34,650 research outputs found
Anomalous Soft Photons in Hadron Production
Anomalous soft photons in excess of what is expected from electromagnetic
bremsstrahlung have been observed in association with the production of
hadrons, mostly mesons, in high-energy (K+)p, (pi+)p, (pi-)p, pp, and (e+)(e-)
collisions. We propose a model for the simultaneous production of anomalous
soft photons and mesons in quantum field theory, in which the meson production
arises from the oscillation of color charge densities of the quarks of the
underlying vacuum in the flux tube. As a quark carries both a color charge and
an electric charge, the oscillation of the color charge densities will be
accompanied by the oscillation of electric charge densities, which will in turn
lead to the simultaneous production of soft photons during the meson production
process. How the production of these soft photons may explain the anomalous
soft photon data will be discussed. Further experimental measurements to test
the model will be proposed.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Physical Review
Association of antihypertensive monotherapy with serum sodium and potassium levels in Chinese patients
<b>Background</b> International guidelines on management of hypertension recommend any major classes of antihypertensive drugs. However, the low prescribing rate of thiazides has been attributed to concerns about electrolyte disturbances and studies between antihypertensive drug classes and hyponatremia/hypokalemia among Chinese patients were scarce. <p></p>
<b>Methods</b> From clinical databases we included 2,759 patients who received their first-ever antihypertensive monotherapy from January 2004 to June 2007 in a large territory of Hong Kong. We studied the plasma sodium and potassium levels 8 weeks after prescriptions and factors associated with hyponatremia and hypokalemia by multivariable regression analyses. <p></p>
<b>Results</b> Among major antihypertensive drug classes, thiazide users had the lowest sodium level (139.6 mEq/l, 95% confidence interval (CI) 139.3, 140.0, P < 0.001) and patients-prescribed calcium channel blockers (CCBs; 3.92 mEq/l, 95% CI 3.89, 3.95) or thiazide diuretics (3.99 mEq/l, 95% CI 3.93, 4.04) had the lowest potassium levels (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis reported that advanced age (>/=70 years, odds ratio (OR) 7.49, 95% CI 2.84, 19.8, P < 0.001), male gender (OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.45, 3.91, P < 0.001), and thiazide users (OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.29, 4.56, P = 0.006) were significantly associated with hyponatremia, while renin-angiotensin system (RAS) (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.13, 0.73, P = 0.008) and beta-blockers (BBs) (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.23, 0.54, P < 0.001) users were less likely to present with hypokalemia. However, the proportions having normonatremic (95.1%) and normokalemic (89.4%) levels were high. <p></p>
<b>Conclusions</b> In view of the low prevalence of hyponatremia and hypokalemia associated with thiazides, physicians should not be deterred from prescribing thiazide diuretics as first-line antihypertensive agents as recommended by most international guidelines
High p_T Triggered Delta-eta,Delta-phi Correlations over a Broad Range in Delta-eta
The first measurement of pseudorapidity (Delta-eta) and azimuthal angle
(Delta-phi) correlations between high transverse momentum charged hadrons (p_T
> 2.5 GeV/c) and all associated particles is presented at both short- (small
Delta-eta) and long-range (large Delta-eta) over a continuous pseudorapidity
acceptance (-4<Delta-eta<2). In these proceedings, the various near- and
away-side features of the correlation structure are discussed as a function of
centrality in Au+Au collisions measured by PHOBOS at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. In
particular, this measurement allows a much more complete determination of the
longitudinal extent of the ridge structure, first observed by the STAR
collaboration over a limited eta range. In central collisions the ridge
persists to at least Delta-eta=4, diminishing in magnitude as collisions become
more peripheral until it disappears around Npart=80.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, presented at the 20th International Conference on
Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, "Quark Matter 2008", Jaipur,
India, February 4-10, 2008. Full author list included and typo corrected in
equation
Pion Interferometry for Hydrodynamical Expanding Source with a Finite Baryon Density
We calculate the two-pion correlation function for an expanding hadron source
with a finite baryon density. The space-time evolution of the source is
described by relativistic hydrodynamics and the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT)
radius is extracted after effects of collective expansion and multiple
scattering on the HBT interferometry have been taken into account, using
quantum probability amplitudes in a path-integral formalism. We find that this
radius is substantially smaller than the HBT radius extracted from the
freeze-out configuration.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Interferometry signatures for QCD first-order phase transition in heavy ion collisions at GSI-FAIR energies
Using the technique of quantum transport of the interfering pair we examine
the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry signatures for the
particle-emitting sources of pions and kaons produced in the heavy ion
collisions at GSI-FAIR energies. The evolution of the sources is described by
relativistic hydrodynamics with the system equation of state of the first-order
phase transition from quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to hadronic matter. We use
quantum probability amplitudes in a path-integral formalism to calculate the
two-particle correlation functions, where the effects of particle decay and
multiple scattering are taken into consideration. We find that the HBT radii of
kaons are smaller than those of pions for the same initial conditions. Both the
HBT radii of pions and kaons increase with the system initial energy density.
The HBT lifetimes of the pion and kaon sources are sensitive to the initial
energy density. They are significantly prolonged when the initial energy
density is tuned to the phase boundary between the QGP and mixed phase. This
prolongations of the HBT lifetimes of pions and kaons may likely be observed in
the heavy ion collisions with an incident energy in the GSI-FAIR energy range.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
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