Large N approach to Kaon decays and mixing 28 years later: \Delta I=1/2 rule, \hat{B}_K,and \Delta M_K

We review and update our results for $K\rightarrow \pi \pi $ decays and $K^0$ – $\bar{K}^0$ mixing obtained by us in the 1980s within an analytic approximate approach based on the dual representation of QCD as a theory of weakly interacting mesons for large $N$ , where $N$ is the number of colors. In our analytic approach the Standard Model dynamics behind the enhancement of $\hbox {Re}A_0$ and suppression of $\hbox {Re}A_2$ , the so-called $\Delta I=1/2$ rule for $K\rightarrow \pi \pi $ decays, has a simple structure: the usual octet enhancement through the long but slow quark–gluon renormalization group evolution down to the scales $\mathcal{O}(1\, {\hbox { GeV}})$ is continued as a short but fast meson evolution down to zero momentum scales at which the factorization of hadronic matrix elements is at work. The inclusion of lowest-lying vector meson contributions in addition to the pseudoscalar ones and of Wilson coefficients in a momentum scheme improves significantly the matching between quark–gluon and meson evolutions. In particular, the anomalous dimension matrix governing the meson evolution exhibits the structure of the known anomalous dimension matrix in the quark–gluon evolution. While this physical picture did not yet emerge from lattice simulations, the recent results on $\hbox {Re}A_2$ and $\hbox {Re}A_0$ from the RBC-UKQCD collaboration give support for its correctness. In particular, the signs of the two main contractions found numerically by these authors follow uniquely from our analytic approach. Though the current–current operators dominate the $\Delta I=1/2$ rule, working with matching scales $\mathcal{O}(1 \, {\hbox { GeV}})$ we find that the presence of QCD-penguin operator $Q_6$ is required to obtain satisfactory result for $\hbox {Re}A_0$ . At NLO in $1/N$ we obtain $R=\hbox {Re}A_0/\hbox {Re}A_2= 16.0\pm 1.5$ which amounts to an order of magnitude enhancement over the strict large $N$ limit value $\sqrt{2}$ . We also update our results for the parameter $\hat{B}_K$ , finding $\hat{B}_K=0.73\pm 0.02$ . The smallness of $1/N$ corrections to the large $N$ value $\hat{B}_K=3/4$ results within our approach from an approximate cancelation between pseudoscalar and vector meson one-loop contributions. We also summarize the status of $\Delta M_K$ in this approach.     

Charmonium rescattering effects in \psi(2S) \rightarrow \gamma \eta_{c}^{} decay

Charmonium rescattering effects in the M1 transition of $ \psi$ (2S) $ \rightarrow$ $ \gamma$ $ \eta_{c}^{}$ are investigated by modeling a $ \chi_{{cJ}}^{}$ or J/ $ \psi$ rescattering into a $ \eta_{c}^{}$ final state. The absorptive and dispersive part of the transition amplitudes for the rescattering loops of $ \eta$ $ \psi$ ( $ \gamma^{{\ast}}_{}$ ) and $ \gamma$ $ \chi$ ( $ \psi$ ) are separately evaluated. The numerical results show that the contribution from the $ \gamma$ $ \chi$ ( $ \psi$ ) rescattering process is negligible. Compared with the virtual D $ \bar{{D}}$ (D ^*) rescattering processes, the $ \eta$ $ \psi$ ( $ \gamma^{{\ast}}_{}$ ) process may be regarded as the next-leading order of the hadronic loop mechanism, which only offers the partial decay width of ～ 0.045 keV to the $ \psi$ (2S) $ \rightarrow$ $ \gamma$ $ \eta_{c}^{}$ .     

Reaction pp \rightarrow pp \pi \pi \pi as a background for hadronic decays of the \eta^{{\prime}}_{} meson

Isospin violating hadronic decays of the $ \eta$ and $ \eta{^\prime}$ mesons into 3 $ \pi$ mesons are driven by a term in the QCD Lagrangian proportional to the mass difference of the d and u quarks. The source giving large yield of the mesons for such decay studies are pp interactions close to the respective kinematical thresholds. The most important physics background for $ \eta$ , $ \eta{^\prime}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \pi$ $ \pi$ $ \pi$ is coming from direct three-pion production reactions. In case of the $ \eta$ meson the background for the decays is relatively low ( $ \approx$ 10% . The purpose of this article is to provide an estimate of the direct pion production background for the $ \eta{^\prime}$ $ \rightarrow$ 3 $ \pi$ decays. Using the inclusive data from the COSY-11 experiment we have extracted the differential cross-section for the pp $ \rightarrow$ pp -multipion production reactions with the invariant mass of the pions equal to the $ \eta{^\prime}$ meson mass and estimated an upper limit for the signal to background ratio for studies of the $ \eta{^\prime}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \pi^{+}_{}$ $ \pi^{-}_{}$ $ \pi^{0}_{}$ decay.     

