Static potential in QED(3) with nonminimal coupling

Here we study the effect of the nonminimal coupling j(mu)epsilon(munualpha)partial derivative(nu)A(alpha) on the static potential in multiflavor QED(3). Both cases of four and two components fermions are studied separately at leading order in the 1/N expansion. Although a nonlocal Chern-Simons term appears, in the four components case the photon is still massless leading to a confining logarithmic potential similar to the classical one. In the two components case, as expected, the parity breaking fermion mass term generates a traditional Chern-Simons term which makes the photon massive and we have a screening potential which vanishes at large intercharge distance. The extra nonminimal couplings have no important influence on the static potential at large intercharge distances. However, interesting effects show up at finite distances. In particular, for strong enough nonminimal coupling we may have a new massive pole in the photon propagator, while in the opposite limit there may be no poles at all in the irreducible case. We also found that, in general, the nonminimal couplings lead to a finite range repulsive force between charges of opposite signs.

Effective action for QED with fermion self-interaction in D=2 and D=3 dimensions

In this work we discuss the effect of the quartic fermion self-interaction of Thirring type in QED in D=2 and D=3 dimensions. This is done through the computation of the effective action up to quadratic terms in the photon field. We analyze the corresponding nonlocal photon propagators nonperturbatively in k/m, where k is the photon momentum and m the fermion mass. The poles of the propagators were determined numerically by using the MATHEMATICA software. In D=2 there is always a massless pole whereas for strong enough Thirring coupling a massive pole may appear. For D=3 there are three regions in parameter space. We may have one or two massive poles or even no pole at all. The interquark static potential is computed analytically in D=2. We notice that the Thirring interaction contributes with a screening term to the confining linear potential of massive two-dimensional QED (QED(2)). In D=3 the static potential must be calculated numerically. The screening nature of the massive QED(3) prevails at any distance, indicating that this is a universal feature of D=3 electromagnetic interaction. Our results become exact for an infinite number of fermion flavors.

Mass generation for Abelian spin-1 particles via a symmetric tensor

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Use of lithium niobate detector for measuring X-ray intensity in mammographic range

A detector system that can measure X-ray intensity in the mammographic range of 22 to 36 kVp (equivalent photon energies ofthe beam between 11 and 15 keV) is presented. It consists of a lithium mobate detector and a high-sensitivity current-to-voltage converter.

Relação entre achados em neuroimagem, habilidades auditivas e metafonológicas em escolares com dislexia do desenvolvimento

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Nuclear incoherent photoproduction of pi(0) and eta from 4 to 12 GeV

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Influence of blood viscosity to cerebral blood flow in older humans compared to young subjects

Objective: Since blood viscosity (BV) is one of the most important factors determining blood flow, this study aimed to investigate the possible correlation between increased blood viscosity and reduction of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in healthy ageing.Methods: Male subjects were distributed in two groups: "young", aged 20-30 (27 volunteers), or "elderly", aged 60-70 (50 volunteers). Whole blood viscosity was obtained with a Wells-Brookfield Cone/Plate Viscometer. Cerebral blood flow was analysed by means of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).Results: The mean BV values were 3.28 +/- 0.43 mPa in the group of young volunteers and 4.33 +/- 0.73 mPa in the group of elderly volunteers (t = -6.9, p < 0.0001). The elderly had a lower blood flow than the young in the following regions: bilateral parietal; temporal-parietal and temporal of the left hemisphere. Pearson's correlation between BV and rCBF showed a good inverse correlation when the BV was above 3.95 +/- 0.83 mPa.Conclusions: Our results point to a close relationship between the two parameters analysed, BV and rCBF. The impairment in rCBF observed in the elderly volunteers might be due to an increase in BV, among other factors.Significance: These findings suggest interesting possibilities for the treatment/prevention of brain ageing. (C) 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neuroimaging in dementias

Purpose of reviewTo critically review data on the use of neuroimaging tools in the clinical diagnostic investigation of dementias.Recent findingsFor many years, the use of neuroimaging tools in the evaluation of dementias has been restricted to excluding neurosurgical lesions that may account for the cognitive decline. However, modern neuroimaging extends beyond this traditional role of excluding other conditions and has a key role in the clinical investigation of Alzheimer's disease and of other degenerative cortical dementias. MRI, PET with fluorodeoxyglucose, and single-photon emission computed tomography are topographic markers of neural damage and enable the identification of specific lesional patterns that characterize Alzheimer's disease and other cortical dementias. More recently, PET amyloid markers have enabled the in-vivo assessment of amyloid load, a key feature in the physiopathology of Alzheimer's disease.SummaryThe combined use of neuroimaging examinations with clinical, neuropsychological, and cerebrospinal fluid markers can improve the specificity of the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, even at early stages of the disease. In the following years, progress in research will provide standardized and validated imaging markers of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, which may increase their application in clinical settings.

