Hadron-quark continuity induced by the axial anomaly in dense QCD

We investigate the interplay between the chiral and diquark condensates on the basis of the Ginzburg-Landau potential with QCD symmetry. We demonstrate that the axial anomaly drives a new critical point at low temperature in the QCD phase diagram and leads to a smooth crossover between the hadronic and color superconducting phases.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of Quark Matter 2006 held in Shangha

Required precision of mass and half-life measurements for r-process nuclei planned at future RI-beam facilities

In order to understand the r-process nucleosynthesis, we suggest precision required for mass and beta-decay half-life measurements planned at future RI-beam facilities. To satisfy a simple requirement that we put on nuclear model predictions, it is concluded that the detectors for the mass measurements must have a precision of 1sigma ~< 250 keV, and that the detectors for the half-life measurements demand a precision of 1sigma ~< 0.15 ms. Both the above precisions are required at the neutron richness of A/Z = 3.0 at the N=82 shell closure and A/Z = 2.9 at the N=50 shell closure. For the doubly magic nuclide 78Ni, a precision of 1sigma ~< 300 keV and 1sigma ~< 5 ms are required, respectively, for mass and half-life measurements. This analysis aims to provide a first rough guide for ongoing detector developments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. in Proceedings of Int. conf. The Future Astronuclear Physics, From microscopic puzzles to macroscopic nightmares, Eds. H.M.J. Boffin et al., EAS Publication Series, EDP Sciences, in press (2004

Thermal Phase Transitions and Gapless Quark Spectra in Quark Matter at High Density

Thermal color superconducting phase transitions in three-flavor quark matter at high baryon density are investigated in the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) approach. We constructed the GL potential near the boundary with a normal phase by taking into account nonzero quark masses, electric charge neutrality, and color charge neutrality. We found that the density of states averaged over paired quarks plays a crucial role in determining the phases near the boundary. By performing a weak coupling calculation of the parameters characterizing the GL potential terms of second order in the pairing gap, we show that three successive second-order phase transitions take place as the temperature increases: a modified color-flavor locked phase (ud, ds, and us pairings) -> a ``dSC'' phase (ud and ds pairings) -> an isoscalar pairing phase (ud pairing) -> a normal phase (no pairing). The Meissner masses of the gluons and the number of gapless quark modes are also studied analytically in each of these phases.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Melting Pattern of Diquark Condensates in Quark Matter

Thermal color superconducting phase transitions in high density three-flavor quark matter are investigated in the Ginzburg-Landau approach. Effects of nonzero strange quark mass, electric and color charge neutrality, and direct instantons are considered. Weak coupling calculations show that an interplay between the mass and electric neutrality effects near the critical temperature gives rise to three successive second-order phase transitions as the temperature increases: a modified color-flavor locked (mCFL) phase (ud, ds, and us pairings) -> a ``dSC'' phase (ud and ds pairings) -> an isoscalar pairing phase (ud pairing) -> a normal phase (no pairing). The dSC phase is novel in the sense that while all eight gluons are massive as in the mCFL phase, three out of nine quark quasiparticles are gapless.Comment: minor changes in the text, fig.2 modifie

`Hidden' Symmetries of Higher Dimensional Rotating Black Holes

We demonstrate that the rotating black holes in an arbitrary number of dimensions and without any restrictions on their rotation parameters possess the same `hidden' symmetry as the 4-dimensional Kerr metric. Namely, besides the spacetime symmetries generated by the Killing vectors they also admit the (antisymmetric) Killing-Yano and symmetric Killing tensors.Comment: 4 pages, slightly extended introductio

Chondrule age distribution and rate of heating events for chondrule formation

Chondrules are considered to be formed by flash heating events in the protoplanetary disk. In order to evaluate some basic factors in the heating mechanism, we examined the rate of heating events that explains the abundance and the observed age distribution of chondrules in unequilibrated ordinary chondrites. First, we compiled the literature data of ^(26)Al ages of chondrules from the least equilibrated ordinary chondrites (LL3.0-3.1), ranging from 1Myr to 3Myr with a peak at about 1.8Myr relative to the formation time of Ca, Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) in carbonaceous chondrites, the oldest solid materials formed in the solar system. Next, we made a simple phenomenological chondrule formation model assuming that each event heated only a small fraction of existing dust at one time and numerous heating events produced chondrules. Results indicate that (1) an average number of heating events experienced by a dust particle should be 1.2 or higher, (2) more than a half of the present chondrules were reheated, (3) chondrule formation started sometime between 0.4-1.5Myr and ended at 2.2-2.3Myr after the CAI formation, and (4) the rate of heating events has a peak at 0.1-0.8Myr earlier than the peak of the observed chondrule age distribution and should decrease monotonically with time after the peak

Modern and geohistorical tsunamiites

17th International Sedimentological Congress [ISC 2006 FUKUOKA, JAPAN] 25-27 August, 2006FE-A8: Modern and geohistorical tsunamiites in central Japan Field Excursion Guideboo