Identification of \mathrm{\ensuremath J^{\pi} = 19/2^+} and \mathrm{\ensuremath 23/2^+} isomeric states in 127Sb

The nucleus $\ensuremath {\rm ^{127}Sb}$ , which is on the neutron-rich periphery of the $\ensuremath \beta$ -stability region, has been populated in complex nuclear reactions involving deep-inelastic and fusion-fission processes with $\ensuremath {\rm {}^{136}Xe}$ beams incident on thick targets. The previously known isomer at 2325 keV in $\ensuremath {\rm {}^{127}Sb}$ has been assigned spin and parity $\ensuremath 23/2^+$ , based on the measured $\ensuremath \gamma$ - $\ensuremath \gamma$ angular correlations and total internal conversion coefficients. The half-life has been determined to be 234(12) ns, somewhat longer than the value reported previously. The 2194 keV state has been assigned $\ensuremath J^{\pi} = 19/2^+$ and identified as an isomer with $\ensuremath T_{1/2} = 14(1) {\rm ns}$ , decaying by two $\ensuremath E2$ branches. The observed level energies and transition strengths are compared with the predictions of a shell model calculation. Two $\ensuremath 15/2^+$ states have been identified close in energy, and their properties are discussed in terms of mixing between vibrational and three-quasiparticle configurations.     

Synthesis and anti-cancer activity of a glycosyl library of \varvec{N}-acetylglucosamine-bearing oleanolic acid

N-Acetylglucosamine-bearing triterpenoid saponins (GNTS) were reported to be a unique type of saponins with potent anti-tumor activity. In order to study the structure–activity relationship of GNTS, 24 oleanolic acid saponins with ( $1 \rightarrow 3$ )-linked, ( $1\rightarrow 4$ )-linked, ( $1\rightarrow 6$ )-linked $N$ -acetylglucosamine oligosaccharide residues were synthesized in a combinatorial and concise method. The cytotoxicity of these compounds toward the leukemia cell line HL-60 and the colorectal cancer cell line HT-29 could not be improved. Half maximal inhibition below $10\,\upmu \hbox {M}$ was achieved in one single case. The study revealed that the activity decreased following the order of $3^{\prime }>4^{\prime }>6^{\prime }$ glycosyl modifications. GNTS that incorporated (d/l)-xylose and l-arabinose at positions $3^{\prime }$ and $4^{\prime }$ were more potent than those bearing other sugars.     

On the production of \pi^{+}_{} \pi^{+}_{} pairs in pp collisions at 0.8 GeV

Data accumulated recently for the exclusive measurement of the pp $ \rightarrow$ pp $ \pi^{+}_{}$ $ \pi^{-}_{}$ reaction at a beam energy of 0.793GeV using the COSY-TOF spectrometer have been analyzed with respect to possible events from the pp $ \rightarrow$ nn $ \pi^{+}_{}$ $ \pi^{+}_{}$ reaction channel. The latter is expected to be the only $ \pi$ $ \pi$ production channel, which contains no major contributions from resonance excitation close to threshold and hence should be a good testing ground for chiral dynamics in the $ \pi$ $ \pi$ production process. No single event has been found, which meets all conditions for being a candidate for the pp $ \rightarrow$ nn $ \pi^{+}_{}$ $ \pi^{+}_{}$ reaction. This gives an upper limit for the cross-section of 0.16μb (90% C.L.), which is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the cross-sections of the other two-pion production channels at the same incident energy.     

Analysis of the \frac{1} {2}^ - and \frac{3} {2}^ - heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we study the $\frac{1} {2}^ -$ and $\frac{3} {2}^ -$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states $\Sigma _Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi '_Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _{QQ} \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _{QQ} \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Sigma _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _{QQ}^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ and $\Omega _{QQ}^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ by subtracting the contributions from the corresponding $\frac{1} {2}^ +$ and $\frac{3} {2}^ +$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with the QCD sum rules in a systematic way, and make reasonable predictions for their masses.     

