Nucleon sea in the effective chiral quark model
The asymmetries of both light-flavor antiquark d(x)-u(x) and strange-antistrange s(x)-s(x) distributions of the nucleon sea are considered with more details in the effective chiral quark model. We find that the asymmetric distribution of light-flavor antiquarks d(x)-u(x) matches the experimental data well and that the asymmetry of strange and antistrange distributions can bring about 60%-100% correction to the NuTeV anomaly of sin{sup 2}{theta}{sub w}, which are 3 standard deviations from the world average value measured in other electroweak processes. The results on the correction to the NuTeV anomaly are insensitive to the inputs of the constituent quark distributions and the cutoff parameters. The ratios of d(x)/u(x) and s(x)/s(x) are also discussed, and it is found that the ratio s(x)/s(x) is compatible with the available experiments with an additional symmetric sea contribution being considered effectively.

title: Sigma meson cloud and proton's light flavor sea quarks
abstract: We take into account the sigma meson cloud effect in the meson cloud model to calculate the distributions of light flavor sea quarks in the proton. Our calculation gives a better description of the data for d ¯ ( x ) / u ¯ ( x ) . We also provide a picture that the probability of finding a physical proton in a Fock state | N ω 〉 is reasonable small with a smaller cutoff Λ ω .

title: Effect of asymmetric strange–antistrange sea to the NuTeV anomaly
abstract: We calculate the strange quark and antiquark distributions of the nucleon by using the effective chiral quark model, and find that the strange–antistrange asymmetry can bring a contribution of about 60–100% to the NuTeV deviation of sin 2 θ w from the standard value measured in other electroweak processes. The results are insensitive to different inputs. The light-flavor quark asymmetry of d ¯ – u ¯ is also investigated and found to be consistent with the experimental measurements. Therefore the chiral quark model provides a successful picture to understand the NuTeV anomaly, as well as the light-flavor quark asymmetry and the proton spin problem in previous studies.

title: RX J1856.5-3754: A Strange Star with Solid Quark Surface?
abstract: Within the realms of the possibility of solid quark matter, we fitted the 500ks Chandra LETG/HRC data for RX J1856.5-3754 with a phenomenological spectral model, and found that electric conductivity of quark matter on the stellar surface is about > 1.2 x 10^{18} s^{-1}.

title: Determination of A(FB)(b) using jet charge measurements in Z decays
abstract: An improved measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in Z →b b decays is presented, based on a sample of 4.1 million hadronic Z decays collected by ALEPH between 1991 and 1995. Data are analysed as a function of polar angle of the event axis and b purity. The event tagging efficiency and mean b -jet hemisphere charge are measured directly from data. From the measured forward-backward jet charge asymmetry, the b quark asymmetry at s =m Z is determined to be: A b FB =0.1017±0.0038(stat.)±0.0032(syst.). In the context of the Standard Model this corresponds to a value of the effective weak mixing angle of sin 2 θ W eff =0.23109±0.00096.

title: Leptonic decays of the D(s) meson
abstract: The purely leptonic decays Ds→τν and Ds→μν are studied in a sample of four million hadronic Z decays collected with the ALEPH detector at the LEP e+e− collider from 1991 to 1995. The branching fractions are extracted from a combination of two analyses, one optimized to select Ds→τν decays with or , and the other optimized for Ds→μν decays. The results are used to evaluate the Ds decay constant, within the Standard Model: fDs=[285±19(stat)±40(syst)] MeV.

title: Color-charged Quark Matter in Astrophysics?
abstract: Color confinement is only a supposition, which has not been proved in QCD yet. It is proposed here that macroscopic quark gluon plasma in astrophysics could hardly maintain colorless because of causality. The authors expected that the existence of chromatic strange quark stars as well as chromatic strangelets preserved from the QCD phase transition in the early universe could be unavoidable if their colorless correspondents do exist.

title: Strange quark stars - A review
abstract: A pedagogical overview of strange quark matter and strange stars is presented. After a historical notation of the research and an introduction to quark matter, a major part is devoted to the physics and astrophysics of strange stars, with attention being paid to the possible ways by which neutron stars and strange stars can be distinguished in astrophysics. Recent possible evidence for bare strange stars is also discussed.