Possible Cosmological Implications of the Quark-Hadron Phase Transition

We study the quark-hadron phase transition within an effective model of QCD, and find that in a reasonable range of the main parameters of the model, bodies with quark content between $10^{-2}$ and 10 solar masses can have been formed in the early universe. In addition, we show that a significant amount of entropy is released during the transition. This may imply the existence of a higher baryon number density than what is usually expected at temperatures above the QCD scale. The cosmological QCD transition may then provide a natural way for decreasing the high baryon asymmetry created by an Affleck-Dine like mechanism down to the value required by primordial nucleosynthesis.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 5 Postscript figures included. Submitted to Journal of Physics

Nucleon-nucleon interaction in the Skyrme model

We consider the interaction of two skyrmions in the framework of the sudden approximation. The widely used product ansatz is investigated. Its failure in reproducing an attractive central potential is associated with terms that violate G-parity. We discuss the construction of alternative ans\"atze and identify a plausible solution to the problem.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Proteome Profiling of Breast Tumors by Gel Electrophoresis and Nanoscale Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

We have conducted proteome-wide analysis of fresh surgery specimens derived from breast cancer patients, using an approach that integrates size-based intact protein fractionation, nanoscale liquid separation of peptides, electrospray ion trap mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics. Through this approach, we have acquired a large amount of peptide fragmentation spectra from size-resolved fractions of the proteomes of several breast tumors, tissue peripheral to the tumor, and samples from patients undergoing noncancer surgery. Label-free quantitation was used to generate protein abundance maps for each proteome and perform comparative analyses. The mass spectrometry data revealed distinct qualitative and quantitative patterns distinguishing the tumors from healthy tissue as well as differences between metastatic and non-metastatic human breast cancers including many established and potential novel candidate protein biomarkers. Selected proteins were evaluated by Western blotting using tumors grouped according to histological grade, size, and receptor expression but differing in nodal status. Immunohistochemical analysis of a wide panel of breast tumors was conducted to assess expression in different types of breast cancers and the cellular distribution of the candidate proteins. These experiments provided further insights and an independent validation of the data obtained by mass spectrometry and revealed the potential of this approach for establishing multimodal markers for early metastasis, therapy outcomes, prognosis, and diagnosis in the future. © 2008 American Chemical Society

|Delta B|=1 Weak Effective Lagrangian in the Minimal Flavor Violation Supersymmetry

To evaluate the weak decays of b-hadrons, the $\Delta B=1$ weak effective Lagrangian is the foundation. Any new physics beyond the standard model (SM) would contribute to the effective Lagrangian through the loop integration at the weak scale and evolution from the weak scale down to the hadronic scale. In this work we present a systematic analysis on the effective Lagrangian which mediates hadronic $|\Delta B|=1$ processes in the framework of the minimal flavor violation supersymmetry as well as a numerical evaluation of the Wilson coefficients in the effective theory.Comment: Latex,16 pages plus 5 figures, PRD versio

Spontaneous annihilation of high-density matter in the electroweak theory

In the presence of fermionic matter the topologically distinct vacua of the standard model are metastable and can decay by tunneling through the sphaleron barrier. This process annihilates one fermion per doublet due to the anomalous non-conservation of baryon and lepton currents and is accompanied by a production of gauge and Higgs bosons. We present a numerical method to obtain local bounce solutions which minimize the Euclidean action in the space of all configurations connecting two adjacent topological sectors. These solutions determine the decay rate and the configuration of the fields after the tunneling. We also follow the real time evolution of this configuration and analyze the spectrum of the created bosons. If the matter density exceeds some critical value, the exponentially suppressed tunneling triggers off an avalanche producing an enormous amount of bosons.Comment: 38 pages, 6 Postscript figure

Electromagnetic Meson Production in the Nucleon Resonance Region

Recent experimental and theoretical advances in investigating electromagnetic meson production reactions in the nucleon resonance region are reviewed.Comment: 75 pages, 42 figure

Quasi-Elastic Scattering in the Inclusive (3^3He, t) Reaction

The triton energy spectra of the charge-exchange $^{12}$C($^3$He,t) reaction at 2 GeV beam energy are analyzed in the quasi-elastic nucleon knock-out region. Considering that this region is mainly populated by the charge-exchange of a proton in $^3$He with a neutron in the target nucleus and the final proton going in the continuum, the cross-sections are written in the distorted-wave impulse approximation. The t-matrix for the elementary exchange process is constructed in the DWBA, using one pion- plus rho-exchange potential for the spin-isospin nucleon- nucleon potential. This t-matrix reproduces the experimental data on the elementary pn $\rightarrow$np process. The calculated cross-sections for the $^{12}$C($^3$He,t) reaction at $2^o$ to $7^o$ triton emission angle are compared with the corresponding experimental data, and are found in reasonable overall accord.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 11 postscript figures available at [email protected], submitted to Phy.Rev.

Complete analysis on the next-to-leading order supersymmetric QCD corrections to B0−Bˉ0B^0-\bar{B}^0 mixing

We present a complete next-to-leading-order calculation of the QCD corrections to $B^0-\bar{B}^0$ ($K^0-\bar{K}^0$) mixing in the framework of the minimal flavor violating (MFV) supersymmetry. We take into account the contributions from the gluino and find that the gluino-mediated corrections modify the LO result obviously even when the mass of gluino $m_{\tilde{g}} \gg m_{\rm w}$. In general, one cannot neglect gluino contributions.Comment: 91 pages + 11 eps figures, publication version in PR