "The Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (Springer Publisher

Partial Wave Analysis of J/ψ→γ(K+K−π+π−)J/\psi \to \gamma (K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)

BES data on $J/\psi \to \gamma (K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)$ are presented. The $K^*\bar K^*$ contribution peaks strongly near threshold. It is fitted with a broad $0^{-+}$ resonance with mass $M = 1800 \pm 100$ MeV, width $\Gamma = 500 \pm 200$ MeV. A broad $2^{++}$ resonance peaking at 2020 MeV is also required with width $\sim 500$ MeV. There is further evidence for a $2^{-+}$ component peaking at 2.55 GeV. The non-$K^*\bar K^*$ contribution is close to phase space; it peaks at 2.6 GeV and is very different from $K^{*}\bar{K^{*}}$.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Submitted to PL