Top quark mass definition and top quark pair production near threshold at the NLC

We suggest an infrared-insensitive quark mass, defined by subtracting the soft part of the quark self energy from the pole mass. We demonstrate the deep relation of this definition with the static quark-antiquark potential. At leading order in 1/m this mass coincides with the PS mass which is defined in a completely different manner. Going beyond static limit, the small normalization point introduces recoil corrections which are calculated here as well. Using this mass concept and other concepts for the quark mass we calculate the cross section of e+ e- -> t t-bar near threshold at NNLO accuracy adopting three alternative approaches, namely (1) fixing the pole mass, (2) fixing the PS mass, and (3) fixing the new mass which we call the PS-bar mass. We demonstrate that perturbative predictions for the cross section become much more stable if we use the PS or the PS-bar mass for the calculations. A careful analysis suggests that the top quark mass can be extracted from a threshold scan at NLC with an accuracy of about 100-200 MeV.Comment: published version, 21 pages in LaTeX including 11 PostScript figure

The Threshold t-tbar Cross Section at NNLL Order

The total cross section for top quark pair production close to threshold in e+e- annihilation is investigated. Details are given about the calculation at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic order. The summation of logarithms leads to a convergent expansion for the normalization of the cross section, and small residual dependence on the subtraction parameter nu. A detailed analysis of the residual nu dependence is carried out. A conservative estimate for the remaining uncertainty in the normalization of the total cross section from QCD effects is $\lesssim \pm 3$. This makes precise extractions of the strong coupling and top width feasible, and further studies of electroweak effects mandatory.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figs, a program to produce the cross section will be available soo

The alternatively spliced fibronectin CS1 isoform regulates IL-17A levels and mechanical allodynia after peripheral nerve injury.

BackgroundMechanical pain hypersensitivity associated with physical trauma to peripheral nerve depends on T-helper (Th) cells expressing the algesic cytokine, interleukin (IL)-17A. Fibronectin (FN) isoform alternatively spliced within the IIICS region encoding the 25-residue-long connecting segment 1 (CS1) regulates T cell recruitment to the sites of inflammation. Herein, we analyzed the role of CS1-containing FN (FN-CS1) in IL-17A expression and pain after peripheral nerve damage.MethodsMass spectrometry, immunoblotting, and FN-CS1-specific immunofluorescence analyses were employed to examine FN expression after chronic constriction injury (CCI) in rat sciatic nerves. The acute intra-sciatic nerve injection of the synthetic CS1 peptide (a competitive inhibitor of the FN-CS1/α4 integrin binding) was used to elucidate the functional significance of FN-CS1 in mechanical and thermal pain hypersensitivity and IL-17A expression (by quantitative Taqman RT-PCR) after CCI. The CS1 peptide effects were analyzed in cultured primary Schwann cells, the major source of FN-CS1 in CCI nerves.ResultsFollowing CCI, FN expression in sciatic nerve increased with the dominant FN-CS1 deposition in endothelial cells, Schwann cells, and macrophages. Acute CS1 therapy attenuated mechanical allodynia (pain from innocuous stimulation) but not thermal hyperalgesia and reduced the levels of IL-17A expression in the injured nerve. CS1 peptide inhibited the LPS- or starvation-stimulated activation of the stress ERK/MAPK pathway in cultured Schwann cells.ConclusionsAfter physical trauma to the peripheral nerve, FN-CS1 contributes to mechanical pain hypersensitivity by increasing the number of IL-17A-expressing (presumably, Th17) cells. CS1 peptide therapy can be developed for pharmacological control of neuropathic pain

Top Quark Pair Production close to Threshold: Top Mass, Width and Momentum Distribution

The complete NNLO QCD corrections to the total cross section $\sigma(e^+e^- \to Z*,\gamma*\to t\bar t)$ in the kinematic region close to the top-antitop threshold are calculated by solving the corresponding Schroedinger equations exactly in momentum space in a consistent momentum cutoff regularization scheme. The corrections coming from the same NNLO QCD effects to the top quark three-momentum distribution $d\sigma/d |\vec k_t|$ are determined. We discuss the origin of the large NNLO corrections to the peak position and the normalization of the total cross section observed in previous works and propose a new top mass definition, the 1S mass M_1S, which stabilizes the peak in the total cross section. If the influence of beamstrahlung and initial state radiation on the mass determination is small, a theoretical uncertainty on the 1S top mass measurement of 200 MeV from the total cross section at the linear collider seems possible. We discuss how well the 1S mass can be related to the $\bar{MS}$ mass. We propose a consistent way to implement the top quark width at NNLO by including electroweak effects into the NRQCD matching coefficients, which then can become complex.Comment: 53 pages, latex; minor changes, a number of typos correcte

Running of the heavy quark production current and 1/k potential in QCD

The 1/k contribution to the heavy quark potential is first generated at one loop order in QCD. We compute the two loop anomalous dimension for this potential, and find that the renormalization group running is significant. The next-to-leading-log coefficient for the heavy quark production current near threshold is determined. The velocity renormalization group result includes the alpha_s^3 ln^2(alpha_s) ``non-renormalization group logarithms'' of Kniehl and Penin.Comment: 30 pages, journal versio

