214 research outputs found
Large-x Parton Distributions
Reliable knowledge of parton distributions at large x is crucial for many
searches for new physics signals in the next generation of collider
experiments. Although these are generally well determined in the small and
medium x range, it has been shown that their uncertainty grows rapidly for
x>0.1. We examine the status of the gluon and quark distributions in light of
new questions that have been raised in the past two years about "large-x"
parton distributions, as well as recent measurements which have improved the
parton uncertainties. Finally, we provide a status report of the data used in
the global analysis, and note some of the open issues where future experiments,
including those planned for Jefferson Labs, might contribute.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 7 figures. Invited talk presented at the ``Workshop
on Nucleon Structure in the High x-Bjorken Region (HiX2000),'' Temple
University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 30-April 1, 200
Axion-like particles as ultra high energy cosmic rays?
If Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) with E>4 10^{19} eV originate from
BL Lacertae at cosmological distances as suggested by recent studies, the
absence of the GZK cutoff can not be reconciled with Standard-Model particle
properties. Axions would escape the GZK cutoff, but even the coherent
conversion and back-conversion between photons and axions in large-scale
magnetic fields is not enough to produce the required flux. However, one may
construct models of other novel (pseudo)scalar neutral particles with
properties that would allow for sufficient rates of particle production in the
source and shower production in the atmosphere to explain the observations. As
an explicit example for such particles we consider SUSY models with light
sgoldstinos.Comment: 5 pages, 2 postscript figures, ref. adde
Investigation of the high momentum component of nuclear wave function using hard quasielastic A(p,2p)X reactions
We present theoretical analysis of the first data on the high energy and
momentum transfer (hard) quasielastic reactions. The cross section
of hard reaction is calculated within the light-cone impulse
approximation based on two-nucleon correlation model for the high-momentum
component of the nuclear wave function. The nuclear effects due to modification
of the bound nucleon structure, soft nucleon-nucleon reinteraction in the
initial and final states of the reaction with and without color coherence have
been considered. The calculations including these nuclear effects show that the
distribution of the bound proton light-cone momentum fraction shifts
towards small values (), effect which was previously derived only
within plane wave impulse approximation. This shift is very sensitive to the
strength of the short range correlations in nuclei. Also calculated is an
excess of the total longitudinal momentum of outgoing protons. The calculations
are compared with data on the reaction obtained from the EVA/AGS
experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. These data show -shift in
agreement with the calculations. The comparison allows also to single out the
contribution from short-range nucleon correlations. The obtained strength of
the correlations is in agreement with the values previously obtained from
electroproduction reactions on nuclei.Comment: 30 pages LaTex file and 19 eps figure
A systematic study of J/psi suppression in cold nuclear matter
Based on a Glauber model, a statistical analysis of all mid-rapidity J/psi
hadroproduction and leptoproduction data on nuclear targets is carried out.
This allows us to determine the J/psi-nucleon inelastic cross section, whose
knowledge is crucial to interpret the J/psi suppression observed in heavy-ion
collisions, at SPS and at RHIC. The values of sigma are extracted from each
experiment. A clear tension between the different data sets is reported. The
global fit of all data gives sigma=3.4+/-0.2 mb, which is significantly smaller
than previous estimates. A similar value, sigma=3.5+/-0.2 mb, is obtained when
the nDS nuclear parton densities are included in the analysis, although we
emphasize that the present uncertainties on gluon (anti)shadowing do not allow
for a precise determination of sigma. Finally, no significant energy dependence
of the J/psi-N interaction is observed, unless strong nuclear modifications of
the parton densities are assumed.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure
Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays from Neutrino Emitting Acceleration Sources?
We demonstrate by numerical flux calculations that neutrino beams producing
the observed highest energy cosmic rays by weak interactions with the relic
neutrino background require a non-uniform distribution of sources. Such sources
have to accelerate protons at least up to 10^{23} eV, have to be opaque to
their primary protons, and should emit the secondary photons unavoidably
produced together with the neutrinos only in the sub-MeV region to avoid
conflict with the diffuse gamma-ray background measured by the EGRET
experiment. Even if such a source class exists, the resulting large
uncertainties in the parameters involved in this scenario does currently not
allow to extract any meaningful information on absolute neutrino masses.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX styl
Laboratory Capacity Building in Asia for Infectious Disease Research: Experiences from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN)
Laboratory Capacity Building in Asia for Infectious Disease Research: Experiences from the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Network (SEAICRN)
Global epidemiology of avian influenza A H5N1 virus infection in humans, 1997–2015: a systematic review of individual case data
Avian influenza A H5N1 viruses have caused many, typically severe, human infections since the first human case was reported in 1997. However, no comprehensive epidemiological analysis of global human cases of H5N1 from 1997 to 2015 exists. Moreover, few studies have examined in detail the changing epidemiology of human H5N1 cases in Egypt, especially given the outbreaks since November, 2014, which have the highest number of cases ever reported worldwide in a similar period. Data on individual patients were collated from different sources using a systematic approach to describe the global epidemiology of 907 human H5N1 cases between May, 1997, and April, 2015. The number of affected countries rose between 2003 and 2008, with expansion from east and southeast Asia, then to west Asia and Africa. Most cases (67·2%) occurred from December to March, and the overall case-fatality risk was 483 (53·5%) of 903 cases which varied across geographical regions. Although the incidence in Egypt has increased dramatically since November, 2014, compared with the cases beforehand, there were no significant differences in the fatality risk, history of exposure to poultry, history of patient contact, and time from onset to hospital admission in the recent cases
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