The Effects of the Pion String at Heavy ion Collisions

We study the possible signals of the pion string associated with the QCD chiral phase transition in LHC Pb–Pb collision at energy s=5.5 TeV.We follow the Kibble–Zurek mechanism to discuss the production and evolution of the pion string.We will show that if the QCD chiral phase transition really takes place in the LHC Pb-Pb collision process and the phase transition is in the second order,the pion string will be inevitably produced and subsequently decay.The main effect of this phenomenon is that there is a generation of a large number of pions in the final state produced by the decay of the pion string, and these pions are mostly distributed in a low momentum region with p～143MeV; also there are lots of neutral pions distributed in a low momentum region with the mean momentum at p～21MeV.     

Threshold neutral pion photoproduction off the tri-nucleon to O(q4)

We calculate the electromagnetic neutral pion production off tri-nucleon bound states (³H, ³He) at threshold in chiral nuclear effective field theory to fourth order in the standard heavy baryon counting. We show that the fourth-order two-nucleon corrections to the S-wave multipoles at threshold are very small. This implies that a precise measurement of the S-wave cross section for neutral pion production off ³He allows for a stringent test of the chiral perturbation theory prediction for the S-wave electric multipole $E_{0+}^{\pi^0 n}$ .     

The Fubini-Furlan-Rosetti sum rule and related aspects in light of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory<Superscript>⋆</Superscript>

We analyze the Fubini-Furlan-Rosetti sum rule in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory to leading one-loop accuracy and including next-to-leading-order polynomial contributions. We discuss the relation between the subtraction constants in the invariant amplitudes and certain low-energy constants employed in earlier chiral perturbation theory studies of threshold neutral pion photoproduction off nucleons. In particular, we consider the corrections to the sum rule due to the finite pion mass and show that below the threshold they agree well with determinations based on fixed-t dispersion relations. We also discuss the energy dependence of the electric dipole amplitude E₀₊.     

Pion production by fragmentation of weak currents in Weinberg theory

The Feynman quark parton model is used to study inclusive single-pion production by the fragmentation of the neutral and charged weak currents of Weinberg theory. The structure functions for the neutral current-induced reactions are related to those for the electromagnetic and charged weak current processes. Analogues of inclusive deep-inelastic sum rules are derived. The ratios of neutral current to charged current cross sections for semi-inclusive pion production are studied. In the approximation of neglect of “core” partons, these ratios are given in terms of average pion multiplicities in the charged current-induced reaction. We finally specialise to the quark parton distributions of McElhaney and Tuan to calculate these ratios as functions of the Weinberg angle.     

Determination of neutral current couplings from neutrino-induced semi-inclusive pion and inclusive reactions

We show that by looking at data from neutrino-induced semi-inclusive pion and inclusive reactions on isoscalar targets alone, one can determine completely the neutral current couplings. Predictions for various models are also presented.     

Aspects of near-threshold neutral pion photoproduction off protons

We investigate near-threshold neutral pion photoproduction off protons to fourth order in heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory in the light of the new data from MAMI. We show that the unitarity cusp at the secondary π⁺ n threshold is in agreement with expectations from the final-state theorem. We also analyze the fourth-order corrections to the P-wave low-energy theorems and show that potentially large Δ isobar contributions are cancelled by sizeable pion loop effects. This solidifies the parameter-free third-order predictions, which are in good agreement with the data. Received: 25 May 2001 / Accepted: 21 June 2001     

How low-energy weak reactions can constrain three-nucleon forces and the neutron-neutron scattering length

We show that chiral symmetry and gauge invariance enforce relations between the short-distance physics that occurs in a number of electroweak and pionic reactions on light nuclei. Within chiral perturbation theory, this is manifested via the appearance of the same axial isovector two-body contact term in pi(-)d --> nngamma, p-wave pion production in NN collisions, tritium beta decay, pp fusion, nud scattering, and the hep reaction. Using a Gamow-Teller matrix element obtained from calculations of pp fusion as input, we compute the neutron spectrum obtained in pi(-)d --> nngamma. With the short-distance physics in this process controlled from pp --> de(=)nu(e), the theoretical uncertainty in the nn scattering length extracted from pi(-)d --> nngamma is reduced by a factor larger than 3, to approximately < or = 0.05 fm.     

Multiple soft pion production in nonlinear chiral sigma model

Multiple soft pion production in the baryon scattering reactions is considered in the framework of chiral nonlinear sigma model neglecting the pion mass. Treating baryons in the eikonal approximation as classical sources, a set of analytical solutions for the pion field is found. A tree S-matrix is constructed on the basis of these solutions describing the emission (or absorption) of any number of soft pions. Then the contribution of soft virtual pions is taken into account in a closed form. It is shown that the loop corrections strongly suppress the pion radiation, and for the two limiting cases of nonrelativistic and ultra-relativistic baryon scatterings there is no pion emission from the “ends”. Thus, the mechanism similar to the soft photon bremsstrahlung in the quantum electrodynamics seems to be unable to create a state with a large number of the soft pions.     

Scalar and Pseudo-Scalar Form Factors in Electro- and Weak-Production of Pion Near Threshold

We investigated pion production near threshold by the weak current in terms of multipole amplitudes. By exploiting the chiral Ward identity based on the QCD Lagrangian, we derived relevant multipole amplitudes in closed forms and presented their numerical results. In the amplitudes, scalar and pseudo scalar (PS) form factors, which represent the scalar and the PS quark density distributions, manifest by themselves. We applied these amplitudes to the cross sections for the weak- and electro-production near threshold. Both pion and PS form factor contributions are shown to account for the t-channel contribution in the charged pion electro-production near threshold. The asymmetry on the pion production by the neutrino and anti-neutrino is also discussed with their longitudinal and transverse cross sections.     

