Developing Cloud Chambers with High School Students

The result and outcome of the \textit{cloud chamber project}, which aims to develop a cloud chamber useful for science education is reported in detail. A project includes both three high school students and a teacher as a part of Super Science High School (SSH) program in our school. We develop a dry-ice-free cloud chamber using salt and ice (or snow). Technical details of the chamber are described. We also argue how the project have affected student's cognition, motivation, academic skills and behavior. The research project has taken steps of professional researchers, i.e., in planning research, applying fund, writing a paper and giving a talk in conferences. From interviews with students, we have learnt that such style of scientific activity is very effective in promoting student's motivation for learning science.Comment: 9 pages, accepted to the proceedings of APPC12 - the 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conferenc

Two Nucleon-States in a Chiral Quark-Diquark Model

We study the ground and first excited states of nucleons in a chiral quark-diquark model. We include two quark-diquark channels of the scalar-isoscalar and axial-vector-isovector types for the nucleon states. The diquark correlation violating the spin-flavor SU(4)$_{SF}$ symmetry allows to treat the two quark-diquark channels independently. Hence the two states appear as the superpositions of the two quark-diquark channels; one is the nucleon and the other is a state which does not appear in the SU(4)$_{SF}$ quark models. With a reasonable choice of model parameters, the mass of the excited state appears at around 1.5 GeV, which we identify with the Roper resonance N(1440).Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Errors are corrected. Conclusions are not affecte

Determining the Θ+\Theta^+ quantum numbers through a Kaon induced reaction

We study the $K^+p\to \pi^+KN$ reaction with kinematical condition suited to the production of the $\Theta^+$ resonance. It is shown that in this reaction with the polarization experiment, a combined consideration of the strength at the peak and the angular dependence of cross section can help determine the $\Theta^+$ quantum numbers.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Talk given at International Workshop PENTAQUARK04 at SPring-8, Japan, July 20-23, 200

Quark condensates in the chiral bag with the NJL interaction

We discuss the quark condensate of the vacuum inside the baryon. We analyze the 1+1 dimensional chiral bag in analogy with the realistic 3+1 dimensional one. The Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) type interaction is used to investigate the quark condensate in the chiral bag. Considering the strong meson-quark coupling, we solve the mean field solution to the scalar and pseudoscalar channels by including the chiral Casimir effects. The self-consistent equation allows a finite value of the quark condensate and hence a finite dynamical quark mass inside the bag. It is shown that an approximate Cheshire Cat picture holds for massive quarks

Chiral symmetry breaking and vacuum polarization in a bag

We study the effects of a finite quark mass in the hedgehog configuration in the two phase chiral bag model. We discuss the chiral properties, such as the fractional baryon number and the chiral Casimir energy, by using the Debye expansion for the analytical calculation and the Strutinsky's smearing method for the numerical computation. It is shown that the fractional baryon number carried by massive quarks in the vacuum is canceled by that in the meson sector. A finite term of the chiral Casimir energy is obtained with subtraction of the logarithmic divergence term

Two-meson cloud contribution to the baryon antidecuplet self-energy

We study the self-energy of the SU(3) antidecuplet coming from two-meson virtual clouds. Assuming that the exotic Theta+ belongs to an antidecuplet representation with N(1710) as nucleon partner, we derive effective Lagrangians that describe the decay of N(1710) into N pi pi with two pions in s- or p-wave. It is found that the self-energies for all members of the antidecuplet are attractive, and the larger strangeness particle is more bound. From two-meson cloud, we obtain about 20 % of the empirical mass splitting between states with different strangeness.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Talk given at the 10th International Conference on Baryons (Baryons04), Palaiseau (France), October 25-29, 200

Exotic baryons from a heavy meson and a nucleon - Positive parity states -

We study heavy baryons with exotic flavor quantum numbers formed by a heavy meson and a nucleon (DbarN and BN) with positive parity. One pion exchange interaction, providing a tensor force, dominates as a long range force to bind the DbarN and BN ystems. In the heavy quark mass limit, pseudoscalar meson and vector meson are degenerate and the binding mechanism by the tensor force analogous to that in the nuclear systems becomes important. As a result, we obtain the DbarN and BN resonant states in the J^P=1/2^+, 3/2^+ and 5/2^+ channels with I=0