Quenching of the Deuteron in Flight

We investigate the Lorentz contraction of a deuteron in flight. Our starting point is the Blankenbecler-Sugar projection of the Bethe-Salpeter equation to a 3-dimensional quasi potential equation, wqhich we apply for the deuteron bound in an harmonic oscillator potential (for an analytical result) and by the Bonn NN potential for a more realistic estimate. We find substantial quenching with increasing external momenta and a significant modification of the high momentum spectrum of the deuteron.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Silica in a Mars analog environment: Ka'u Desert, Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

Airborne Visible/Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data acquired over the Ka'u Desert are atmospherically corrected to ground reflectance and used to identify the mineralogic components of relatively young basaltic materials, including 250–700 and 200–400 year old lava flows, 1971 and 1974 flows, ash deposits, and solfatara incrustations. To provide context, a geologic surface units map is constructed, verified with field observations, and supported by laboratory analyses. AVIRIS spectral end-members are identified in the visible (0.4 to 1.2 μm) and short wave infrared (2.0 to 2.5 μm) wavelength ranges. Nearly all the spectral variability is controlled by the presence of ferrous and ferric iron in such minerals as pyroxene, olivine, hematite, goethite, and poorly crystalline iron oxides or glass. A broad, nearly ubiquitous absorption feature centered at 2.25 μm is attributed to opaline (amorphous, hydrated) silica and is found to correlate spatially with mapped geologic surface units. Laboratory analyses show the silica to be consistently present as a deposited phase, including incrustations downwind from solfatara vents, cementing agent for ash duricrusts, and thin coatings on the youngest lava flow surfaces. A second, Ti-rich upper coating on young flows also influences spectral behavior. This study demonstrates that secondary silica is mobile in the Ka'u Desert on a variety of time scales and spatial domains. The investigation from remote, field, and laboratory perspectives also mimics exploration of Mars using orbital and landed missions, with important implications for spectral characterization of coated basalts and formation of opaline silica in arid, acidic alteration environments

Oxidative photopolymerization of thiol-terminated polysulfide resins. Application in antibacterial coatings

A UV photoinduced cross-linking of non-modified commercial poly(disulfide) resins (Thioplast) is reported via the air oxidative photocoupling of terminal thiol functions. Catalyzed by a photogenerated guanidine base (TBD), this step-growth photopolymerization is useful to maximize disulfide functions content. The mechanism proceeds through thiol deprotonation into thiolate anions, further oxidized into thiyl radicals, eventually dimerizing into disulfide cross-links. Starting with a detailed structural characterization of the thiol-terminated resin, photooxidative kinetics are studied under exposure to a polychromatic medium-pressure Hg arc using Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The effects of irradiance, film thickness, photobase concentration, resin molar mass, and content of an additional polythiol monomer (reactive diluent) have been investigated. In an effort of upscaling, irradiation under a 365 nm LED panel has enabled the fast preparation of 1.5 μm thick cross-linked poly(disulfide) coatings in a matter of minutes. Capitalizing on the ability of residual thiol groups to react with silver cations, a post-functionalization has been successfully performed, leading to films exhibiting at their surface stable thiolate-silver bonds as proved by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Despite the well-established biocide action of silver ions, no antibacterial action has been evidenced by confocal fluorescence microscopy because of insufficient release

Exotic baryon multiplets at large number of colours

We generalize the usual octet, decuplet and exotic antidecuplet and higher baryon multiplets to any number of colours Nc. We show that the multiplets fall into a sequence of bands with O(1/Nc) splittings inside the band and O(1)splittings between the bands characterized by "exoticness", that is the number of extra quark-antiquark pairs needed to compose the multiplet. Each time one adds a pair the baryon mass is increased by the same constant which can be interpreted as a mass of a quark-antiquark pair. At the same time, we prove that masses of exotic rotational multiplets are reliably determined at large Nc from collective quantization of chiral solitons.Comment: 13 p., 5 figs. New section and references adde

