Metal-rich Globular Clusters: An Unaccounted Factor Responsible for Their Formation?
A presently unaccounted but quite probable “chemical factor” may be responsible for the formation of old metal-rich globular clusters (MRGCs) in spheroids, as well as of their conterparts, young (intermediate–age) massive star clusters (MSCs) in irregulars. Their formation presumably occurs ~ at the same stage of the host galaxies’ chemical evolution and is related to the essentially increased SF activity in the hosts around the same metallicity, ~Z⊙/3 ([Fe/H]~-0.5). It is achieved very soon in massive spheroids, later in lower-mass spheroids, and (much) more later in irregulars.

title: Optical monitoring of the central region of the globular cluster M 15 = NGC 7078: New variable stars
abstract: AbstractWe obtained a series of more than two hundred R-band CCD images for the crowded central (115″×77″) region of the metal-poor globular cluster M 15 with an angular resolution of 
$$0\mathop .\limits^{''} 5 - 0\mathop .\limits^{''} 9$$
 in most images. Optimal image subtraction was used to identify variable stars. Brightness variations were found in 83 stars, 55 of which were identified with known cluster variables and the remaining 28 are candidates for new variables. Two of them are most likely SX Phe variables. The variability type of two more stars is uncertain. The remaining stars were tentatively classified as RR Lyrae variables. A preliminary analysis of published data and our results shows that the characteristics of RR Lyrae variables in the densest part (r<35″) of the cluster probably change. More specifically, the maximum of the period distribution of first-and second-overtone (RR1, RR2) pulsating stars shifts toward shorter periods; i.e., there is an increase in the fraction of stars pulsating with periods 
$$ < 0\mathop .\limits^d 3$$
 and a deficiency of stars with 
$$0\mathop .\limits^d 35 - 0\mathop .\limits^d 40$$
. The ratio of the number of these short-period RR Lyrae variables to the number of fundamental-tone (RR0) pulsating variables changes appreciably. We found and corrected the error of transforming the coordinates of variables V128–155 in M 15 into the coordinate system used in the catalog of variable stars in globular clusters.

title: Second-Parameter Globular Clusters in the Milky Way and in M33 as Tracers of Mass Loss from M31 in the Early Epoch?
abstract: I suggest that the bulk of the "young", second-parameter globular clusters (SPGCs) observed in the outer halo of our Galaxy and recently found in other massive spiral of the Local Group (LG), M33, may have originated due to mass outflow from M31 and subsequent accretion of gas on the Galaxy and M33 in the early epoch.

title: Age Dating of Globular Clusters Using UBV(RI) Main-sequence Photometry in the Two-color Diagram: Age of NGC 6397
abstract: I propose and apply a method for deriving ages of the metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) in a distance-independent way, which is based on age indicator related to the main sequence in the two-color diagrams with U-B index. Age of the metal-poor GC NGC 6397 has been estimated, using Yale isochrones of Demarque et al. (1996), to be close to 16 Gyr provided the cluster metallicity is near [Fe/H]=-2.0.

title: Measurements of identified particles at intermediate transverse momentum in the STAR experiment from Au + Au collisions at s(NN)**(1/2) =200- GeV

title: Measurement of xf3, f2 structure functions and Gross-Llewellyn-Smith sum rule with IHEP-JINR neutrino detector
abstract: The isoscalar structure functions xF_3 and F_2 are measured as functions of x averaged over all Q^2 permissible for the range 6 to 28 GeV of incident (anti)neutrino energy. With the measured values of xF_3, the value of the Gross-Llewellyn Smith sum rule is found to be $\int_{0}^{1}{F_3 dx} = 2.13\pm0.38 (stat)\pm 0.26 (syst)$. The QCD analysis of xF_3 provides $\Lambda_{\overline{MS}} =358 \pm 59 MeV$ . The obtained value of the strong interaction constant $\alpha_S (M_Z)=0.120^{+3}_{-4}$ is larger than most of the deep inelastic scattering results.

title: First muon-neutrino disappearance study with an off-axis beam
abstract: We report a measurement of muon-neutrino disappearance in the T2K experiment. The 295-km muon-neutrino beam from Tokai to Kamioka is the first implementation of the off-axis technique in a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. With data corresponding to 1.43 x 10(20) protons on target, we observe 31 fully-contained single mu-like ring events in Super-Kamiokande, compared with an expectation of 104 +/- 14 (syst) events without neutrino oscillations. The best-fit point for two-flavor nu(mu) -> nu(tau) oscillations is sin(2)(2 theta(23)) = 0.98 and vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = 2.65 x 10(-3) eV(2). The boundary of the 90% confidence region includes the points sin(2)(2 theta(23)), vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = (1.0, 3.1 x 10(-3) eV(2)), (0.84, 2.65 x 10(-3) eV(2)) and (1.0, 2.2 x 10(-3) eV(2)).

title: Azimuthal charged-particle correlations and possible local strong parity violation.
abstract: Parity-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the system's orbital momentum axis. We investigate a three-particle azimuthal correlator which is a P even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We report measurements of charged hadrons near center-of-mass rapidity with this observable in Au + Au and Cu + Cu collisions at square root of s(NN) = 200 GeV using the STAR detector. A signal consistent with several expectations from the theory is detected. We discuss possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity violation.

title: K/pi Fluctuations at relativistic energies.
abstract: We report K/pi fluctuations from Au + Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]= 19.6, 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV using the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. K/pi fluctuations in central collisions show little dependence on incident energy and are on the same order as those from NA49 at the Super Proton Synchrotron in central Pb + Pb collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=12.3 and 17.3 GeV. We report results for the collision centrality dependence of K/pi fluctuations and results for charge-separated fluctuations. We observe that the K/pi fluctuations scale with the charged particle multiplicity density.