Monte Carlo Simulations of Hadronic Fragmentation Functions using NJL-Jet Model

The recently developed Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) - Jet model is used as an effective chiral quark theory to calculate the quark fragmentation functions to pions, kaons, nucleons, and antinucleons. The effects of the vector mesons rho, K* and phi on the production of secondary pions and kaons are included. The fragmentation processes to nucleons and antinucleons are described by using the quark-diquark picture, which has been shown to give a reasonable description of quark distribution functions. We incorporate effects of next-to-leading order (NLO) in the Q^2 evolution, and compare our results with the empirical fragmentation functions.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure

Medium Modifications of Hadron Properties and Partonic Processes

Chiral symmetry is one of the most fundamental symmetries in QCD. It is closely connected to hadron properties in the nuclear medium via the reduction of the quark condensate , manifesting the partial restoration of chiral symmetry. To better understand this important issue, a number of Jefferson Lab experiments over the past decade have focused on understanding properties of mesons and nucleons in the nuclear medium, often benefiting from the high polarization and luminosity of the CEBAF accelerator. In particular, a novel, accurate, polarization transfer measurement technique revealed for the first time a strong indication that the bound proton electromagnetic form factors in 4He may be modified compared to those in the vacuum. Second, the photoproduction of vector mesons on various nuclei has been measured via their decay to e+e- to study possible in-medium effects on the properties of the rho meson. In this experiment, no significant mass shift and some broadening consistent with expected collisional broadening for the rho meson has been observed, providing tight constraints on model calculations. Finally, processes involving in-medium parton propagation have been studied. The medium modifications of the quark fragmentation functions have been extracted with much higher statistical accuracy than previously possible.Comment: to appear in J. Phys.: Conf. Proc. "New Insights into the Structure of Matter: The First Decade of Science at Jefferson Lab", eds. D. Higinbotham, W. Melnitchouk, A. Thomas; added reference

Observations of Transient Active Region Heating with Hinode

We present observations of transient active region heating events observed with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) and X-ray Telescope (XRT) on Hinode. This initial investigation focuses on NOAA active region 10940 as observed by Hinode on February 1, 2007 between 12 and 19 UT. In these observations we find numerous examples of transient heating events within the active region. The high spatial resolution and broad temperature coverage of these instruments allows us to track the evolution of coronal plasma. The evolution of the emission observed with XRT and EIS during these events is generally consistent with loops that have been heated and are cooling. We have analyzed the most energetic heating event observed during this period, a small GOES B-class flare, in some detail and present some of the spectral signatures of the event, such as relative Doppler shifts at one of the loop footpoints and enhanced line widths during the rise phase of the event. While the analysis of these transient events has the potential to yield insights into the coronal heating mechanism, these observations do not rule out the possibility that there is a strong steady heating level in the active region. Detailed statistical analysis will be required to address this question definitively

Particulate and aerosol detector

A device is described for counting aerosols and sorting them according to either size, mass or energy. The component parts are an accelerator, a capacitor sensor and a readout. The accelerator is a means for accelerating the aerosols toward the face of the capacitor sensor with such force that they partially penetrate the capacitor sensor, momentarily discharging it. The readout device is a means for counting the number of discharges of the capacitor sensor and measuring the amplitudes of these different discharges. The aerosols are accelerated by the accelerator in the direction of the metal layer with such force that they penetrate the metal and damage the oxide layers, thereby allowing the electrical charge on the capacitor to discharge through the damaged region. Each incident aerosol initiates a discharge path through the capacitor in such a fashion as to vaporize the conducting path. Once the discharge action is complete, the low resistance path no longer exists between the two capacitor plates and the capacitor is again able to accept a charge. The active area of the capacitor is reduced in size by the damaged area each time a discharge occurs

An Optimal Linear Time Algorithm for Quasi-Monotonic Segmentation

Monotonicity is a simple yet significant qualitative characteristic. We consider the problem of segmenting a sequence in up to K segments. We want segments to be as monotonic as possible and to alternate signs. We propose a quality metric for this problem using the l_inf norm, and we present an optimal linear time algorithm based on novel formalism. Moreover, given a precomputation in time O(n log n) consisting of a labeling of all extrema, we compute any optimal segmentation in constant time. We compare experimentally its performance to two piecewise linear segmentation heuristics (top-down and bottom-up). We show that our algorithm is faster and more accurate. Applications include pattern recognition and qualitative modeling.Comment: This is the extended version of our ICDM'05 paper (arXiv:cs/0702142