Strong First Order EWPT and Strong Gravitational Waves in Z3Z_3-symmetric Singlet Scalar Extension

The nature of electroweak (EW) phase transition (PT) is of great importance. It may give a clue to the origin of baryon asymmetry if EWPT is strong first order. Although it is second order within the standard model (SM), a great many extensions of the SM are capable of altering the nature. Thus, gravitational wave (GW), which is supposed to be relics of strong first order PT, is a good complementary probe to new physics beyond SM (BSM). We in this paper elaborate the patterns of strong first order EWPT in the next to simplest extension to the SM Higgs sector, by introducing a $Z_3$-symmetric singlet scalar. We find that, in the $Z_3$-symmetric limit, the tree level barrier could lead to strong first order EWPT either via three or two-step PT. Moreover, they could produce two sources of GW, despite of the undetectability from the first-step strong first order PT for the near future GW experiments. But the other source with significant supercooling which then gives rise to $\alpha\sim{\cal O}(0.1)$ almost can be wholly covered by future space-based GW interferometers such as eLISA, DECIGO and BBO.Comment: references adde

The Great Escape of Glutamate from the Depth of Presynaptic Invaginations

The basal pole of a cone photoreceptor is in close contact with hundreds of bipolar cell dendrites. The function and properties of these unconventional junctions are a long-standing mystery. In this issue of Neuron, DeVries and colleagues provide compelling evidence that glutamate release from a single quanta can diffuse to distant AMPA/KA receptors on these basal junctions to generate slow mEPSCs

Enhancement of Intermediate Mass Dileptons From Charm Decays At SPS Energies

We study the dimuon yield from open charm decays in the intermediate mass region(IMR) in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN-SPS energy. We find that final state rescatterings which broaden the $m_T$ spectrum of charmed mesons can enrich the part of the phase space covered by the NA50 experiment, thus leading to an apparent enhancement of IMR dileptons within the acceptance of the experiment. Such an enhancement increases with the dimuon invariant mass and the single muon energy cut-off.Comment: Revtex, 16 pages including 6 eps figures, using epsf.st

Gravitational waves from first order electroweak phase transition in models with the U(1)XU(1)_X^{} gauge symmetry

We consider a standard model extension equipped with a dark sector where the $U(1)_X^{}$ Abelian gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken by the dark Higgs mechanism. In this framework, we investigate patterns of the electroweak phase transition as well as those of the dark phase transition, and examine detectability of gravitational waves (GWs) generated by such strongly first order phase transition. It is pointed out that the collider bounds on the properties of the discovered Higgs boson exclude a part of parameter space that could otherwise generate detectable GWs. After imposing various constraints on this model, it is shown that GWs produced by multi-step phase transitions are detectable at future space-based interferometers, such as LISA and DECIGO, if the dark photon is heavier than 25 GeV. Furthermore, we discuss the complementarity of dark photon searches or dark matter searches with the GW observations in these models with the dark gauge symmetry.Comment: 23 pages, 22 figures, version published in Journal of High Energy Physic

Japanese verbal conjugation and the theory of underspecification

In this joint research we discussed the well-known phenomenon called Onbin observed in the past and the gerund forms of Japanese consonant-final verbs. See the examples below: ..

Hadron widths in mixed-phase matter

We derive classically an expression for a hadron width in a two-phase region of hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The presence of QGP gives hadrons larger widths than they would have in a pure hadron gas. We find that the $\phi$ width observed in a central Au+Au collision at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV/nucleon is a few MeV greater than the width in a pure hadron gas. The part of observed hadron widths due to QGP is approximately proportional to $(dN/dy)^{-1/3}$.Comment: 8 pages, latex, no figures, KSUCNR-002-9

Charmonium Absorption in the Meson-exchange Model

We review the meson-exchange model for charmonium absorption by hadrons. This includes the construction of the interaction Lagrangians, the determination of the coupling constants, the introduction of form factors, and the predicted cross sections for $J/\psi$ absorption by both mesons and nucleons. We further discuss the effects due to anomalous parity interactions, uncertainties in form factors, constraints from chiral symmetry, and the change of charmed meson mass in medium on the cross sections for charmonium absorption in hadronic matter.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Talk given at Quark Matter 2002 (QM 2002), Nantes, France, 18-24 July 2002. To appear in the proceedings (Nucl. Phys. A

Baryon Number Fluctuation and the Quark-Gluon Plasma

We show that $\omega_B$ or $\omega_{\bar B}$, the squared baryon or antibaryon number fluctuation per baryon or antibaryon, is a possible signature for the quark-gluon plasma that is expected to be created in relativistic heavy ion collisions, as it is a factor of three smaller than in an equilibrated hadronic matter due to the fractional baryon number of quarks. Using kinetic equations with exact baryon number conservation, we find that their values in an equilibrated matter are half of those expected from a Poisson distribution. Effects due to finite acceptance and non-zero net baryon number are also studied.Comment: discussion and references added, version to appear in PR

Secondary Charmonium Production at LHC Energy

We consider the production of charmonium by $D\bar D$ annihilation during the mixed and hadronic phase of Pb-Pb collision at LHC energy. The calculations for secondary $J/\psi$ and $\psi^,$ production are performed within a kinetic model taking into account the space-time evolution of a longitudinally and transversely expanding medium. It is shown that the yield of secondary $J/\psi$ mesons depends strongly on the $J/\psi$ dissociation cross section with co-moving hadrons. Within the most likely scenario for the dissociation cross section it will be negligible. The secondary production of $\psi^,$ mesons, however, due to their large cross section above the threshold, can substantially exceed the primary yield.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Presented at Quark Matter 9