PROCEEDINGS FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR THEORY – serie

Effective field theory (EFT), a technique used extensively in particle physics, provides a framework for systematically describing nuclear systems in a way consistent with quantum chromodynamics, the underlying theory of strong interactions. Because it offers the possibility of a unified description of all low-energy processes involving nucleons, it has the potential to become the foundation of conventional nuclear physics.Since the early 1990's when Weinberg applied the techniques of EFT to multiple-nucleon systems, significant developments have been made. However, serious obstacles have also been encountered. This book contains the proceedings of the Workshop on Nuclear Physics with Effective Field Theory, held in the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory at Caltech on the 26th and 27th of February 1998, which specifically addressed those issues. Physicists from different areas of sub-atomic physics gathered in an attempt to arrive at a consistent power counting scheme for the nucleon–nucleon interaction, a first step toward dealing with few–nucleon systems and ultimately nuclear matter and finite nuclei.

The method of effective field theory (EFT) is ideally suited to deal with physical systems containing separate energy scales. Applied to low energy hadronic phenomena it provides a framework for systematically describing nuclear systems in a way consistent with quantum chromodynamics, the underlying theory of strong interactions. Because EFT offers the possibility of a unified description of all low energy processes involving nucleons, it has the potential to become the foundation of conventional nuclear physics.Much progress has been made recently in this field: a number of observables in the two-nucleon sector were computed and compared to experiment, issues related to the extension of the EFT program to the three-nucleon sector were clarified, and the convergence of the low energy expansion was critically examined. This book contains the proceedings of the Workshop on "Nuclear Physics with Effective Field Theory II", where these and other developments were discussed.

Efforts to uncover the explosion mechanism of core collapse supernovae and to understand all of their associated phenomena have been ongoing for nearly four decades. Despite this, our theoretical understanding of these cosmic events remains limited; two- and three-dimensional modeling of these events is in its infancy. Most of the modeling efforts over the past four decades have, by necessity, been constrained to spherical symmetry, with the first two-dimensional, albeit simplified, models appearing only during the last decade. Simulations to understand the complex interplay between the turbulent stellar core fluid flow, its magnetic fields, the neutrinos produced in and emanating from the proto-neutron star, the stellar core rotation, and the strong gravitational fields have yet to be performed. Only subsets of these fundamental ingredients have been included in the models thus far, often with approximation.The purpose of this volume is to identify the outstanding issues that remain in order to come to a complete understanding of these important astrophysical events. As the book focuses on open issues rather than the current state of the art in the field — although the latter will certainly be discussed — it will remain relevant for some time.

This book presents contributions from the Workshop on Rare Isotopes and Fundamental Symmetries, which was held on September 19-22, 2007, at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington. The book is the fourth in a series dedicated to exploring the science important to the proposed Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The topics covered by the contributions include Fermi beta decay, electron-neutrino correlations in nuclear beta decay: precision mass measurements, atomic parity violation, electric dipole moments, and hadronic parity violation and anapole moments.These topics highlight the recent work on the use of nuclei to understand the fundamental symmetries of nature. It presents current results as well as proposals for future experiments.

Recent experimental investigations of deep inelastic scattering, baryon form factors and high momentum transfer nuclear reactions have revealed many unexpected phenomena that suggest deep relationships between nucleon structure, hadronic spectroscopy and quantum chromodynamics. The proceedings of this summer school will help young researchers understand these topics and appreciate the importance of existing and expected data.This volume is the first of a series on the summer schools and workshops at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, which was opened at the University of Washington following the recommendation of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee. The formation of this national institute was a response by the nuclear physics comunity to the shortage of nuclear theorists vis-a-vis experimentalists.

These six lecture courses provide the background necessary in the understanding of the application of lattice methods to phenomenology, and give examples of interesting applications. The first three introduce the necessary techniques: chiral perturbation theory, heavy quark effective field theory, and lattice gauge theory. The remaining three describe how these techniques are used, mainly in lattice simulations, in the study of interesting phenomenological questions: vacuum structure, finite temperature QCD, and electroweak matrix elements. What distinguishes this volume from others is its focus on providing the background necessary for us to understand the methods and the significance of lattice gauge theory research.

This volume contains the proceedings of a workshop on Solar Modeling held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle during the Spring of 1994.This workshop was part of a program which concentrated on the nuclear, particle, and astrophysics of the solar neutrino problem, with particular emphasis on the experimental goals and opportunities.The workshop covered the physics of the standard and alternative solar models, the present status of the solar neutrino problem, the existing uncertainties in the nuclear and atomic physics (opacity) of the standard solar model, and constraints from helioseismology. Among the topics discussed were: the evolution of the rotating sun; solar model independent neutrino observables; the role of convective overshoot and diffusion; and turbulence in the solar interior and the role of g-modes. It was unique in bringing together nuclear, particle, atomic physicists and astrophysicists working on this problem.

