Direct determinations of the nucleon and pion σ\sigma terms at nearly physical quark masses

We present a high statistics study of the pion and nucleon light and strange quark sigma terms using $N_f=2$ dynamical non-perturbatively improved clover fermions with a range of pion masses down to $m_\pi\sim 150$ MeV and several volumes, $Lm_\pi=3.4$ up to $6.7$, and lattice spacings, $a=0.06-0.08$ fm, enabling a study of finite volume and discretisation effects for $m_\pi\gtrsim 260$ MeV. Systematics are found to be reasonably under control. For the nucleon we obtain $\sigma_{\pi N}=35(6)$ MeV and $\sigma_s=35(12)$ MeV, or equivalently in terms of the quark fractions, $f_{T_u}=0.021(4)$, $f_{T_d}=0.016(4)$ and $f_{T_s}=0.037(13)$, where the errors include estimates of both the systematic and statistical uncertainties. These values, together with perturbative matching in the heavy quark limit, lead to $f_{T_c}=0.075(4)$, $f_{T_b}=0.072(2)$ and $f_{T_t}=0.070(1)$. In addition, through the use of the (inverse) Feynman-Hellmann theorem our results for $\sigma_{\pi N}$ are shown to be consistent with the nucleon masses determined in the analysis. For the pion we implement a method which greatly reduces excited state contamination to the scalar matrix elements from states travelling across the temporal boundary. This enables us to demonstrate the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner expectation $\sigma_\pi=m_\pi/2$ over our range of pion masses.Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, v2, small changes to text and figure

Color-Coulomb Force Calculated from Lattice Coulomb Hamiltonian

The static color-Coulomb potential is calculated as the solution of a non-linear integral equation. This equation has been derived recently as a self-consistency condition which arises in the Coulomb Hamiltonian formulation of lattice gauge theory when the restriction to the interior of the Gribov horizon is implemented. The potential obtained is in qualitative agreement with expectations, being Coulombic with logarithmic corrections at short range and confining at long range. The values obtained for the string tension and $\Lambda_{\overline{MS}}$ are in semi-quantitative agreement with lattice Monte Carlo and phenomenological determinations.Comment: 4 pages (including 1 figure); (latex using espcrc2.sty). Talk presented at LATTICE96(poster

Wiki SaGa: an Interactive Timeline to Visualize Historical Documents

Searching for information inside a repository of digitised historical documents is a very common task. A timeline interface that represents the historical content which can perform the same search function will reveal better results to researchers. This paper presents the integration of SIMILE Timeline within a wiki, named Wiki SaGa, containing digitised version of Sarawak Gazette. The proposed approach allows display of events and relevant information search compared to traditional list of documents

Scale setting and the light baryon spectrum in Nf=2+1N_f=2+1 QCD with Wilson fermions

We determine the light baryon spectrum on ensembles generated by the Coordinated Lattice Simulations (CLS) effort, employing $N_f=2+1$ flavours of non-perturbatively improved Wilson fermions. The hadron masses are interpolated and extrapolated within the quark mass plane, utilizing three distinct trajectories, two of which intersect close to the physical quark mass point and the third one approaching the SU(3) chiral limit. The results are extrapolated to the continuum limit, utilizing six different lattice spacings ranging from $a\approx 0.10\,$fm down to below $0.04\,$fm. The light pion mass varies from $M_{\pi}\approx 429\,$MeV down to $127\,$MeV. In general, the spatial extent is kept larger than four times the inverse pion mass and larger than $2.3\,$fm, with additional small and large volume ensembles to investigate finite size effects. We determine the Wilson flow scales $\sqrt{t_{0,{\rm ph}}}=0.1449^{(7)}_{(9)}\,$fm and $t_0^*\approx t_{0,{\rm ph}}$ from the octet cascade ($\Xi$ baryon). Determining the light baryon spectrum in the continuum limit, we find the nucleon mass $m_N=941.7^{(6.5)}_{(7.6)}\,$MeV and the other stable baryon masses to agree with their experimental values within sub-percent level uncertainties. Moreover, we determine SU(3) and SU(2) chiral perturbation theory low energy constants, including the octet and the $\Omega$ baryon sigma~terms $\sigma_{\pi N}=43.9(4.7)\,$MeV, $\sigma_{\pi\Lambda}=28.2^{(4.3)}_{(5.4)}\,$MeV, $\sigma_{\pi\Sigma}=25.9^{(3.8)}_{(6.1)}\,$MeV, $\sigma_{\pi\Xi}=11.2^{(4.5)}_{(6.4)}\,$MeV and $\sigma_{\pi\Omega}=6.9^{(5.3)}_{(4.3)}\,$MeV, as well as various parameters, renormalization factors and improvement coefficients that are relevant for simulations with our lattice action.Comment: 128 pages, many figure