The Higgs boson inclusive decay channels H \rightarrow b\bar{b} and H \rightarrow gg up to four-loop level

The principle of maximum conformality (PMC) has been suggested to eliminate the renormalization scheme and renormalization scale uncertainties, which are unavoidable for the conventional scale setting and are usually important errors for theoretical estimations. In this paper, by applying PMC scale setting, we analyze two important inclusive Standard Model Higgs decay channels, $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ and $H\rightarrow gg$ , up to four-loop and three-loop levels, respectively. After PMC scale setting, it is found that the conventional scale uncertainty for these two channels can be eliminated to a high degree. There is small residual initial scale dependence for the Higgs decay widths due to unknown higher-order $\{\beta _i\}$ terms. Up to four-loop level, we obtain $\Gamma (H\rightarrow b\bar{b}) = 2.389\pm 0.073 \pm 0.041$ MeV and up to three-loop level, we obtain $\Gamma (H\rightarrow gg) = 0.373\pm 0.030$ MeV, where the first error is caused by varying $M_H=126\pm 4$ GeV and the second error for $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ is caused by varying the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ -running mass $m_b(m_b)=4.18\pm 0.03$ GeV. Taking $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ as an example, we present a comparison of three BLM-based scale-setting approaches, e.g. the PMC-I approach based on the PMC–BLM correspondence, the $R_\delta $ -scheme and the seBLM approach, all of which are designed to provide effective ways to identify non-conformal $\{\beta _i\}$ -series at each perturbative order. At four-loop level, all those approaches lead to good pQCD convergence, they have almost the same pQCD series, and their predictions are almost independent on the initial renormalization scale. In this sense, those approaches are equivalent to each other.     

On the Quasi-linear Elliptic PDE {-\nabla \cdot ( \nabla{u}/ \sqrt{1-| \nabla{u} |^2}) = 4 \pi \sum_k a_k \delta_{s_k}} in Physics and Geometry

It is shown that for each finite number N of Dirac measures ${\delta_{s_n}}$ supported at points ${s_n \in {\mathbb R}^3}$ with given amplitudes ${a_n \in {\mathbb R} \backslash\{0\}}$ there exists a unique real-valued function ${u \in C^{0, 1}({\mathbb R}^3)}$ , vanishing at infinity, which distributionally solves the quasi-linear elliptic partial differential equation of divergence form ${-\nabla \cdot ( \nabla{u}/ \sqrt{1-| \nabla{u} |^2}) = 4 \pi \sum_{n=1}^N a_n \delta_{s_n}}$ . Moreover, ${u \in C^{\omega}({\mathbb R}^3\backslash \{s_n\}_{n=1}^N)}$ . The result can be interpreted in at least two ways: (a) for any number N of point charges of arbitrary magnitude and sign at prescribed locations s _n in three-dimensional Euclidean space there exists a unique electrostatic field which satisfies the Maxwell-Born-Infeld field equations smoothly away from the point charges and vanishes as |s| ?? ??; (b) for any number N of integral mean curvatures assigned to locations ${s_n \in {\mathbb R}^3 \subset{\mathbb R}^{1, 3}}$ there exists a unique asymptotically flat, almost everywhere space-like maximal slice with point defects of Minkowski spacetime ${{\mathbb R}^{1, 3}}$ , having lightcone singularities over the s _n but being smooth otherwise, and whose height function vanishes as |s| ?? ??. No struts between the point singularities ever occur.     

An Averaging Theorem for FPU in the Thermodynamic Limit

Consider an FPU chain composed of $N\gg 1$ particles, and endow the phase space with the Gibbs measure corresponding to a small temperature $\beta ^{-1}$ . Given a fixed $K$ , we construct $K$ packets of normal modes whose energies are adiabatic invariants (i.e., are approximately constant for times of order $\beta ^{1-a}$ , $a>0$ ) for initial data in a set of large measure. Furthermore, the time autocorrelation function of the energy of each packet does not decay significantly for times of order $\beta $ . The restrictions on the shape of the packets are very mild. All estimates are uniform in the number $N$ of particles and thus hold in the thermodynamic limit $N\rightarrow \infty $ , $\beta >0$ .     

Structure of neutron-rich nuclei around the N = 126 closed shell; the yrast structure of 205Au126 up to spin-parity I^{\pi} = (19/2+)

Heavy neutron-rich nuclei have been populated through the relativistic fragmentation of a $\ensuremath ^{208}_{\ 82}{\rm Pb}$ beam at $\ensuremath E/A = 1$ GeV on a $\ensuremath 2.5 {\rm g/cm^2}$ thick Be target. The synthesised nuclei were selected and identified in-flight using the fragment separator at GSI. Approximately 300 ns after production, the selected nuclei were implanted in an $\ensuremath \sim 8$ mm thick perspex stopper, positioned at the centre of the RISING $\ensuremath \gamma$ -ray detector spectrometer array. A previously unreported isomer with a half-life $\ensuremath T_{1/2} = 163(5)$ ns has been observed in the N = 126 closed-shell nucleus $\ensuremath ^{205}_{\ 79}{\rm Au}$ . Through $ \gamma$ -ray singles and $ \gamma$ - $ \gamma$ coincidence analysis a level scheme was established. The comparison with a shell model calculation tentatively identifies the spin-parity of the excited states, including the isomer itself, which is found to be $\ensuremath I^{\pi} = (19/2^+)$ .     

