Self Consistent 1/Nc1/N_c Expansion In The Presence Of Electroweak Interactions

In the conventional approach to the $1/N_c$ expansion, electroweak interactions are switched off and large $N_c$ QCD is treated in isolation. We study the self-consistency of taking the large $N_c$ limit in the presence of electroweak interaction. If the electroweak coupling constants are held constant, the large $N_c$ counting rules are violated by processes involving internal photon or weak boson lines. Anomaly cancellations, however, fix the ratio of electric charges of different fermions. This allows a self-consistent way to scale down the electronic charge $e$ in the large $N_c$ limit and hence restoring the validity of the large $N_c$ counting rules.Comment: 9 pages in REVTeX, no figure

Circulating Levels of Adipocyte and Epidermal Fatty Acid–Binding Proteins in Relation to Nephropathy Staging and Macrovascular Complications in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

OBJECTIVE—To investigate the relationships of serum adipocyte fatty acid–binding protein (A-FABP) and epidermal fatty acid–binding protein (E-FABP) with renal dysfunction and macrovascular complications in type 2 diabetic patients

Dirichlet sigma models and mean curvature flow

The mean curvature flow describes the parabolic deformation of embedded branes in Riemannian geometry driven by their extrinsic mean curvature vector, which is typically associated to surface tension forces. It is the gradient flow of the area functional, and, as such, it is naturally identified with the boundary renormalization group equation of Dirichlet sigma models away from conformality, to lowest order in perturbation theory. D-branes appear as fixed points of this flow having conformally invariant boundary conditions. Simple running solutions include the paper-clip and the hair-pin (or grim-reaper) models on the plane, as well as scaling solutions associated to rational (p, q) closed curves and the decay of two intersecting lines. Stability analysis is performed in several cases while searching for transitions among different brane configurations. The combination of Ricci with the mean curvature flow is examined in detail together with several explicit examples of deforming curves on curved backgrounds. Some general aspects of the mean curvature flow in higher dimensional ambient spaces are also discussed and obtain consistent truncations to lower dimensional systems. Selected physical applications are mentioned in the text, including tachyon condensation in open string theory and the resistive diffusion of force-free fields in magneto-hydrodynamics.Comment: 77 pages, 21 figure

Short-Range Interactions and Scaling Near Integer Quantum Hall Transitions

We study the influence of short-range electron-electron interactions on scaling behavior near the integer quantum Hall plateau transitions. Short-range interactions are known to be irrelevant at the renormalization group fixed point which represents the transition in the non-interacting system. We find, nevertheless, that transport properties change discontinuously when interactions are introduced. Most importantly, in the thermodynamic limit the conductivity at finite temperature is zero without interactions, but non-zero in the presence of arbitrarily weak interactions. In addition, scaling as a function of frequency, $\omega$, and temperature, $T$, is determined by the scaling variable $\omega/T^p$ (where $p$ is the exponent for the temperature dependence of the inelastic scattering rate) and not by $\omega/T$, as it would be at a conventional quantum phase transition described by an interacting fixed point. We express the inelastic exponent, $p$, and the thermal exponent, $z_T$, in terms of the scaling dimension, $-\alpha < 0$, of the interaction strength and the dynamical exponent $z$ (which has the value $z=2$), obtaining $p=1+2\alpha/z$ and $z_T=2/p$.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Four-fermion heavy quark operators and light current amplitudes in heavy flavor hadrons

We introduce and study the properties of the "color-straight" four-quark operators containing heavy and light quark fields. They are of the form (\bar b\Gamma_b b)(\bar q\Gamma_q q) where both brackets are color singlets. Their expectation values include the bulk of the nonfactorizable contributions to the nonleptonic decay widths of heavy hadrons. The expectation values of the color-straight operators in the heavy hadrons are related to the momentum integrals of the elastic light-quark formfactors of the respective heavy hadron. We calculate the asymptotic behavior of the light-current formfactors of heavy hadrons and show that the actual decrease is 1/(q^2)^3/2 rather than 1/q^4. The two-loop hybrid anomalous dimensions of the four-quark operators and their mixing (absent in the first loop) are obtained. Using plausible models for the elastic formfactors, we estimate the expectation values of the color-straight operators in the heavy mesons and baryons. Improved estimates will be possible in the future with new data on the radiative decays of heavy hadrons. We give the Wilson coefficients of the four-fermion operators in the 1/m_b expansion of the inclusive widths and discuss the numerical predictions. Estimates of the nonfactorizable expectation values are given.Comment: 51 pages. The case of flavor-singlet operators is added for the two-loop anomalous dimension

Baryonium, tetra-quark state and glue-ball in large N_c QCD

From the large-N_c QCD point of view, baryonia, tetra-quark states, hybrids, and glueballs are studied. The existence of these states is argued for. They are constructed from baryons. In N_f=1 large N_c QCD, a baryonium is always identical to a glueball with N_c valence gluons. The ground state 0^{-+} glueball has a mass about 2450 MeV. f_0(1710) is identified as the lowest 0^{++} glueball. The lowest four-quark nonet should be f_0(1370), a_0(1450), K^*_0(1430) and f_0(1500). Combining with the heavy quark effective theory, spectra of heavy baryonia and heavy tetra-quark states are predicted. 1/N_c corrections are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Characterization of Avian Influenza Viruses A (H5N1) from Wild Birds, Hong Kong, 2004–2008

Repeated detection of subclade 2.3.2 viruses in nonpasserine birds from different regions suggests possible establishment of this lineage in wild bird species