Light Four-quark States and New Observations by BES

Four-quark states are discussed within the constituent quark model. Incompleteness of existed studies of four-quark state with QCD sum rule is analyzed. The masses of diquark cluster were determined by QCD sum rules, and light four-quark states masses were obtained in terms of the diquark. The four-quark state possibility of the newly observed near-threshold p\bar p enhancement, X(1835), X(1812) and X(1576) by BES is discussed.Comment: 4pages, no figure, PTPTEX, talk at the Yukawa International Seminar (YKIS2006), "New frontiers in QCD", Kyoto, Japa

Mass Predictions of Open-Flavour Hybrid Mesons from QCD Sum Rules

Within QCD, colourless states may be constructed corresponding to exotic matter outside of the traditional quark model. Experiments have recently observed tetraquark and pentaquark states, but no definitive hybrid meson signals have been observed. With the construction of the PANDA experiment at FAIR, and with full commissioning of the GlueX experiment at JLab expected to be completed this year, the opportunity for the observation of hybrid mesons has greatly increased. However, theoretical calculations are necessary to ascertain the identity of any experimental resonances that may be observed. We present selected QCD sum rule results from a full range of quantum numbers for open-flavour hybrid mesons with heavy valence quark content, including non-perturbative condensate contributions up to six-dimensions.Comment: Formatted from poster presented at 38th International Conference on High Energy Physics, 3-10 August 2016, Chicago, USA. 4 pages, 1 table and 2 figures. Submitted for publication in Proceedings of Science as PoS(ICHEP2016)849. Original poster attache

Life Sentence: The Real Syntax of Lifelong Learning

No abstract available

To Hell with Culture

Any word that stretches from a Petrie dish of toxic chemicals mixed up by scientists in a lab, at one end of the spectrum, to the complete works of Shakespeare at the other is bound to suck in plenty of bullshit in between.  So, should we abandon the word ‘culture’ as far too vague to be meaningful or pare it back to see what we really mean when we use it?  In desperation the poet, Ezra Pound, junked it in favour of ‘Kulchur,’ meaning, for the most part, he did not think it meant anything useful at all. And the sculptor Eric Gill said: ‘When will revolutionary leaders realize that ‘culture’ is dope, a worse dope than religion; for even if it were true that religion is the opiate of the people, it is worse to poison yourself than to be poisoned…To hell with culture, culture as a thing added like a sauce to otherwise unpalatable fish’.  The Greeks did not have a word for it, according to Herbert Read, since for them they just had a good way of life that encompassed everything and definitely did not need a separate commodity called ‘culture’ to make it taste better. The term appears to have been first coined by the Romans, who turned culture into that commodity, ‘Roman Culture’, and then dumped it onto the unsuspecting peoples they conquered and absorbed into their empire, whether they liked it or not. The British did much the same a millennium and a half later

Diquark and light four-quark states

Four-quark states with different internal clusters are discussed within the constituent quark model. It is pointed out that the diquark concept is not meaningful in the construction of a tetraquark interpolating current in the QCD sum rule approach, and hence existing sum-rule studies of four-quark states are incomplete. An updated QCD sum-rule determination of the properties of diquark clusters is then used as input for the constituent quark model to obtain the masses of light $0^{++}$ tetraquark states ({\it i.e.\} a bound state of two diquark clusters). The results support the identification of $\sigma(600)$, $f_0(980)$ and $a_0(980)$ as the $0^{++}$ light tetraquark states, and seem to be inconsistent with the tetraquark state interpretation of the new BES observations of the near-threshold $p\bar p$ enhancements, X(1835) and X(1812), with the possible exception that X(1576) may be an "exotic" first orbital excitation of $f_0(980)$ or $a_0(980)$.Comment: 7 pages, 4 eps figures, RevTex, two figures and some references added, published version in PR

Asymptotically Safe Standard Model via Vector-Like Fermions

We construct asymptotically safe extensions of the Standard Model by adding gauged vector-like fermions. Using large number-of-flavour techniques we argue that all gauge couplings, including the hypercharge and, under certain conditions, the Higgs coupling can achieve an interacting ultraviolet fixed point.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, typos fixe

Opposing patterns of abnormal D1 and D2 receptor dependent cortico-striatal plasticity explain increased risk taking in patients with DYT1 dystonia

Patients with DYT1 dystonia caused by the mutated TOR1A gene exhibit risk neutral behaviour compared to controls who are risk averse in the same reinforcement learning task. It is unclear whether this behaviour can be linked to changes in cortico-striatal plasticity demonstrated in animal models which share the same TOR1A mutation. We hypothesised that we could reproduce the experimental risk taking behaviour using a model of the basal ganglia under conditions where cortico-striatal plasticity was abnormal. As dopamine exerts opposing effects on cortico-striatal plasticity via different receptors expressed on medium spiny neurons (MSN) of the direct (D1R dominant, dMSNs) and indirect (D2R dominant, iMSNs) pathways, we tested whether abnormalities in cortico-striatal plasticity in one or both of these pathways could explain the patient's behaviour. Our model could generate simulated behaviour indistinguishable from patients when cortico-striatal plasticity was abnormal in both dMSNs and iMSNs in opposite directions. The risk neutral behaviour of the patients was replicated when increased cortico-striatal long term potentiation in dMSN's was in combination with increased long term depression in iMSN's. This result is consistent with previous observations in rodent models of increased cortico-striatal plasticity at in dMSNs, but contrasts with the pattern reported in vitro of dopamine D2 receptor dependant increases in cortico-striatal LTP and loss of LTD at iMSNs. These results suggest that additional factors in patients who manifest motor symptoms may lead to divergent effects on D2 receptor dependant cortico-striatal plasticity that are not apparent in rodent models of this disease

Cultural Studies and radical popular education, resources of hope

This article takes up the theme that a significant but often ignored source for British Cultural Studies began in the interdisciplinary teaching of the Workers’ Educational Association and university extra-mural departments in the immediate post-Second World War years. I deepen this argument by outlining the history of ‘popular education’ in Europe and beyond in the modern period to illustrate how the coming together of subaltern political movements and intellectual inquiry created an independent public sphere of radical self-enlightenment. In this article, by utilising archival and textual sources, I should like to explore whether it may be possible to renew the original project of Cultural Studies through radical programmes of ‘popular’ adult education in the digital age. I see Jim McGuigan’s work as offering ‘resources of hope’, in Raymond Williams’ phrase, for this tradition in the universe of academic Cultural Studies