Constructing Confinement

The interaction between static quarks is derived by applying many-body techniques to QCD in Coulomb gauge. The result is shown to be exact in the IR and UV limits, and agrees remarkably well with lattice computations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, proceedings for 2002 Lake Louise Winter Institut

Dynamics and Decay of Heavy-Light Hadrons

Recent signals for narrow hadrons containing heavy and light flavours are compared with quark model predictions for spectroscopy, strong decays, and radiative transitions. In particular, the production and identification of excited charmed and cs states are examined with emphasis on elucidating the nature of $0^+$ and $1^+$ states. Roughly 200 strong decay amplitudes of $D$ and $D_s$ states up to 3.3 GeV are presented. Applications include determining flavour content in $\eta$ mesons and the mixing angle in $P$ and $D$ wave states and probes of putative molecular states. We advocate searching for radially excited $D_s^*$ states in B decays.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, revtex. A numerical error is corrected. Some strong decay rates have change

Modelling DNA Response to THz Radiation

Collective response of DNA to THz electric fields is studied in a simple pair bond model. We confirm, with some caveats, a previous observation of destabilising DNA breather modes and explore the parameter-dependence of these modes. It is shown that breather modes are eliminated under reasonable physical conditions and that thermal effects are significant.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Radiation counting technique allows density measurement of metals in high-pressure/ high-temperature environment

Radioactive tracers induced by neutron irradiation provide a gamma ray flux proportional to the density of a metal, allowing density measurement of these metals in extreme high-temperature and high-pressure environments. This concept is applicable to most metals, as well as other substances

Hadron Loops: General Theorems and Application to Charmonium

In this paper we develop a formalism for incorporating hadron loops in the quark model. We derive expressions for mass shifts, continuum components and mixing amplitudes of "quenched" quark model states due to hadron loops, as perturbation series in the valence-continuum coupling Hamiltonian. We prove three general theorems regarding the effects of hadron loops, which show that given certain constraints on the external "bare" quark model states, the valence-continuum coupling, and the hadrons summed in the loops, the following results hold: (1) The loop mass shifts are identical for all states within a given N,L multiplet. (2) These states have the same total open-flavor decay widths. (3) Loop-induced valence configuration mixing vanishes provided that {\L}_i \neq \L_f or $\S_i \neq \S_f$. The charmonium system is used as a numerical case study, with the $^3\P_0$ decay model providing the valence-continuum coupling. We evaluate the mass shifts and continuum mixing numerically for all 1S, 1P and 2S charmonium valence states due to loops of D, D$^*$, D$_s$ and D$_s^*$ meson pairs. We find that the mass shifts are quite large, but are numerically similar for all the low-lying charmonium states, as suggested by the first theorem. Thus, loop mass shifts may have been "hidden" in the valence quark model by a change of parameters. The two-meson continuum components of the physical charmonium states are also found to be large, creating challenges for the interpretation of the constituent quark model.Comment: 10 pages, 1 ps figure. Typos corrected; discussion of psi-eta_c mass splitting added, published versio

Towards an Understanding of the New Charm and Charm-Strange Mesons

The observation of the D_{sJ}^*(2317), D_{sJ}(2460), and SELEX D^*_{sJ}(2632) states with properties differing considerably from what was expected has led to a renewed interest in hadron spectroscopy. In addition to these states, non-strange partners of the D_{sJ} states have also been observed. Understanding the D_0^* and D_1' states can provide important insights into the D_{sJ} states. In this contribution I examine quark model predictions for the D_0^* and D_1' states and discuss experimental measurements that can shed light on them. I find that these states are well described as the broad, j=1/2 non-strange charmed P-wave mesons. In the latter part of this writeup I discuss the c bar{s} possibilities for the SELEX D^*_{sJ}(2632) and measurements that can shed light on it.Comment: Talk presented at the 1st Meeting of the APS Topical Group on Hadronic Physics (Fermilab, Oct 24-26, 2004). 4 pages uses jpcon

Unquenching the Quark Model and Screened Potentials

The low-lying spectrum of the quark model is shown to be robust under the effects of `unquenching'. In contrast, the use of screened potentials is shown to be of limited use in models of hadrons. Applications to unquenching the lattice Wilson loop potential and to glueball mixing in the adiabatic hybrid spectrum are also presented.Comment: 6 pages, 3 ps figures, revtex. Version to appear in J. Phys.