The unit of electric charge and the mass hierarchy of heavy particles

We propose some empirical formulae relating the masses of the heaviest particles in the standard model (the W,Z,H bosons and the t quark) to the charge of the positron $e$ and the Higgs condensate v. The relations for the masses of gauge bosons m_W = (1+e)v/4 and m_Z=sqrt{(1+e^2)/2}*(v/2) are in excellent agreement with experimental values. By requiring the electroweak standard model to be free from quadratic divergencies at the one-loop level, we find: m_t=v/sqrt{2} and m_H=v/sqrt{2e}, or the very simple ratio (m_t/m_H)^2=e.Comment: 6 page

Resonance Propagation and Threshold Singularities

We consider the problem of propagation of an unstable particle in the framework of Quantum Field Theory. Using unitarity, we show that a real renormalization constant free of threshold singularities naturally arises.Comment: 5 pages, no figures, revte

Explaining Africa’s public consumption procyclicality : revisiting old evidence

This paper compiles a novel dataset of time-varying measures of government consumption cyclicality for a panel of 46 African economies between 1960 and 2014. Government consumption has, generally, been highly procyclical over time in this group of countries. However, sample averages hide serious heterogeneity across countries with the majority of them showing procyclical behavior despite some positive signs of graduation from the “procyclicality trap” in a few cases. By means of weighted least squares regressions, we find that more developed African economies tend to have a smaller degree of government consumption procyclicality. Countries with higher social fragmentation and those are more reliant on foreign aid inflows tend to have a more procyclical government consumption policy. Better governance promotes counter- cyclical fiscal policy whileincreased democracy dampens it. Finally, some fiscal rules are important in curbing the procyclical behavior of government consumption.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pion-proton scattering and isospin breaking in the Δ0−Δ++\Delta^0-\Delta^{++} system

We determine the mass and width of the $\Delta^{++}\ (\Delta^0)$ resonance from data on $\pi^+ p\ (\pi^- p)$ scattering both, in the pole of the $S$-matrix and conventional Breit-Wigner approaches to the scattering amplitude. We provide a simple formula that relates the two definitions for the parameters of the $\Delta$. Isospin symmetry breaking in the \d0-\dm system depends on the definition of the resonant properties: we find $M_0-M_{++} = 0.40 \pm 0.57\ {\rm MeV},\ \Gamma_0 -\Gamma_{++} = 6.89 \pm 0.95\ {\rm MeV}$ in the pole approach while $\wt{M}_0-\wt{M}_{++} = 2.25 \pm 0.68\ {\rm MeV},\ \wt{\Gamma}_0 - \wt{\Gamma}_{++} = 8.45 \pm 1.11\ {\rm MeV}$ in the conventional approach.Comment: Latex, 23 pages, two figures upon reques

Retirement Incentives in Belgium: Estimations and Simulations Using SHARE Data

peer reviewedThe paper studies retirement behavior of wage‐earners in Belgium – for the first time using a rich survey dataset to analyze retirement incentives as faced by individuals. Specifically, we use SHARE data to estimate a model à la Stock and Wise (1990). Exploring the data on individual life‐histories from SHARELIFE, we construct a measure of financial incentive to retire. Our analysis explicitly takes into account the different take‐up rates of the various early retirement exit paths across time and ages. The results show that financial incentives play a strong role. Health and education also matter, as do regional differences. Against the general background of the 2020 strategy, we perform a set of policy simulations and illustrate the scope but also the limits associated with selective parametric reforms

Gluon Polarization from QCD Sum Rules

The gluon polarization $\Delta G$ in a nucleon can be defined in a gauge invariant way as the integral over the Ioffe-time distribution of polarized gluons. We argue that for sufficiently regular polarized gluon distributions $\Delta G$ is dominated by contributions from small and moderate values of the Ioffe-time z < 10. As a consequence $\Delta G$ can be estimated with 20% accuracy from the first two even moments of the polarized gluon distribution, and its behavior at small values of Bjorken x or, equivalently, at large Ioffe-times z. We employ this idea and compute the first two moments of the polarized gluon distribution within the framework of QCD sum rules. Combined with the color coherence hypothesis we obtain an upper limit for $\Delta G \sim 2 \pm 0.5$ at a typical scale $\mu^2 \sim 1 GeV^2$.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 2 figures include

Ioffe-time distributions instead of parton momentum distributions in description of deep inelastic scattering

We argue that parton distributions in coordinate space provide a more natural object for nonperturbative methods compared to the usual momentum distributions in which the physics of different longitudinal distances is being mixed. To illustrate the advantages of the coordinate space formulation, we calculate the coordinate space distributions for valence quarks in the proton using the QCD sum rule approach. A remarkable agreement is found between the calculated and the experimentally measured u-quark distribution up to light-cone distances $\Delta^- = \Delta^0 - \Delta^3$ of order $\sim 1$ fm in the proton rest frame. The calculation for valence d quarks gives much worse results; the reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.Comment: 24 pages plus 13 pages with figures, requires epsf.sty, revised version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Gauge invariance and finite width effects in radiative two-pion tau lepton decay

The contribution of the rho^{\pm} vector meson to the tau -> pi pi nu gamma decay is considered as a potential source for the determination of the magnetic dipole moment of this light vector meson. In order to keep gauge-invariance of the whole decay amplitude, a procedure similar to the fermion loop-scheme for charged gauge bosons is implemented to incorporate the finite width effects of the rho^{\pm} vector meson. The absorptive pieces of the one-loop corrections to the propagators and electromagnetic vertices of the rho^{\pm} meson and W^{\pm} gauge boson have identical forms in the limit of massless particles in the loops, suggesting this to be a universal feature of spin-one unstable particles. Model-dependent contributions to the tau -> pi pi nu gamma decay are suppressed by fixing the two-pion invariant mass distribution at the rho meson mass value. The resulting photon energy and angular distribution is relatively sensitive to the effects of the rho magnetic dipole moment.Comment: 22 pages, 4 postscript figures, references and comments on relevance of perturbative treatment of rho electromagnetic vertex are added, accepted for pub. in Phys. Rev.

S-matrix approach to two-pion production in e^+e^- annihilation and tau decay

Based on the S-matrix approach, we introduce a modified formula for the $\pi^{\pm}$ electromagnetic form factor which describes very well the experimental data in the energy region $2m_{\pi} \leq \sqrt{s} \leq 1.1$ GeV. Using the CVC hypothesis we predict B(\tpp) = (24.75 \pm 0.38)\% , in excellent agreement with recent experiments.Comment: Latex, 10 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Ioffe-time distribution of quarks in the photon

We have analysed the Ioffe-time distribution of quarks in virtual photons using Operator Product Expansion of the correlation function that determines the matrix element of the corresponding quark string operator. The distribution for a transversally polarised photon admits a spectral representation which can be continued to the on-shell region $p^2 =0$. The resulting model Ioffe-time distribution turns out to be larger than parametrisations of the available $F_2^{\gamma}$ data. This result is linked to the slope of the quark distribution at the origin, which comes out too large as well.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex, one uuencoded figur