Z Boson Propagator Correction in Technicolor Theories with ETC Effects Included

We calculate the Z boson propagator correction, as described by the S parameter, in technicolor theories with extended technicolor interactions included. Our method is to solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the requisite current-current correlation functions. Our results suggest that the inclusion of extended technicolor interactions has a relatively small effect on S.Comment: 15pages, 8 figure

Chirality Correlation within Dirac Eigenvectors from Domain Wall Fermions

In the dilute instanton gas model of the QCD vacuum, one expects a strong spatial correlation between chirality and the maxima of the Dirac eigenvectors with small eigenvalues. Following Horvath, {\it et al.} we examine this question using lattice gauge theory within the quenched approximation. We extend the work of those authors by using weaker coupling, $\beta=6.0$, larger lattices, $16^4$, and an improved fermion formulation, domain wall fermions. In contrast with this earlier work, we find a striking correlation between the magnitude of the chirality density, $|\psi^\dagger(x)\gamma^5\psi(x)|$, and the normal density, $\psi^\dagger(x)\psi(x)$, for the low-lying Dirac eigenvectors.Comment: latex, 25 pages including 12 eps figure

Naturally occurring DNA transfer system associated with membrane vesicles in cellulolytic Ruminococcus spp. of ruminal origin

A genetic transformation system with similarities to those reported for gram-negative bacteria was found to be associated with membrane vesicles of the ruminal cellulolytic genus Ruminococcus. Double-stranded DNA was recovered from the subcellular particulate fraction of all the cellulolytic ruminococci examined. Electron microscopy revealed that the only particles present resembled membrane vesicles. The likelihood that the DNA was associated with membrane vesicles (also known to contain cellulosomes) was further supported by the adherence of the particles associated with the subcellular DNA to cellulose powder added to culture filtrates. The particle-associated DNA comprised a population of linear molecules ranging in size from <20 kb to 49 kb (Ruminococcus sp. strain YE73) and from 23 kb to 90 kb (Ruminococcus albus AR67). Particle-associated DNA from R. albus AR67 represented DNA derived from genomic DNA of the host bacterium having an almost identical HindIII digestion pattern and an identical 16S rRNA gene. Paradoxically, particle-associated DNA was refractory to digestion with EcoRI, while the genomic DNA was susceptible to extensive digestion, suggesting that there is differential restriction modification of genomic DNA and DNA exported from the cell. Transformation using the vesicle-containing fraction of culture supernatant of Ruminococcus sp. strain YE71 was able to restore the ability to degrade crystalline cellulose to two mutants that were otherwise unable to do so. The ability was heritable and transferred to subsequent generations. It appears that membrane-associated transformation plays a role in lateral gene transfer in complex microbial ecosystems, such as the rumen

Domain Wall Fermions in Quenched Lattice QCD

We study the chiral properties and the validity of perturbation theory for domain wall fermions in quenched lattice QCD at beta=6.0. The explicit chiral symmetry breaking term in the axial Ward-Takahashi identity is found to be very small already at Ns=10, where Ns is the size of the fifth dimension, and its behavior seems consistent with an exponential decay in Ns within the limited range of Ns we explore. From the fact that the critical quark mass, at which the pion mass vanishes as in the case of the ordinary Wilson-type fermion, exists at finite Ns, we point out that this may be a signal of the parity broken phase and investigate the possible existence of such a phase in this model at finite Ns. The rho and pi meson decay constants obtained from the four-dimensional local currents with the one-loop renormalization factor show a good agreement with those obtained from the conserved currents

A new scheme for the running coupling constant in gauge theories using Wilson loops

We propose a new renormalization scheme of the running coupling constant in general gauge theories using the Wilson loops. The renormalized coupling constant is obtained from the Creutz ratio in lattice simulations and the corresponding perturbative coefficient at the leading order. The latter can be calculated by adopting the zeta-function resummation techniques. We perform a benchmark test of our scheme in quenched QCD with the plaquette gauge action. The running of the coupling constant is determined by applying the step-scaling procedure. Using several methods to improve the statistical accuracy, we show that the running coupling constant can be determined in a wide range of energy scales with relatively small number of gauge configurations.Comment: 30pages, figs and comments added,reference added(v3

