17,421 research outputs found
Generalized Background-Field Method
The graphical method discussed previously can be used to create new gauges
not reachable by the path-integral formalism. By this means a new gauge is
designed for more efficient two-loop QCD calculations. It is related to but
simpler than the ordinary background-field gauge, in that even the triple-gluon
vertices for internal lines contain only four terms, not the usual six. This
reduction simplifies the calculation inspite of the necessity to include other
vertices for compensation. Like the ordinary background-field gauge, this
generalized background-field gauge also preserves gauge invariance of the
external particles. As a check of the result and an illustration for the
reduction in labour, an explicit calculation of the two-loop QCD
-function is carried out in this new gauge. It results in a saving of
45% of computation compared to the ordinary background-field gauge.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 18 figures in Postscrip
Small-Recoil Approximation
In this review we discuss a technique to compute and to sum a class of
Feynman diagrams, and some of its applications. These are diagrams containing
one or more energetic particles that suffer very little recoil in their
interactions. When recoil is completely neglected, a decomposition formula can
be proven. This formula is a generalization of the well-known eikonal formula,
to non-abelian interactions. It expresses the amplitude as a sum of products of
irreducible amplitudes, with each irreducible amplitude being the amplitude to
emit one, or several mutually interacting, quasi-particles. For abelian
interaction a quasi-particle is nothing but the original boson, so this
decomposition formula reduces to the eikonal formula. In non-abelian situations
each quasi-particle can be made up of many bosons, though always with a total
quantum number identical to that of a single boson. This decomposition enables
certain amplitudes of all orders to be summed up into an exponential form, and
it allows subleading contributions of a certain kind, which is difficult to
reach in the usual way, to be computed. For bosonic emissions from a heavy
source with many constituents, a quasi-particle amplitude turns out to be an
amplitude in which all bosons are emitted from the same constituent. For
high-energy parton-parton scattering in the near-forward direction, the
quasi-particle turns out to be the Reggeon, and this formalism shows clearly
why gluons reggeize but photons do not. The ablility to compute subleading
terms in this formalism allows the BFKL-Pomeron amplitude to be extrapolated to
asymptotic energies, in a unitary way preserving the Froissart bound. We also
consider recoil corrections for abelian interactions in order to accommodate
the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect.Comment: 21 pages with 4 figure
Novel Bose-Einstein Interference in the Passage of a Fast Particle in a Dense Medium
When an energetic particle collides coherently with many medium particles at
high energies, the Bose-Einstein symmetry with respect to the interchange of
the exchanged virtual bosons leads to a destructive interference of the Feynman
amplitudes in most regions of the phase space but a constructive interference
in some other regions of the phase space. As a consequence, the recoiling
medium particles have a tendency to come out collectively along the direction
of the incident fast particle, each carrying a substantial fraction of the
incident longitudinal momentum. Such an interference appearing as collective
recoils of scatterers along the incident particle direction may have been
observed in angular correlations of hadrons associated with a high-
trigger in high-energy AuAu collisions at RHIC.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, invited talk presented at the 35th Symposium on
Nuclear Physics, Cocoyoc, Mexico, January 3, 2012, to be published in IOP
Conference Serie
How well does the index of receptivity to tobacco industry promotion discriminate between smoking and never smoking adolescents.
Tobacco advertising is often named as the culprit that causes children to start smoking (Lancaster & Lancaster, 2003). This belief can partly be attributed to the Index of Receptivity to Tobacco Industry Promotion (IRTIP) developed by Evans, Farkas, Gilpin, Berry, & Pierce (1995). IRTIP was later modified and used by Pierce, Choi, Gilpin, Farkas, & Berry (1998) in a longitudinal study that claimed to have found a causal link between advertising and adolescent cigarette trial. The model is advertised by the American National Cancer Institute (2004) as being able to measure the likelihood of an adolescent starting smoking. Because of Pierce’s causality claim and this endorsement, IRTIP has been widely adopted by tobacco-control researchers. Consequently, the results from IRTIP based surveys have played a central role in influencing tobacco control policy. Based on the logic that a model used to predict the chances of a non-smoker becoming a smoker should be able to distinguish between these two groups, discriminant analysis with dummy coded variables was used to validate IRTIP. The results show that while IRTIP classifies never-smokers well, it grossly misclassifies smokers. This leads to questions about the validity of the model and of studies using IRTIP.<br /
The influence of cultural values on brand loyalty
It is well documented that culture can influence consumer attitudes and behavior. While there have been numerous studies on how culture influences the four Ps of the marketing mix, few researchers have examined its effect on customer loyalty. More specifically, how consumers who identify more with certain cultural traits are likely to be more brand loyal. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, this study empirically examines cultural effects on consumer-reported “proneness” to brand loyalty and finds that those who scored highly in individualism and uncertainty avoidance have greater affinity for exhibiting loyalty to a brand.<br /
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