The value premium and time-varying volatility

Numerous studies have documented the failure of the static and conditional capital asset pricing models to explain the difference in returns between value and growth stocks. This paper examines the post-1963 value premium by employing a model that captures the time-varying total risk of the value-minus-growth portfolios. Our results show that the time-series of value premia is strongly and positively correlated with its volatility. This conclusion is robust to the criterion used to sort stocks into value and growth portfolios and to the country under review (the US and the UK). Our paper is consistent with evidence on the possible role of idiosyncratic risk in explaining equity returns, and also with a separate strand of literature concerning the relative lack of reversibility of value firms' investment decisions

Tailoring the Surface Chemistry of PEDOT:PSS to Promote Supported Lipid Bilayer Formation

This communication reports on a versatile and substrate-agnostic method to tune the surface chemistry of conducting polymers with the aim of bridging the chemical mismatch between bioelectronic devices and biological systems. As a proof of concept, the surface of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is grafted with a short-chain oligoethylene glycol monolayer to favor the formation of cell-derived supported lipid bilayers (SLBs). This method is tuned to optimize the affinity between the supported lipid bilayer and the conducting polymer, leading to significant improvements in bilayer quality and therefore electronic readouts. To validate the impact of surface functionalization on the system's ability to transduce biological phenomena into quantifiable electronic signals, the activity of a virus commonly used as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 (mouse hepatitis virus) is monitored with and without surface treatment. The functionalized devices exhibit significant improvements in electronic output, stemming from the improved SLB quality, therefore strengthening the case for the use of such an approach in membrane-on-a-chip systems

Extraction of Spin-Dependent Parton Densities and Their Uncertainties

We discuss techniques and results for the extraction of the nucleon's spin-dependent parton distributions and their uncertainties from data for polarized deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon and proton-proton scattering by means of a global QCD analysis. Computational methods are described that significantly increase the speed of the required calculations to a level that allows to perform the full analysis consistently at next-to-leading order accuracy. We examine how the various data sets help to constrain different aspects of the quark, anti-quark, and gluon helicity distributions. Uncertainty estimates are performed using both the Lagrange multiplier and the Hessian approaches. We use the extracted parton distribution functions and their estimated uncertainties to predict spin asymmetries for high-transverse momentum pion and jet production in polarized proton-proton collisions at 500 GeV center-of-mass system energy at BNL-RHIC, as well as for W boson production.Comment: 25 pages, 15 eps figures, v2: minor changes, final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Gribov Problem for Gauge Theories: a Pedagogical Introduction

The functional-integral quantization of non-Abelian gauge theories is affected by the Gribov problem at non-perturbative level: the requirement of preserving the supplementary conditions under gauge transformations leads to a non-linear differential equation, and the various solutions of such a non-linear equation represent different gauge configurations known as Gribov copies. Their occurrence (lack of global cross-sections from the point of view of differential geometry) is called Gribov ambiguity, and is here presented within the framework of a global approach to quantum field theory. We first give a simple (standard) example for the SU(2) group and spherically symmetric potentials, then we discuss this phenomenon in general relativity, and recent developments, including lattice calculations.Comment: 24 pages, Revtex 4. In the revised version, a statement has been amended on page 11, and References 14, 16 and 27 have been improve

Water advance model and sensor system can reduce tail runoff in irrigated alfalfa fields

Surface irrigation, such as flood or furrow, is the predominant form of irrigation in California for agronomic crops. Compared to other irrigation methods, however, it is inefficient in terms of water use; large quantities of water, instead of being used for crop production, are lost to excess deep percolation and tail runoff. In surface-irrigated fields, irrigators commonly cut off the inflow of water when the water advance reaches a familiar or convenient location downfield, but this experience-based strategy has not been very successful in reducing the tail runoff water. Our study compared conventional cutoff practices to a retroactively applied model-based cutoff method in four commercially producing alfalfa fields in Northern California, and evaluated the model using a simple sensor system for practical application in typical alfalfa fields. These field tests illustrated that the model can be used to reduce tail runoff in typical surface-irrigated fields, and using it with a wireless sensor system saves time and labor as well as water