We explore the electromagnetic contribution to the charge symmetry breaking in the octet baryon masses using a subtracted dispersion relation based on the Cottingham formula. For the proton-neutron mass splitting we report a minor revision of the rec
ent analysis of Walker-Loud, Carlson and Miller. For the electromagnetic structure of the hyperons we constrain our analysis, where possible, by a combination of lattice QCD and SU(3) symmetry breaking estimates. The results for the baryon mass splittings are found to be compatible with recent lattice QCD+QED determinations. The uncertainties in the dispersive analysis are dominated by the lack of knowledge of the hyperon inelastic structure.
We explore the equation of state for nuclear matter in the quark-meson coupling model, including full Fock terms. The comparison with phenomenological constraints can be used to restrict the few additional parameters appearing in the Fock terms which
are not present at Hartree level. Because the model is based upon the in-medium modification of the quark structure of the bound hadrons, it can be applied without additional parameters to include hyperons and to calculate the equation of state of dense matter in beta-equilibrium. This leads naturally to a study of the properties of neutron stars, including their maximum mass, their radii and density profiles.
We study the production of $Xi^-$-hypernuclei, $^{12}_{Xi^{-}}$Be and $^{28}_{Xi^{-}}$Mg, via the ($K^-,K^+$) reaction within a covariant effective Lagrangian model, employing the bound $Xi^-$ and proton spinors calculated by the latest quark-meson c
oupling model. The present treatment yields the $0^circ$ differential cross sections for the formation of simple s-state $Xi^-$ particle-hole states peak at a beam momentum around 1.0 GeV/c with a value in excess of 1 $mu$b.
We study the effect of a $Lambda$ hyperon immersed in the doubly magic nuclei, $^{16}$O, $^{40}$Ca, $^{48}$Ca, and $^{208}$Pb, as well as the neutron magic nucleus $^{90}$Zr. For a $Lambda$ in the $1s$ and $1p$ states in $^{17}_{Lambda}$O, $^{41}_{La
mbda}$Ca, $^{49}_{Lambda}$Ca, $^{91}_{Lambda}$Zr, and $^{209}_{Lambda}$Pb, we compare the single-particle energies and density distributions of the core nucleons with those of the nuclei without the $Lambda$, as well as the point proton and neutron radii. A remarkable finding is that the bound $Lambda$ induces a significant asymmetry in the proton-neutron density distributions in the core nucleus. This in turn gives rise to an appreciable, iso-vector mean field. As a consequence, the neutrons in the core are more attracted to the center of the nucleus, while the protons are pushed away, in comparison with those in the corresponding nucleus without the $Lambda$.
We investigate the influence of the spatial extent of the proton magnetization and charge densities on the 2S hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen. The use of a non-perturbative relativistic Dirac approach leads to corrections of 15% to values obta
ined from the perturbative treatment encapsulated by the Zemach radius, which surpass the next-leading order contribution in the perturbation series by an order of magnitude.
The measurement of the 2P^{F=2}_{3/2} to 2S^{F=1}_{1/2} transition in muonic hydrogen by Pohl et al. and subsequent analysis has led to the conclusion that the rms radius of the proton differs from the accepted (CODATA) value by approximately 4%, cor
responding to a 4.9 sigma discrepancy. We investigate the finite-size effects - in particular the dependence on the shape of the proton electric form-factor - relevant to this transition using bound-state QED with nonperturbative, relativistic Dirac wave-functions for a wide range of idealised charge-distributions and a parameterization of experimental data in order to comment on the extent to which the perturbation-theory analysis which leads to the above conclusion can be confirmed. We find no statistically significant dependence of this correction on the shape of the proton form-factor.
We present a new formulation of one of the major radiative corrections to the weak charge of the proton -- that arising from the axial-vector hadron part of the $gamma Z$ box diagram, $Re{rm e}, Box_{gamma Z}^{rm A}$. This formulation, based on dispe
rsion relations, relates the $gamma Z$ contributions to moments of the $F_3^{gamma Z}$ interference structure function. It has a clear connection to the pioneering work of Marciano and Sirlin, and enables a systematic approach to improved numerical precision. Using currently available data, the total correction from all intermediate states is $Re{rm e}, Box_{gamma Z}^{rm A} = 0.0044(4)$ at zero energy, which shifts the theoretical estimate of the proton weak charge from $0.0713(8)$ to $0.0705(8)$. The energy dependence of this result, which is vital for interpreting the Q$_{rm weak}$ experiment, is also determined.
In a global analysis of the latest parity-violating electron scattering measurements on nuclear targets, we demonstrate a significant improvement in the experimental knowledge of the weak neutral-current lepton-quark interactions at low energy. The p
recision of this new result, combined with earlier atomic parity-violation measurements, places tight constraints on the size of possible contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model. Consequently, this result improves the lower-bound on the scale of relevant new physics to ~1 TeV.
