A Solvable Regime of Disorder and Interactions in Ballistic Nanostructures, Part I: Consequences for Coulomb Blockade

We provide a framework for analyzing the problem of interacting electrons in a ballistic quantum dot with chaotic boundary conditions within an energy $E_T$ (the Thouless energy) of the Fermi energy. Within this window we show that the interactions can be characterized by Landau Fermi liquid parameters. When $g$, the dimensionless conductance of the dot, is large, we find that the disordered interacting problem can be solved in a saddle-point approximation which becomes exact as $g\to\infty$ (as in a large-N theory). The infinite $g$ theory shows a transition to a strong-coupling phase characterized by the same order parameter as in the Pomeranchuk transition in clean systems (a spontaneous interaction-induced Fermi surface distortion), but smeared and pinned by disorder. At finite $g$, the two phases and critical point evolve into three regimes in the $u_m-1/g$ plane -- weak- and strong-coupling regimes separated by crossover lines from a quantum-critical regime controlled by the quantum critical point. In the strong-coupling and quantum-critical regions, the quasiparticle acquires a width of the same order as the level spacing $\Delta$ within a few $\Delta$'s of the Fermi energy due to coupling to collective excitations. In the strong coupling regime if $m$ is odd, the dot will (if isolated) cross over from the orthogonal to unitary ensemble for an exponentially small external flux, or will (if strongly coupled to leads) break time-reversal symmetry spontaneously.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures. Very minor changes. We have clarified that we are treating charge-channel instabilities in spinful systems, leaving spin-channel instabilities for future work. No substantive results are change

New Strong-Field QED Effects at ELI: Nonperturbative Vacuum Pair Production

Since the work of Sauter, and Heisenberg, Euler and K\"ockel, it has been understood that vacuum polarization effects in quantum electrodynamics (QED) predict remarkable new phenomena such as light-light scattering and pair production from vacuum. However, these fundamental effects are difficult to probe experimentally because they are very weak, and they are difficult to analyze theoretically because they are highly nonlinear and/or nonperturbative. The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project offers the possibility of a new window into this largely unexplored world. I review these ideas, along with some new results, explaining why quantum field theorists are so interested in this rapidly developing field of laser science. I concentrate on the theoretical tools that have been developed to analyze nonperturbative vacuum pair production.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures; Key Lecture at the ELI Workshop and School on "Fundamental Physics with Ultra-High Fields", 29 Sept - 2 Oct. 2008, Frauenworth Monastery, Germany; v2: refs updated, English translations of reviews of Nikishov and Ritu

Energy scan of the e+e−→hb(nP)π+π−e^+e^- \to h_b(nP)\pi^+\pi^- (n=1,2)(n=1,2) cross sections and evidence for the Υ(11020)\Upsilon(11020) decays into charged bottomonium-like states

Using data collected with the Belle detector in the energy region of the $\Upsilon(10860)$ and $\Upsilon(11020)$ resonances we measure the $e^+e^- \to h_b(nP)\pi^+\pi^-$ $(n=1,2)$ cross sections. Their energy dependences show clear $\Upsilon(10860)$ and $\Upsilon(11020)$ peaks with a small or no non-resonant contribution. We study resonant structure of the $\Upsilon(11020) \to h_b(nP)\pi^+\pi^-$ transitions and find evidence that they proceed entirely via intermediate charged bottomonium-like states $Z_b(10610)$ and/or $Z_b(10650)$ (with current statistics we can not discriminate hypotheses of one or two intermediate states).Using data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider, we measure the energy dependence of the e+e-→hb(nP)π+π- (n=1, 2) cross sections from thresholds up to 11.02 GeV. We find clear ϒ(10860) and ϒ(11020) peaks with little or no continuum contribution. We study the resonant substructure of the ϒ(11020)→hb(nP)π+π- transitions and find evidence that they proceed entirely via the intermediate isovector states Zb(10610) and Zb(10650). The relative fraction of these states is loosely constrained by the current data: The hypothesis that only Zb(10610) is produced is excluded at the level of 3.3 standard deviations, while the hypothesis that only Zb(10650) is produced is not excluded at a significant level.Using data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider, we measure the energy dependence of the $e^+e^- \to h_b(nP)\pi^+\pi^-$ $(n=1,2)$ cross sections from thresholds up to $11.02\,$GeV. We find clear $\Upsilon(10860)$ and $\Upsilon(11020)$ peaks with little or no continuum contribution. We study the resonant substructure of the $\Upsilon(11020) \to h_b(nP)\pi^+\pi^-$ transitions and find evidence that they proceed entirely via the intermediate isovector states $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$. The relative fraction of these states is loosely constrained by the current data: the hypothesis that only $Z_b(10610)$ is produced is excluded at the level of 3.3 standard deviations, while the hypothesis that only $Z_b(10650)$ is produced is not excluded at a significant level