The LHC String Hunter's Companion (II): Five-Particle Amplitudes and Universal Properties

We extend the study of scattering amplitudes presented in ``The LHC String Hunter's Companion'' to the case of five-point processes that may reveal the signals of low mass strings at the LHC and are potentially useful for detailed investigations of fundamental Regge excitations. In particular, we compute the full-fledged string disk amplitudes describing all 2->3 parton scattering subprocesses leading to the production of three hadronic jets. We cast our results in a form suitable for the implementation of stringy partonic cross sections in the LHC data analysis. We discuss the universal, model-independent features of multi-parton processes and point out the existence of even stronger universality relating N-gluon amplitudes to the amplitudes involving N-2 gluons and one quark-antiquark pair. We construct a particularly simple basis of two functions describing all universal five-point amplitudes. We also discuss model-dependent amplitudes involving four fermions and one gauge boson that may be relevant for studying jets associated to Drell-Yan pairs and other processes depending on the spectrum of Kaluza-Klein particles, thus on the geometry of compact dimensions.Comment: 71 pages, LaTeX v2: very few typos removed, final version to appear in NP

Polarized Single Top Production at Leptonic Colliders from Broken R Parity Interactions Incorporating CP Violation

The contribution from the R parity violating interactions in the associated production of a top quark with a charm antiquark is examined for high energy leptonic colliders. We concentrate on the reactions associated with the semileptonic top decay. A set of characteristic dynamical distributions for the signal events is evaluated and the results contrasted against those from the standard model W-boson pair production background. Next, we turn to a study of a CP-odd observable, associated with the top spin, which leads to an asymmetry in the energy distribution of the emitted charged leptons for the pair of CP-conjugate final states, $b \bar l \nu \bar c$ and $\bar b l \bar \nu c$. A non vanishing asymmetry arises from a CP-odd phase, embedded in the R parity violating coupling constants, through interference terms between the R parity violating amplitudes at both the tree and loop levels.Comment: revtex file. 17 pages. 7 postscript figures. 1 table. The revised version includes an estimate of experimental uncertainties. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Microscopic calculation of 6Li elastic and transition form factors

Variational Monte Carlo wave functions, obtained from a realistic Hamiltonian consisting of the Argonne v18 two-nucleon and Urbana-IX three-nucleon interactions, are used to calculate the 6Li ground-state longitudinal and transverse form factors as well as transition form factors to the first four excited states. The charge and current operators include one- and two-body components, leading terms of which are constructed consistently with the two-nucleon interaction. The calculated form factors and radiative widths are in good agreement with available experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX, submitted to Physical Review Letters, with updated introduction and reference

The π−\pi-Gluon Exchange Interaction Between Constituent Quarks

The interaction mediated by irreducible pion and gluon exchange between constituent quarks is calculated and shown to have a strong tensor component, which tends to cancel the pion exchange tensor interaction between quarks. Its spin-spin component is somewhat weaker than the pion exchange spin-spin interaction, while its central and spin-orbit components are small in comparison to the corresponding single gluon exchange interactions. The combination of the $\pi-$gluon exchange interaction with the single pion exchange interaction and a weak gluon exchange interaction between constituent quarks has the qualitative features required for understanding the hyperfine splittings of the spectra of the nucleon and the $\Delta$ resonances.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, 5 Postscript figure

Chiral soliton models, large N_c consistency and the Theta^+ exotic baryon

Predictions for a light collective $\Theta^+$ baryon state (with strangeness +1) based on the collective quantization of chiral soliton models are shown to be inconsistent with large $N_c$ QCD. The lightest strangeness +1 state to emerge from the analysis has an excitation energy which at large $N_c$ scales as $N_c^0$ while collective quantization is legitimate only for excitations which go to zero as $N_c \to \infty$. This inconsistency strongly suggests that predictions for $\Theta^+$ properties based on collective quantization of chiral solitons are not valid.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. This is the version to be published; minor typos have been corrected and a reference adde