Issues in determining alpha_s from hadronic tau decay and electroproduction data

We discuss some key issues associated with duality-violating and non-perturbative OPE contributions to the theoretical representations of light quark current-current two-point functions and relevant to precision determinations of alpha_s from hadronic tau decay and electroproduction cross-section data. We demonstrate that analyses with an explicit representation of duality-violating effects are required to bring theoretical errors in such extractions under control, motivating the accompanying paper in these proceedings, which presents the results of such an analysis.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Prepared for the Proceedings of the International Workshop on e+e- collisions from Phi to Psi (PHIPSI11), Sep. 19-22, 2011, BINP, Novosibirsk, Russi

Duality Violation and the K --> pi pi Electroweak Penguin Operator Matrix Elements from Hadronic Tau Decays

We discuss a preliminary study of the impact of duality violations on extractions from tau decay data of the D=6 VEVs which determine chiral limit Standard Model K-->pi pi matrix elements of the electroweak penguin operators.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, prepared for the Proceedings of the 11th Particle and Nuclear Intersections Conference (PANIC 2011), Boston, USA, July 24-29, 201

Isospin-Breaking Vacuum-to-Pi^0,Eta Pseudoscalar Matrix Elements at Next-to-Leading Order in the Chiral Expansion

We employ Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) to evaluate the complete set of pseudoscalar matrix elements, , with P_f any of the flavor-diagonal pseudoscalar currents (f=u,d,s), to order (m_d-m_u), and to next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion. These matrix elements represent the basic input to a QCD sum rule analysis of isospin breaking in the pi NN couplings using the three-point-function method. We discuss also how one could use the results to construct a one parameter family of interpolating fields for the $\pi^0$, all of whose members have zero vacuum-to-$\eta$ matrix element, and explain how this could in principle be used to provide non-trivial tests of the reliability of the assumptions underlying the use of the three-point-function method. It is shown that the isospin-breaking mixing parameters required for this construction receive significant corrections beyond leading order in the chiral expansion.Comment: 9 pages, 1 postscript figur

Isospin Breaking and ω\omega->ππ\pi\pi Decay

We study $\omega\to\pi^+\pi^-$ decay up to including all orders of the chiral expansion and one-loop level of mesons in formlism of chiral constituent quark model. This G-parity forbidden decay is caused by $m_u\neq m_d$ and electromagnetic interaction of mesons. We illustrate that in the formlism both nonresonant contact interaction and $\rho$ resonance exchange contribute to this process, and the contribution from $\rho$ resonance exchange is dominant. We obtain that transition matrix element is $=[-(3956\pm 280)-(1697\pm 130)i]$MeV$^2$, and isospin breaking parameter is $m_d-m_u=3.9\pm 0.22$MeV at energy scale $\mu\sim m_\omega$.Comment: Revtex file, 16 pages, four eps figur

The Strange Quark Mass From Flavor Breaking in Hadronic Tau Decays

The strange quark mass is extracted from a finite energy sum rule (FESR) analysis of the flavor-breaking difference of light-light and light-strange quark vector-plus-axial-vector correlators, using spectral functions determined from hadronic tau decay data. We point out problems for existing FESR treatments associated with potentially slow convergence of the perturbative series for the mass-dependent terms in the OPE over certain parts of the FESR contour, and show how to construct alternate weight choices which not only cure this problem, but also (1) considerably improve the convergence of the integrated perturbative series, (2) strongly suppress contributions from the region of s values where the errors on the strange current spectral function are still large and (3) essentially completely remove uncertainties associated with the subtraction of longitudinal contributions to the experimental decay distributions. The result is an extraction of m_s with statistical errors comparable to those associated with the current experimental uncertainties in the determination of the CKM angle, V_{us}. We find m_s(1 GeV)=158.6\pm 18.7\pm 16.3\pm 13.3 MeV (where the first error is statistical, the second due to that on V_{us}, and the third theoretical).Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; final version to appear in Phys. Rev. D; expanded versions of Figure 2 and Reference 3

The discovery and properties of pentaquarks

The pentaquarks are exotic baryons formed of four quarks and an antiquarks. Their existence has been discussed in the literature over the last 30 years or more, first in connection with kaon nucleon scattering data. The subject has been revived by the end of 2002 when experimental evidence of a narrow baryon of strangeness $S$ = + 1, and mass $M \simeq$ 1530 MeV has been found. This is interpreted as the lightest member of an SU(3)-flavor antidecuplet. Here we shall mainly review the predictions of pentaquark properties as e.g. mass, spin and parity, within constituent quark models. Both light and heavy pentaquarks will be presented.Comment: Plenary talk, MESON2004 Conference Proceedings, Crakow, June 4-8 200

Z^* Resonances: Phenomenology and Models

We explore the phenomenology of, and models for, the Z^* resonances, the lowest of which is now well established, and called the Theta. We provide an overview of three models which have been proposed to explain its existence and/or its small width, and point out other relevant predictions, and potential problems, for each. The relation to what is known about KN scattering, including possible resonance signals in other channels, is also discussed.Comment: 29 pages, uses RevTeX4; expanded version (published form

Duality violations in tau hadronic spectral moments

Evidence is presented for the necessity of including duality violations in a consistent description of spectral function moments employed in the precision determination of $\alpha_s$ from $\tau$ decay. A physically motivated ansatz for duality violations in the spectral functions enables us to perform fits to spectral moments employing both pinched and unpinched weights. We describe our analysis strategy and provide some preliminary findings. Final numerical results await completion of an ongoing re-determination of the ALEPH covariance matrices incorporating correlations due to the unfolding procedure which are absent from the currently posted versions. To what extent this issue affects existing analyses and our own work will require further study.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Talk given at 11th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics, Manchester, UK, 13-17 September 201