Beyond two-stage models for lung carcinogenesis in the Mayak workers: Implications for Plutonium risk

Mechanistic multi-stage models are used to analyze lung-cancer mortality after Plutonium exposure in the Mayak-workers cohort, with follow-up until 2008. Besides the established two-stage model with clonal expansion, models with three mutation stages as well as a model with two distinct pathways to cancer are studied. The results suggest that three-stage models offer an improved description of the data. The best-fitting models point to a mechanism where radiation increases the rate of clonal expansion. This is interpreted in terms of changes in cell-cycle control mediated by bystander signaling or repopulation following cell killing. No statistical evidence for a two-pathway model is found. To elucidate the implications of the different models for radiation risk, several exposure scenarios are studied. Models with a radiation effect at an early stage show a delayed response and a pronounced drop-off with older ages at exposure. Moreover, the dose-response relationship is strongly nonlinear for all three-stage models, revealing a marked increase above a critical dose

Charm quark mass from QCD sum rules for the charmonium system

In this work, the charm quark mass is obtained from a QCD sum rule analysis of the charmonium system. In our investigation we include results from nonrelativistic QCD at next-to-next-to-leading order. Using the pole mass scheme, we obtain a value of $M_c=1.70\pm 0.13$ GeV for the charm pole mass. The introduction of a potential-subtracted mass leads to an improved scale dependence. The running ${\rm \bar{MS}}$-mass is then determined to be $m_c(m_c) = 1.23 \pm 0.09$ GeV.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Pentaquark and diquark-diquark clustering: a QCD sum rule approach

In this work we study the Theta(1540) in the framework of QCD sum rules based on (ud)^2\bar{s} diquark clustering as suggested by Jaffe and Wilczek. Within errors, the mass of the pentaquark is compatible with the experimentally measured value. The mass difference between the Theta and the pentaquark with the quantum numbers of the nucleon amounts to 70 MeV, consistent with the interpretation of the N(1440) as a pentaquark.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; discussions extended, references added, version to appear in Phys. Lett.

The <SPP> Green function and SU(3) breaking in Kl3 decays

Using the 1=/N-C expansion scheme and truncating the hadronic spectrum to the lowest-lying resonances, we match a meromorphic approximation to the Green function onto QCD by imposing the correct large-momentum falloff, both off- shell and on the relevant hadron mass shells. In this way we determine a number of chiral low-energy constants of O(p(6)), in particular the ones governing SU(3) breaking in the K-l3 vector form factor at zero momentum transfer. The main result of our matching procedure is that the known loop contributions largely dominate the corrections of O(p(6)) to f(+)(0). We discuss the implications of our final value f(+)(K0 pi-) (0) = 0.984 +/- 0.012 for the extraction of V-us from K-l3 decays

Quark-hadron-duality in the charmonium and upsilon system

In this work we discuss the practical and conceptual issues related to quark-hadron-duality in heavy-heavy systems. Recent measurements in the charmonium region allow a direct test of quark-hadron-duality. We present a formula for non-resonant background production in e^+ e^- \to D{\bar D} and extract the resonance parameters of the \psi(3S)-\psi(6S). The obtained results are used to investigate the upsilon energy range.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, references adde

QCD moment sum rules for Coulomb systems: the charm and bottom quark masses

In this work the charm and bottom quark masses are determined from QCD moment sum rules for the charmonium and upsilon systems. To illustrate the special character of these sum rules when applied to Coulomb systems we first set up and study the behaviour of the sum rules in quantum mechanics. In our analysis we include both the results from nonrelativistic QCD and perturbation theory at next-next-to-leading order. The moments are evaluated at different values of q^2 which correspond to different relative influence among the theoretical contributions. In the numerical analysis we obtain the masses by choosing central values for all input parameters. The error is estimated from a variation of these parameters. First, the analysis is performed in the pole mass scheme. Second, we employ the potential-subtracted mass in intermediate steps of the calculation to then infer the quark masses in the MS-scheme. Our final results for the pole- and MS-masses are: M_c = 1.75 \pm 0.15 GeV, m_c(m_c) = 1.19 \pm 0.11 GeV, M_b = 4.98 \pm 0.125 GeV and m_b(m_b) = 4.24 \pm 0.10 GeV.Comment: 55 pages, 12 figures. References added, discussions extended. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Towards a consistent estimate of the chiral low-energy constants

Guided by the large-N_C limit of QCD, we construct the most general chiral resonance Lagrangian that can generate chiral low-energy constants up to O(p^6). By integrating out the resonance fields, the low-energy constants are parametrized in terms of resonance masses and couplings. Information on those couplings and on the low-energy constants can be extracted by analysing QCD Green functions of currents both for large and small momenta. The chiral resonance theory generates Green functions that interpolate between QCD and chiral perturbation theory. As specific examples we consider the VAP and SPP Green functions.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, FPA2004-00996, HU2002-0044, Generalitat Valenciana, GRUPOS03/013, GV04B-594, GV05/015, European Commission, HPRN-CT2002-00311 (EURIDICE)Peer reviewe