It has been well recognized that the study of the excitations of the nucleon can shed light on the nonperturbative aspects of QCD. New opportunities for such study will be opened in the next few years with the commissioning of experiments in Hall B of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). Photo- and electroproduction studies of single and double pions, rhos, omegas, and kaons will be conducted with unprecedented precision. The Hall B CLAS detector is a major step forward, promising to provide kinematically complete measurements of cross sections and spin observables. The task of extracting new insights from such detailed measurements will require close coordination between experimental and theoretical physicists.To help optimize this interface between theory and experiment, a joint CEBAF/INT workshop was held at the Institute of Nuclear Theory in Seattle, September 9–13, 1996. The foci of the 1996 workshop included: N → N∗ transition form factors as predicted by QCD-inspired models and their experimental consequences; theoretical techniques employing QCD sum rules, perturbative QCD, and lattice QCD; reaction theories of photo- and electro-production of mesons; theoretical issues in the eta meson, vector meson, and two-pion production channels; progress in developing amplitude analyses for the available and expected data; the relationship between the Hall B program and those of other new experimental facilities.This proceeding will serve readers as both a current perspective on the field and a guide to future experimental and theoretical research directions.

Quantum tunneling is an intriguing phenomenon arising in a multitude of physical contexts. New experiments in systems as wide ranging as superdeformed nuclei, Bose-Einstein condensed gases, and nanomagnetic systems are spurring theoretical studies into the fundamental nature of tunneling. In this volume, the articles include: (i) tunneling out of a metastable state, (ii) coherence between two wells in tunneling contact, (iii) the consequences of the nature of the underlying dynamics (i.e. regular motion, chaos or some mixture) in low-dimensional systems and its connection to newly identified tunneling phenomena such as chaos-assisted tunneling, (iv) nanomagnetic systems with focus on comparing environmental descriptions of nuclear spins and oscillators, (v) solitons in Bose condensates, (vi) tunneling out of the nuclear superdeformed well and its use as a probe of pairing and chaos in excited nuclear states, and (vii) problems linked to the Bose condensed phase of atomic alkali gases.These subjects and others are gathered in six pedagogical courses given during the spring of 1997 at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics program “Tunneling in complex systems”. The purpose of the courses was to give graduate students and postdoctoral researchers exposure to a sampling of such recent theoretical advances and experimental contexts of tunneling as well as a bridge for the communication gaps between researchers in the various fields concerned with tunneling.

Charmonium suppression is a promising signal of quark–gluon plasma. In this volume, the latest development both in experiments and in the theory of charmonium production in high-energy nuclear collisions are presented and discussed.

The confinement mechanism of the quarks in QCD is one of the most challenging and open problems in physics. Confinement is a nonperturbative phenomenon, and a definite way to handle it has not yet been found in field theory. There are lattice calculations that can produce the low-lying states of the spectrum and “measure” many important physical quantities, but nevertheless the development of analytical techniques is of extreme importance for understanding the physics involved in confinement. In this respect it is important to test the results obtained directly from the theory (Bethe-Salpeter kernel, effective Hamiltonians, quark potential, etc.) on the spectrum, form factors and decays of bound states of quarks and gluons, and to relate them to the results of lattice theory.In this book, the question of the confinement mechanism is addressed; explanations in terms of monopoles, instantons and dyons are reviewed and the connection with duality is discussed.

This book constitutes the proceedings of a workshop on "Exclusive and Semi-exclusive Processes at High Momentum Transfer", sponsored by the Institute for Nuclear Theory (Seattle) and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Laboratory). The workshop was inspired by recent progress in the field, particularly in the uses of off-forward or skewed parton distributions to elucidate nucleon structure. This book contains the written versions of 41 scientific talks, on subjects including the aforementioned skewed parton distributions, and also on deeply virtual Compton scattering, semi-exclusive (or semi-inclusive) reactions, and hard elastic and transition form factors.

This book provides an authoritative, up to date, overview of the field of chiral dynamics, and also provides an excellent introduction to the field. The workshop is known for the interplay of theory and experiment and as a meeting place for most of the leading researchers in the field.

The generalization of QCD from three to NC colors, developed in 1974 by Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft, has proved to be an extraordinarily useful and robust theoretical extension for studying the behavior of strong interaction physics. This book is the proceedings of the first-ever meeting exclusively devoted to large NC QCD. The workshop brought together representatives of many subdisciplines for a “meeting of minds” on topics ranging from finite temperature and density to the lattice, perturbative QCD, instantons, mesons, baryons, and nuclear physics. Beginning with 't Hooft's keynote presentation, the contributions are designed to introduce uses of large NC methods in each specialty to a broader particle physics audience.

The r-process is a major mechanism for producing elements heavier than Fe. In this book, a summary of recent developments in theoretical, experimental and observational studies of the r-process are presented in 25 contributions. The collected papers are up to date, comprehensive and yet concise. The topics covered include experiments on nuclei far from stability, nuclear theory input for the r-process, observational and theoretical studies on abundances of heavy nuclei, and astrophysical models of the r-process.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings® (ISTP® / ISI Proceedings)• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)• CC Proceedings — Engineering & Physical Sciences