Proton-antiproton annihilation into a \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{{\Lambda}}_{c}^{-} pair

The process p $ \bar{{p}}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \Lambda_{c}^{+}$ $ \bar{{\Lambda}}_{c}^{-}$ is investigated within the handbag approach. It is shown to lowest order of perturbative QCD that, under the assumption of restricted parton virtualities and transverse momenta, the dominant dynamical mechanism, characterized by the partonic subprocess u $ \bar{{u}}$ $ \rightarrow$ c $ \bar{{c}}$ , factorizes in the sense that only the subprocess contains highly virtual partons, namely a gluon, while the hadronic matrix elements embody only soft scales and can be parameterized in terms of helicity flip and non-flip generalized parton distributions. Modelling the latter functions by overlaps of light-cone wave functions for the involved baryons we are able to predict cross-sections and spin correlation parameters for the process of interest.     

Study of Alpha Decay Chains of Superheavy Nuclei and Magic Number Beyond Z = 82 and N = 126

We study various $\alpha $ -decay chains on the basis of the preformed cluster decay model. Our work targets the superheavy elements, which are expected to show extra stability at shell closure. Our computations identify the following combinations of proton and neutron numbers as the most stable nuclei: $Z=112$ , $N=161, 163$ ; $Z=114$ , $N=171, 178, 179$ ; and $Z=124$ , $N=194$ . We also investigate the alternative of heavy cluster emissions in the decay chain of ³⁰¹120, instead of $\alpha $ decay. Our study of cluster radioactivity shows that the half-life for ¹⁰Be decay in ²⁸⁹114 is larger, indicating enhanced stability at $Z=114$ , $N=175$ . Similar calculations concerning the emission of $\ ^{14}{\rm C}$ and $\ ^{34}{\rm Si}$ from ³⁰¹120 find the more stable combinations $Z=114$ , $N=173$ , and $Z=106$ , $N=161$ , respectively. From the same parent, ³⁰¹120, the emission of a $\ ^{49-51}{\rm Ca}$ cluster yielding a $Z=100$ , $N=152$ daughter is the most probable.     

Near Threshold Photoproduction of {K\Sigma} in Four Isospin Channels

Photoproduction of ${K\Sigma}$ on the nucleon in four isospin channels has been investigated near their production thresholds by means of an isobar model. It is shown that in the proton channels ( ${K^+\Sigma^0}$ and ${K^0\Sigma^+}$ channels) the model can nicely reproduce experimental data. Due to the uncertainties in the neutron helicity amplitudes our predictions imply some uncertainties in the observables of the neutron channels ( ${K^+\Sigma^-}$ and ${K^0\Sigma^0}$ channels).     

Meson spectra and mass splitting of \eta_{c}^{} - J/ \psi calculated with a regularized quark potential

The complete Breit potential contains the terms of spin-spin, spin-orbit, orbit-orbit, and tensor force interactions which become singular at short distance. Most of previous calculations of the non-relativistic potential quark model considered only the spin-spin interaction and substituted the $ \delta$ (r) -function by the Gaussian or Yukawa potential in coordinate space. Recently, a method to regularize the Breit potential consists of subtracting terms that cancel the singularity at the origin but leave the intermediate- and long-distance behavior unchanged. Motivated by this work we regularize the Breit potential by multiplying the singular terms in momentum space identically by the form factor [ $ \mu^{2}_{}$ /(q ² + $ \mu^{2}_{}$ )]² of the momentum transfer q , where the screened mass μ increases with the reduced mass of the meson. With the regularized Breit potential we calculate the masses of 30 common mesons and the new $ \eta_{b}^{}$ meson. We find that the calculated masses from light to heavy mesons agree well with experimental data. The inclusion of such a dependence of the reduced mass in the potential regularization improves the spin-spin splittings of $ \eta_{c}^{}$ -J/ $ \psi$ and $ \eta_{b}^{}$ - $ \Upsilon$ (1S) . The spin-orbit and tensor force interactions in the Breit potential lead to the splittings of $ \chi_{{c0}}^{}$ , $ \chi_{{c1}}^{}$ , and $ \chi_{{c2}}^{}$ .     

