Safe domain and elementary geometry

A classical problem of mechanics involves a projectile fired from a given point with a given velocity whose direction is varied. This results in a family of trajectories whose envelope defines the border of a 'safe' domain. In the simple cases of a constant force, harmonic potential and Kepler or Coulomb motion, the trajectories are conic curves whose envelope in a plane is another conic section which can be derived either by simple calculus or by geometrical considerations. The case of harmonic forces reveals a subtle property of the maximal sum of distances within an ellipse.Comment: Also available from http://democrite.in2p3.fr/democrite-0002317

Speculations in hadron spectroscopy

A selected survey is presented of the recent progress in hadron spectroscopy. This includes spin-singlet charmonium states, excitations of charmonium and open-charm mesons, double-charm baryons, and pentaquark candidates. Models proposing exotic bound states or resonances are reviewed. The sector of exotic mesons with two heavy quarks appears as particularly promising

Elusive multiquark spectroscopy

A review is presented of past and recent attempts to build multiquark states within current models already describing ordinary mesons and baryons. This includes: coherence in the chromomagnetic interaction, tetraquarks with two heavy quarks, Steiner-tree models of confinement, and hadronic molecules, in particular in the hidden-charm sector. Some emphasis is put on the difficulties encountered when extrapolating toward higher configurations the dynamics of confining forces, starting from the simple case of a quark and an antiquark, or three quarks in a colour singlet

Historical Survey of the Quasi-Nuclear Baryonium

We review ideas and speculations concerning possible bound states or resonances of the nucleon--antinucleon system.Comment: 12 pages, Talk at the Workshop on Hadron Spectroscopy, Frascati, Italy, march 199

Recent issues in hadron spectroscopy

A brief survey is presented of recently discovered hadrons, some of them presumably demonstrating a new kind of internal structure. This includes : spin-singlet quarkonium, mesons with unexpected mass or width, baryons with two heavy quarks, and pentaquark candidates. Flavour configurations with a combination of light and heavy quarks appear as particularly promising.Comment: Based on an invited talk at the session on Subnucleon degrees of freedo

Positivity domains for pairs of triples of spin observables

Positivity restrains the allowed domains for pairs or triples of spin observables in polarised reactions. Various domain shapes in ${1\over2}+{1\over2}\to{1\over2}+{1\over2}$ reactions are displayed. Some methods to determine these domains are mentioned and a new one based on the anticommutation between two observables is presented.Comment: Talk given by Xavier Artru at "DSPIN-07", XII Workshop on High-Energy Spin Physics, Dubna, Sept. 3-7, 2007, to appear in the Proceeding

Stability of multiquarks in a simple string model

A simple string model inspired by the strong-coupling regime of Quantum ChromoDynamics is used as a potential for studying the spectrum of multiquark systems with two quarks and two antiquarks, with a careful treatment of the four-body problem. It is found that the ground state is stable, lying below the threshold for dissociation into two isolated mesons.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Refs. added, typos corrected, discussion improved, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Graph Laplacians and Stabilization of Vehicle Formations

Control of vehicle formations has emerged as a topic of significant interest to the controls community. In this paper, we merge tools from graph theory and control theory to derive stability criteria for formation stabilization. The interconnection between vehicles (i.e., which vehicles are sensed by other vehicles) is modeled as a graph, and the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix of the graph are used in stating a Nyquist-like stability criterion for vehicle formations. The location of the Laplacian eigenvalues can be correlated to the graph structure, and therefore used to identify desirable and undesirable formation interconnection topologies

Comments on "Observation of Long-Range, Near-Side Angular Correlations in Proton-Proton Collisions at the LHC" by the CMS collaboration(arXiv:1009.4122v1 [hep-ex])"

It is the purpose of this note to point out that the CMS observation is in line with previous observations in particle physics at large transverse momenta and/or high multiplicities at lower energies, which were interpreted as possible evidence for quark-gluon plasma (QGP), and to suggest other features of the QGP observed in A+A collisions such as radial flow and jet quenching, which should be investigated in p-p collisions in order to provide further evidence for QGP production