Leptonic constants of heavy quarkonia in potential approach of NRQCD

We consider a general scheme for calculating the leptonic constant of heavy quarkonium QQ-bar in the framework of nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics, NRQCD, operating as the effective theory of nonrelativistic heavy quarks. We explore the approach of static potential in QCD, which takes into account both the evolution of effective charge in the three-loop approximation and the linearly raising potential term, which provides the quark confinement. The leptonic constants of bb-bar and cc-bar systems are evaluated by making use of two-loop anomalous dimension for the current of nonrelativistic quarks, where the factor for the normalization of matrix element is introduced in order to preserve the renormalization group invariance of estimates.Comment: 18 pages, 6 eps-figures, discussion and references added, vNRQCD analysis considere

A Late Eocene- Oligocene through-flowing river between the Upper Yangtze and South China Sea

We test the hypothesis of a major Paleogene river draining the SE Tibetan Plateau and the central modern Yangtze Basin that then flowed South to the South China Sea. We test this model using U Pb dated detrital zircon grains preserved in Paleogene sedimentary rocks in northern Vietnam and SW China. We applied a series of statistical tests to compare the U-Pb age spectra of the rocks in order to highlight differences and similarities between them and with potential source bedrocks. Monte Carlo mixing models imply that erosion was dominantly derived from the Indochina and Songpan-Garzê Blocks and to a lesser extent the Yangtze Craton. Some of the zircon populations indicate local erosion and sedimentation, but others show close similarity both within northern Vietnam, as well as more widely in the Eocene Jianchuan, Paleocene-Oligocene Simao and Oligocene-Miocene Yuanjiang basins of China. The presence of younger (<200 Ma) zircons from the Qamdo Block of Tibet are less easily explicable in terms of recycling by erosion of older sedimentary rocks and imply a regional drainage linking SE Tibet and the South China Sea in the Late Eocene-Oligocene. Detrital zircons from offshore in the South China Sea showed initial local erosion, but with a connection to a river stretching to SE Tibet in the Late Oligocene. A change from regional to local sources in the Early Miocene in the Yuanjiang Basin indicates the timing of disruption of the old drainage driven by regional plateau uplift

The QCD heavy-quark potential to order v^2: one loop matching conditions

The one-loop QCD heavy quark potential is computed to order v^2 in the color singlet and octet channels. Several errors in the previous literature are corrected. To be consistent with the velocity power counting, the full dependence on |p' + p|/|p' - p| is kept. The matching conditions for the NRQCD one-loop potential are computed by comparing the QCD calculation with that in the effective theory. The graphs in the effective theory are also compared to terms from the hard, soft, potential, and ultrasoft regimes in the threshold expansion. The issue of off-shell versus on-shell matching and gauge dependence is discussed in detail for the 1/(m k) term in the potential. Matching on-shell gives a 1/(m k) potential that is gauge independent and does not vanish for QED.Comment: 28 pages, References added and minor changes to section III, results unchange

Re-orientation Transition in Molecular Thin Films: Potts Model with Dipolar Interaction

We study the low-temperature behavior and the phase transition of a thin film by Monte Carlo simulation. The thin film has a simple cubic lattice structure where each site is occupied by a Potts parameter which indicates the molecular orientation of the site. We take only three molecular orientations in this paper which correspond to the 3-state Potts model. The Hamiltonian of the system includes: (i) the exchange interaction $J_{ij}$ between nearest-neighbor sites $i$ and $j$ (ii) the long-range dipolar interaction of amplitude $D$ truncated at a cutoff distance $r_c$ (iii) a single-ion perpendicular anisotropy of amplitude $A$. We allow $J_{ij} =J_s$ between surface spins, and $J_{ij}=J$ otherwise. We show that the ground state depends on the the ratio $D/A$ and $r_c$. For a single layer, for a given $A$, there is a critical value $D_c$ below (above) which the ground-state (GS) configuration of molecular axes is perpendicular (parallel) to the film surface. When the temperature $T$ is increased, a re-orientation transition occurs near $D_c$: the low-$T$ in-plane ordering undergoes a transition to the perpendicular ordering at a finite $T$, below the transition to the paramagnetic phase. The same phenomenon is observed in the case of a film with a thickness. We show that the surface phase transition can occur below or above the bulk transition depending on the ratio $J_s/J$. Surface and bulk order parameters as well as other physical quantities are shown and discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, submitted for publicatio

Heavy-quarkonium creation and annihilation with O(alpha_s^3 ln(alpha_s)) accuracy

We calculate the O(alpha_s^3 ln(alpha_s)) contributions to the heavy-quarkonium production and annihilation rates. Our result sheds new light on the structure of the high-order perturbative corrections and opens a new perspective for a high-precision theoretical analysis. We also determine the three-loop anomalous dimensions of the nonrelativistic vector and pseudoscalar currents.Comment: 10 pages (Latex). Eq. (6) corrected, conclusions unchange