g_{rho sigma gamma} coupling constant in light cone QCD

The coupling constant g_{rho sigma gamma} is determined from light cone QCD sum rules. A comparison of our result with the ones existing in literature is presented.Comment: 7 pp, 2 figures (postscript formatted), LaTex formatte

Thin-Film Metamaterials called Sculptured Thin Films

Morphology and performance are conjointed attributes of metamaterials, of which sculptured thin films (STFs) are examples. STFs are assemblies of nanowires that can be fabricated from many different materials, typically via physical vapor deposition onto rotating substrates. The curvilinear--nanowire morphology of STFs is determined by the substrate motions during fabrication. The optical properties, especially, can be tailored by varying the morphology of STFs. In many cases prototype devices have been fabricated for various optical, thermal, chemical, and biological applications.Comment: to be published in Proc. ICTP School on Metamaterials (Augsut 2009, Sibiu, Romania

Universality and the magnetic catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking

The hypothesis that the magnetic catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking is due to interactions of massless fermions in their lowest Landau level is examined in the context of chirally symmetric models with short ranged interactions. It is argued that, when the magnetic field is sufficiently large, even an infinitesimal attractive interaction in the appropriate channel will break chiral symmetry.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, REVTeX. The final version with minor corrections. To appear in Phys Rev D60 (1999

The British Influence in the Birth of Spanish Sport

Sports started to gain relevance in Spain around the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century as a leisure and health option of the upper classes imported from Britain. Its early development was intertwined with the spread of other kinds of physical activities with much more tradition on the continent: gymnastics and physical education. First played by the ruling classes – aristocracy and high bourgeoisie – sports permeated towards petty bourgeoisie and middle classes in urban areas such as Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastián and Santander. This pattern meant that the expansion of sports was unavoidably tied to the degree of industrialisation and cultural modernisation of the country. Since 1910, and mainly during the 1920s, sport grew in popularity as a spectacle and, toa much lesser degree, as a practice among the Spanish population

J/\Psi \to \phi \pi \pi (K \bar{K}) decays, chiral dynamcis and OZI violation

We have studied the invariant mass distributions of the \pi\pi and K \bar{K} systems for invariant masses up to 1.2 GeV from the J/\Psi \to \phi \pi\pi(K\bar{K}) decays. The approach exploits the connection between these processes and the \pi\pi and K\bar{K} strange and non-strange scalar form factors by considering the \phi meson as a spectator. The calculated scalar form factors are then matched with the ones from next-to-leading order chiral perturbation theory, including the calculation of the the K\bar{K} scalar form factors. Final state interactions in the J/\Psi \to \phi \pi\pi (K\bar{K}) processes are taken into account as rescattering effects in the system of the two pseudoscalar mesons. A very good agreement with the experimental data from DM2 and MARK-III is achieved. Furthermore, making use of SU(3) symmetry, the S-wave contribution to the \pi^+\pi^- event distribution in the J/\Psi \to \omega \pi^+\pi^- reaction is also given and the data up to energies of about 0.7 GeV are reproduced. These decays of the J/\Psi to a vector and a pair of pseudoscalars turn out to be very sensitive to OZI violating physics which we parametrize in terms of a direct OZI violation parameter and the chiral perturbation theory low energy constants L_4^r and L_6^r. These constants all come out very different from zero, lending further credit to the statement that the OZI rule is not operative in the scalar 0^{++} channel.Comment: revtex, 21 pages, 10 figures, extended discussion of the model in section 2 and some minor corrections, version accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys.

Scalar Particles in Lattice QCD

We report a project to study scalar particles by lattice QCD simulations. After a brief introduction of the current situation of lattice study of the sigma meson, we describe our numerical simulations of scalar mesons, $\sigma$ and $\kappa$. We observe a low sigma mass, $m_\pi<m_\sigma\le m_\rho$, for which the disconnected diagram plays an important role. For the kappa meson, we obtain higher mass than the experimental value, i.e., $m_\kappa\sim 2m_{K^*}$.Comment: 4 figures, to be published in Proceedings of `International Symposium on Hadron Spectroscopy, Chiral Symmetry and Relativistic Description of Bound Systems' (in a series of KEK proceedings

Biomonitoring of metal deposition in northern Spain by moss analysis

The results of the first survey carried out in northern Spain to determine atmospheric deposition of metals by analysis of terrestrial mosses, are described. Samples of different mosses, mainly Hypnum cupressiforme and Scleropodium purum, were collected from 134 sampling sites, between 1995 and 1996. Levels of Al, As, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn, were determined by flame atomic absorption or atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry. Regression analysis was used to compare the capacity of the selected moss species to accumulate the elements, and intercalibration of accumulation in these species was carried out where necessary. Distribution maps were prepared to allow the zones most affected by metal deposition to be identified and to relate this to known sources of contamination: electricity power stations and other industries (e.g. Hg and Ni), edaphic contamination (e.g. Al and Cr) and road traffic (Pb). Background levels of metals in each species were also determined for the study area

2d Stringy Black Holes and Varying Constants

Motivated by the recent interest on models with varying constants and whether black hole physics can constrain such theories, two-dimensional charged stringy black holes are considered. We exploit the role of two-dimensional stringy black holes as toy models for exploring paradoxes which may lead to constrains on a theory. A two-dimensional charged stringy black hole is investigated in two different settings. Firstly, the two-dimensional black hole is treated as an isolated object and secondly, it is contained in a thermal environment. In both cases, it is shown that the temperature and the entropy of the two-dimensional charged stringy black hole are decreased when its electric charge is increased in time. By piecing together our results and previous ones, we conclude that in the context of black hole thermodynamics one cannot derive any model independent constraints for the varying constants. Therefore, it seems that there aren't any varying constant theories that are out of favor with black hole thermodynamics.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, to appear in JHE

Large Nc and Chiral Dynamics

We study the dependence on the number of colors of the leading pi pi scattering amplitude in chiral dynamics. We demonstrate the existence of a critical number of colors for and above which the low energy pi pi scattering amplitude computed from the simple sum of the current algebra and vector meson terms is crossing symmetric and unitary at leading order in a truncated and regularized 1/Nc expansion. The critical number of colors turns out to be Nc=6 and is insensitive to the explicit breaking of chiral symmetry. Below this critical value, an additional state is needed to enforce the unitarity bound; it is a broad one, most likely of "four quark" nature.Comment: RevTeX4, 6 fig., 5 page

Harmonisation of demographic and socio-economic variables in cross-national survey research

The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate how demographic and socio-economic variables in cross-national comparative survey research can be harmonized. After a short introduction discussing the difference between translation and harmonization, the path from a national concept and structure to an internationally-applicable measurement instrument is traced using the education variable as an example. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document. (author's abstract