Values and objectives of the EU in light of Opinion 1/17: ‘Trade for all’, above all

In Opinion 1/17 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the new Investment Court System (ICS) in the Canada–EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is compatible with the EU constitutional framework. This article examines the CJEU’s analysis of the ICS in its Opinion through the prism of EU values and objectives. Given the judicial nature of the ICS, the article unfolds around the concept of the rule of law. The scope and the content of this core EU value are considered under both EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In particular, the ICS is analysed in light of the two core rule-of-law requirements: equal treatment and the independence of courts, enshrined in Articles 20 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR). Importantly, in Opinion 1/17 the CJEU for the first time applied Article 47 CFR to a court outside the EU judicial system. While the CJEU ruled that the ICS complies with the CFR rule-of-law criteria,this article argues that it nevertheless falls short of the rule-of-law standards required for judicial bodies under EU law. The article demonstrates that the CJEU prioritises free and fair trade as the CETA’s core objective, rather than the rule of law, and endorses the ICS as the conditio sine qua non of guaranteeing such trade. The Court’s findings have wider consequences for the rule of law in international law as the EU continues to pursue the establishment of a Multilateral Investment Court (MIC)

NA60 results on pTp_T spectra and the ρ\rho spectral function in In-In collisions

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied low-mass muon pairs in 158 AGeV In-In collisions. A strong excess of pairs is observed above the yield expected from neutral meson decays. The unprecedented sample size of close to 400K events and the good mass resolution of about 2% have made it possible to isolate the excess by subtraction of the decay sources (keeping the $\rho$). The shape of the resulting mass spectrum exhibits considerable broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. The acceptance-corrected transverse-momentum spectra have a shape atypical for radial flow and show a significant mass dependence, pointing to different sources in different mass regions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Quark Matter 2006 conference proceeding

NA60 results on thermal dimuons

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has measured muon pairs with unprecedented precision in 158A GeV In-In collisions. A strong excess of pairs above the known sources is observed in the whole mass region 0.2<M<2.6 GeV. The mass spectrum for M<1 GeV is consistent with a dominant contribution from pi+pi- -> rho -> mu+mu- annihilation. The associated rho spectral function shows a strong broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. For M>1 GeV, the excess is found to be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production, with pronounced differences to Drell-Yan pairs. The slope parameter Teff associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the rho, followed by a sudden decline above. The rise for M<1 GeV is consistent with radial flow of a hadronic emission source. The seeming absence of significant flow for M>1 GeV and its relation to parton-hadron duality is discussed in detail, suggesting a dominantly partonic emission source in this region. A comparison of the data to the present status of theoretical modeling is also contained. The accumulated empirical evidence, including also a Planck-like shape of the mass spectra at low pT and the lack of polarization, is consistent with a global interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation. We conclude with first results on omega in-medium effects.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Study of the electromagnetic transition form-factors in \eta -> \mu^+\mu^-\gamma and \omega -> \mu^+\mu^-\pi^0 decays with NA60

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied low-mass muon pairs in 158A GeV In-In collisions. The mass and pT spectra associated with peripheral collisions can quantitatively be described by the known neutral meson decays. The high data quality has allowed to remeasure the electromagnetic transition form factors of the Dalitz decays \eta -> \mu^+\mu^-\gamma and \omega -> \mu^+\mu^-\pi^0. Using the usual pole approximation F = (1-M_{\mu\mu}^{2}/\Lambda^{2})^{-1} for the form factors, we find \Lambda^{-2} (in GeV^{-2}) to be 1.95+-0.17(stat.)+-0.05(syst.) for the \eta and 2.24+-0.06(stat.)+-0.02(syst.) for the \omega. While the values agree with previous results from the Lepton-G experiment, the errors are greatly improved, confirming now on the level of 10\sigma the strong enhancement of the \omega form factor beyond the expectation from vector meson dominance. An improved value of the branching ratio BR(\omega -> \mu^+\mu^-\pi^0) = [1.73+-0.25(stat.)+-0.14(syst.)]*10^{-4} has been obtained as a byproduct.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett.

Non-Markovian stochastic description of quantum transport in photosynthetic systems

We analyze several aspects of the transport dynamics in the LH1-RC core of purple bacteria, which consists basically in a ring of antenna molecules that transport the energy into a target molecule, the reaction center, placed in the center of the ring. We show that the periodicity of the system plays an important role to explain the relevance of the initial state in the transport efficiency. This picture is modified, and the transport enhanced for any initial state, when considering that molecules have different energies, and when including their interaction with the environment. We study this last situation by using stochastic Schr{\"o}dinger equations, both for Markovian and non-Markovian type of interactions.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Study of dimuon production in Indium-Indium collisions with the NA60 experiment

The NA60 experiment at the CERN-SPS is devoted to the study of dimuon production in heavy-ion and proton-nucleus collisions. We present preliminary results from the analysis of Indium-Indium collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon. The topics covered are low mass vector meson production, J/psi production and suppression, and the feasibility of the open charm measurement from the dimuon continuum in the mass range below the J/psi peak.Comment: Contribution at XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond, "QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions