Light Front Nuclear Physics: Toy Models, Static Sources and Tilted Light Front Coordinates

The principles behind the detailed results of a light-front mean field theory of finite nuclei are elucidated by deriving the nucleon mode equation using a simple general argument, based on the idea that a static source in equal time coordinates corresponds to a moving source in light front coordinates. This idea also allows us to solve several simple toy model examples: scalar field in a box, 1+1 dimensional bag model, three-dimensional harmonic oscillator and the Hulth\'en potential. The latter provide simplified versions of momentum distributions and form factors of relevance to experiments. In particular, the relativistic correction to the mean square radius of a nucleus is shown to be very small. Solving these simple examples suggests another more general approach-- the use of tilted light front coordinates. The simple examples are made even simpler.Comment: 19 pages, references adde

Does sleep education change sleep parameters? Comparing sleep education trials for middle school students in Australia and New Zealand

Background: Adolescents suffer daytime consequences from sleep loss. Sleep education programs have been developed in an attempt to increase sleep knowledge and/or duration. This paper presents data from three trials of the Aus-tralian Centre for Education in Sleep (ACES) program for adolescents.Methods: The ACES program was delivered to 69 Australian adolescents in a pre-post cross-sectional design (mean age 15.2) and 29 New Zealand adolescents in a randomised control trial (mean age 14.8 years). Assessments in sleep parame-ters were undertaken at baseline and post intervention.Results: Where sleep knowledge was evaluated (Australian trials), significant improvements were shown in all trials (All p <0.05). Where sleep duration was assessed (New Zealand trial) significant improvements were found in week and weekend sleep duration [F(1, 27)=4.26, p=0.04). Both, students and teachers found the program feasible, interesting, and educational.Conclusions: ACES sleep education programmes can improve both sleep knowledge and sleep duration in adolescents. Improving the programme so sleep knowledge attained equates to actual sleep behaviour change are areas for future direc-tion. Collectively these findings provide encouraging signs that adolescents can improve their sleep knowledge and behav-iour with sleep education which bodes well for sleep-related health and psycho-social issues

Two-photon exchange in elastic electron-nucleon scattering

A detailed study of two-photon exchange in unpolarized and polarized elastic electron--nucleon scattering is presented, taking particular account of nucleon finite size effects. Contributions from nucleon elastic intermediate states are found to have a strong angular dependence, which leads to a partial resolution of the discrepancy between the Rosenbluth and polarization transfer measurements of the proton electric to magnetic form factor ratio, G_E/G_M. The two-photon exchange contribution to the longitudinal polarization transfer P_L is small, whereas the contribution to the transverse polarization transfer P_T is enhanced at backward angles by several percent, increasing with Q^2. This gives rise to a small, ~3% suppression of G_E/G_M obtained from the polarization transfer ratio P_T/P_L at large Q^2. We also compare the two-photon exchange effects with data on the ratio of e^+ p to e^- p cross sections, which is predicted to be enhanced at backward angles. Finally, we evaluate the corrections to the form factors of the neutron, and estimate the elastic intermediate state contribution to the ^3He form factors

Model independent properties of two-photon exchange in elastic electron proton scattering

We derive from first principles, as the C-invariance of the electromagnetic interaction and the crossing symmetry, the general properties of two-photon exchange in electron-proton elastic scattering. We show that the presence of this mechanism destroys the linearity of the Rosenbluth separation.Comment: 12 pages, no figures- Corrected misprints, changes in P. 7. No changes in conclusion

Nucleon Sigma Term and In-medium Quark Condensate in the Modified Quark-Meson Coupling Model

We evaluate the nucleon sigma term and in-medium quark condensate in the modified quark-meson coupling model which features a density-dependent bag constant. We obtain a nucleon sigma term consistent with its empirical value, which requires a significant reduction of the bag constant in the nuclear medium similar to those found in the previous works. The resulting in-medium quark condensate at low densities agrees well with the model independent linear order result. At higher densities, the magnitude of the in-medium quark condensate tends to increase, indicating no tendency toward chiral symmetry restoration.Comment: 9 pages, modified version to be publishe

Beam normal spin asymmetry in elastic lepton-nucleon scattering

We discuss the two-photon exchange contribution to observables which involve lepton helicity flip in elastic lepton-nucleon scattering. This contribution is accessed through the spin asymmetry for a lepton beam polarized normal to the scattering plane. We estimate this beam normal spin asymmetry at large momentum transfer using a parton model and we express the corresponding amplitude in terms of generalized parton distributions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Computational Model for Electron-Nucleon Scattering and Weak Charge of the Nucleon

We show how computational symbolic packages such as FeynArts and FormCalc can be adopted for the evaluation of one-loop hadronic electroweak radiative corrections for electron-nucleon scattering and applied to calculations of the nucleon weak charge. Several numerical results are listed, and found to be in good agreement with the current experimental data.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, results unchanged, minor corrections in the appendi

Mean-field calculations of quasi-elastic responses in 4He

We present calculations of the quasi-elastic responses functions in 4He based upon a mean-field model used to perform analogous calculations in heavier nuclei. The meson exchange current contribution is small if compared with the results of calculations where short-range correlations are explicitly considered. It is argued that the presence of these correlations in the description of the nuclear wave functions is crucial to make meson exchange current effects appreciable.Comment: uuencoded file containing 7 LaTex peges plus 3 ps figures. To be published in Physical Review

Promoting low carbon behaviours through personalised information? Long-term evaluation of a carbon calculator interview

The UK needs to accelerate action to achieve its 80 per cent carbon reduction target by 2050 as it is otherwise in danger of lagging behind. A much discussed question in this context is whether voluntary behaviour change initiatives can make a significant contribution to reaching this target. While providing individuals with general information on climate change or low carbon action is increasingly seen as ineffective, some studies argue that personalised information has greater potential to encourage behaviour change. This mixed methods study examines this claim through a longitudinal field experiment which tested the effectiveness of a carbon calculator interview. It finds that the intervention significantly raised awareness of ways in which participants could reduce their carbon footprint. However, this increased awareness did not translate into measurable behaviour changes in relation to home energy and travel. Qualitative analysis shows that participants refer to infrastructural, social and psychological barriers to change. This indicates that more ambitious government and corporate action is required to speed up carbon reductio

Two-Boson Exchange Physics: A Brief Review

Current status of the two-boson exchange contributions to elastic electron-proton scattering, both for parity conserving and parity-violating, is briefly reviewed. How the discrepancy in the extraction of elastic nucleon form factors between unpolarized Rosenbluth and polarization transfer experiments can be understood, in large part, by the two-photon exchange corrections is discussed. We also illustrate how the measurement of the ratio between positron-proton and electron-proton scattering can be used to differentiate different models of two-photon exchange. For the parity-violating electron-proton scattering, the interest is on how the two-boson exchange (TBE), \gamma Z-exchange in particular, could affect the extraction of the long-sought strangeness form factors. Various calculations all indicate that the magnitudes of effect of TBE on the extraction of strangeness form factors is small, though can be large percentage-wise in certain kinematics.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, prepared for Proceedings of the fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics (APFB2011), Seoul, Korea, August 22-26, 2011, to appear in Few-Body Systems, November 201