Dynamical Coupled-Channels Effects on Pion Photoproduction

The electromagnetic pion production reactions are investigated within the dynamical coupled-channels model developed in {\bf Physics Reports, 439, 193 (2007)}. The meson-baryon channels included in this study are $\gamma N$, $\pi N$, $\eta N$, and the $\pi\Delta$, $\rho N$ and $\sigma N$ resonant components of the $\pi\pi N$ channel. With the hadronic parameters of the model determined in a recent study of $\pi N$ scattering, we show that the pion photoproduction data up to the second resonance region can be described to a very large extent by only adjusting the bare $\gamma N \to N^*$ helicity amplitudes, while the non-resonant electromagnetic couplings are taken from previous works. It is found that the coupled-channels effects can contribute about 10 - 20 % of the production cross sections in the $\Delta$ (1232) resonance region, and can drastically change the magnitude and shape of the cross sections in the second resonance region. The importance of the off-shell effects in a dynamical approach is also demonstrated. The meson cloud effects as well as the coupled-channels contributions to the $\gamma N \to N^*$ form factors are found to be mainly in the low $Q^2$ region. For the magnetic M1 $\gamma N \to \Delta$ (1232) form factor, the results are close to that of the Sato-Lee Model. Necessary improvements to the model and future developments are discussed.Comment: Corrected version. 14 pages, 10 figure

Analyses of shocked quartz at the global K-P boundary indicate an origin from a single, high-angle, oblique impact at Chicxulub

Accepted versio

PPAK Wide-field Integral Field Spectroscopy of NGC 628: I. The largest spectroscopic mosaic on a single galaxy

We present a wide-field IFS survey on the nearby face-on Sbc galaxy NGC 628, comprising 11094 individual spectra, covering a nearly circular field-of-view of ~6 arcmin in diameter, with a sampling of ~2.7 arcsec per spectrum in the optical wavelength range (3700--7000 AA). This galaxy is part of the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey, (PINGS, Rosales-Ortega et al. 2009). To our knowledge, this is the widest spectroscopic survey ever made in a single nearby galaxy. A detailed flux calibration was applied, granting a spectrophotometric accuracy of $\sim$\,0.2 mag. The age of the stellar populations shows a negative gradient from the inner (older) to the outer (younger) regions. We found an inversion of this gradient in the central ~1 kpc region, where a somewhat younger stellar population is present within a ring at this radius. This structure is associated with a circumnuclear star-forming region at ~ 500 pc, also found in similar spiral galaxies. From the study of the integrated and spatially resolved ionized gas we found a moderate SFR of ~ 2.4 Msun yr$^{-1}$. The oxygen abundance shows a a clear gradient of higher metallicity values from the inner part to the outer part of the galaxy, with a mean value of 12~+~log(O/H) ~ 8.7. At some specific regions of the galaxy, the spatially resolved distribution of the physical properties show some level of structure, suggesting real point-to-point variations within an individual \hh region. Our results are consistent with an inside-out growth scheme, with stronger star formation at the outer regions, and with evolved stellar populations in the inner ones.Comment: 31 pages, 22 Figuras, Accepted for Publishing in MNRAS (corrected PDF

Observations of the Binary Microlens Event MACHO-98-SMC-1 by the Microlensing Planet Search Collaboration

We present the observations of the binary lensing event MACHO-98-SMC-1 conducted at the Mt.~Stromlo 74" telescope by the Microlensing Planet Search (MPS) collaboration. The MPS data constrain the first caustic crossing to have occurred after 1998 June 5.55 UT and thus directly rule out one of the two fits presented by the PLANET collaboration (model II). This substantially reduces the uncertainty in the the relative proper motion estimations of the lens object. We perform joint binary microlensing fits of the MPS data together with the publicly available data from the EROS, MACHO/GMAN and OGLE collaborations. We also study the binary lens fit parameters previously published by the PLANET and MACHO/GMAN collaborations by using them as initial values for $\chi^2$ minimization. Fits based on the PLANET model I appear to be in conflict with the GMAN-CTIO data. From our best fit, we find that the lens system has a proper motion of \mu = 1.3\pm 0.2 \kmsk with respect to the source, which implies that the lens system is most likely to be located in the Small Magellanic Cloud strengthening the conclusion of previous reports.Comment: 20 pages, 4 color figure