Phenomenological model for the \overline{{K}}N \rightarrow K \Xi reaction

A phenomenological model for the $ \overline{{K}}$ N $ \rightarrow$ K $ \Xi$ reaction is suggested. The model includes s and u channel exchanges by $ \Lambda$ , $ \Sigma$ , $ \Sigma$ (1385) , and $ \Lambda$ (1520) and s channel exchanges by above-threshold hyperonic resonances. The explicit expression for the propagator for a particle with spin 7/2 is presented. High-mass and high-spin resonances play a significant role in the process. We deal with the whole set of existing experimental data on the cross-sections and polarizations in the energy range from the threshold to 2.8GeV in the center-of-mass system and reach a good agreement with experiments. Applications of the model to other elementary reactions of $ \Xi$ production and to $ \Xi$ hypernuclear spectroscopy are briefly discussed.     

Polarization degrees of freedom in near-threshold photoproduction of \omega -mesons in the \pi^{0}_{} \gamma decay channel

We study polarization variables in the photoproduction of $ \omega$ -mesons with subsequent $ \omega$ → $ \gamma$ $ \pi^{0}_{}$ decay. Single and double polarization observables are calculated as a function of different final-state angles. Reaction models include pomeron (natural parity) and $ \pi^{0}_{}$ (unnatural parity) exchange in the t -channel. In addition, the contribution of s -channel resonances is considered. The sensitivity of the polarization observables to the reaction dynamics is discussed.     

Analysis of the {3\over 2}^{+} heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we study the ${3\over 2}^{+}$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states $\varXi^{*}_{cc}$ , $\varOmega^{*}_{cc}$ , $\varXi^{*}_{bb}$ , $\varOmega^{*}_{bb}$ , $\varSigma_{c}^{*}$ , $\varXi_{c}^{*}$ , $\varOmega_{c}^{*}$ , $\varSigma_{b}^{*}$ , $\varXi_{b}^{*}$ and $\varOmega_{b}^{*}$ by subtracting the contributions from the corresponding ${3\over 2}^{-}$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with the QCD sum rules, and we make reasonable predictions for their masses.     

First search for double- \beta decay of platinum by ultra-low background HP Ge \gamma spectrometry

A search for double- $ \beta$ processes in ¹⁹⁰Pt and ¹⁹⁸Pt was realized with the help of ultra-low background HP Ge 468cm^3 $ \gamma$ spectrometer in the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the INFN (Italy). After 1815 h of data taking with 42.5g platinum sample, T _1/2 limits on 2 $ \beta$ processes in ¹⁹⁰Pt ( $ \varepsilon$ $ \beta^{+}_{}$ and 2 $ \varepsilon$ have been established on the level of 10¹⁴-10¹⁶y, 3 to 4 orders of magnitude higher than those known previously. In particular, a possible resonant double-electron capture in ¹⁹⁰Pt was restricted on the level of 2.9×10¹⁶ y at 90% C.L. In addition, T _1/2 limit on 2 $ \beta^{-}_{}$ decay of ¹⁹⁸Pt (2 $ \nu$ +0 $ \nu$ ) to the 2⁺ ₁ excited level of ¹⁹⁸Hg has been set at the first time: T _1/2 > 3.5×10¹⁸ y. The radiopurity level of the used platinum sample is reported.     

Semileptonic form factors D \rightarrow \pi, K and B \rightarrow \pi, K from a fine lattice

We extract the form factors relevant for semileptonic decays of D and B mesons from a relativistic computation on a fine lattice in the quenched approximation. The lattice spacing is a = 0.04 fm (corresponding to a ^-1 = 4.97 GeV), which allows us to run very close to the physical B meson mass, and to reduce the systematic errors associated with the extrapolation in terms of a heavy-quark expansion. For decays of D and D_s mesons, our results for the physical form factors at $\ensuremath q^2 = 0$ are as follows: $\ensuremath f_+^{D\rightarrow\pi}(0) = 0.74(6)(4)$ , $\ensuremath f_+^{D \rightarrow K}(0) = 0.78(5)(4)$ and $\ensuremath f_+^{D_s \rightarrow K} (0) = 0.68(4)(3)$ . Similarly, for B and B_s we find $\ensuremath f_+^{B\rightarrow\pi}(0) = 0.27(7)(5)$ , $\ensuremath f_+^{B\rightarrow K} (0) = 0.32(6)(6)$ and $\ensuremath f_+^{B_s\rightarrow K}(0) = 0.23(5)(4)$ . We compare our results with other quenched and unquenched lattice calculations, as well as with light-cone sum rule predictions, finding good agreement.