2,893 research outputs found
Are there S=-2 Pentaquarks?
Recent evidence for pentaquark baryons in the channels ,
and their anti-particles claimed by the NA49 collaboration is
critically confronted with the vast amount of existing data on
spectroscopy which was accumulated over the past decades. It is shown that the
claim is at least partially inconsistent with these data. In addition two
further exotic channels of the pentaquark type available in the NA49 data are
investigated. It is argued that this study leads to internal inconsistency with
the purported signals
Comments concerning the paper "Measurement of negatively charged pion spectra in inelastic p+p interactions at 20, 31, 40, 80 and 158 GeV/c" by the NA61 collaboration
New data from the NA61 collaboration on the production of negative pions in
p+p interactions at beam momenta between 20 and 158 GeV/c are critically
compared to available results in the same energy range. It is concluded that
the NA61 data show some discrepancies with the previous results. This concerns
in particular the total yields, the integrated rapidity distributions and
the double differential cross sections.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure
A survey of backward proton and pion production in p+C interactions at beam momenta from 1 to 400 GeV/c
New data on proton and pion production in p+C interactions from the CERN PS
and SPS accelerators are used in conjunction with other available data sets to
perform a comprehensive survey of backward hadronic cross sections. This survey
covers the complete backward hemisphere in the range of lab angles from 10 to
180 degrees, from 0.2 to 1.4 GeV/c in lab momentum and from 1 to 400 GeV/c in
projectile momentum. Using the constraints of continuity and smoothness of the
angular, momentum and energy dependences a consistent description of the
inclusive cross sections is established which allows the control of the
internal consistency of the nineteen available data sets.Comment: 52 pages 47 figure
Intercontinental transport of nitrogen oxide pollution plumes
We describe the first satellite observation of intercontinental transport of nitrogen oxides emitted by power plants, verified by simulations with a particle tracer model. The analysis of such episodes shows that anthropogenic NO<sub>x</sub> plumes may influence the atmospheric chemistry thousands of kilometers away from its origin, as well as the ocean they traverse due to nitrogen fertilization. This kind of monitoring became possible by applying an improved algorithm to extract the tropospheric fraction of NO<sub>2</sub> from the spectral data coming from the GOME instrument.<br> <br> As an example we show the observation of NO<sub>2</sub> in the time period 4--14 May, 1998, from the South African Plateau to Australia which was possible due to favourable weather conditions during that time period which availed the satellite measurement. This episode was also simulated with the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART which uses NO<sub>x</sub> emissions taken from an inventory for industrial emissions in South Africa and is driven with analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Additionally lightning emissions were taken into account by utilizing Lightning Imaging Sensor data. Lightning was found to contribute probably not more than 25% of the resulting concentrations. Both, the measured and simulated emission plume show matching patterns while traversing the Indian Ocean to Australia and show great resemblance to the aerosol and CO<sub>2</sub> transport observed by Piketh et al. (2000)
Overvoltage characteristics in symmetrical monopolar HB MMC-HVDC configuration comprising long cable systems
This contribution focuses on high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems comprising modular multilevel converters (MMC) equipped with half-bridge (HB) submodules and analyses cable voltage stresses during various station internal as well as dc side faults. In order to examine relevant overvoltage characteristics affecting HVDC cable systems, a systematic approach to evaluate overvoltage stresses is presented and an extensive set of time-domain simulations is analysed for schemes operating in symmetrical monopolar configuration. Obtained results are relevant for considerations on insulation co-ordination of HVDC cable systems and for a comprehensive definition of high voltage testing requirements
Microscopic calculations of stopping and flow from 160AMeV to 160AGeV
The behavior of hadronic matter at high baryon densities is studied within
Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (URQMD). Baryonic stopping is
observed for Au+Au collisions from SIS up to SPS energies. The excitation
function of flow shows strong sensitivities to the underlying equation of state
(EOS), allowing for systematic studies of the EOS. Effects of a density
dependent pole of the -meson propagator on dilepton spectra are studied
for different systems and centralities at CERN energies.Comment: Proceedings of the Quark Matter '96 Conference, Heidelberg, German
Pentaquarks: review of the experimental evidence
Pentaquarks, namely baryons made by 4 quarks and one antiquark have been
predicted and searched for since several decades without success. Theoretical
and experimental advances in the last 2 years led to the observation of a
number of pentaquark candidates. We review the experimental evidence for
pentaquarks as well as their non-observations by some experiments, and discuss
to which extend these sometimes contradicting informations may lead to a
consistent picture.Comment: Contribution to the International Conference on 'Strangeness in Quark
Matter', 15-21 Sept. 2004, Cape Tawn, South Afric
Smoking and health-related quality of life in English general population: Implications for economic evaluations
Copyright @ 2012 Vogl et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Little is known as to how health-related quality of life (HRQoL) when measured by generic instruments such as EQ-5D differ across smokers, ex-smokers and never-smokers in the general population; whether the overall pattern of this difference remain consistent in each domain of HRQoL; and what implications this variation, if any, would have for economic evaluations of tobacco control interventions. Methods: Using the 2006 round of Health Survey for England data (n = 13,241), this paper aims to examine the impact of smoking status on health-related quality of life in English population. Depending upon the nature of the EQ-5D data (i.e. tariff or domains), linear or logistic regression models were fitted to control for biology, clinical conditions, socio-economic background and lifestyle factors that an individual may have regardless of their smoking status. Age- and gender-specific predicted values according to smoking status are offered as the potential 'utility' values to be used in future economic evaluation models. Results: The observed difference of 0.1100 in EQ-5D scores between never-smokers (0.8839) and heavy-smokers (0.7739) reduced to 0.0516 after adjusting for biological, clinical, lifestyle and socioeconomic conditions. Heavy-smokers, when compared with never-smokers, were significantly more likely to report some/severe problems in all five domains - mobility (67%), self-care (70%), usual activity (42%), pain/discomfort (46%) and anxiety/depression (86%) -. 'Utility' values by age and gender for each category of smoking are provided to be used in the future economic evaluations. Conclusion: Smoking is significantly and negatively associated with health-related quality of life in English general population and the magnitude of this association is determined by the number of cigarettes smoked. The varying degree of this association, captured through instruments such as EQ-5D, may need to be fed into the design of future economic evaluations where the intervention being evaluated affects (e.g. tobacco control) or is affected (e.g. treatment for lung cancer) by individual's (or patients') smoking status
Baryon Stopping and Charged Particle Distributions in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 GeV per Nucleon
Net proton and negative hadron spectra for central \PbPb collisions at 158
GeV per nucleon at the CERN SPS were measured and compared to spectra from
lighter systems. Net baryon distributions were derived from those of net
protons, utilizing model calculations of isospin contributions as well as data
and model calculations of strange baryon distributions. Stopping (rapidity
shift with respect to the beam) and mean transverse momentum \meanpt of net
baryons increase with system size. The rapidity density of negative hadrons
scales with the number of participant nucleons for nuclear collisions, whereas
their \meanpt is independent of system size. The \meanpt dependence upon
particle mass and system size is consistent with larger transverse flow
velocity at midrapidity for \PbPb compared to \SS central collisions.Comment: This version accepted for publication in PRL. 4 pages, 3 figures.
Typos corrected, some paragraphs expanded in response to referee comments, to
better explain details of analysi
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