Neutron--Antineutron Oscillations at the Surface of Nuclei

We discuss some aspects of possible neutron--antineutron oscillations in nuclei. The phenomenon occurs mostly at the surface of nuclei, and hence {\sl i)} is not very sensitive to medium corrections and {\sl ii)} makes use of the antinucleon-nucleus interaction in a region probed by experiments at CERN.Comment: Contr. Oak Ridge Workshop on Workshop on Baryon Instability, Latex, 4 pages, comments to [email protected]

Double Λ\Lambda and the Λ−Λ\Lambda-\Lambda Interaction

The $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ effective interaction, in the channel $L=S=0$, in the nuclear medium is fitted to the available binding energies, $B_{\Lambda\Lambda}$, of double $\Lambda$ hypernuclei: $^{6}_{\Lambda\Lambda}$He, $^{10}_{\Lambda\Lambda}$Be and $^{13}_{\Lambda\Lambda}$B. The mesonic decay of these hypernuclei is also investigated. Finally, this effective interaction is used to predict the binding energies and mesonic decays widths of heavier double $\Lambda$ hypernuclei.Comment: 4 pages, (latex file, postscript-file and 3 Postscript-figures included

Patient Outcomes Significantly Improve When Receiving Treatment by Athletic Therapy Students

Student-run clinics are beneficial and provide interactions between education and community. Treatment outcomes by students are rarely measured. To our knowledge, no studies evaluate student athletic therapist’s rehabilitation outcomes. The purpose of our study was to measure the improvement in function in injured patients seeking treatment at the student-run Athletic Therapy PERFORM Clinic. Main Outcomes and Measures: At baseline and at follow-up, student-treated patients completed one of three questionnaires to assess their injured level of function: Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for low back injuries, Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) for lower extremity injuries and Disabilities of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (DASH) for upper extremity injuries. Results: On average, patients received 4.7 ± 1.8 treatments across 48.8 ± 16.1 days. Overall, patients experienced a statistically significant increase in function between assessment and follow-up (18.8% ± 20.3, p < 0.001). Patients with an acute injury improved more compared to patients with a chronic pain injury (p < 0.001). While there was no significant difference in function at baseline between patients with acute injuries and chronic pain/injuries, there was a trend towards patients with an acute injury being less functional (p = 0.051). Discussion: Improvements in function in injured patients at this student-run clinic are similar to the minimal clinically important difference respective to each questionnaire. The clinic offers an additional benefit to patients with a robust cost-effectiveness ratio. Our results suggest that Athletic Therapy education should investigate the different needs of chronic injury patients in order to maximize improvements in function

Widths of Ξ\Xi Hypernuclear States

The $\Lambda$ and neutron decay widths of $\Xi$ hypernuclear states, based on calculated \Xi N \to \lala mixing amplitudes, are estimated. The widths which result from using the Nijmegen Model D interaction are sufficiently small, of order 1.5 MeV, that experiments to observe $\Xi$ hypernuclear states using the $(K^-,K^+)$ reaction may be feasible.Comment: 20 pages, LaTex with one postscript figure in accompanying file, to appear in Progress of Theoretical Physics Supplement No. 11

Limits on \boldmath n {\bar n} oscillations from nuclear stability

The relationship between the lower limit on the nuclear stability lifetime as derived from the non disappearance of `stable` nuclei ($T_{d}~\gtrsim~5.4~\times~10^{31}$ yr), and the lower limit thus implied on the oscillation time $(\tau_{n \bar n})$ of a possibly underlying neutron-antineutron oscillation process, is clarified by studying the time evolution of the nuclear decay within a simple model which respects unitarity. The order-of-magnitude result $\tau_{n \bar n} \approx 2 (T_{d}/\Gamma_{\bar n})^{1/2} > 2 \times 10^{8}$ sec, where $\Gamma_{\bar n}$ is a typical $\bar n$ nuclear annihilation width, agrees as expected with the limit on $\tau_{n \bar n}$ established by several detailed nuclear physics calculations, but sharply disagreeing by 15 orders of magnitude with a claim published recently in Phys. Rev. CRAP.Comment: 8 pages; this PRC version (accepted for publication, November 4 1999) differs from the original version only by a few minor editorial change

Chiral SU(3) Symmetry and Strangeness

In this talk we review recent progress on the systematic evaluation of the kaon and antikaon spectral functions in dense nuclear matter based on a chiral SU(3) description of the low-energy pion-, kaon- and antikaon-nucleon scattering data.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, invited talk given by M.F.M.L. at the SQM2001 conferenc

SIMP (Strongly Interacting Massive Particle) Search

We consider laboratory experiments that can detect stable, neutral strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs). We explore the SIMP annihilation cross section from its minimum value (restricted by cosmological bounds) to the barn range, and vary the mass values from a GeV to a TeV. We also consider the prospects and problems of detecting such particles at the Tevatron.Comment: Latex. 7 pages, 1 eps figure. Proceedings to the 4th UCLA Symposium on Dark Matter DM2000, Marina del Rey, CA, USA, Feb. 23-25, 200

On the flow of kaons produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions

We investigate the different contributions to the in-plane flow of K+ mesons observed recently by the FOPI collaboration in the reaction Ni(1.93 AGeV)+Ni. Due to the kinematics of the three body phase space decay the flow of kaons produced in baryon-baryon interactions is smaller than that of the baryons in the entrance channel. On the contrary, in pi N interactions the flow of the sources and of the kaons are identical. Therefore the total kaon flow depends on the relative number of Delta N -> K+ and pi N -> K+ reactions and hence on the lifetime of the Delta, in addition to the already known dependence on the potential interaction interaction of the kaons with the nuclear environment.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, submitted to NP