Singularity structures in Coulomb-type potentials in two-body Dirac equations of constraint dynamics
Two-body Dirac equations (TBDE) of Dirac's relativistic constraint dynamics have been successfully applied to obtain a covariant nonperturbative description of QED and QCD bound states. Coulomb-type potentials in these applications lead naively in other approaches to singular relativistic corrections at short distances that require the introduction of either perturbative treatments or smoothing parameters. We examine the corresponding singular structures in the effective potentials of the relativistic Schroedinger equation obtained from the Pauli reduction of the TBDE. We find that the relativistic Schroedinger equation leads in fact to well-behaved wave function solutions when the full potential and couplings of the system are taken into account. The most unusual case is the coupled triplet system with S=1 and L={l_brace}(J-1),(J+1){r_brace}. Without the inclusion of the tensor coupling, the effective S-state potential would become attractively singular. We show how including the tensor coupling is essential in order that the wave functions be well-behaved at short distances. For example, the S-state wave function becomes simply proportional to the D-state wave function and dips sharply to zero at the origin, unlike the usual S-state wave functions. Furthermore, this behavior is similar in both QED and QCD, independent of the asymptotic freedom behavior of the assumed QCDmore » vector potential. Light- and heavy-quark meson states can be described well by using a simplified linear-plus-Coulomb-type QCD potential apportioned appropriately between world scalar and vector potentials. We use this potential to exhibit explicitly the origin of the large pi-rho splitting and effective chiral symmetry breaking. The TBDE formalism developed here may be used to study quarkonia in quark-gluon plasma environments.« less

title: Extended Glauber Model of Antiproton-Nucleus Annihilation for All Energies and Mass Numbers
abstract: Previous analytical formulas in the Glauber model for high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions developed by Wong are utilized and extended to study Antiproton-nucleus annihilations for both high and low energies, after taking into account the effects of Coulomb and nuclear interactions, and the change of the antiproton momentum inside a nucleus. The extended analytical formulas capture the main features of the experimental antiproton-nucleus annihilation cross sections for all energies and mass numbers. At high antiproton energies, they exhibit the granular property for the lightest nuclei and the black-disk limit for the heavy nuclei. At low antiproton energies, they display the effect of the antiproton momentum increase due to the nuclear interaction for the light nuclei, and the effect of the magnification due to the attractive Coulomb interaction for the heavy nuclei.

title: Quantum Treatment of the Multiple Scattering and Collective Flow in Intensity Interferometry
abstract: We apply the path‐integral method to study the multiple scattering and collective flow in intensity interferometry in high‐energy heavy‐ion collisions. We show that the Glauber model and eikonal approximation in an earlier quantum treatment are special examples of the more general path‐integral method. The multiple scattering and collective flow lead essentially to an initial source at a shifted momentum, with a multiple collision absorption factor that depends on the pion absorption cross section and a phase factor that depends on the deviations of the in‐medium particle momenta from their asymptotic values.

title: Tests of two-body Dirac equation wave functions in the decays of quarkonium and positronium into two photons
abstract: Two-body Dirac equations of constraint dynamics provide a covariant framework to investigate the problem of highly relativistic quarks in meson bound states. This formalism eliminates automatically the problems of relative time and energy, leading to a covariant three dimensional formalism with the same number of degrees of freedom as appears in the corresponding nonrelativistic problem. It provides bound state wave equations with the simplicity of the nonrelativistic Schr\"odinger equation. Here we begin important tests of the relativistic 16 component wave function solutions obtained in a recent work on meson spectroscopy, extending a method developed previously for positronium decay into two photons. Preliminary to this we examine the positronium decay in the $^{3}P_{0,2}$ states as well as the $^{1}S_{0}$. The two-gamma quarkonium decays that we investigate are for the ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}$, ${\ensuremath{\eta}}_{c}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{c0}$, ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{c2}$, ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$, ${\ensuremath{\pi}}_{2}$, ${a}_{2}$, and ${f}_{2}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ mesons. Our results for the four charmonium states compare well with those from other quark models and show the particular importance of including all components of the wave function as well as strong and c.m. energy dependent potential effects on the norm and amplitude. The results for the ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$, although off the experimental rate by 13%, are much closer than the usual expectations from a potential model. We conclude that the two-body Dirac equations lead to wave functions which provide good descriptions of the two-gamma decay amplitude and can be used with some confidence for other purposes.

