3,676 research outputs found
Physical Baryon Resonance Spectroscopy from Lattice QCD
We complement recent advances in the calculation of the masses of excited
baryons in quenched lattice QCD with finite-range regulated chiral effective
field theory enabling contact with the physical quark mass region. We examine
the P-wave contributions to the low-lying nucleon and delta resonances.Comment: Contributed paper at FB17, the 17th International Conference on
Few-Body Problems in Physics, Durham, NC, June 5-10, 2003. 3 pages, 6 figure
WR 110: A Single Wolf-Rayet Star With Corotating Interaction Regions In Its Wind?
A 30-day contiguous photometric run with the MOST satellite on the WN5-6b
star WR 110 (HD 165688) reveals a fundamental periodicity of P = 4.08 +/- 0.55
days along with a number of harmonics at periods P/n, with n ~ 2,3,4,5 and 6,
and a few other possible stray periodicities and/or stochastic variability on
timescales longer than about a day. Spectroscopic RV studies fail to reveal any
plausible companion with a period in this range. Therefore, we conjecture that
the observed light-curve cusps of amplitude ~ 0.01 mag that recur at a 4.08 day
timescale may arise in the inner parts, or at the base of, a corotating
interaction region (CIR) seen in emission as it rotates around with the star at
constant angular velocity. The hard X-ray component seen in WR 110 could then
be a result of a high velocity component of the CIR shock interacting with the
ambient wind at several stellar radii. Given that most hot, luminous stars
showing CIRs have two CIR arms, it is possible that either the fundamental
period is 8.2 days or, more likely in the case of WR 110, there is indeed a
second weaker CIR arm for P = 4.08 days, that occurs ~ two thirds of a rotation
period after the main CIR. If this interpretation is correct, WR 110 therefore
joins the ranks with three other single WR stars, all WN, with confirmed CIR
rotation periods (WR 1, WR 6, and WR 134), albeit with WR 110 having by far the
lowest amplitude photometric modulation. This illustrates the power of being
able to secure intense, continuous high-precision photometry from space-based
platforms such as MOST. It also opens the door to revealing low-amplitude
photometric variations in other WN stars, where previous attempts have failed.
If all WN stars have CIRs at some level, this could be important for revealing
sources of magnetism or pulsation in addition to rotation periods.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted in Ap
Lifetime Effects in Color Superconductivity at Weak Coupling
Present computations of the gap of color superconductivity in weak coupling
assume that the quarks which participate in the condensation process are
infinitely long-lived. However, the quasiparticles in a plasma are
characterized by having a finite lifetime. In this article we take into account
this fact to evaluate its effect in the computation of the color gap. By first
considering the Schwinger-Dyson equations in weak coupling, when one-loop
self-energy corrections are included, a general gap equation is written in
terms of the spectral densities of the quasiparticles. To evaluate lifetime
effects, we then model the spectral density by a Lorentzian function. We argue
that the decay of the quasiparticles limits their efficiency to condense. The
value of the gap at the Fermi surface is then reduced. To leading order, these
lifetime effects can be taken into account by replacing the coupling constant
of the gap equation by a reduced effective one.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures; explanations on the role of the Meissner effect
added; 2 references added; accepted for publication in PR
Nonanalytic behavior of the spin susceptibility in clean Fermi systems
The wavevector and temperature dependent static spin susceptibility,
\chi_s(Q,T), of clean interacting Fermi systems is considered in dimensions
1\leq d \leq 3. We show that at zero temperature \chi_s is a nonanalytic
function of |Q|, with the leading nonanalyticity being |Q|^{d-1} for 1<d<3, and
Q^2\ln|Q| for d=3. For the homogeneous spin susceptibility we find a
nonanalytic temperature dependence T^{d-1} for 1<d<3. We give qualitative
mode-mode coupling arguments to that effect, and corroborate these arguments by
a perturbative calculation to second order in the electron-electron interaction
amplitude. The implications of this, in particular for itinerant
ferromagnetism, are discussed. We also point out the relation between our
findings and established perturbative results for 1-d systems, as well as for
the temperature dependence of \chi_s(Q=0) in d=3.Comment: 12pp., REVTeX, 5 eps figures, final version as publishe
Resolving the complex structure of the dust torus in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
To test the dust torus model for active galactic nuclei directly, we study
the extent and morphology of the nuclear dust distribution in the Circinus
galaxy using high resolution interferometric observations in the mid-infrared
with the MIDI instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. We find
that the dust distribution in the nucleus of Circinus can be explained by two
components, a dense and warm disk-like component of 0.4 pc size and a slightly
cooler, geometrically thick torus component with a size of 2.0 pc. The disk
component is oriented perpendicular to the ionisation cone and outflow and
seems to show the silicate feature at 10 micron in emission. It coincides with
a nuclear maser disk in orientation and size. From the energy needed to heat
the dust, we infer a luminosity of the accretion disk corresponding to 20% of
the Eddington luminosity of the nuclear black hole. We find that the
interferometric data are inconsistent with a simple, smooth and axisymmetric
dust emission. The irregular behaviour of the visibilities and the shallow
decrease of the dust temperature with radius provide strong evidence for a
