Confinement induced by fermion damping in three-dimensional QED
The three-dimensional noncompact QED is known to exhibit weak confinement when fermions acquire a finite mass via the mechanism of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. In this paper, we study the effect of fermion damping caused by elastic scattering on the classical potential between fermions. By calculating the vacuum polarization function that incorporates the fermion damping effect, we show that the fermion damping can induce a weak confinement even when the fermions are massless and the chiral symmetry is not broken.

title: Dynamical electroweak breaking and latticized extra dimensions
abstract: Using gauge invariant effective Lagrangians in 1+3 dimensions describing the Standard Model in 1+4 dimensions, we explore dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. The Top Quark Seesaw model arises naturally, as well as the full CKM structure. We include a discussion of effects of warping, and indicate how other dynamical schemes may also be realized.

title: Proposal for direct measurement of a pure spin current by a polarized light beam.
abstract: The photon helicity may be mapped to a spin-1/2, whereby we put forward an intrinsic interaction between a polarized light beam as a "photon spin current" and a pure spin current in a semiconductor, which arises from the spin-orbit coupling in valence bands as a pure relativity effect without involving the Rashba or the Dresselhaus effect due to inversion asymmetries. The interaction leads to linear and circular optical birefringence, which are similar to the Voigt effect and the Faraday rotation in magneto-optics but nevertheless involve no net magnetization. The birefringence effects provide a direct, nondemolition measurement of pure spin currents.

title: Three family type IIB orientifold string vacua with non-abelian Wilson lines
abstract: We address the implementation of non-abelian Wilson lines in D = 4 N = 1 type IIB orientifold constructions. We present an explicit three-family example with the gauge group (U(4) × U(2) × SU(2) × SU(2))2 × (U(6) × Spp(4))2 and give the particle spectrum and the trilinear superpotential. Emphasizing the new subtleties associated with the introduction of non-abelian Wilson lines, we show that the abelian gauge anomalies are cancelled by the Green-Schwarz-type mechanism, and calculate the Fayet-Iliopoulos terms and gauge coupling corrections. The analysis thus sets a stage for further investigations of the phenomenological implications of this model.

title: Toward a Unified Model for the “Diffuse Ionized Medium” in Normal and Starburst Galaxies
abstract: The "diffuse ionized medium" (DIM) makes up a significant fraction of the mass and ionization requirements of the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and is now known to be an energetically significant component in most normal star-forming galaxies. Observations of the ionized gas in starburst galaxies have revealed the presence of gas with striking similarities to the DIM in normal galaxies: relatively low surface brightness and strong emission from low-ionization forbidden lines like [S II] λλ6716, 6731. In this paper we analyze Hα images and long-slit spectra of samples of normal and starburst galaxies to better understand the nature of this diffuse, low surface brightness gas. We find that in both samples there is a strong inverse correlation between the Hα surface brightness (ΣHα) and the [S II]/Hα line ratio at a given location in the galaxy. However, the correlation for the starbursts is offset brightward by an order of magnitude in Hα surface brightness at a given line ratio. In contrast, we find that all the galaxies (starburst and normal alike) define a universal relation between line ratio and the relative Hα surface brightness (ΣHα/Σe, where Σe is the mean Hα surface brightness within the galaxy half-light radius). We show that such a universal correlation is a natural outcome of a model in which the DIM is photoionized gas that has a characteristic thermal pressure (P) that is proportional to the mean rate of star formation per unit area in the galaxy (ΣSFR). Good quantitative agreement with the data follows if we require the constant of proportionality to be consistent with the values of P and ΣSFR in the local disk of the Milky Way. Such a scaling between P and ΣSFR may arise either because feedback from massive stars heats the ISM or because ΣSFR is determined (or limited) by the mean gas pressure.

title: Application of the complex scaling method in relativistic mean-field theory
abstract: We develop the complex scaling method within the framework of the relativistic mean-field (RMF) model. With the self-consistent nuclear potentials from the RMF model, the complex scaling method is used to study single-particle resonant states in spherical nuclei. As examples, the energies and widths of low-lying neutron resonant states in {sup 120}Sn are obtained. The results are compared with those from the real stabilization method, the scattering phase-shift method, and the analytic continuation in the coupling constant approach and satisfactory agreements are found.

