Virtual annihilation contribution to orthopositronium decay rate

Order alpha^2 contribution to the orthopositronium decay rate due to one-photon virtual annihilation is found to be delta Gamma = (alpha/pi)^2 (pi^2 ln(alpha) - 0.8622(9))Gamma_LO.Comment: 2 pages, no figure

Two-loop corrections to the decay rate of parapositronium

Order $\alpha^2$ corrections to the decay rate of parapositronium are calculated. A QED scattering calculation of the amplitude for electron-positron annihilation into two photons at threshold is combined with the technique of effective field theory to determine an NRQED Hamiltonian, which is then used in a bound state calculation to determine the decay rate. Our result for the two-loop correction is $5.1243(33)$ in units of $(\alpha/\pi)^2$ times the lowest order rate. This is consistent with but more precise than the result $5.1(3)$ of a previous calculation.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure

Electrodynamic Limit in a Model for Charged Solitons

We consider a model of topological solitons where charged particles have finite mass and the electric charge is quantised already at the classical level. In the electrodynamic limit, which physically corresponds to electrodynamics of solitons of zero size, the Lagrangian of this model has two degrees of freedom only and reduces to the Lagrangian of the Maxwell field in dual representation. We derive the equations of motion and discuss their relations with Maxwell's equations. It is shown that Coulomb and Lorentz forces are a consequence of topology. Further, we relate the U(1) gauge invariance of electrodynamics to the geometry of the soliton field, give a general relation for the derivation of the soliton field from the field strength tensor in electrodynamics and use this relation to express homogeneous electric fields in terms of the soliton field.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, Introduction and Section II (Model Lagrangian) rewritten, new chapters concerning electrodynamic limit and discussion of causality inserte

Parton Model from Bi-local Solitonic Picture of the Baryon in two-dimensions

We study a previously introduced bi-local gauge invariant reformulation of two dimensional QCD, called 2d HadronDynamics. The baryon arises as a topological soliton in HadronDynamics. We derive an interacting parton model from the soliton model, thus reconciling these two seemingly different points of view. The valence quark model is obtained as a variational approximation to HadronDynamics. A succession of better approximations to the soliton picture are obtained. The next simplest case corresponds to a system of interacting valence, `sea' and anti-quarks. We also obtain this `embellished' parton model directly from the valence quark system through a unitary transformation. Using the solitonic point of view, we estimate the quark and anti-quark distributions of 2d QCD. Possible applications to Deep Inelastic Structure Functions are pointed out.Comment: 12 page

The Nuclear Sigma Term in the Skyrme Model: Pion-Nucleus Interaction

The nuclear sigma term is calculated including the nuclear matrix element of the derivative of the NN interaction with respect to the quark mass, $m_q\frac{\partial V_{NN}}{\partial m_q}$. The NN potential is evaluated in the skyrmion-skyrmion picture within the quantized product ansatz. The contribution of the NN potential to the nuclear sigma term provides repulsion to the pion-nucleus interaction. The strength of the s-wave pion-nucleus optical potential is estimated including such contribution. The results are consistent with the analysis of the experimental data.Comment: 16 pages (latex), 3 figures (eps), e-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]

Radiative Corrections to One-Photon Decays of Hydrogenic Ions

Radiative corrections to the decay rate of n=2 states of hydrogenic ions are calculated. The transitions considered are the M1 decay of the 2s state to the ground state and the E1(M2) decays of the $2p_{1/2}$ and $2p_{3/2}$ states to the ground state. The radiative corrections start in order $\alpha (Z \alpha)^2$, but the method used sums all orders of $Z\alpha$. The leading $\alpha (Z\alpha)^2$ correction for the E1 decays is calculated and compared with the exact result. The extension of the calculational method to parity nonconserving transitions in neutral atoms is discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

Mesons, Baryons and Waves in the Baby Skyrmion Model

We study various classical solutions of the baby-Skyrmion model in $(2+1)$ dimensions. We point out the existence of higher energy states interpret them as resonances of Skyrmions and anti-Skyrmions and study their decays. Most of the discussion involves a highly exited Skyrmion-like state with winding number one which decays into an ordinary Skyrmion and a Skyrmion-anti-Skyrmion pair. We also study wave-like solutions of the model and show that some of such solutions can be constructed from the solutions of the sine-Gordon equation. We also show that the baby-Skyrmion has non-topological stationary solutions. We study their interactions with Skyrmions.Comment: plain tex : 17 pages, 14 Postscript figures, uses epsf.te

Effect of Hadron Dynamics on the Proton Lifetime

A detailed, quantitative re-examination of the effect of hadron dynamics on baryon decay, modeled in terms of Skyrme-field tunneling, indicates that any hadronic suppression should be quite mild. This appears to be another illustration of the `Cheshire-cat' phenomenon, that variation of the apportionment between description of the nucleon as a bag of quarks and description as a Skyrme field configuration has little influence on many nucleon properties. Perhaps the largest remaining uncertainty in evaluating the decay rate has to do with the overlap between a specified quark-antiquark configuration and a final meson state.Comment: minor corrections, 19 pages, 9 figure

Charmed Strange Pentaquarks in the Large NcN_c Limit

The properties of pentaquarks containing a heavy anti-quark and strange quarks are studied in the bound state picture. In the flavor SU(3) limit, there are many pentaquark states with the same binding energy. When the SU(3) symmetry breaking effects are included, however, three states become particularly stable due to a ``Gell-Mann--Okubo mechanism''. They are the $\bar Qsuud$ and $\bar Qsudd$ states discussed by Lipkin, and a a previously unstudied $\bar Qssud$ state. These states will have $J^P={1\over2}^+$ and their masses are estimated. These states, if exist, may be seen in experiments in the near future.Comment: 12 pages in REVTeX, no figure

Skyrmions from a Born-Infeld Action

We consider a geometrically motivated Skyrme model based on a general covariant kinetic term proposed originally by Born and Infeld. We introduce this new term by generalizing the Born-Infeld action to a non-abelian $SU(2)$ gauge theory and by using the hidden gauge symmetry formalism. The static properties of the Skyrmion are then analyzed and compared with other Skyrme-like models.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures (not included), revtex v3, LAVAL-PHY-11-9