Updated dispersion-theoretical analysis of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors

In the light of the new data on the various neutron and proton electromagnetic form factors taken in recent years, we update the dispersion-theoretical analysis of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors from the mid-nineties. The parametrization of the spectral functions includes constraints from unitarity, perturbative QCD, and recent measurements of the neutron charge radius. We obtain a good description of most modern form factor data, with the exception of the Jefferson Lab data on G_E^p/G_M^p in the four-momentum transfer range Q^2=3...6 GeV^2. For the magnetic radii of the proton and the neutron we find r_M^p = 0.857 fm and r_M^n = 0.879 fm, which is consistent with the recent determinations using continued fraction expansions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 ps figures, final version, exp. errors in Figs. 1 and 3 correcte

Novel evaluation of the two-pion contribution to the nucleon isovector form factors

We calculate the two-pion continuum contribution to the nucleon isovector spectral functions drawing upon the new high statistics measurements of the pion form factor by the CMD-2, KLOE, and SND collaborations. The general structure of the spectral functions remains unchanged, but the magnitude increases by about 10%. Using the updated spectral functions, we calculate the contribution of the two-pion continuum to the nucleon isovector form factors and radii. We compare the isovector radii with simple rho-pole models and illustrate their strong underestimation in such approaches. Moreover, we give a convenient parametrization of the result for use in future form factor analyses.Comment: 9 pages, 2 eps figures, revtex4, CMD-2 and SND data included, conclusions unchanged, version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Electromagnetic Structure of the Z_c(3900)

The observation of the exotic quarkonium state Z_c(3900) by the BESIII and Belle collaborations supports the concept of hadronic molecules. Charmonium states interpreted as such molecules would be bound states of heavy particles with small binding energies. This motivates their description using an effective theory with contact interactions. In particular, we focus on the electromagnetic structure of the charged state Z_c(3900). Using first experimental results concerning spin and parity, we interpret it as an S-wave molecule and calculate the form factors as well as charge and magnetic radii up to next-to-leading order. We also present first numerical estimations of some of these observables at leading order.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Dispersion analysis of the nucleon form factors including meson continua

Dispersion relations provide a powerful tool to analyse the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon for all momentum transfers. Constraints from meson-nucleon scattering data, unitarity, and perturbative QCD can be included in a straightforward way. In particular, we include the 2pi, rho-pi, and KKbar continua as independent input in our analysis and provide an error band for our results. Moreover, we discuss two different methods to include the asymptotic constraints from perturbative QCD. We simultaneously analyze the world data for all four form factors in both the space-like and time-like regions and generally find good agreement with the data. We also extract the nucleon radii and the omega-NN coupling constants. For the radii, we generally find good agreement with other determinations with the exception of the electric charge radius of the proton which comes out smaller. The omega-NN vector coupling constant is determined relatively well by the fits, but for the tensor coupling constant even the sign can not be determined.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Universal Properties of the Four-Boson System in Two Dimensions

We consider the nonrelativistic four-boson system in two dimensions interacting via a short-range attractive potential. For a weakly attractive potential with one shallow two-body bound state with binding energy B_2, the binding energies B_N of shallow N-body bound states are universal and thus do not depend on the details of the interaction potential. We compute the four-body binding energies in an effective quantum mechanics approach. There are exactly two bound states: the ground state with B_4^(0)=197.3(1)B_2 and one excited state with B_4^(1)=25.5(1)B_2. We compare our results to recent predictions for N-body bound states with large N>>1.Comment: 7 pages, 1 ps figure, references and discussion added, final versio

The design of incentives for health care providers in developing countries : contracts, competition, and cost control

The authors examine the design and limitations of incentives for health care providers to serve in rural areas in developing countries. Governments face two problems: it is costly to compensate well-trained urban physicians enough to relocate to rural areas, and it is difficult to ensure quality care when monitoring performance is costly or impossible. The goal of providing universal primary health care has been hard to meet, in part because of the difficulty of staffing rural medical posts with conscientious caregivers. The problem is providing physicians with incentives at a reasonable cost. Governments are often unable to purchase medical services of adequate quality even from civil servants. Using simple microeconomic models of contracts and competition, the authors examine questions about: a) The design of rural service requirements and options for newly trained physicians. b) The impact of local competition on the desirable level of training for new doctors. c) The incentive power that can be reasonably expected from explicit contracts. One problem a government faces is choosing how much training to give physicians it wants to send to rural areas. Training is costly, and a physician relocated to the countryside is outside the government's direct control. Should rural doctors face a ceiling on the prices they charge patients?Can it be enforced? The authors discuss factors to consider in determining how to pay rural medical workers but conclude that we might have to set realistic bounds on our expectations about delivering certain kinds of services. If we can identify reasons why the best that can be expected is not a particularly good, it might lead us to explore entirely different policy systems. Maybe it is too hard to run certain decentralized systems. Maybe we should focus on less ambitious but more readily achievable goals, such as providing basic infrastructure.