title: Measurement of inclusive W and Z boson production cross sections in pp collisions at sqrt[s] = 8 TeV.
abstract: A measurement of total and fiducial inclusive W and Z boson production cross sections in pp collisions at sqrt[s] = 8 TeV is presented. Electron and muon final states are analyzed in a data sample collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.2 ± 0.5 pb(-1). The measured total inclusive cross sections times branching fractions are σ(pp → WX)×B(W → ℓν) = 12.21 ± 0.03(stat) ± 0.24(syst) ± 0.32(lum) nb and σ(pp → ZX) × B(Z → ℓ+ℓ-) = 1.15 ± 0.01(stat) ± 0.02(syst) ± 0.03(lum) nb for the dilepton mass in the range of 60-120 GeV. The measured values agree with next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD cross section calculations. Ratios of cross sections are reported with a precision of 2%. This is the first measurement of inclusive W and Z boson production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s] = 8 TeV.

title: The CMS experiment at the CERN LHC
abstract: The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector is described. The detector operates at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It was conceived to study proton-proton (and lead-lead) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 14 TeV (5.5 TeV nucleon-nucleon) and at luminosities up to 1034 cm-2 s-1 (1027 cm-2 s-1). At the core of the CMS detector sits a high-magnetic-field and large-bore superconducting solenoid surrounding an all-silicon pixel and strip tracker, a lead-tungstate scintillating-crystals electromagnetic calorimeter, and a brass-scintillator sampling hadron calorimeter. The iron yoke of the flux-return is instrumented with four stations of muon detectors covering most of the 4π solid angle. Forward sampling calorimeters extend the pseudorapidity coverage to high values (|η| ≤ 5) assuring very good hermeticity. The overall dimensions of the CMS detector are a length of 21.6 m, a diameter of 14.6 m and a total weight of 12500 t.

title: Symmetry-protected many-body Aharonov-Bohm effect
abstract: It is known as a purely quantum effect that a magnetic flux affects the real physics of a particle, such as the energy spectrum, even if the flux does not interfere with the particle's path\char22{}the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Here we examine an Aharonov-Bohm effect on a many-body wave function. Specifically, we study this many-body effect on the gapless edge states of a bulk gapped phase protected by a global symmetry (such as ${\mathbb{Z}}_{N}$)\char22{}the symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states. The many-body analog of spectral shifts, the twisted wave function, and the twisted boundary realization are identified in this SPT state. An explicit lattice construction of SPT edge states is derived, and a challenge of gauging its non-onsite symmetry is overcome. Agreement is found in the twisted spectrum between a numerical lattice calculation and a conformal field theory prediction.

title: A Lattice Non-Perturbative Hamiltonian Construction of 1+1D Anomaly-Free Chiral Fermions and Bosons - on the equivalence of the anomaly matching conditions and the boundary fully gapping rules
abstract: A non-perturbative Hamiltonian construction of chiral fermions and bosons with anomaly-free symmetry $G$ in 1+1D spacetime is proposed. More precisely, we ask "whether there is a local short-range finite quantum Hamiltonian system realizing onsite symmetry $G$ defined on a 1D spatial lattice with a continuous time, such that its low energy physics produces a 1+1D anomaly-free chiral matter theory of symmetry $G$?" Our answer is "yes." In particular, we show that the 3$_L$-5$_R$-4$_L$-0$_R$ U(1) chiral fermion theory, with two left-moving fermions of charge-3 and charge-4, and two right-moving fermions of charge-5 and charge-0 at low energy, can be put on a 1D spatial lattice where the U(1) symmetry is realized as an onsite symmetry, if we include properly-designed interactions between fermions with intermediate strength. We show how to design such proper interactions by looking for interaction terms with extra symmetries. In general, we show that any 1+1D U(1)-anomaly-free chiral matter theory can be defined as a finite system on 1D lattice with onsite symmetry, by using a quantum Hamiltonian with a continuous time, if we include properly-designed interactions between matter fields. We comment on the new ingredients and the differences of ours comparing to Eichten-Preskill and Chen-Giedt-Poppitz models, and suggest modifying Chen-Giedt-Poppitz model to have successful mirror-decoupling. As an additional remark, we show a topological non-perturbative proof on the equivalence relation between 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions and the boundary fully gapping rules of U(1) symmetry.

title: NNLL momentum-space threshold resummation in direct top quark production at the LHC
abstract: A bstractWe update the theoretical precision of the total cross section for direct top quark production at the LHC by extending the threshold resummation to the next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy.