Parton Distributions in the Valon Model

The parton distribution functions determined by CTEQ at low $Q^2$ are used as inputs to test the validity of the valon model. The valon distributions in a nucleon are first found to be nearly $Q$ independent. The parton distribution in a valon are shown to be consistent with being universal, independent of the valon type. The momentum fractions of the partons in the valon add up separately to one. These properties affirm the validity of the valon model. The various distributions are parameterized for convenient application of the model.Comment: 9 pages + 9 figures in ep

Universal behavior of multiplicity differences in quark-hadron phase transition

The scaling behavior of factorial moments of the differences in multiplicities between well separated bins in heavy-ion collisions is proposed as a probe of quark-hadron phase transition. The method takes into account some of the physical features of nuclear collisions that cause some difficulty in the application of the usual method. It is shown in the Ginzburg-Landau theory that a numerical value $\gamma$ of the scaling exponent can be determined independent of the parameters in the problem. The universality of $\gamma$ characterizes quark-hadron phase transition, and can be tested directly by appropriately analyzed data.Comment: 15 pages, including 4 figures (in epsf file), Latex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Disorder-Induced Depinning Transition

The competition in the pinning of a directed polymer by a columnar pin and a background of random point impurities is investigated systematically using the renormalization group method. With the aid of the mapping to the noisy-Burgers' equation and the use of the mode-coupling method, the directed polymer is shown to be marginally localized to an arbitrary weak columnar pin in 1+1 dimensions. This weak localization effect is attributed to the existence of large scale, nearly degenerate optimal paths of the randomly pinned directed polymer. The critical behavior of the depinning transition above 1+1 dimensions is obtained via an $\epsilon$-expansion.Comment: 47 pages in revtex; postscript files of 6 figures include

Similarity-Detection and Localization

The detection of similarities between long DNA and protein sequences is studied using concepts of statistical physics. It is shown that mutual similarities can be detected by sequence alignment methods only if their amount exceeds a threshold value. The onset of detection is a continuous phase transition which can be viewed as a localization-delocalization transition. The ``fidelity'' of the alignment is the order parameter of that transition; it leads to criteria for the selection of optimal alignment parameters.Comment: 4 pages including 4 figures (308kb post-script file

A Color Mutation Model of Soft Interaction in High Energy Hadronic Collisions

A comprehensive model, called ECOMB, is proposed to describe multiparticle production by soft interaction. It incorporates the eikonal formalism, parton model, color mutation, branching and recombination. The physics is conceptually opposite to the dynamics that underlies the fragmentation of a string. The partons are present initially in a hadronic collision; they form a single, large, color-neutral cluster until color mutation of the quarks leads to a fission of the cluster into two color-neutral subclusters. The mutation and branching processes continue until only $q\bar q$ pairs are left in each small cluster. The model contains self-similar dynamics and exhibits scaling behavior in the factorial moments. It can satisfactorily reproduce the intermittency data that no other model has been able to fit.Comment: 24 pages including 11 figures in revtex epsf styl

Perturbative calculation of the scaled factorial moments in second-order quark-hadron phase transition within the Ginzburg-Landau description

The scaled factorial moments $F_q$ are studied for a second-order quark-hadron phase transition within the Ginzburg-Landau description. The role played by the ground state of the system under low temperature is emphasized. After a local shift of the order parameter the fluctuations are around the ground state, and a perturbative calculation for $F_q$ can be carried out. Power scaling between $F_q$'s is shown, and a universal scaling exponent $\nu\simeq 1.75$ is given for the case with weak correlations and weak self-interactions.Comment: 12 pages in RevTeX, 12 eps figure

Disorder-induced critical behavior in driven diffusive systems

Using dynamic renormalization group we study the transport in driven diffusive systems in the presence of quenched random drift velocity with long-range correlations along the transport direction. In dimensions $d\mathopen< 4$ we find fixed points representing novel universality classes of disorder-dominated self-organized criticality, and a continuous phase transition at a critical variance of disorder. Numerical values of the scaling exponents characterizing the distributions of relaxation clusters are in good agreement with the exponents measured in natural river networks

Search for the onset of baryon anomaly at RHIC-PHENIX

The baryon production mechanism at the intermediate $p_T$ (2 - 5 GeV/$c$) at RHIC is still not well understood. The beam energy scan data in Cu+Cu and Au+Au systems at RHIC may provide us a further insight on the origin of the baryon anomaly and its evolution as a function of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$. In 2005 RHIC physics program, the PHENIX experiment accumulated the first intensive low beam energy data in Cu+Cu collisions. We present the preliminary results of identified charged hadron spectra in Cu+Cu at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 22.5 and 62.4 GeV using the PHENIX detector. The centrality and beam energy dependences of (anti)proton to pion ratios and the nuclear modification factors for charged pions and (anti)protons are presented.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, proceedings for Hot Quarks 2006 workshop, Villasimius, Sardinia, Italy, May 15 - 20, 2006. Proceedings of the conference will be published in The European Physical Journal

Localization transitions in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics

We study the localization transitions which arise in both one and two dimensions when quantum mechanical particles described by a random Schr\"odinger equation are subjected to a constant imaginary vector potential. A path-integral formulation relates the transition to flux lines depinned from columnar defects by a transverse magnetic field in superconductors. The theory predicts that the transverse Meissner effect is accompanied by stretched exponential relaxation of the field into the bulk and a diverging penetration depth at the transition.Comment: 4 pages (latex) with 3 figures (epsf) embedded in the text using the style file epsf.st

Variable range cotunneling and conductivity of a granular metal

The Efros-Shklovskii law for the conductivity of granular metals is interpreted as a result of a variable range cotunneling process. The cotunneling between distant resonant grains is predominantly elastic at low T << T_c, while it is inelastic (i.e., accompanied by creation of electron-hole pairs on a string of intermediate non-resonant grains) at T > T_c. The corresponding E-S temperature T_ES in the latter case is slightly (logarithmically) T-dependent. The magnetoresistance in the two cases is different: it may be relatively strong and negative at T much below T_c, while at T>T_c it is suppressed due to inelastic processes which destroy the interference.Comment: Submitted to JETP Letter