Nucleon form factors in the canonically quantized Skyrme model

The explicit expressions for the electric, magnetic, axial and induced pseudoscalar form factors of the nucleons are derived in the {\it ab initio} quantized Skyrme model. The canonical quantization procedure ensures the existence of stable soliton solutions with good quantum numbers. The form factors are derived for representations of arbitrary dimension of the SU(2) group. After fixing the two parameters of the model, $f_\pi$ and $e$, by the empirical mass and electric mean square radius of the proton, the calculated electric and magnetic form factors are fairly close to the empirical ones, whereas the the axial and induced pseudoscalar form factors fall off too slowly with momentum transfer.Comment: 14pp including figure

Comment On ``Grand Unification and Supersymmetric Threshold"

Barbieri and Hall have argued that threshold effects at the scale of grand-unification wipe out predictions on the SUSY scale, M_S. Using triviality arguments we give upper bounds on ultraheavy particles, while proton stability gives lower bounds on the mass of the higgs color-triplet. We find no useful lower bound on the $\Sigma$ supermultiplet, but if the strong coupling constant is as large as recent experiments suggest, unification in the minimal SUSY SU(5) model requires that the $Sigma$ masses be $\sim 10^{-7}M_V$ and that the color octet and weak triplet be split in mass by a factor of $\sim$100.Comment: 6 pages (revised

Two-loop Renormalization Group Equations in General Gauge Field Theories

The complete set of two-loop renormalization group equations in general gauge field theories is presented. This includes the \beta functions of parameters with and without a mass dimension

The pion charge radius from charged pion electroproduction

We analyze a low-energy theorem of threshold pion electroproduction which allows one to determine the charge radius of the pion. We show that at the same order where the radius appears, pion loops induce a correction to the momentum dependence of the longitudinal dipole amplitude $L_{0+}^{(-)}$. This model-independent correction amounts to an increase of the pion charge radius squared from the electroproduction data by about 0.26~fm$^2$. It sheds light on the apparent discrepancy between the recent determination of the pion radius from electroproduction data and the one based on pion-electron scattering.Comment: 3 pp, REVTeX, uses eps

Inclusive neutrino scattering off deuteron from threshold to GeV energies

Background: Neutrino-nucleus quasi-elastic scattering is crucial to interpret the neutrino oscillation results in long baseline neutrino experiments. There are rather large uncertainties in the cross section, due to insufficient knowledge on the role of two-body weak currents. Purpose: Determine the role of two-body weak currents in neutrino-deuteron quasi-elastic scattering up to GeV energies. Methods: Calculate cross sections for inclusive neutrino scattering off deuteron induced by neutral and charge-changing weak currents, from threshold up to GeV energies, using the Argonne $v_{18}$ potential and consistent nuclear electroweak currents with one- and two-body terms. Results: Two-body contributions are found to be small, and increase the cross sections obtained with one-body currents by less than 10% over the whole range of energies. Total cross sections obtained by describing the final two-nucleon states with plane waves differ negligibly, for neutrino energies $\gtrsim 500$ MeV, from those in which interaction effects in these states are fully accounted for. The sensitivity of the calculated cross sections to different models for the two-nucleon potential and/or two-body terms in the weak current is found to be weak. Comparing cross sections to those obtained in a naive model in which the deuteron is taken to consist of a free proton and neutron at rest, nuclear structure effects are illustrated to be non-negligible. Conclusion: Contributions of two-body currents in neutrino-deuteron quasi-elastic scattering up to GeV are found to be smaller than 10%. Finally, it should be stressed that the results reported in this work do not include pion production channels.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures; publishe

Gauge Coupling Unification in Superstring Derived Standard--like Models

I discuss gauge coupling unification in a class of superstring standard--like models, which are derived in the free fermionic formulation. Recent calculations indicate that the superstring unification scale is at $O(10^{18}GeV)$ while the minimal supersymmetric standard model is consistent with LEP data if the unification scale is at $O(10^{16})GeV$. A generic feature of the superstring standard--like models is the appearance of extra color triplets $(D,{\bar D})$, and electroweak doublets $(\ell,{\bar\ell})$, in vector--like representations, beyond the minimal supersymmetric standard model. I show that gauge coupling unification at $O(10^{18}GeV)$ in the superstring standard--like models can be consistent with LEP data. I present an explicit standard--like model that can realize superstring gauge coupling unification.Comment: WIS--92/17/FEB--PH, 12 page

Role of the rho meson in the description of pion electroproduction experiments at JLab

We study the p(e,e' pi+)n reaction in the framework of an effective Lagrangian approach including nucleon, pi and rho meson degrees of freedom and show the importance of the rho-meson t-pole contribution to sigmaT, the transverse part of cross section. We test two different field representations of the rho meson, vector and tensor, and find that the tensor representation of the rho meson is more reliable in the description of the existing data. In particular, we show that the rho-meson t-pole contribution, including the interference with an effective non-local contact term, sufficiently improves the description of the recent JLab data at invariant mass W less 2.2 GeV and Q2 less 2.5 GeV2/c2. A ``soft'' variant of the strong piNN and rhoNN form factors is also found to be compatible with these data. On the basis of the successful description of both the sigmaL and sigmaT parts of the cross section we discuss the importance of taking into account the sigmaT data when extracting the charge pion form factor Fpi from sigmaL.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Learning by message-passing in networks of discrete synapses

We show that a message-passing process allows to store in binary "material" synapses a number of random patterns which almost saturates the information theoretic bounds. We apply the learning algorithm to networks characterized by a wide range of different connection topologies and of size comparable with that of biological systems (e.g. $n\simeq10^{5}-10^{6}$). The algorithm can be turned into an on-line --fault tolerant-- learning protocol of potential interest in modeling aspects of synaptic plasticity and in building neuromorphic devices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; references updated and minor corrections; accepted in PR

What do experimental data "say" about growth of hadronic total cross-section?

We reanalyse $\bar p p$ and $pp$ high energy data of the elastic scattering above $\sqrt{s}=5$ GeV on the total cross-section $\sigma_{tot}$ and on the forward $\rho$-ratio for various models of Pomeron, utilizing two methods. The first one is based on analytic amplitudes, the other one relies on assumptions for $\sigma_{tot}$ and on dispersion relation for $\rho$. We argue that it is not possible, from fitting only existing data for forward scattering, to select a definite asymptotic growth with the energy of $\sigma_{tot}$. We find equivalent fits to the data together with a logarithmic Pomeron giving a behavior $\sigma_{tot} \propto \ln ^\gamma s$, $\gamma\in [0.5,2.20]$ and with a supercritical Pomeron giving a behavior $\sigma_{tot} \propto s^\epsilon$, $\epsilon\in [0.01,0.10]$.Comment: LaTeX, 18 pages, 5 eps figures included, to be published in Il Nuovo Ciment

Neutrino masses and flavor symmetries

The problem of neutrino masses and mixing angles is analysed in a class of supersymmetric grand unified models, with SO(10) gauge symmetry and global U(2) flavour symmetry. Adopting the seesaw mechanism for the generation of the neutrino masses, one obtains a mass matrix for the left-handed neutrinos which is directly related to the parameters of the charged sector, while the unknown parameters of the right-handed Majorana mass matrix are inglobed in a single factor.Comment: 17 pages, 1 eps figure, uses graphicx.sty, LaTeX 2e, to be published on "Il Nuovo Cimento