Probing two-photon decay widths of mesons at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Meson production cross sections in ultra-peripheral relativistic heavy ion collisions at LHC are revisited. The relevance of meson models and of exotic QCD states is discussed. This study includes states that have not been considered before in the literature.Comment: 5 pages, version to appear in the Physical Review

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

Simulating `Complex' Problems with Quantum Monte Carlo

We present a new quantum Monte Carlo algorithm suitable for generically complex problems, such as systems coupled to external magnetic fields or anyons in two spatial dimensions. We find that the choice of gauge plays a nontrivial role, and can be used to reduce statistical noise in the simulation. Furthermore, it is found that noise can be greatly reduced by approximate cancellations between the phases of the (gauge dependent) statistical flux and the external magnetic flux.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages. 3 postscript files for figures attache

BB Intermeson Potentials in the Quark Model

In this paper we derive quark model results for scattering amplitudes and equivalent low energy potentials for heavy meson pairs, in which each meson contains a heavy quark. This "BB" system is an attractive theoretical laboratory for the study of the nuclear force between color singlets; the hadronic system is relatively simple, and there are lattice gauge theory (LGT) results for V_BB(r) which may be compared to phenomenological models. We find that the quark model potential (after lattice smearing) has qualitative similarities to the LGT potential in the two B*B* channels in which direct comparison is possible, although there is evidence of a difference in length scales. The quark model prediction of equal magnitude but opposite sign for I=0 and I=1 potentials also appears similar to LGT results at intermediate r. There may however be a discrepancy between the LGT and quark model I=1 BB potentials. A numerical study of the two-meson Schrodinger equations in the (bqbar)(bqbar) and (cqbar)(cqbar) sectors with the quark model potentials finds a single "molecule", in the I=0 BB* sector. Binding in other channels might occur if the quark model forces are augmented by pion exchange.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, revtex and epsfig. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Measurement of hydrogen depth distribution by resonant nuclear reactions

The resonance at E (19F) =6.42 MeV in the reaction 1H(19F,alphagamma)16O has been explored as a potentially useful method for the quantitative determination of hydrogen concentration as a function of depth in a solid substrate. The relative merits of this resonance, the 16.44-MeV resonance in the same reaction, and the 6.39-MeV resonance in the reaction 1H(15N,alphagamma)12C are discussed

Effective chiral-spin Hamiltonian for odd-numbered coupled Heisenberg chains

An $L \times \infty$ system of odd number of coupled Heisenberg spin chains is studied using a degenerate perturbation theory, where $L$ is the number of coupled chains. An effective chain Hamiltonian is derived explicitly in terms of two spin half degrees of freedom of a closed chain of $L$ sites, valid in the regime the inter-chain coupling is stronger than the intra-chain coupling. The spin gap has been calculated numerically using the effective Hamiltonian for $L=3,5,7,9$ for a finite chain up to ten sites. It is suggested that the ground state of the effective Hamiltonian is correlated, by examining variational states for the effective chiral-spin chain Hamiltonian.Comment: 9 Pages, Latex, report ICTP-94-28

Distinguishing Among Strong Decay Models

Two competing models for strong hadronic decays, the $^3P_0$ and $^3S_1$ models, are currently in use. Attempts to rule out one or the other have been hindered by a poor understanding of final state interactions and by ambiguities in the treatment of relativistic effects. In this article we study meson decays in both models, focussing on certain amplitude ratios for which the relativistic uncertainties largely cancel out (notably the $S/D$ ratios in $b_1\rightarrow\pi\omega$ and $a_1\rightarrow\pi\rho$), and using a Quark Born Formalism to estimate the final state interactions. We find that the $^3P_0$ model is strongly favoured. In addition, we predict a $P/F$ amplitude ratio of $1.6\pm .2$ for the decay $\pi_2\rightarrow\pi\rho$. We also study the parameter-dependence of some individual amplitudes (as opposed to amplitude ratios), in an attempt to identify a ``best'' version of the $^3P_0$ model.Comment: 20 pages, uuencoded postscript file with 7 figures, MIT-CTP-2295; CMU-HEP94-1