Staggered Chiral Perturbation Theory and the Fourth-Root Trick

Staggered chiral perturbation theory (schpt) takes into account the "fourth-root trick" for reducing unwanted (taste) degrees of freedom with staggered quarks by multiplying the contribution of each sea quark loop by a factor of 1/4. In the special case of four staggered fields (four flavors, nF=4), I show here that certain assumptions about analyticity and phase structure imply the validity of this procedure for representing the rooting trick in the chiral sector. I start from the observation that, when the four flavors are degenerate, the fourth root simply reduces nF=4 to nF=1. One can then treat nondegenerate quark masses by expanding around the degenerate limit. With additional assumptions on decoupling, the result can be extended to the more interesting cases of nF=3, 2, or 1. A apparent paradox associated with the one-flavor case is resolved. Coupled with some expected features of unrooted staggered quarks in the continuum limit, in particular the restoration of taste symmetry, schpt then implies that the fourth-root trick induces no problems (for example, a violation of unitarity that persists in the continuum limit) in the lowest energy sector of staggered lattice QCD. It also says that the theory with staggered valence quarks and rooted staggered sea quarks behaves like a simple, partially-quenched theory, not like a "mixed" theory in which sea and valence quarks have different lattice actions. In most cases, the assumptions made in this paper are not only sufficient but also necessary for the validity of schpt, so that a variety of possible new routes for testing this validity are opened.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figures. v3: minor changes: improved explanations and less tentative discussion in several places; corresponds to published versio

Baryon Electromagnetic Properties in Partially Quenched Heavy Hadron Chiral Perturbation Theory

The electromagnetic properties of baryons containing a heavy quark are calculated at next-to-leading order in partially quenched heavy hadron chiral perturbation theory. Calculations are performed for three light flavors in the isospin limit and additionally for two light non-degenerate flavors. We use partially-quenched charge matrices that are easy to implement on the lattice. The results presented are necessary for the light quark mass extrapolation and zero-momentum extrapolation of lattice QCD and partially quenched lattice QCD calculations of heavy hadron electromagnetic properties. Additionally relations between the sextet electromagnetic form factors and transition form factors are derived.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures, RevTex

Surface mixing and biological activity in the four Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems

Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) are characterized by a high productivity of plankton associated with large commercial fisheries, thus playing key biological and socio-economical roles. The aim of this work is to make a comparative study of these four upwelling systems focussing on their surface stirring, using the Finite Size Lyapunov Exponents (FSLEs), and their biological activity, based on satellite data. First, the spatial distribution of horizontal mixing is analysed from time averages and from probability density functions of FSLEs. Then we studied the temporal variability of surface stirring focussing on the annual and seasonal cycle. There is a global negative correlation between surface horizontal mixing and chlorophyll standing stocks over the four areas. To try to better understand this inverse relationship, we consider the vertical dimension by looking at the Ekman-transport and vertical velocities. We suggest the possibility of a changing response of the phytoplankton to sub/mesoscale turbulence, from a negative effect in the very productive coastal areas to a positive one in the open ocean.Comment: 12 pages. NPG Special Issue on "Nonlinear processes in oceanic and atmospheric flows". Open Access paper, available also at the publisher site: http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/16/557/2009

Extrapolations of Lattice Meson Form Factors

We use chiral perturbation theory to study the extrapolations necessary to make physical predictions from lattice QCD data for the electromagnetic form factors of pseudoscalar mesons. We focus on the quark mass, momentum, lattice spacing, and volume dependence and apply our results to simulations employing mixed actions of Ginsparg-Wilson valence quarks and staggered sea quarks. To determine charge radii at quark masses on the lattices currently used, we find that all extrapolations except the one to infinite volume make significant contributions to the systematic error.Comment: 14pp, discussion and Ref. added for disconnected diagram

The role of rotation on Petersen Diagrams. II The influence of near-degeneracy

In the present work, the effect of near-degeneracy on rotational Petersen diagrams (RPD) is analysed. Seismic models are computed considering rotation effects on both equilibrium models and adiabatic oscillation frequencies (including second-order near-degeneracy effects). Contamination of coupled modes and coupling strength on the first radial modes are studied in detail. Analysis of relative intrinsic amplitudes of near-degenerate modes reveals that the identity of the fundamental radial mode and its coupled quadrupole pair are almost unaltered once near-degeneracy effects are considered. However, for the first overtone, a mixed radial/quadrupole identity is always predicted. The effect of near-degeneracy on the oscillation frequencies becomes critical for rotational velocities larger than 15-20 km/s, for which large wriggles in the evolution of the period ratios are obtained (up $10^{-2}$). Such wriggles imply uncertainties, in terms of metallicity determinations using RPD, reaching up to 0.50 dex, which can be critical for Pop. I HADS (High Amplitude \dss). In terms of mass determinations, uncertainties reaching up to 0.5 M_sun are predicted. The location of such wriggles is found to be independent of metallicity and rotational velocity, and governed mainly by the avoided-crossing phenomenon.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. (accepted for publication in A&A

Spectroscopic determination of the fundamental parameters of 66 B-type stars in the field-of-view of the CoRoT satellite

We aim to determine the fundamental parameters of a sample of B stars with apparent visual magnitudes below 8 in the field-of-view of the CoRoT space mission, from high-resolution spectroscopy. We developed an automatic procedure for the spectroscopic analysis of B-type stars with winds, based on an extensive grid of FASTWIND model atmospheres. We use the equivalent widths and/or the line profile shapes of continuum normalized hydrogen, helium and silicon line profiles to determine the fundamental properties of these stars in an automated way. After thorough tests, both on synthetic datasets and on very high-quality, high-resolution spectra of B stars for which we already had accurate values of their physical properties from alternative analyses, we applied our method to 66 B-type stars contained in the ground-based archive of the CoRoT space mission. We discuss the statistical properties of the sample and compare them with those predicted by evolutionary models of B stars. Our spectroscopic results provide a valuable starting point for any future seismic modelling of the stars, should they be observed by CoRoT.Comment: 31 pages (including 14 pages online material), 32 figure

Lie Superalgebras and the Multiplet Structure of the Genetic Code II: Branching Schemes

Continuing our attempt to explain the degeneracy of the genetic code using basic classical Lie superalgebras, we present the branching schemes for the typical codon representations (typical 64-dimensional irreducible representations) of basic classical Lie superalgebras and find three schemes that do reproduce the degeneracies of the standard code, based on the orthosymplectic algebra osp(5|2) and differing only in details of the symmetry breaking pattern during the last step.Comment: 34 pages, 9 tables, LaTe

Analytic estimates for penguin operators in quenched QCD

Strong penguin operators are singlets under the right-handed flavor symmetry group SU(3)_R. However, they do not remain singlets when the operator is embedded in (partially) quenched QCD, but instead they become linear combinations of two operators with different transformation properties under the (partially) quenched symmetry group. This is an artifact of the quenched approximation. Each of these two operators is represented by a different set of low-energy constants in the chiral effective theory. In this paper, we give analytic estimates for the leading low-energy constants, in quenched and partially quenched QCD. We conclude that the effects of quenching on Q_6 are large.Comment: 6 pages. Typo fixed and an explanatory footnote adde