The Possible White Dwarf-Neutron Star Connection

The current status of the problem of whether neutron stars can form, in close binary systems, by accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of white dwarfs is examined. We find that, in principle, both initially cold C+O white dwarfs in the high-mass tail of their mass distribution in binaries and O+Ne+Mg white dwarfs can produce neutron stars. Which fractions of neutron stars in different types of binaries (or descendants from binaries) might originate from this process remains uncertain.Comment: 6 pages. To appear in "White Dwarfs", ed. J. Isern, M. Hernanz, and E. Garcia-Berro (Dordrecht: Kluwer

Deep inelastic scattering, diffraction, and all that

These lectures include an introduction to the partonic description of the proton, the photon and the `colour singlet', as seen in inclusive and semi-inclusive DIS, in $e^+e^-$ collisions, and in diffractive processes, respectively. Their formal treatment using structure, fragmentation, and fracture functions is outlined giving an insight into the perturbative QCD framework for these functions. Examples and comparisons with experimental data from LEP, HERA, and Tevatron are also covered.Comment: 46 pages, 52 postscript figures, LaTeX, aipproc.sty. To be published in the proceedings of VII Mexican Workshop on Particles and Field

Photoproduction of jets and the virtual structure of the photon

We compute the ratio between the direct and the resolved photon components of single jet and dijet production in $ep$ collisions for the kinematical range covered by the most recent ZEUS data. We analyse the phenomenological consequences of different models for the structure of virtual photons in these observables and compare them with the available data. We also comment on the correlation between the so called $x_{\gamma}^{obs}$ and the `true' $x_{\gamma}$, that can be inferred from the data.Comment: epsfig, 5 figure

NLO Scale Dependence of Semi-Inclusive Processes

We discuss the order \alpha_s^2 gluon initiated QCD corrections to one particle inclusive deep inelastic processes. We focus in the NLO evolution kernels relevant for the non homogeneous QCD scale dependence of these cross sections and factorization.Comment: Poster presentation at the XXIII Physics in Collision Conference (PIC03), Zeuthen, Germany, June 2003, 3 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figures, PSN FRAP1

The role of heavy quarks in light hadron fragmentation

We investigate the role of heavy quarks in the production of light flavored hadrons and in the determination of the corresponding non perturbative hadronization probabilities. We define a general mass variable flavor number scheme for fragmentation functions that accounts for heavy quark mass effects, and perform a global QCD analysis to an up-to-date data set including very precise Belle and BaBar results. We show that the mass dependent picture provides a much more accurate and consistent description of data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figure

Search for the companions of Galactic SNe Ia

The central regions of the remnants of Galactic SNe Ia have been examined for the presence of companion stars of the exploded supernovae. We present the results of this survey for the historical SN 1572 and SN 1006. The spectra of the stars are modeled to obtain Teff, log g and the metallicity. Radial velocities are obtained with an accuracy of 5--10 km s$^{-1}$. Implications for the nature of the companion star in SNeIa follow.Comment: 8 pages, 2 Postscript figures. Appeared in "From Twilight to Highlight: the Physics of Supernovae", ed. W. Hillebrandt & B. Leibundgut (Springer), pp. 140-14