Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering and Large N(c) QCD

Nucleon-nucleon scattering observables are discussed in the context of large Nc QCD. As is well known, the baryon spectrum in the large Nc limit exhibits contracted SU(2Nf) spin-flavor sym- metry. This symmetry can be used to derive model-independent relations between proton-proton and proton-neutron total cross sections. These relations are valid in the kinematic regime in which the relative momentum of two nucleons is of order of Nc. In this semiclassical regime the nucleon-nucleon scattering can be described in the time-dependent mean field approximation. These model-independent results are compared to experimental data for spin-independent and polarized total nucleon-nucleon cross sections.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Invited talk, Xth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, October 201

Heavy Baryons: A Combined Large N_c and Heavy Quark Expansion for Electroweak Currents

The combined large N_c and heavy quark limit for baryons containing a single heavy quark is discussed. The combined large N_c and heavy quark expansion of the heavy quark bilinear operators is obtained. In the combined expansion the corrections proportional to m_N/m_Q are summed to all orders. In particular, the combined expansion can be used to determine semileptonic form factors of heavy baryons in the combined limit.Comment: 8 pages. Presented at The Phenomenology of Large N_c QCD, Tempe, Arizona, 9-11 Jan 200

Classical Strongly Coupled QGP II: Screening and Equation of State

We analyze the screening and bulk energy of a classical and strongly interacting plasma of color charges, a model we recently introduced for the description of a quark-gluon plasma at T=(1-3)Tc. The partition function is organized around the Debye-Huckel limit. The linear Debye-Huckel limit is corrected by a virial expansion. For the pressure, the expansion is badly convergent even in the dilute limit. The non-linear Debye-Huckel theory is studied numerically as an alternative for moderately strong plasmas. We use Debye theory of solid to extend the analysis to the crystal phase at very strong coupling. The analytical results for the bulk energy per particle compare well with the numerical results from molecular dynamics simulation for all couplings.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

New near-threshold mesons

We show that under a number of rather plausible assumptions QCD spectrum may contain a number of mesons which have not been predicted or observed. Such states will have the quantum numbers of two existing mesons and masses very close to the dissociation threshold into the two mesons. Moreover, at least one of the two mesonic constituents itself must be very close to its dissociation threshold. In particular, one might expect the existence of loosely bound systems of $D$ and \D; similarly, $K$ and \ff, $\bar{K}$ and \ff, $K$ and $\aa$ and $\bar{K}$ and $\aa$ can be bound. The mechanism for binding in these cases is the S-wave kaon exchange. The nearness of one of the constituents to its decay threshold into a kaon plus a remainder, implies that the range of the kaon exchange force becomes abnormally long--significantly longer than $1/m_K$ which greatly aids the binding.Comment: 5 page

Rich state, poor state, red state, blue state: What's the matter with Connecticut?

For decades, the Democrats have been viewed as the party of the poor, with the Republicans representing the rich. Recent presidential elections, however, have shown a reverse pattern, with Democrats performing well in the richer blue states in the northeast and coasts, and Republicans dominating in the red states in the middle of the country and the south. Through multilevel modeling of individual-level survey data and county- and state-level demographic and electoral data, we reconcile these patterns. Furthermore, we find that income matters more in red America than in blue America. In poor states, rich people are much more likely than poor people to vote for the Republican presidential candidate, but in rich states (such as Connecticut), income has a very low correlation with vote preference

Classical Strongly Coupled QGP I: The Model and Molecular Dynamics Simulations

We propose a model for the description of strongly interacting quarks and gluon quasiparticles at $T=(1-3)T_c$, as a classical and nonrelativistic colored Coulomb gas. The sign and strength of the inter-particle interactions are fixed by the scalar product of their classical {\it color vectors} subject to Wong's equations. The model displays a number of phases as the Coulomb coupling is increased ranging from a gas, to a liquid, to a crystal with antiferromagnetic-like color ordering. We analyze the model using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and discuss the density-density correlator in real time. We extract pertinent decorrelation times, diffusion and viscosity constants for all phases. The classical results when extrapolated to the sQGP suggest that the phase is liquid-like, with a diffusion constant $D\approx 0.1/T$ and a bulk viscosity to entropy density ratio $\eta/s\approx 1/3$.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure

Nucleon-Nucleon Scattering Observables in Large-NcN_c QCD

Nucleon-nucleon scattering observables are considered in the context of the large $N_c$ limit of QCD for initial states with moderately high momenta ($p \sim N_c$). The scattering is studied in the framework of the time-dependent mean-field approximation. We focus on the dependence of those observables on the spin and isospin of the initial state which may be computed using time-dependent mean-field theory. We show that, up to corrections, all such observables must be invariant under simultaneous spin and isospin flips ({\it i.e.} rotations through $\pi/2$ in both spin and isospin) acting on either particle. All observables of this class obtained from spin unpolarized measurements must be isospin independent up to $1/N_c$ corrections. Moreover, it can be shown that the leading correction is of relative order $1/N_c^2$ rather than $1/N_c$.Comment: 4 page