Recent advances in the theory of nuclear forces

After a brief historical review, we present recent progress in our understanding of nuclear forces in terms of chiral effective field theory.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; talk at International Symposium on Correlations Dynamics in Nuclei, University of Tokyo, Japan, 31 January-4 February, 200

CMB Anisotropies Reveal Quantized Gravity

A novel primordial spectrum with a dynamical scale of quantum gravity origin is proposed to explain the sharp fall off of the angular power spectra at low multipoles in the COBE and WMAP observations. The spectrum is derived from quantum fluctuations of the scalar curvature in a renormalizable model of induced gravity. This model describes the very early universe by the conformal field fluctuating about an inflationary background with the expansion time constant of order of the Planck mass.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Baryon-Baryon Interactions from Lattice QCD

We report on new attempt to investigate baryon-baryon interactions in lattice QCD. From the Bethe-Salpeter (BS) wave function, we have successfully extracted the nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) potentials in quenched QCD simulations, which reproduce qualitative features of modern $NN$ potentials. The method has been extended to obtain the tensor potential as well as the central potential and also applied to the hyperon-nucleon ($YN$) interactions, in both quenched and full QCD.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, A plenary talk given at the 5-th International Conference on Quark and Nuclear Physics, Beijing, September 21-26, 200

Redetermination of poly[μ-chlorido-hepta­chlorido-μ3-l-proline-μ2-l-proline-tetra­mercury(II)]

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Hg4Cl8(C5H9NO2)2]n, consists of four HgCl2 units and two L-proline ligands in the zwitterionic form. In each HgCl2 unit, the HgII ion is strongly bonded to two Cl atoms, and the HgII ions in two of the HgCl2 units are chelated by O atoms of two l-proline ligands, with one strong and one weak Hg—O bond. In the crystal structure, HgCl2 and L-proline units are linked to form an extended chain along the a axis. The chain structure is further stabilized by N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds, and the chains are arranged in layers parallel to the ab plane. The structure of the title compound was originally determined by Ehsan, Malik & Haider [(1996). J. Banglad. Acad. Sci. 20, 175] but no three-dimensional coordinates are available

A Quantum Analogue of the Jarzynski Equality

A quantum analogue of the Jarzynski equality is constructed. This equality connects an ensemble average of exponentiated work with the Helmholtz free-energy difference in a nonequilibrium switching process subject to a thermal heat bath. To confirm its validity in a practical situation, we also investigate an open quantum system that is a spin 1/2 system with a scanning magnetic field interacting with a thermal heat bath. As a result, we find that the quantum analogue functions well.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 69 (2000

A spiral structure in the disk of EX Draconis on the rise to outburst maximum

We report on the R-band eclipse mapping analysis of high-speed photometry of the dwarf nova EX Dra on the rise to the maximum of the November 1995 outburst. The eclipse map shows a one-armed spiral structure of ~180 degrees in azimuth, extending in radius from R ~0.2 to 0.43 R_{L1} (where R_{L1} is the distance from the disk center to the inner Lagrangian point), that contributes about 22 per cent of the total flux of the eclipse map. The spiral structure is stationary in a reference frame co-rotating with the binary and is stable for a timescale of at least 5 binary orbits. The comparison of the eclipse maps on the rise and in quiescence suggests that the outbursts of EX Dra may be driven by episodes of enhanced mass-transfer from the secondary star. Possible explanations for the nature of the spiral structure are discussed.Comment: To appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters; 8 pages, 2 figures; coded with AAS latex styl

Numerical Study on GRB-Jet Formation in Collapsars

Two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations are performed using the ZEUS-2D code to investigate the dynamics of a collapsar that generates a GRB jet, taking account of realistic equation of state, neutrino cooling and heating processes, magnetic fields, and gravitational force from the central black hole and self gravity. It is found that neutrino heating processes are not so efficient to launch a jet in this study. It is also found that a jet is launched mainly by B_\phi fields that are amplified by the winding-up effect. However, since the ratio of total energy relative to the rest mass energy in the jet is not so high as several hundred, we conclude that the jets seen in this study are not be a GRB jet. This result suggests that general relativistic effects, which are not included in this study, will be important to generate a GRB jet. Also, the accretion disk with magnetic fields may still play an important role to launch a GRB jet, although a simulation for much longer physical time (\sim 10-100 s) is required to confirm this effect. It is shown that considerable amount of 56Ni is synthesized in the accretion disk. Thus there will be a possibility for the accretion disk to supply sufficient amount of 56Ni required to explain the luminosity of a hypernova. Also, it is shown that neutron-rich matter due to electron captures with high entropy per baryon is ejected along the polar axis. Moreover, it is found that the electron fraction becomes larger than 0.5 around the polar axis near the black hole by \nu_e capture at the region. Thus there will be a possibility that r-process and r/p-process nucleosynthesis occur at these regions. Finally, much neutrons will be ejected from the jet, which suggests that signals from the neutron decays may be observed as the delayed bump of afterglow or gamma-rays.Comment: 54 pages with 19 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. High resolution version is available at http://www2.yukawa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~nagataki/collapsar.pd