核物质中内介质等效手征Lagrange量和π介子质量

在核物质中从手征等效Lagrange量得到的π介子有效质量是单值的,并且与π介子场的离壳扩展无关,例如PCAC选择.同位旋对称核物质中的有效π介子质量随增加的核密度有些上升,因此有效类时π介子衰变常数和密度相关的夸克凝聚渐渐下降.另外研究了内介质Gell–Mann–Oakes–Renner关系和其它内介质同一性.最后讨论了同位旋对称、各向同性和均匀的核物质中关于介子传播的等效Lagrange量的几个限制.     

Single-pion production and the structure of the weak neutral current

We investigate the restrictions on the structure of the weak neutral current imposed by single pion production cross sections on single nucleons. A general vector (V), axial-vector (A) neutral current with |ΔI|?1 is assumed, where the isovector V,A neutral currents are the neutral members of the isotriplets containing the charged weak currents. From neutrino cross sections alone we derive bounds for the neutral current coupling constants. These bounds supplement the known constraints from inclusive scattering in a very useful way. More specific assumptions about the isoscalar neutral current are also considered. We discuss the resulting bounds using the existing neutrino data. Finally, it is shown that with the advent of antineutrino data for single pion production the neutral current coupling constants will be determined uniquely.     

A chiral theory of nucleons

We present arguments that QCD at low momenta is reduced to a simple theory given by a path integral over pion fields and quarks which obtain dynamical mass owing to chiral symmetry breaking. The dimensional quantities of this low-momenta theory are fixed through the Λ_QCD parameter. The effective chiral lagrangian is given by a quark determinant in a background chiral field. Its properties are investigated both for slowly and rapidly varying pion fields. Though it satisfies requirements known from theory and phenomenology, it does not possess non-trivial soliton solutions. However we show that, at large N_c, nucleons correspond not to the local minimum of the effective chiral lagrangian but to a minimum of a more subtle quantity. In general, different functionals of the chiral field should be minimized, depending on the baryon charge of the system.We obtain a quantitative picture of nucleons as localized states of “constituent” quarks bound by a self-consistent pion field. Its properties, such as electromagnetic form factors, etc., are investigated in detail. We get very reasonable numerical values for the nucleon static properties.     

How to determine the pion cloud of the constituent quark

We calculate the differential cross section for semi-inclusive pion production in electron proton reactions using a model where the physical quark fluctuates with some probability to quark plus pion. The kinematic regions for a determination of this ‘pion cloud’ are evaluated.     

QCD with two colors at finite baryon density at next-to-leading order

We study QCD with two colors and quarks in the fundamental representation at finite baryon density in the limit of light-quark masses. In this limit the free energy of this theory reduces to the free energy of a chiral Lagrangian which is based on the symmetries of the microscopic theory. In earlier work this Lagrangian was analyzed at the mean-field level and a phase transition to a phase of condensed diquarks was found at a chemical potential of half the diquark mass (which is equal to the pion mass). In this article we analyze this theory at next-to-leading order in chiral perturbation theory. We show that the theory is renormalizable and calculate the next-to-leading order free energy in both phases of the theory. By deriving a Landau–Ginzburg theory for the order parameter we show that the finite one-loop contribution and the next-to-leading order terms in the chiral Lagrangian do not qualitatively change the phase transition. In particular, the critical chemical potential is equal to half the next-to-leading order pion mass, and the phase transition is of second order.     

Formation of disoriented chiral condensates in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We present a brief review of the subject of disoriented chiral condensates (DCC). We describe the conventional scenarios for the formation of DCC which have been proposed in the literature. Observable signals, such as fluctuations in neutral to charged pion ratio, are discussed. We then discuss a novel scenario for DCC formation, recently proposed by us, where the entire region of hot partons can get converted into a single large DCC. Our arguments suggest that formation of such large DCC is unlikely in the collision of heavy nuclei, and ultra-high energy hadronic collisions may be better suited for this.     

Status and recent developments in NN → NNπ

We present a summary of the recent developments in pion production in NN collisions within chiral effective field theory.     

Baryon masses,chiral extrapolations,and all that<Superscript>⋆</Superscript>

We calculate the baryon octet masses to fourth order in chiral perturbation theory employing dimensional and cut-off regularization. We analyze the pion and kaon mass dependences of the baryon masses based on the MILC data. We show that chiral perturbation theory gives stable chiral extrapolation functions for pion (kaon) masses below 550 (600) MeV. For the pion-nucleon sigma term we find (0) = 39.5...46.7MeV.     

Pion Loops in Chiral Perturbation Theory and Light-Front Dynamics

From the approximate chiral symmetry of QCD, it is known that the pion loops in chiral perturbation theory play a vital role in understanding the nucleon’s long-range structure. We demonstrate the equivalence of the light-front, equal-time and covariant formulations for the interactions of nucleons with pions in chiral perturbation theory. In particular, we discuss the self-energy Σ of a nucleon dressed by pion loops with the pseudovector πNN coupling. It is shown that the leading nonanalytic behavior of Σ is equivalent whichever formulations are used for the derivation. We also discuss the relation between the mass shift and the wavefunction renormalization as well as the difference between the pseudovector and pseudoscalar theories.