Towards understanding broad degeneracy in non-strange mesons

The spectroscopic regularities of modern empirical data on the non-strange mesons up to 2.4 GeV can be summarized as a systematic clustering of states near certain values of energy. It is getting evident that some unknown X-symmetry triggers the phenomenon. We review the experimental status of this symmetry and recent theoretical attempts put forward for explanation of broad degeneracy.Comment: Brief review, 16 pages, 1 figur

Matching meson resonances to OPE in QCD

We investigate the possible corrections to the linear Regge trajectories for the light-quark meson sector by matching two-point correlators of quark currents to the Operator Product Expansion. We find that the allowed modifications to the linear behavior must decrease rapidly with the principal quantum number. After fitting the lightest states in each channel and certain low-energy constants the whole spectrum for meson masses and residues is obtained in a satisfactory agreement with phenomenology. The perturbative corrections to our results are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, talk given at the First Workshop on Quark Hadron Duality and the Transition to pQCD (June 2005, Frascati, Italy) and at the International Conference on QCD and Hadronic Physics (June 2005, Beijing, China

Implications of the Crystal Barrel data for meson-baryon symmetries

Making use of numerous resonances discovered by the Crystal Barrel Collaboration we discuss some possible relations between the baryon and meson spectra of resonances composed of the light non-strange quarks. Our goal is to indicate new features that should be reproduced by the realistic dynamical models describing the hadron spectrum in the sector of light quarks.Comment: Completely modified version; to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Parity doubling in particle physics

Parity doubling in excited hadrons is reviewed. Parity degeneracy in hadrons was first experimentally observed 40 years ago. Recently new experimental data on light mesons caused much excitement and renewed interest to the phenomenon, which still remains to be enigmatic. The present retrospective review is an attempt to trace the history of parity doubling phenomenon, thus providing a kind of introduction to the subject. We begin with early approaches of 1960s (Regge theory and dynamical symmetries) and end up with the latest trends (manifestations of broader degeneracies and AdS/QCD). We show the evolution of various ideas about parity doubling. The experimental evidence for this phenomenon is scrutinized in the non-strange sector. Some experiments of 1960s devoted to the search for missing non-strange bosons are re-examined and it is argued that results of these experiments are encouraging from the modern perspective.Comment: Version to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 63 pages, 9 figure

Weinberg like sum rules revisited

The generalized Weinberg sum rules containing the difference of isovector vector and axial-vector spectral functions saturated by both finite and infinite number of narrow resonances are considered. We summarize the status of these sum rules and analyze their overall agreement with phenomenological Lagrangians, low-energy relations, parity doubling, hadron string models, and experimental data.Comment: 31 pages, noticed misprints are corrected, references are added, and other minor corrections are mad

About the possibility of five-dimensional effective theories for low-energy QCD

The AdS/QCD models suggest an interesting idea that the effective theory of low-energy QCD may be formulated as a 5-dimensional field theory in the weak coupling regime in which the fifth coordinate plays a role of inverse energy scale. Taking the point of view that this is just an efficient parametrization of the non-perturbative dynamics of strong interactions, we discuss on a qualitative level an alternative possibility for a simpler 5-dimensional parametrization of main phenomena in the low-energy QCD. We propose to interpret the effect of chiral symmetry breaking as an effective appearance of compactified extra dimension with the radius of the order of inverse scale of chiral symmetry breaking. Following some heuristic arguments two dual scenarios for the emergence of the excited light mesons are introduced: In the first scenario, the meson resonances are interpreted as the effects of Kaluza-Klein excitations of quarks inside mesons, in the second one, as the formation of gluon strings wound around the compactified dimension an appropriate number of times. Matching of these scenarios permits to express the slope of radial Regge trajectories through the order parameters of the chiral symmetry breaking, with the compactification radius being excluded. This example shows qualitatively that the extra dimension may play an auxiliary role providing a short way for deriving new relations.Comment: 11 pages, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Therapeutic Potential of Gramicidin S in the Treatment of Root Canal Infections

An intrinsic clindamycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, the most common single species present in teeth after failed root canal therapy, often possesses acquired tetracycline resistance. In these cases, root canal infections are commonly treated with Ledermix® paste, which contains demeclocycline, or the new alternative endodontic paste Odontopaste, which contains clindamycin; however, these treatments are often ineffective. We studied the killing activity of the cyclic antimicrobial peptide gramicidin S (GS) against planktonic and biofilm cells of tetracycline-resistant clinical isolates of E. faecalis. The high therapeutic potential of GS for the topical treatment of problematic teeth is based on the rapid bactericidal effect toward the biofilm-forming, tetracycline-resistant E. faecalis. GS reduces the cell number of planktonic cells within 20–40 min at a concentration of 40–80 μg/mL. It kills the cells of pre-grown biofilms at concentrations of 100–200 μg/mL, such that no re-growth is possible. The translocation of the peptide into the cell interior and its complexation with intracellular nucleotides, including the alarmon ppGpp, can explain its anti-biofilm effect. The successful treatment of persistently infected root canals of two volunteers confirms the high effectiveness of GS. The broad GS activity towards resistant, biofilm-forming E. faecalis suggests its applications for approval in root canal medication

Dephasing Times in a Non-degenerate Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

Studies of weak localization by scattering from vapor atoms for electrons on a liquid helium surface are reported. There are three contributions to the dephasing time. Dephasing by the motion of vapor atoms perpendicular to the surface is studied by varying the holding field to change the characteristic width of the electron layer at the surface. A change in vapor density alters the quasi-elastic scattering length and the dephasing due to the motion of atoms both perpendicular and parallel to the surface. Dephasing due to the electron-electron interaction is dependent on the electron density.Comment: 4 pages, Revte