eta, eta-prime --> pi+ pi- l+ l- in a chiral unitary approach

The decays eta, eta-prime --> pi+ pi- l+ l- (with l = e, mu) are investigated within a chiral unitary approach which combines the chiral effective Lagrangian with a coupled-channels Bethe-Salpeter equation. Predictions for the decay widths and spectra are given.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables; additional material added and figures 6,7 revise

Gauge invariance in two-particle scattering

It is shown how gauge invariance is obtained for the coupling of a photon to a two-body state described by the solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation. This is illustrated both for a complex scalar field theory and for interaction kernels derived from chiral effective Lagrangians.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, references added and commented o

Kaonic hydrogen and K^- p scattering

Chiral SU(3) effective field theory in combination with a relativistic coupled channels approach is used to perform a novel analysis of the strong interaction shift and width in kaonic hydrogen in view of the new accurate DEAR measurements. Questions of consistency with previous K^- p data are examined. Coulomb and isospin breaking effects turn out to be important and are both taken into account in this work.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

eta, eta-prime -> pi^+ pi^- gamma with coupled channels

The decays eta, eta-prime -> pi^+ pi^- gamma are investigated within an approach that combines one-loop chiral perturbation theory with a coupled channel Bethe-Salpeter equation which satisfies unitarity constraints and generates vector mesons dynamically from composite states of two pseudoscalar mesons. It is furthermore shown that the inclusion of the eta-prime as a dynamical degree of freedom does not renormalize the Wess-Zumino-Witten term.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

Hadronic eta and eta-prime decays

The hadronic decays eta, eta-prime -> 3 pi and eta-prime -> eta pi pi are investigated within the framework of U(3) chiral effective field theory in combination with a relativistic coupled-channels approach. Final state interactions are included by deriving s- and p-wave interaction kernels for meson-meson scattering from the chiral effective Lagrangian and iterating them in a Bethe-Salpeter equation. Very good overall agreement with currently available data on decay widths and spectral shapes is achieved.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, 8 table

On the extraction of the quark mass ratio (m_d - m_u)/m_s from Gamma(eta' -> pi^0 pi^+ pi^-)/Gamma(eta' -> eta pi^+ pi^-)

The claim that the light quark mass ratio (m_d - m_u)/m_s can be extracted from the decay width ratio Gamma(eta' -> pi^0 pi^+ pi^-)/Gamma(eta' -> eta pi^+ pi^-) is critically investigated within a U(3) chiral unitary framework. The influence of the recent VES data on the eta' -> eta pi^+ pi^- decay is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, 6 table

Chiral dynamics of kaon-nucleon interactions, revisited

The anti-kaon nucleon system close to threshold is analyzed in view of the new accurate DEAR kaonic hydrogen data. The calculations are performed using chiral SU(3) effective field theory in combination with non-perturbative schemes based on coupled channels. Several variants of such approaches are compared with experimental data and the differences in the results are discussed. Coulomb and isospin breaking effects turn out to be important and are both taken into account. The pole structure of the Lambda(1405) resonance close to the anti-kaon nucleon threshold is critically examined.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures, 11 table

Protein Aggregation on Metal Oxides Governs Catalytic Activity and Cellular Uptake.

Engineering of catalytically active inorganic nanomaterials holds promising prospects for biomedicine. Catalytically active metal oxides show applications in enhancing wound healing but have also been employed to induce cell death in photodynamic or radiation therapy. Upon introduction into a biological system, nanomaterials are exposed to complex fluids, causing interaction and adsorption of ions and proteins. While protein corona formation on nanomaterials is acknowledged, its modulation of nanomaterial catalytic efficacy is less understood. In this study, proteomic analyses and nano-analytic methodologies quantify and characterize adsorbed proteins, correlating this protein layer with metal oxide catalytic activity in vitro and in vivo. The protein corona comprises up to 280 different proteins, constituting up to 38% by weight. Enhanced complement factors and other opsonins on nanocatalyst surfaces lead to their uptake into macrophages when applied topically, localizing >99% of the nanomaterials in tissue-resident macrophages. Initially, the formation of the protein corona significantly reduces the nanocatalysts' activity, but this activity can be partially recovered in endosomal conditions due to the proteolytic degradation of the corona. Overall, the research reveals the complex relationship between physisorbed proteins and the catalytic characteristics of specific metal oxide nanoparticles, providing design parameters for optimizing nanocatalysts in complex biological environments

A gauge invariant chiral unitary framework for kaon photo- and electroproduction on the proton

We present a gauge-invariant approach to photoproduction of mesons on nucleons within a chiral unitary framework. The interaction kernel for meson-baryon scattering is derived from the chiral effective Lagrangian and iterated in a Bethe-Salpeter equation. Within the leading-order approximation to the interaction kernel, data on kaon photoproduction from SAPHIR., CLAS and CBELSA/TAPS are analyzed in the threshold region. The importance of gauge invariance and the precision of various approximations in the interaction kernel utilized in earlier works are discussed