title: Relativistic Hard-Scattering and Tsallis Fits to p T Spectra in pp Collisions at the LHC ∗
abstract: Motivated by the good Tsallis fits to the high-p T spectra in pp collisions at the LHC, we study the relativistic hard-scattering model and obtain an approximate analytical expression for the differential hard-scattering cross section at � � 0. The power-law behavior of the transverse spectra, in the form of d�/dp 2/1/p n, gives a power index n in the range of 4.5-5.5 for jet production as predicted by pQCD, after the dependencies of the structure functions and the running coupling constant are properly taken into account. The power indices for hadron production n are slightly greater than those for jet production.

title: Potential Models and Lattice Gauge Current-Current Correlators
abstract: We compare current-current correlators in lattice gauge calculations with correlators in different potential models for a pseudoscalar charmonium in the quark-gluon plasma. An important ingredient in the evaluation of the current-current correlator in the potential model is the basic principle that, out of the set of continuum states, only resonance states and Gamow states with lifetimes of sufficient magnitudes can propagate as composite objects and can contribute to the current-current correlator. When the contributions from the bound states and continuum states are properly treated, the potential model current-current correlators obtained with the potential proposed by Wong [ (2005)] are consistent with the lattice gauge correlators. The proposed potential model thus gains support to be a useful tool to complement lattice gauge calculations for the study of QQ{bar} states at high temperatures.

title: Toward the minimal realization of a light composite Higgs
abstract: Work in progress is reported on a particularly interesting gauge theory with a fermion doublet in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of the SU(3) color gauge group. Extending previous studies we outline our strategy as we investigate Goldstone dynamics and Electroweak scale setting from chiral symmetry breaking ($\chi$ SB), test the GMOR relation from the spectrum of the Dirac operator and the related chiral condensate, begin to develop and test mixed action based improved analysis of $\chi$ SB with new run plans at fixed topology to cross over from the p-regime to the epsilon-regime of $\chi$ SB, continue to pursue the light $0^{++}$ scalar and its relation to the dilaton, and probe the scale-dependent running coupling from the perturbative UV scale to the scale of chiral symmetry breaking. Our observations suggest that the model is very close to the conformal window and a light composite scalar, perhaps the Higgs impostor with or without dilaton-like interpretation, appears to emerge with $0^{++}$ quantum numbers. The lightest baryon of the model on the 3 TeV scale has intriguing implications.

title: The gradient flow running coupling scheme
abstract: The Yang-Mills gradient flow in finite volume is used to define a running coupling scheme. As our main result the discrete β -function, or step scaling function, is calculated for scale change s = 3/2 at several lattice spacings for SU(3) gauge theory coupled to N f = 4 fundamental massless fermions. The continuum extrapolation is performed and agreement is found with the continuum perturbative results for small renormalized coupling. The case of SU(2) gauge group is briefly commented on.

title: The lattice gradient flow at tree level
abstract: The cut-off effects of the lattice gradient flow -- often called Wilson flow -- are calculated on a periodic 4-torus at leading order in the gauge coupling. A large class of discretizations is considered which includes all frequently used cases in practice. It is shown how the results lead to a smoother continuum extrapolation for the beta-function of SU(3) gauge theory with N_f = 4 flavors of fermions.

title: Can the nearly conformal sextet gauge model hide the Higgs impostor
abstract: New results are reported from large scale lattice simulations of a frequently discussed strongly interacting gauge theory with a fermion flavor doublet in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of the SU(3) color gauge group. We find that the chiral condensate and the mass spectrum of the sextet model are consistent with chiral symmetry breaking in the limit of vanishing fermion mass. In contrast, sextet fermion mass deformations of spectral properties are not consistent with leading conformal scaling behavior near the critical surface of a conformal theory. A recent paper could not resolve the conformal fixed point of the gauge coupling from the slowly walking scenario of a very small nearly vanishing β -function (DeGrand et al.  ). It is argued that overall consistency with our new results is resolved if the sextet model is close to the conformal window, staying outside with a very small non-vanishing β -function. The model would exhibit then the simplest composite Higgs mechanism leaving open the possibility of a light scalar state with quantum numbers of the Higgs impostor. It would emerge as the pseudo-Goldstone dilaton state from spontaneous symmetry breaking of scale invariance. We will argue that even without association with the dilaton, the scalar Higgs-like state can be light very close to the conformal window. A new Higgs project of sextet lattice simulations is outlined to resolve these important questions.

title: Can the Higgs Impostor Hide Near the Conformal Window
abstract: We present a minimal candidate model for the composite Higgs mechanism with a fermion doublet in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of the SU(3) color gauge group. The model is known to be close to the conformal window with a small β-function. Chiral symmetry breaking with vacuum condensate becomes the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking from compositeness. Close to the conformal window, a light scalar state with Higgs quantum numbers is emerging. Associations with the recently observed 126 GeV Higgs boson, or with a dilaton state from broken scale invariance, are subjects of ongoing investigations.