Ground-state energy of pionic hydrogen to one loop

We investigate the ground-state energy of the pi- p atom (pionic hydrogen) in the framework of QCD+QED. In particular, we evaluate the strong energy-level shift. We perform the calculation at next-to-leading order in the low-energy expansion in the framework of the relevant effective field theory. The result provides a relation between the strong energy shift and the pion-nucleon S-wave scattering lengths - evaluated in pure QCD - at next-to-leading order in isospin breaking and in the low-energy expansion. We compare our result with available model calculations.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J. C; Eq. (B8) corrected, comment after Eq. (B11) changed, additional minor changes in the text; preprint number adde

Point Spread Functions in Identification of Astronomical Objects from Poisson Noised Image

This article deals with modeling of astronomical objects, which is one of the most fundamental topics in astronomical science. Introduction part is focused on problem description and used methods. Point Spread Function Modeling part deals with description of basic models used in astronomical photometry and further on introduction of more sophisticated models such as combinations of interference, turbulence, focusing, etc. This paper also contains a~way of objective function definition based on the knowledge of Poisson distributed noise, which is included in astronomical data. The proposed methods are further applied to real astronomical data

Chiral condensate thermal evolution at finite baryon chemical potential within Chiral Perturbation Theory

We present a model independent study of the chiral condensate evolution in a hadronic gas, in terms of temperature and baryon chemical potential. The meson-meson interactions are described within Chiral Perturbation Theory and the pion-nucleon interaction by means of Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory, both at one loop, and nucleon-nucleon interactions can be safely neglected within our hadronic gas domain of validity. Together with the virial expansion, this provides a systematic expansion at low temperatures and chemical potentials, which includes the physical quark masses. This can serve as a guideline for further studies on the lattice. We also obtain estimates of the critical line of temperature and chemical potential where the chiral condensate melts, which systematically lie somewhat higher than recent lattice calculations but are consistent with several hadronic models. We have also estimated uncertainties due to chiral parameters, heavier hadrons and higher orders through unitarized Chiral Perturbation Theory.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, ReVTeX. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D. References added. More conservative estimate of applicability domain, with new figure. More detailed explanation of final results with two more figures. Results unchange

Unitarized pion-nucleon scattering amplitude from inverse amplitude method

In a recent work on low energy pion-nucleon scattering, instead of using chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) amplitude, we started from a pion-nucleon {\it soft-pion} result and used elastic unitarity directly as a dynamical constraint to construct first-order unitarity corrected amplitudes. The resulting amplitudes are crossing symmetric but, as the ChPT ones, satisfy only approximate unitarity relation. In the present work, we reconsider our approach and we apply the inverse amplitude method (IAM) in order to access the energy resonance region. We present the resulting S- and P-wave phase shifts that are shown to be in qualitative agreement with experimental data.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

U(3) chiral perturbation theory with infrared regularization

We include the eta-prime in chiral perturbation theory without employing 1/N_c counting rules. The method is illustrated by calculating the masses and decay constants of the Goldstone boson octet (pions, kaons, eta) and the singlet eta-prime up to one-loop order. The effective Lagrangian describing the interactions of the eta-prime with the Goldstone boson octet is presented up to fourth chiral order and the loop integrals are evaluated using infrared regularization, which preserves Lorentz and chiral symmetry.Comment: 29 page

Bethe-Salpeter Approach for the P33P_{33} Elastic Pion-Nucleon Scattering in Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory

Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory (HBChPT) to leading order provides a kernel to solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the $P_{33}$ ($\Delta(1232)$-channel) $\pi-N$ system, in the infinite nucleon mass limit. Crossed Born terms include, when iterated within the Bethe-Salpeter equation, both {\it all} one- and {\it some} two-pion intermediate states, hence preserving elastic unitarity below the two-pion production threshold. This suggests searching for a solution with the help of dispersion relations and suitable subtraction constants, when all in-elasticities are explicitly neglected. The solution allows for a successful description of the experimental phase shift from threshold up to $\sqrt{s}=1500$ MeV in terms of four subtraction constants. Next-to-leading order HBChPT calculations are also used to estimate the unknown subtraction constants which appear in the solution. Large discrepancies are encountered which can be traced to the slow convergence rate of HBChPT.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Anti-angiogenic activity of the flavonoid precursor 4-hydroxychalcone.

Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, is necessary for cancerous tumors to keep growing and spreading. Suppression of abnormal angiogenesis may provide therapeutic strategies for the treatment of angiogenesis-dependent disorders. In the present study, we describe the in vitro and in vivo anti-angiogenic activities of the flavonoid precursor 4-hydroxychalcone (Q797). This chalcone (22μg/ml) suppressed several steps of angiogenesis, including endothelial cell proliferation, migration and tube formation without showing any signs of cytotoxicity. Moreover, we found a selective effect on activated endothelial cells, in particular with resting endothelial cells and the human epithelial tumor cell lines (HeLa, MCF-7, A549). In addition, Q797 was able to modulate both vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)- and basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF)- induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-1/-2 and Akt kinase. It did not influence the nuclear translocation of p65 subunit of the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) when human endothelial cells were stimulated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. Taken together this indicates that the Q797-mediated inhibition of in vitro angiogenic features of endothelial cells is most likely caused by suppression of growth factor pathways. The potent inhibitory effect of Q797 on bFGF-driven neovascularization was also demonstrated in vivo using the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. In summary, this chalcone could serve as a new leading structure in the discovery of new potent synthetic angiogenesis inhibitors

Unitarized pion-nucleon scattering within Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory

By means of the Inverse Amplitude Method we unitarize the elastic pion-nucleon scattering amplitudes obtained from Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory to O(q^3). Within this approach we can enlarge their applicability range and generate the Delta(1232) resonance. We can find a reasonable description of the pion nucleon phase shifts with (q^2) parameters in agreement with the resonance saturation hypothesis. However, the uncertainties in the analysis of the low energy data as well as the large number of chiral parameters, which can have strong correlations, allow us to obtain very good fits with rather different sets of chiral constants.Comment: Shortened version to appear in Phys. Rev. D. Brief Report

The S11−NS_{11}- N(1535) and −N-N(1650) Resonances in Meson-Baryon Unitarized Coupled Channel Chiral Perturbation Theory

The $s-$wave meson-baryon scattering is analyzed for the strangeness S=0 sector in a Bethe-Salpeter coupled channel formalism incorporating Chiral Symmetry. Four channels have been considered: $\pi N$, $\eta N$, $K \Lambda$, $K \Sigma$. The needed two particle irreducible matrix amplitude is taken from lowest order Chiral Perturbation Theory in a relativistic formalism and low energy constants are fitted to the elastic $\pi N$ phase-shifts and the $\pi^- p \to \eta n$ and $\pi^- p \to K^0 \Lambda$ cross section data. The position of the complex poles in the second Riemann sheet of the scattering amplitude determine masses and widths of the $S_{11}-$ $N$(1535) and $-N$(1650) resonances, in reasonable agreement with experiment. A good overall description of data, from $\pi N$ threshold up to 2 GeV, is achieved keeping in mind that the two pion production channel has not been included.Comment: 35 pages, LaTeX + 7 ps-figure files. Some minor mistakes have been corrected for and a new appendix discussing the matching to HBChPT has been also adde

S=−1S=-1 Meson-Baryon Unitarized Coupled Channel Chiral Perturbation Theory and the S01−S_{01}- Λ\Lambda(1405) and −Λ- \Lambda(1670) Resonances

The $s-$wave meson-baryon scattering is analyzed for the strangeness $S=-1$ and isospin I=0 sector in a Bethe-Salpeter coupled channel formalism incorporating Chiral Symmetry. Four channels have been considered: $\pi \Sigma$, $\bar K N$, $\eta \Lambda$ and $K \Xi$. The required input to solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation is taken from lowest order Chiral Perturbation Theory in a relativistic formalism. There appear undetermined low energy constants, as a consequence of the renormalization of the amplitudes, which are obtained from fits to the $\pi\Sigma\to\pi\Sigma$ mass-spectrum, to the elastic $\bar K N \to \bar K N$ and $\bar K N\to \pi \Sigma$ $t$--matrices and to the $K^- p \to \eta \Lambda$ cross section data. The position and residues of the complex poles in the second Riemann Sheet of the scattering amplitude determine masses, widths and branching ratios of the $S_{01}-$ $\Lambda$(1405) and $-\Lambda$(1670) resonances, in reasonable agreement with experiment. A good overall description of data, from $\pi \Sigma$ threshold up to 1.75 GeV, is achieved despite the fact that three-body channels have not been explicitly included.Comment: 23 pages, Latex, 10 Figures. In this revised version a new subsection 3.6 on Heavy Baryon Expansion and new references have been adde