Holographic Monopole Catalysis of Baryon Decay

We study how monopole catalysis of baryon decay is realized in holographic QCD. Physics of monopole catalysis becomes much simpler in holographic description as it occurs due to the violation of the Bianchi identity for the 5D gauge symmetry when magnetic monopole is present. In holographic QCD we find a unified picture of the baryon number violation under magnetic monopole or electroweak sphaleron, giving a new mechanism of baryon number violation. We also embed our set-up in the string theory model by Sakai and Sugimoto.Comment: 18 pages, v2: references adde

Holographic Estimate of Oblique Corrections for Technicolor

We study the oblique corrections to the electroweak interaction in the holographic model of technicolor theories. The oblique S parameter is expressed in terms of a solution to the equations of motion for the AdS bulk gauge fields. By analyzing the solution, we establish a rigorous proof that the S parameter is positive and is reduced by walking. We also present the precise numerical values for the S parameter of various technicolor models by solving the equations numerically.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX 4.0: published version. references adde

Chiral Dynamics of Baryons from String Theory

We study baryons in an AdS/CFT model of QCD by Sakai and Sugimoto, realized as small instantons with fundamental string hairs. We introduce an effective field theory of the baryons in the five-dimensional setting, and show that the instanton interpretation implies a particular magnetic coupling. Dimensional reduction to four dimensions reproduces the usual chiral effective action, and in particular we estimate the axial coupling $g_A$ between baryons and pions and the magnetic dipole moments, both of which are proportional to $N_c$. We extrapolate to finite $N_c$ and discuss subleading corrections.Comment: 4 pages, typos fixed, discussions reworded to clarify a unit, a reference update

Nucleon Form Factors and Hidden Symmetry in Holographic QCD

The vector dominance of the electromagnetic form factors both for mesons and baryons arises naturally in holographic QCD, where both the number of colors and the 't Hooft coupling are taken to be very large, offering a bona-fide derivation of the notion of vector dominance. The crucial ingredient for this is the infinite tower of vector mesons in the approximations made which share features that are characteristic of the quenched approximation in lattice QCD. We approximate the infinite sum by contributions from the lowest four vector mesons of the tower which turn out to saturate the charge and magnetic moment sum rules within a few percent and compute them totally free of unknown parameters for momentum transfers Q^2 less than 1GeV^2. We identify certain observables that can be reliably computed within the approximations and others that are not, and discuss how the improvement of the latter can enable one to bring holographic QCD closer to QCD proper.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, revtex4; one reference added, final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Insight into highly conserved H1 subtype-specific epitopes in influenza virus hemagglutinin

Influenza viruses continuously undergo antigenic changes with gradual accumulation of mutations in hemagglutinin (HA) that is a major determinant in subtype specificity. The identification of conserved epitopes within specific HA subtypes gives an important clue for developing new vaccines and diagnostics. We produced and characterized nine monoclonal antibodies that showed significant neutralizing activities against H1 subtype influenza viruses, and determined the complex structure of HA derived from a 2009 pandemic virus A/Korea/01/2009 (KR01) and the Fab fragment from H1-specific monoclonal antibody GC0587. The overall structure of the complex was essentially identical to the previously determined KR01 HA-Fab0757 complex structure. Both Fab0587 and Fab0757 recognize readily accessible head regions of HA, revealing broadly shared and conserved antigenic determinants among H1 subtypes. The beta-strands constituted by Ser110-Glu115 and Lys169-Lys170 form H1 epitopes with distinct conformations from those of H1 and H3 HA sites. In particular, Glu112, Glu115, Lys169, and Lys171 that are highly conserved among H1 subtype HAs have close contacts with HCDR3 and LCDR3. The differences between Fab0587 and Fab0757 complexes reside mainly in HCDR3 and LCDR3, providing distinct antigenic determinants specific for 1918 pdm influenza strain. Our results demonstrate a potential key neutralizing epitope important for H1 subtype specificity in influenza virus