The transition temperature in QCD

We present a detailed calculation of the transition temperature in QCD with two light and one heavier (strange) quark mass on lattices with temporal extent N_t =4 and 6. Calculations with improved staggered fermions have been performed for various light to strange quark mass ratios in the range, 0.05 <= m_l/m_s <= 0.5, and with a strange quark mass fixed close to its physical value. From a combined extrapolation to the chiral (m_l -> 0) and continuum (aT = 1/N_t -> 0) limits we find for the transition temperature at the physical point T_c r_0 = 0.457(7) where the scale is set by the Sommer-scale parameter r_0 defined as the distance in the static quark potential at which the slope takes on the value, (dV_qq(r)/dr)_r=r_0 = 1.65/r_0^2. Using the currently best known value for r_0 this translates to a transition temperature T_c = 192(7)(4)MeV. The transition temperature in the chiral limit is about 3% smaller. We discuss current ambiguities in the determination of T_c in physical units and also comment on the universal scaling behavior of thermodynamic quantities in the chiral limit.Comment: 18 pages, 14 EPS figures, replaced wrong entries in column 7 of Table A.

Quenched Lattice QCD with Domain Wall Fermions and the Chiral Limit

Quenched QCD simulations on three volumes, $8^3 \times$, $12^3 \times$ and $16^3 \times 32$ and three couplings, $\beta=5.7$, 5.85 and 6.0 using domain wall fermions provide a consistent picture of quenched QCD. We demonstrate that the small induced effects of chiral symmetry breaking inherent in this formulation can be described by a residual mass (\mres) whose size decreases as the separation between the domain walls ($L_s$) is increased. However, at stronger couplings much larger values of $L_s$ are required to achieve a given physical value of \mres. For $\beta=6.0$ and $L_s=16$, we find \mres/m_s=0.033(3), while for $\beta=5.7$, and $L_s=48$, \mres/m_s=0.074(5), where $m_s$ is the strange quark mass. These values are significantly smaller than those obtained from a more naive determination in our earlier studies. Important effects of topological near zero modes which should afflict an accurate quenched calculation are easily visible in both the chiral condensate and the pion propagator. These effects can be controlled by working at an appropriately large volume. A non-linear behavior of $m_\pi^2$ in the limit of small quark mass suggests the presence of additional infrared subtlety in the quenched approximation. Good scaling is seen both in masses and in $f_\pi$ over our entire range, with inverse lattice spacing varying between 1 and 2 GeV.Comment: 91 pages, 34 figure

The QCD Equation of State with almost Physical Quark Masses

We present results on the equation of state in QCD with two light quark flavors and a heavier strange quark. Calculations with improved staggered fermions have been performed on lattices with temporal extent Nt =4 and 6 on a line of constant physics with almost physical quark mass values; the pion mass is about 220 MeV, and the strange quark mass is adjusted to its physical value. High statistics results on large lattices are obtained for bulk thermodynamic observables, i.e. pressure, energy and entropy density, at vanishing quark chemical potential for a wide range of temperatures, 140 MeV < T < 800 MeV. We present a detailed discussion of finite cut-off effects which become particularly significant for temperatures larger than about twice the transition temperature. At these high temperatures we also performed calculations of the trace anomaly on lattices with temporal extent Nt=8. Furthermore, we have performed an extensive analysis of zero temperature observables including the light and strange quark condensates and the static quark potential at zero temperature. These are used to set the temperature scale for thermodynamic observables and to calculate renormalized observables that are sensitive to deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration and become order parameters in the infinite and zero quark mass limits, respectively.Comment: 22 pages, 17 EPS-figures; revised version, updated references, data added in Tab.1, several smaller change

Non-perturbative Renormalisation of Domain Wall Fermions: Quark Bilinears

We find the renormalisation coefficients of the quark field and the flavour non-singlet fermion bilinear operators for the domain wall fermion action, in the regularisation independent (RI) renormalisation scheme. Our results are from a quenched simulation, on a 16^3x32 lattice, with beta=6.0 and an extent in the fifth dimension of 16. We also discuss the expected effects of the residual chiral symmetry breaking inherent in a domain wall fermion simulation with a finite fifth dimension, and study the evidence for both explicit and spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking effects in our numerical results. We find that the relations between different renormalisation factors predicted by chiral symmetry are, to a good approximation, satisfied by our results and that systematic effects due to the (low energy) spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and zero-modes can be controlled. Our results are compared against the perturbative predictions for both their absolute value and renormalisation scale dependence.Comment: 53 pages, 21 figures, revte