Unambiguous one-loop quantum energies of 1+1 dimensional bosonic field configurations

We calculate one-loop quantum energies in a renormalizable self-interacting theory in one spatial dimension by summing the zero-point energies of small oscillations around a classical field configuration, which need not be a solution of the classical field equations. We unambiguously implement standard perturbative renormalization using phase shifts and the Born approximation. We illustrate our method by calculating the quantum energy of a soliton/antisoliton pair as a function of their separation. This energy includes an imaginary part that gives a quantum decay rate and is associated with a level crossing in the solutions to the classical field equation in the presence of the source that maintains the soliton/antisoliton pair.Comment: Email correspondence to [email protected] ; 10 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX, BoxedEPS; v2: Fixed description of level crossing as a function of $x_0$; v3: Fixed numerical error in figure dat

Quark and Gluon Orbital Angular Momentum and Spin in Hard Processes

We suggest a method of constructing gauge invariant quark and gluon distributions that describe an abstract QCD observable and apply this method to analyze angular momentum of a hadron. In addition to the known quark and gluon polarized structure functions, we obtain gauge invariant distributions for quark and gluon orbital angular momenta, and consider some basic properties of these distributions and their moments.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, RevTe

The Casimir Energy in a Separable Potential

The Casimir energy is the first-order-in-\hbar correction to the energy of a time-independent field configuration in a quantum field theory. We study the Casimir energy in a toy model, where the classical field is replaced by a separable potential. In this model the exact answer is trivial to compute, making it a good place to examine subtleties of the problem. We construct two traditional representations of the Casimir energy, one from the Greens function, the other from the phase shifts, and apply them to this case. We show that the two representations are correct and equivalent in this model. We study the convergence of the Born approximation to the Casimir energy and relate our findings to computational issues that arise in more realistic models.Comment: 16 pages, 4 EPS figures, REVTeX using BoxedEPS macros; email to [email protected]

Heavy Quark Fragmentation into Heavy Mesons

We present a QCD based interpretation of heavy quark fragmentation which utilizes the heavy quark mass expansion. By distinguishing between perturbative and non-perturbative QCD effects, we show how to reliably extract mass independent parameters characterizing the fragmentation function. Because these parameters are quark mass independent, this procedure should permit tests of heavy quark symmetry. Furthermore, we show that heavy quark mass corrections vanish at order $m^2/Q^2$ in QCD. There also exist higher twist corrections of order $\Lambda m/Q^2$ and ${\alpha_{QCD}\over\pi} {m^2\over Q^2} \ln (Q^2/m^2)$ which we relate to the leading twist fragmentation function.Comment: 36 pages (Plain TeX with a PostScript figure appended at end), MIT CTP #218

Spin structure and longitudinal polarization of hyperon in e+e- annihilation at high energies

Longitudinal polarizations of different kinds of hyperons produced in e+e- annihilation at LEP I and LEP II energies in different event samples are calculated using two different pictures for the spin structure of hyperon: that drawn from polarized deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering data or that using SU(6) symmetric wave functions. The result shows that measurements of such polarizations should provide useful information to the question of which picture is more suitable in describing the spin effects in the fragmentation processes.Comment: 26 pages with 10 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Charmed Strange Pentaquarks in the Large NcN_c Limit

The properties of pentaquarks containing a heavy anti-quark and strange quarks are studied in the bound state picture. In the flavor SU(3) limit, there are many pentaquark states with the same binding energy. When the SU(3) symmetry breaking effects are included, however, three states become particularly stable due to a ``Gell-Mann--Okubo mechanism''. They are the $\bar Qsuud$ and $\bar Qsudd$ states discussed by Lipkin, and a a previously unstudied $\bar Qssud$ state. These states will have $J^P={1\over2}^+$ and their masses are estimated. These states, if exist, may be seen in experiments in the near future.Comment: 12 pages in REVTeX, no figure

A Heavy Fermion Can Create a Soliton: A 1+1 Dimensional Example

We show that quantum effects can stabilize a soliton in a model with no soliton at the classical level. The model has a scalar field chirally coupled to a fermion in 1+1 dimensions. We use a formalism that allows us to calculate the exact one loop fermion contribution to the effective energy for a spatially varying scalar background. This energy includes the contribution from counterterms fixed in the perturbative sector of the theory. The resulting energy is therefore finite and unambiguous. A variational search then yields a fermion number one configuration whose energy is below that of a single free fermion.Comment: 10 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures composed from 4 .eps files; v2: fixed minor errors, added reference; v3: corrected reference added in v

Space-time properties of the higher twist amplitudes

A consistent and intuitive description of the twist-4 corrections to the hadron structure functions is presented in a QCD-improved parton model using time-ordered perturbative theory, where the collinear singularities are naturally eliminated. We identify the special propagators with the backward propagators of partons in time order.Comment: 18 Pages, Latex, 8 Ps figures, To appear in Phys. Rev.

Gluon Spin in the Nucleon

We study the operator description of the gluon spin contribution ($\Gamma$) to the nucleon's spin as it is measured in deep inelastic processes. $\Gamma$ can be related to the forward matrix element of a local gluon operator in $A^+=0$ gauge. In quark models the nucleon contains ambient color electric and magnetic fields. The latter are thought to be responsible for spin splittings among the light baryons. We show that these fields give rise to a significant {\it negative\/} contribution to $\Gamma$ at the quark model renormalization scale, $\mu_0^2$. The non-Abelian character of QCD is responsible for the sign of $\Gamma$. In a generic non-relativistic quark model $\Gamma_{NQM}=-{8\over 9}{\alpha_{NQM}\over m_q}\langle{1\over r}\rangle$, in the bag model $\Gamma_{bag}=-.1\alpha_{bag}$. These correspond to $\Gamma_{NQM}\approx -0.7$ and $\Gamma_{bag}\approx -0.4$ at $\alpha_{QCD}\approx 1.0$.Comment: 12 pages in REVTeX. The paper has been entirely revise