Lowest Order Effective Field Theory for the weak ΛN\Lambda N interaction

The $|\Delta S|=1$ $\Lambda N$ interaction, responsible for the decay of hypernuclei, is studied by means of an Effective Field Theory where the long range physics is described by pion and kaon exchange mechanisms, and its short range counterpart is obtained from the most general non-derivative local four-fermion interaction. We show that, including the Lowest Order Parity Conserving contact terms, allows us to reproduce the total decay rates for $^5_\Lambda {\rm He}$, $^{11}_\Lambda {\rm B}$ and $^{12}_\Lambda {\rm C}$ with a reasonable value of ${\hat \chi^2}$, while in order to get a prediction for the Parity Violating (PV) asymmetry compatible with experiments, we have to include the Lowest Order PV contact pieces.Comment: 3 pages, no figures. Contribution to the 17th International IUPAP Conference on Few-body Problems in Physics, June 5-10, 2003 Durham, North Carolina, USA. Uses espcrc1.st

Neutrino Physics

The basic concepts of neutrino physics are presented at a level appropriate for integration into elementary courses on quantum mechanics and/or modern physics.Comment: Prepared for the American Journal of Physics; 50 pages; 11 figures (10 included); late

Hadronic parity violation and effective field theory

The subject of hadronic parity violation is briefly reviewed and an approach based on effective field theory is advocated in order to resolve current problems

The role of resonances in non-leptonic hyperon decays

We examine the importance of resonances for the non-leptonic hyperon decays in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. Lower lying resonances are included into the effective theory. Integrating out the heavy degrees of freedom in the resonance saturation scheme generates higher order counterterms in the effective Lagrangian, providing an estimate of the pertinent coupling constants. A fit to the eight independent decay amplitudes that are not related by isospin symmetry is performed and reasonable agreement for both s- and p- waves is achieved.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Non-leptonic hyperon decays in chiral perturbation theory

The non-leptonic hyperon decays are analyzed up to one-loop order including all counterterms in the framework of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. We use the exchange of the spin-3/2 decuplet resonances as an indication of which low-energy constants contribute significantly to these investigated processes . We choose four independent decay amplitudes that are not related by isospin relations in order to perform a fit for the pertinent low-energy constants and find a satisfactory fit both for s- and p-waves. The chiral corrections to the lowest order forms for the s-waves are moderate whereas there are significant modifications of the p-wave amplitudes.Comment: 40 pages, 4 figure

Extracting Electric Polarizabilities from Lattice QCD

Charged and neutral, pion and kaon electric polarizabilities are extracted from lattice QCD using an ensemble of anisotropic gauge configurations with dynamical clover fermions. We utilize classical background fields to access the polarizabilities from two-point correlation functions. Uniform background fields are achieved by quantizing the electric field strength with the proper treatment of boundary flux. These external fields, however, are implemented only in the valence quark sector. A novel method to extract charge particle polarizabilities is successfully demonstrated for the first time.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, a few clarifications added, published versio

Subleading corrections to parity-violating pion photoproduction

We compute the photon asymmetry Bγ for near threshold parity-violating (PV) pion photoproduction through subleading order. We show that subleading contributions involve a new combination of PV couplings not included in previous analyses of hadronic PV. We argue that existing constraints on the leading order contribution to Bγ—obtained from the PV γ-decay of 18F—suggest that the impact of the subleading contributions may be more significant than expected from naturalness arguments

Chiral Symmetry and the Parity-Violating NNπNN\pi Yukawa Coupling

We construct the complete SU(2) parity-violating (PV) $\pi, N, \Delta$ interaction Lagrangian with one derivative, and calculate the chiral corrections to the PV Yukawa $NN\pi$ coupling constant $h_\pi$ through ${\cal O}(1/\Lambda_\chi^3)$ in the leading order of heavy baryon expansion. We discuss the relationship between the renormalized \hpi, the measured value of \hpi, and the corresponding quantity calculated microscopically from the Standard Model four-quark PV interaction.Comment: RevTex, 26 pages + 5 PS figure