clumpy or filamentary dust structure. We see no evidence for dust reprocessing,
as the silicate absorption profile is consistent with that of standard galactic
dust. We argue that the collimation of the ionising radiation must originate in
the geometrically thick torus component. Our findings confirm the presence of a
geometrically thick, torus-like dust distribution in the nucleus of Circinus,
as required in unified schemes of Seyfert galaxies. Several aspects of our data
require that this torus is irregular, or "clumpy".Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication by A&
Coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity
A comprehensive theory is developed that describes the coexistence of p-wave,
spin-triplet superconductivity and itinerant ferromagnetism. It is shown how to
use field-theoretic techniques to derive both conventional strong-coupling
theory, and analogous gap equations for superconductivity induced by magnetic
fluctuations. It is then shown and discussed in detail that the magnetic
fluctuations are generically stronger on the ferromagnetic side of the magnetic
phase boundary, which substantially enhances the superconducting critical
temperature in the ferromagnetic phase over that in the paramagnetic one. The
resulting phase diagram is compared with the experimental observations in UGe_2
and ZrZn_2.Comment: 16 pp., REVTeX, 6 eps figs; final version as publishe
Mesoscopic fluctuations of the ground state spin of a small metal particle
We study the statistical distribution of the ground state spin for an
ensemble of small metallic grains, using a random-matrix toy model. Using the
Hartree Fock approximation, we find that already for interaction strengths well
below the Stoner criterion there is an appreciable probability that the ground
state has a finite, nonzero spin. Possible relations to experiments are
discussed.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX; 1 figure included with eps
On the Use of Blanketed Atmospheres as Boundary Conditions for Stellar Evolutionary Models
Stellar models have been computed for stars having [Fe/H] = 0.0 and -2.0 to
determine the effects of using boundary conditions derived from the latest
MARCS model atmospheres. The latter were fitted to the interior models at both
the photosphere and at tau = 100, and at least for the 0.8-1.0 solar mass stars
considered here, the resultant evolutionary tracks were found to be nearly
independent of the chosen fitting point. Particular care was taken to treat the
entire star as consistently as possible; i.e., both the interior and atmosphere
codes assumed the same abundances and the same treatment of convection. Tracks
were also computed using either the classical gray T(tau,T_eff) relation or
that derived by Krishna Swamy (1966) to derive the boundary pressure. The
latter predict warmer giant branches (by ~150 K) at solar abundances than those
based on gray or MARCS atmospheres, which happens to be in good agreement with
the inferred temperatures of giants in the open cluster M67 from the latest
(V-K)-T_eff relations. Most of the calculations assumed Z=0.0125 (Asplund et
al.), though a few models were computed for Z=0.0165 (Grevesse & Sauval) to
determine the dependence of the tracks on Z_\odot. Grids of "scaled solar,
differentially corrected" (SDC) atmospheres were also computed to try to
improve upon theoretical MARCS models. When they were used as boundary
conditions, the resultant tracks agreed very well with those based on a
standard scaled-solar (e.g., Krishna Swamy) T(tau,T_eff) relation,
independently of the assumed metal abundance. Fits of isochrones to the C-M
diagram of the [Fe/H] = -2 globular cluster M68 were examined, as was the
possibility that the mixing-length parameter varies with stellar parameters.Comment: 54 pages, including 20 figures and 3 tables; accepted (July 2007) for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
B --> pi and B --> K transitions in partially quenched chiral perturbation theory
We study the properties of the B-->pi and B-->K transition form factors in
partially quenched QCD by using the approach of partially quenched chiral
perturbation theory combined with the static heavy quark limit. We show that
the form factors change almost linearly when varying the value of the sea quark
mass, whereas the dependence on the valence quark mass contains both the
standard and chirally divergent (quenched) logarithms. A simple strategy for
the chiral extrapolations in the lattice studies with Nsea=2 is suggested. It
consists of the linear extrapolations from the realistically accessible quark
masses, first in the sea and then in the valence quark mass. From the present
approach, we estimate the uncertainty induced by such extrapolations to be
within 5%.Comment: Published versio
Chiral perturbation theory for K+ to pi+ pi0 decay in the continuum and on the lattice
In this paper we use one-loop chiral perturbation theory in order to compare
lattice computations of the K+ to pi+ pi0 decay amplitude with the experimental
value. This makes it possible to investigate three systematic effects that
plague lattice computations: quenching, finite-volume effects, and the fact
that lattice computations have been done at unphysical values of the quark
masses and pion external momenta (only this latter effect shows up at tree
level). We apply our results to the most recent lattice computation, and find
that all three effects are substantial. We conclude that one-loop corrections
in chiral perturbation theory help in explaining the discrepancy between
lattice results and the real-world value. We also revisit B_K, which is closely
related to the K+ to pi+ pi0 decay amplitude by chiral symmetry.Comment: 50 pages, TeX, two eps figures included, minor changes, no changes in
results or conclusions, version to appear in Phys.Rev.
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