The polar temperature of Venus

Interferometric and polarization measurements of polar regions of Venu

Meson Mixing and Dilepton Production in Heavy Ion Collisions

We study the possibility of $\rho-a_0$ mixing via N-N excitations in dense nuclear matter. This mixing is found to induce a peak in the dilepton spectra at an invariant mass equal to that of the $a_0$. We calculate the cross section for dilepton production through mixing and we compare its size with that of $\pi-\pi$ annihilation. In-medium masses and mixing angles are also calculated. Some preliminary results of the mixing effect on the dilepton production rates at finite temperature are also presented.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of CIPANP 200

Squeezing lepton pairs out of broken symmetries

We discuss two possible signatures of symmetry breaking that can appear in dilepton spectra, as measured in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The first involves scalar-vector meson mixing and is related to the breaking of Lorentz symmetry by a hot medium. The second is related to the breaking of Furry's theorem by a charged quark-gluon plasma. Those signals will be accessible to upcoming measurements to be performed at the GSI, RHIC, and the LHC.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, talk given at the INPC 2001 (International Conference on Nuclear Physics), 30 July - 3 August 2001, Berkeley, C

J/psi dissociation by light mesons in an extended Nambu Jona-Lasinio model

An alternative model for the dissociation of the J/psi is proposed. Chiral symmetry is properly implemented. Abnormal parity interactions and mesonic form factors naturally arise from the underlying quark sub-structure. Analytic confinement for the light quarks is generated by appropriately chosen the quark interaction kernels. Dissociation cross sections of the J/psi by either a pion or a rho meson are then evaluated and discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, final versio

Baryonic contributions to the dilepton spectra in relativistic heavy ion collisions

We investigate the baryonic contributions to the dilepton yield in high energy heavy ion collisions within the context of a transport model. The relative contribution of the baryonic and mesonic sources are examined. It is observed that most dominant among the baryonic channels is the decay of N*(1520) and mostly confined in the region below the rho peak. In a transport theory implementation we find the baryonic contribution to the lepton pair yield to be small.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Higher excitations of ω\omega and ϕ\phi in dilepton spectra

We consider lepton pair production via two-hadron annihilation through various isoscalar vector mesons within hot, baryon-free matter. This is tantamount to constructing effective form factors which we model using a vector-meson-dominance approach and compare with experiment. In particular, we consider the reactions $\pi\rho\to e^+e^-$ and $\bar K K^{*}(892)$ + c.c. $\to e^+e^-$. We find that $\omega(1390)$ and $\phi(1680)$ are visible in the mass spectrum for the thermal production rate above the $\pi^{+}\pi^{-} \to e^+e^-$ tail and even above the $\pi a_{1}\to e^+e^-$ results---both of which were considered important in their respective mass regions.Comment: RevTeX, 9 pages, 6 (uuencoded) figures; to appear in Phys. Rev

Modeling Stable Matching Problems with Answer Set Programming

The Stable Marriage Problem (SMP) is a well-known matching problem first introduced and solved by Gale and Shapley (1962). Several variants and extensions to this problem have since been investigated to cover a wider set of applications. Each time a new variant is considered, however, a new algorithm needs to be developed and implemented. As an alternative, in this paper we propose an encoding of the SMP using Answer Set Programming (ASP). Our encoding can easily be extended and adapted to the needs of specific applications. As an illustration we show how stable matchings can be found when individuals may designate unacceptable partners and ties between preferences are allowed. Subsequently, we show how our ASP based encoding naturally allows us to select specific stable matchings which are optimal according to a given criterion. Each time, we can rely on generic and efficient off-the-shelf answer set solvers to find (optimal) stable matchings.Comment: 26 page

Coherence Time Effects on J/psi Production and Suppression in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Using a coherence time extracted from high precision proton-nucleus Drell-Yan measurements and a nuclear absorption cross section extracted from pA charmonium production experiments, we study J/psi production and absorption in nucleus-nucleus collisions. We find that coherence time effects are large enough to affect the measured J/psi-to-Drell-Yan ratio. The S+U data at 200A GeV/c measured by NA38 are reproduced quantitatively without the introduction of any new parameters. However, when compared with recent NA50 measurements for Pb+Pb at 158A GeV/c, the data is not reproduced in trend or in magnitude.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure