On the leading OPE corrections to the ghost-gluon vertex and the Taylor theorem

This brief note is devoted to a study of genuine non-perturbative corrections to the Landau gauge ghost-gluon vertex in terms of the non-vanishing dimension-two gluon condensate. We pay special attention to the kinematical limit which the bare vertex takes for its tree-level expression at any perturbative order, according to the well-known Taylor theorem. Based on our OPE analysis, we also present a simple model for the vertex, in acceptable agreement with lattice data.Comment: Final version published in JHE

Anomalous resonance phenomena of solitary waves with internal modes

We investigate the non-parametric, pure ac driven dynamics of nonlinear Klein-Gordon solitary waves having an internal mode of frequency $\Omega_i$. We show that the strongest resonance arises when the driving frequency $\delta=\Omega_i/2$, whereas when $\delta=\Omega_i$ the resonance is weaker, disappearing for nonzero damping. At resonance, the dynamics of the kink center of mass becomes chaotic. As we identify the resonance mechanism as an {\em indirect} coupling to the internal mode due to its symmetry, we expect similar results for other systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys Rev Let

On the existence of internal modes of sine-Gordon kinks

We study whether or not sine-Gordon kinks exhibit internal modes or ``quasimodes.'' By considering the response of the kinks to ac forces and initial distortions, we show that neither intrinsic internal modes nor ``quasimodes'' exist in contrast to previous reports. However, we do identify a different kind of internal mode bifurcating from the bottom edge of the phonon band which arises from the discretization of the system in the numerical simulations, thus confirming recent predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX, to appear as a Rapid Communication in Phys Rev E (July 1st

Finite-size effects on multibody neutrino exchange

The effect of multibody massless neutrino exchanges between neutrons inside a finite-size neutron star is studied. We use an effective Lagrangian, which incorporates the effect of the neutrons on the neutrinos. Following Schwinger, it is shown that the total interaction energy density is computed by comparing the zero point energy of the neutrino sea with and without the star. It has already been shown that in an infinite-size star the total energy due to neutrino exchange vanishes exactly. The opposite claim that massless neutrino exchange would produce a huge energy is due to an improper summation of an infrared-divergent quantity. The same vanishing of the total energy has been proved exactly in the case of a finite star in a one-dimensional toy model. Here we study the three-dimensional case. We first consider the effect of a sharp star border, assumed to be a plane. We find that there is a non- vanishing of the zero point energy density difference between the inside and the outside due to the refraction index at the border and the consequent non-penetrating waves. An analytical and numerical calculation for the case of a spherical star with a sharp border confirms that the preceding border effect is the dominant one. The total result is shown to be infrared-safe, thus confirming that there is no need to assume a neutrino mass. The ultraviolet cut-offs, which correspond in some sense to the matching of the effective theory with the exact one, are discussed. Finally the energy due to long distance neutrino exchange is of the order of $10^{-8} -- 10^{-13} GeV per neutron$, i.e. negligible with respect to the neutron mass density.Comment: Latex file (Revtex), 34 pages, 8 postscripted figure

Electron-phonon renormalization of the absorption edge of the cuprous halides

Compared to most tetrahedral semiconductors, the temperature dependence of the absorption edges of the cuprous halides (CuCl, CuBr, CuI) is very small. CuCl and CuBr show a small increase of the gap $E_0$ with increasing temperature, with a change in the slope of $E_0$ vs. $T$ at around 150 K: above this temperature, the variation of $E_0$ with $T$ becomes even smaller. This unusual behavior has been clarified for CuCl by measurements of the low temperature gap vs. the isotopic masses of both constituents, yielding an anomalous negative shift with increasing copper mass. Here we report the isotope effects of Cu and Br on the gap of CuBr, and that of Cu on the gap of CuI. The measured isotope effects allow us to understand the corresponding temperature dependences, which we also report, to our knowledge for the first time, in the case of CuI. These results enable us to develop a more quantitative understanding of the phenomena mentioned for the three halides, and to interpret other anomalies reported for the temperature dependence of the absorption gap in copper and silver chalcogenides; similarities to the behavior observed for the copper chalcopyrites are also pointed out.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Thermal diffusion of supersonic solitons in an anharmonic chain of atoms