Quasi-fixed point scenario in the modified NMSSM

The simplest extension of the MSSM that does not contradict LEP II experimental bound on the lightest Higgs boson mass at $\tan\beta\sim 1$ is the modified Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MNSSM). We investigate the renormalization of Yukawa couplings and soft SUSY breaking terms in this model. The possibility of $b$-quark and $\tau$-lepton Yukawa coupling unification at the Grand Unification scale $M_X$ is studied. The particle spectrum is analysed in the vicinity of the quasi-fixed point where the solutions of renormalization group equations are concentrated at the electroweak scale.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX2

Transport properties of chemically synthesized polypyrrole thin films

The electronic transport in polypyrrole thin films synthesized chemically from the vapor phase is studied as a function of temperature as well as of electric and magnetic fields. We find distinct differences in comparison to the behavior of both polypyrrole films prepared by electrochemical growth as well as of the bulk films obtained from conventional chemical synthesis. For small electric fields F, a transition from Efros-Shklovskii variable range hopping to Arrhenius activated transport is observed at 30 K. High electric fields induce short range hopping. The characteristic hopping distance is found to be proportional to F^(-1/2). The magnetoresistance R(B) is independent of F below a critical magnetic field, above which F counteracts the magnetic field induced localization.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Broken R-parity, stop decays, and neutrino physics

We discuss the phenomenology of the lightest stop in models where R-parity is broken by bilinear superpotential terms. In this class of models we consider scenarios where the R-parity breaking two-body decay ~t_1->\tau^+b competes with the leading three-body decays such as ~t_1->W^+b~\chi^0_1. We demonstrate that the R-parity violating decay can be sizable and in some parts of the parameter space even the dominant one. Moreover we discuss the expectations for \~t_1->\mu^+b and ~t_1->e^+b. The recent results from solar and atmospheric neutrinos suggest that these are as important as the tau bottom mode. The \~t_1->l^+b decays are of particular interest for hadron colliders, as they may allow a full mass reconstruction of the lighter stop. Moreover these decay modes allow cross checks on the neutrino mixing angle involved in the solar neutrino puzzle complementary to those possible using neutralino decays. For the so--called small mixing angle or SMA solution ~t_1->e^+b should be negligible, while for the large mixing angle type solutions all ~t_1->l^+b decays should have comparable magnitude.Comment: 51 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX2e and RevTeX4, published versio

Position-dependent-mass; Cylindrical coordinates, separability, exact solvability, and PT-symmetry

The kinetic energy operator with position-dependent-mass in cylindrical coordinates is obtained. The separability of the corresponding Schr\"odinger equation is discussed within radial cylindrical mass settings. Azimuthal symmetry is assumed and spectral signatures of various z-dependent interaction potentials (Hermitian and non-Hermitian PT-symmetric) are reported.Comment: 16 page

Angular momentum effects in Michelson-Morley type experiments

The effect of the angular momentum density of a gravitational source on the times of flight of light rays in an interferometer is analyzed. The calculation is made imagining that the interferometer is at the equator of the gravity source and, as long as possible, the metric, provided it is stationary and axisymmetric, is not approximated. Finally, in order to evaluate the size of the effect in the case of the Earth a weak field approximation is introduced. For laboratory scales and non-geodesic paths the correction turns out to be comparable with the sensitivity expected in gravitational waves interferometric detectors, whereas it drops under the threshold of detectability when using free (geodesic) light rays.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX; more about the detection technique, references added; accepted for publication in GR

Spontaneous R-Parity violation bounds

We investigate bounds from tree-level and one-loop processes in generic supersymmetric models with spontaneous R-parity breaking in the superpotential. We analyse the bounds from a general point of view. The bounds are applicable both for all models with spontaneous R-parity violation and for explicit bilinear R-parity violation based on general lepton-chargino and neutrino-neutralino mixings. We find constraints from semileptonic B, D and K decays, leptonic decays of the mu and tau, electric dipole moments, as well as bounds for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.Comment: 22 page