Open-charm systems in cold nuclear matter

We study the spectral distributions of charmed meson with $J^P=0^-$ quantum numbers in cold nuclear matter applying a self-consistent and covariant many-body approach established previously for the nuclear dynamics of kaons. At leading orders the computation requires as input the free-space two-body scattering amplitudes only. Our results are based on the s-wave meson-nucleon amplitudes obtained recently in terms of a coupled-channel approach. The amplitudes are characterized by the presence of many resonances in part so far not observed. This gives rise to an intriguing dynamics of charmed mesons in nuclear matter. At nuclear saturation density we predict a pronounced two-mode structure of the $D^+$ mesons with a main branch pushed up by about 32 MeV. The lower branch reflects the coupling to two resonance-hole states that are almost degenerate. For the $D^-$ we obtain a single mode pushed up by about 18 MeV relative to the vacuum mode. Most spectacular are the results for the $D^+_s$ meson. The presence of an exotic resonance-hole state gives rise to a rather broad and strongly momentum dependent spectral distribution.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Chiral symmetry and strangeness at SIS energies

In this talk we review the consequences of the chiral SU(3) symmetry for strangeness propagation in nuclear matter. Objects of crucial importance are the meson-baryon scattering amplitudes obtained within the chiral coupled-channel effective field theory. Results for antikaon and hyperon-resonance spectral functions in cold nuclear matter are presented and discussed. The importance of the Sigma(1385) resonance for the subthreshold antikaon production in heavy-ion reaction at SIS is pointed out. The in-medium properties of the latter together with an antikaon spectral function based on chiral SU(3) dynamics suggest a significant enhancement of the pi \Lambda -> bar K N reaction in nuclear matter.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, invited talk at Erice 200

Effects of vinyl substitutions on resonance Raman spectra of (bacterio)chlorophylls

Soret resonance and Qy preresonance Raman spectra are reported and compared for a series of (bacterio)chlorophylls. Chlorophyll a, 2-acetylchlorophyll a, bacteriochlorophyll a and 2-vinylbacteriochlorophyll a were studied in the non-protic solvent tetrahydrofuran. These experiments were designed to identify Raman bands corresponding to the stretching mode(s) of the vinyl group at the C-2 position of ring I of chlorophyll a and 2-vinylbacteriochlorophyll a, and to ascertain whether additional bands corresponding to Ca Cm and/or Cb Cb vibrations could be observed in the 1615-1660 cm-1 region. Raman spectra of chlorophyll a and 2-vinylbacteriochlorophyll a exhibit a 1625 cm-1 band, which is absent from the Raman spectra of 2-acetylchlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll a. It is assigned to the vC2a C2b mode of the vinyl group. No other band can be definitively assigned to any mode predominantly arising from vinyl motions. The acetyl-containing molecules 2-acetylchlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll a give rise to a ca. 1070 cm-1 band, which appears to be related to the presence of the acetyl substituent. The 1615-1660 cm-1 region of the Raman spectra of all four derivatives did not contain any additional band which could be ascribed to modes involving the vCa Cm and/or Cb Cb coordinates

Baryon resonances from chiral coupled-channel dynamics

We discuss the formation of s- and d-wave baryon resonances as predicted by the chiral SU(3) symmetry of QCD. Based on the leading order term of the chiral Lagrangian a rich spectrum of molecules is generated, owing to final-state interactions. The spectrum of s- and d-wave baryon states with zero and non-zero charm is remarkably consistent with the empirical pattern. In particular, the recently announced Sigma_c(2800) of the BELLE collaboration is reproduced with realistic mass and width parameters. Similarly, the d-wave states Lambda_c(2625) and Xi_c(2815) are explained naturally to be chiral excitations of J^P=3/2^+ states. In the open-charm sector exotic multiplet structures are predicted. These findings support a radical conjecture: meson and baryon resonances that do not belong to the large-N_c ground state of QCD should be viewed as hadronic molecular state

On the method of typical bounded differences

Concentration inequalities are fundamental tools in probabilistic combinatorics and theoretical computer science for proving that random functions are near their means. Of particular importance is the case where f(X) is a function of independent random variables X=(X_1, ..., X_n). Here the well known bounded differences inequality (also called McDiarmid's or Hoeffding-Azuma inequality) establishes sharp concentration if the function f does not depend too much on any of the variables. One attractive feature is that it relies on a very simple Lipschitz condition (L): it suffices to show that |f(X)-f(X')| \leq c_k whenever X,X' differ only in X_k. While this is easy to check, the main disadvantage is that it considers worst-case changes c_k, which often makes the resulting bounds too weak to be useful. In this paper we prove a variant of the bounded differences inequality which can be used to establish concentration of functions f(X) where (i) the typical changes are small although (ii) the worst case changes might be very large. One key aspect of this inequality is that it relies on a simple condition that (a) is easy to check and (b) coincides with heuristic considerations why concentration should hold. Indeed, given an event \Gamma that holds with very high probability, we essentially relax the Lipschitz condition (L) to situations where \Gamma occurs. The point is that the resulting typical changes c_k are often much smaller than the worst case ones. To illustrate its application we consider the reverse H-free process, where H is 2-balanced. We prove that the final number of edges in this process is concentrated, and also determine its likely value up to constant factors. This answers a question of Bollob\'as and Erd\H{o}s.Comment: 25 page