Efficiency of extrinsic and intrinsic charge-carrier photogeneration processes obtained from the steady-state photocurrent action spectra of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) derivatives

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings at hadron colliders

We analyze the potential of the Fermilab Tevatron and CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to study anomalous quartic vector-boson interactions gamma gamma ZZ and gammaW(+)W(-). Working in the framework of SU(2)(L) circle times U(1)(Y) chiral Lagrangians, we study the production of photon pairs accompanied by l(+) l(-), l(+/-) v, and jet pairs to impose bounds on these new couplings, taking into account the unitarity constraints. We compare our findings with the indirect limits coming from precision electroweak measurements as well as with presently available direct searches at CERN LEPII. We show that the Tevatron run II can provide limits on these quartic limits which are of the same order of magnitude as the existing bounds from LEPII searches. LHC will be able to tighten considerably the direct constraints on these possible new interactions, leading to more stringent limits than the presently available indirect ones.

Color evaporation description of inelastic photoproduction of J/psi at DESY HERA

The H1 Collaboration recently reported a new analysis of data on the inelastic photoproduction of J/psi mesons at DESY's HERA ep collider. We show that these new experimental results are well described by the color evaporation model for quarkonium production. Moreover, these new data require the introduction of resolved photon contributions in order to accommodate the results in the kinematic region where the fractional energy carried by the J/psi is small, demonstrating that colored perturbative c (c) over bar states contribute to the production of a color singlet.

Semiclassical approach to black hole absorption of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a rotating charge

We consider an electric charge, minimally coupled to the Maxwell field, rotating around a Schwarzschild black hole. We investigate how much of the radiation emitted from the swirling charge is absorbed by the black hole and show that most of the photons escape to infinity. For this purpose we use the Gupta-Bleuler quantization of the electromagnetic field in the modified Feynman gauge developed in the context of quantum field theory in Schwarzschild spacetime. We obtain that the two photon polarizations contribute quite differently to the emitted power. In addition, we discuss the accurateness of the results obtained in a full general relativistic approach in comparison with the ones obtained when the electric charge is assumed to be orbiting a massive object due to a Newtonian force.

On high Q(2) behavior of the pion form factor for transitions gamma*gamma -> pi(0) and gamma*gamma* -> pi(0) within the nonlocal quark-pion model

The behavior of the transition pion form factor for processes gamma (*)gamma --> pi(0) and gamma (*)gamma (*) --> pi(0) at large values of space-like photon momenta is estimated within the nonlocal covariant quark-pion model. It is shown that, in general, the coefficient of the leading asymptotic term depends dynamically on the ratio of the constituent quark mass and the average virtuality of quarks in the vacuum and kinematically on the ratio of photon virtualities. The kinematic dependence of the transition form factor allows us to obtain the relation between the pion light-cone distribution amplitude and the quark-pion vertex function. The dynamic dependence indicates that the transition form factor gamma (*)gamma -->, pi(0) at high momentum transfers is very sensitive to the nonlocality size of nonperturbative fluctuations in the QCD vacuum. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Gravitational rainbow of massive particles

Photon propagation is non-dispersive within the context of semiclassical general relativity. What about the remaining massless particles? It can be shown that at the tree level the scattering of massless particles of spin 0, 1/2, 1 or whatever by a static gravitational field generated by a localized source such as the Sun, treated as an external field, is non-dispersive as well. It is amazing, however, that massive particles, regardless of whether they have integral or half-integral spin, experience an energy-dependent gravitational deflection. Therefore, semiclassical general relativity and gravitational rainbows of massive particles can coexist without conflict. We address this issue in this essay.

Gravitational rainbow

It is shown that, unlike Einstein's gravity, quadratic gravity produces dispersive photon propagation. The energy-dependent contribution to the deflection of photons passing by the Sun is computed and subsequently the angle at which the visible spectrum would be spread over is plotted as a function of the R-mu nu(2)-sector mass.