We study the non-equilibrium diffusion dynamics of supersonic lattice solitons in a classical chain of atoms with nearest-neighbor interactions coupled to a heat bath. As a specific example we choose an interaction with cubic anharmonicity. The coupling between the system and a thermal bath with a given temperature is made by adding noise, delta-correlated in time and space, and damping to the set of discrete equations of motion. Working in the continuum limit and changing to the sound velocity frame we derive a Korteweg-de Vries equation with noise and damping. We apply a collective coordinate approach which yields two stochastic ODEs which are solved approximately by a perturbation analysis. This finally yields analytical expressions for the variances of the soliton position and velocity. We perform Langevin dynamics simulations for the original discrete system which fully confirm the predictions of our analytical calculations, namely noise-induced superdiffusive behavior which scales with the temperature and depends strongly on the initial soliton velocity. A normal diffusion behavior is observed for very low-energy solitons where the noise-induced phonons also make a significant contribution to the soliton diffusion.Comment: Submitted to PRE. Changes made: New simulations with a different method of soliton detection. The results and conclusions are not different from previous version. New appendixes containing information about the system energy and soliton profile

First lattice QCD estimate of the g_{D^* D pi} coupling

We present the results of the first lattice QCD study of the strong coupling g_{D^* D pi}. From our simulations in the quenched approximation, we obtain g_{D^* D pi} = 18.8 +/- 2.3^{+1.1}_{-2.0} and hat(g)_c = 0.67 +/- 0.08^{+0.04}_{-0.06}. Whereas previous theoretical studies gave different predictions, our result favours a large value for hat(g)_c. It agrees very well with the recent experimental value by CLEO. hat(g) varies very little with the heavy mass and we find in the infinite mass limit hat(g)_infinity = 0.69(18).Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures; references added, corrected typos, Comments added about the continuum limi

Preliminary Calculation of αs\alpha_s from Green Functions with Dynamical Quarks

We present preliminary results on the computation of the QCD running coupling constant in the $\widetilde{MOM}$ scheme and Landau gauge with two flavours of dynamical Wilson quarks. Gluon momenta range up to about 7 GeV ($\beta =$ 5.6, 5.8 and 6.0) with a constant dynamical-quark mass. This range already allows to exhibit some evidence for a sizable $1/\mu^2$ correction to the asymptotic behaviour, as in the quenched approximation, although a fit without power corrections is still possible with a reasonable $\chi^2$. Following the conclusions of our quenched study, we take into account $1/\mu^2$ correction to the asymptotic behaviour. We find $\Lambda_{\rm \bar{MS}}^{N_f=2} = 264(27) {\rm MeV} \times [{a^{-1}(5.6,0.1560)}/{2.19 {\rm GeV}}]$, which leads to $\alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.113(3)(4)$. The latter result has to be taken as a preliminary indication rather than a real prediction in view of the systematic errors still to be controlled. Still, being two sigmas below the experimental result makes it very encouraging.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figs., 2 tabs., revte

On the massive gluon propagator, the PT-BFM scheme and the low-momentum behaviour of decoupling and scaling DSE solutions

We study the low-momentum behaviour of Yang-Mills propagators obtained from Landau-gauge Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSE) in the PT-BFM scheme. We compare the ghost propagator numerical results with the analytical ones obtained by analyzing the low-momentum behaviour of the ghost propagator DSE in Landau gauge, assuming for the truncation a constant ghost-gluon vertex and a simple model for a massive gluon propagator. The asymptotic expression obtained for the regular or decoupling ghost dressing function up to the order ${\cal O}(q^2)$ is proven to fit pretty well the numerical PT-BFM results. Furthermore, when the size of the coupling renormalized at some scale approaches some critical value, the numerical PT-BFM propagators tend to behave as the scaling ones. We also show that the scaling solution, implying a diverging ghost dressing function, cannot be a DSE solution in the PT-BFM scheme but an unattainable limiting case.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figs., 2 tabs (updated version to be published in JHEP