Exploring the transition into the Chiral Regime of QCD using the Interacting Instanton Liquid Model

The non-perturbative quark-gluon interaction depends significantly on the value of the quark mass. In particular, in the light quark mass regime, correlations are strongly influenced by dynamics associated to chiral symmetry breaking. We use the Interacting Instanton Liquid Model (IILM) as a tool to investigate the microscopic dynamical mechanisms which underly the dependence on the quark mass and drive the transition into the chiral regime of QCD. To ensure the validity of the model, we first verify that the dependence on the quark mass for several observables calculated in the IILM agrees well with the predictions of chiral perturbation theory and with lattice simulations. We then show that a quark mass m*~80 MeV emerging naturally from the model specifies the mass scale above which the dynamics associated with low-lying eigenmodes of the Direac operator becomes sub-leading and the contribution of the fermion determinant is suppressed.Comment: contribution to XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, July 2007, Regensbur

Investigating Biological Matter with Theoretical Nuclear Physics Methods

The internal dynamics of strongly interacting systems and that of biomolecules such as proteins display several important analogies, despite the huge difference in their characteristic energy and length scales. For example, in all such systems, collective excitations, cooperative transitions and phase transitions emerge as the result of the interplay of strong correlations with quantum or thermal fluctuations. In view of such an observation, some theoretical methods initially developed in the context of theoretical nuclear physics have been adapted to investigate the dynamics of biomolecules. In this talk, we review some of our recent studies performed along this direction. In particular, we discuss how the path integral formulation of the molecular dynamics allows to overcome some of the long-standing problems and limitations which emerge when simulating the protein folding dynamics at the atomistic level of detail.Comment: Prepared for the proceedings of the "XII Meeting on the Problems of Theoretical Nuclear Physics" (Cortona11

Barrier Paradox in the Klein Zone

We study the solutions for a one-dimensional electrostatic potential in the Dirac equation when the incoming wave packet exhibits the Klein paradox (pair production). With a barrier potential we demonstrate the existence of multiple reflections (and transmissions). The antiparticle solutions which are necessarily localized within the barrier region create new pairs with each reflection at the potential walls. Consequently we encounter a new paradox for the barrier because successive outgoing wave amplitudes grow geometrically.Comment: 10 page

Fermat hypersurfaces and Subcanonical curves

We extend the classical Enriques-Petri Theorem to $s$-subcanonical projectively normal curves, proving that such a curve is $(s+2)$-gonal if and only if it is contained in a surface of minimal degree. Moreover, we show that any Fermat hypersurface of degree $s+2$ is apolar to an $s$-subcanonical $(s+2)$-gonal projectively normal curve, and vice versa.Comment: 18 pages; AMS-LaTe

Names of Italian vascular plants published by Michele Lojacono Pojero

Michele Lojacono Pojero (1853-1919) is among the most prolific Italian authors of plant names of his era. A list is presented of the names of 581 new Italian (almost invariably Sicilian) vascular plant taxa he published (303 species, 272 varieties, 6 formae), with reference to existing lectotype designations