QCD+QED lattice calculation of hadronic decay rates

Isospin is an almost exact symmetry of strong interactions and the corrections to the isosymmetric limit are, in general, at the percent level. For several hadronic quantities relevant for flavour physics phenomenology, such as pseudoscalar meson masses or the kaon leptonic and semileptonic decay rates, these effects are of the same order of magnitude of the uncertainties quoted in current large-scale QCD simulations on the lattice and cannot be neglected anymore. In this contribution I discuss some recent results for the leptonic decay rates of light pseudoscalar mesons obtained by the Soton--RM123 Collaboration including the leading-order electromagnetic and strong isospin-breaking corrections in first principles lattice simulations. The adopted strategy is within the reach of present lattice technologies and it allows to determine electromagnetic corrections to physical observables for which delicate cancellations of infrared divergences occur in the intermediate steps of the calculation. The application of the developed method to the study of heavy-light meson and semileptonic decay rates is currently underway.Comment: Plenary talk at IFAE 2018, Milano (Italy), 04-06 April 2018. v2: updated references and minor changes, matches version published in NC

Leading isospin-breaking effects on the lattice

Isospin is an almost exact symmetry of strong interactions and the corrections to the isosymmetric limit are, in general, at the percent level. For several hadronic quantities, such as pseudoscalar meson masses or the kaon leptonic and semileptonic decay rates, these effects are of the same order of magnitude of the errors quoted in nowadays lattice calculations and cannot be neglected any longer. In this talk I discuss some recent results for the pseudoscalar meson spectrum obtained by the RM123 Collaboration including isospin breaking corrections in first principles lattice simulations.Comment: Plenary talk at IFAE 2017, Trieste (Italy), 19-21 April 201

The light-quark contribution to the leading HVP term of the muon g−2g - 2 from twisted-mass fermions

We present a lattice calculation of the leading Hadronic Vacuum Polarization (HVP) contribution of the light u- and d-quarks to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(ud)$, adopting the gauge configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with $N_f = 2+1+1$ dynamical quarks at three values of the lattice spacing with pion masses in the range 210 - 450 MeV. Thanks to several lattices at fixed values of the light-quark mass and scale but with different sizes we perform a careful investigation of finite-volume effects (FVEs). In order to remove FVEs we develop an analytic representation of the vector correlator, which describes the lattice data for time distances larger than $\simeq 0.2$ fm. The representation is based on quark-hadron duality at small and intermediate time distances and on the two-pion contributions in a finite box at larger time distances. After extrapolation to the physical pion point and to the continuum limit we obtain $a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(ud) = 619.0~(17.8) \cdot 10^{-10}$. Adding the contribution of strange and charm quarks, obtained by ETMC, and an estimate of the isospin-breaking corrections and quark-disconnected diagrams from the literature we get $a_\mu^{\rm HVP}(udsc) = 683~(19) \cdot 10^{-10}$, which is consistent with recent results based on dispersive analyses of the experimental cross section data for $e^+ e^-$ annihilation into hadrons. Using our analytic representation of the vector correlator, taken at the physical pion mass in the continuum and infinite volume limits, we provide the first eleven moments of the polarization function and we compare them with recent results of the dispersive analysis of the $\pi^+ \pi^-$ channels. We estimate also the light-quark contribution to the missing part of $a_\mu^{\rm HVP}$ not covered in the MUonE experiment.Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures, 7 tables. Version to appear in PR

Proton recoil polarization in exclusive (e,e'pp) reactions

The general formalism of nucleon recoil polarization in the (${\vec e},e'{\vec N}N$) reaction is given. Numerical predictions are presented for the components of the outgoing proton polarization and of the polarization transfer coefficient in the specific case of the exclusive $^{16}$O(${\vec e},e'{\vec p}p$)$^{14}$C knockout reaction leading to discrete states in the residual nucleus. Reaction calculations are performed in a direct knockout framework where final-state interactions and one-body and two-body currents are included. The two-nucleon overlap integrals are obtained from a calculation of the two-proton spectral function of $^{16}$O where long-range and short-range correlations are consistently included. The comparison of results obtained in different kinematics confirms that resolution of different final states in the $^{16}$O(${\vec e},e'{\vec p}p$)$^{14}$C reaction may act as a filter to disentangle and separately investigate the reaction processes due to short-range correlations and two-body currents and indicates that measurements of the components of the outgoing proton polarization may offer good opportunities to study short-range correlations.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Neutrino-Nucleus Quasi-Elastic Scattering in a Relativistic Model

A relativistic distorted-wave impulse-approximation model is applied to neutral-current and charged-current quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. The effects of final state interactions are investigated and the sensitivity of the results to the strange nucleon form factors is discussed in view of their possible experimental determinationComment: 7 pages, 3 figures Proc. of the XXV International Workshop on Nuclear Theory, 26 June- 1 July, 2006 Rila, Bulgari

Electromagnetic proton-neutron knockout off 16O: new achievements in theory

Results for the cross sections of the exclusive 16O(e,e'pn)14N and 16O(gamma,pn)14N knockout reactions are presented and discussed in different kinematics. In comparison with earlier work, a complete treatment of the center-of-mass (CM) effects in the nuclear one-body current is considered in connection with the problem of the lack of orthogonality between initial bound and final scattering states. The effects due to CM and orthogonalization are investigated in combination with different treatments of correlations in the two-nucleon overlap function and for different parametrizations of the two-body currents. The CM effects lead in super-parallel kinematics to a dramatic increase of the 16O(e,e'pn) cross section to the 1_2^+ excited state (3.95 MeV) of 14N. In all the situations considered the results are very sensitive to the treatment of correlations. A crucial role is played by tensor correlations, but also the contribution of long-range correlations is important.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Photon-induced two-nucleon knockout reactions to discrete final states

Cross sections and photon asymmetries of the exclusive 16O(\gamma,pn)14N and 16O(\gamma,pp)14C knockout reactions are calculated for transitions to the low-lying discrete final states of the residual nucleus in the photon-energy range between 100 and 400 MeV. Exclusive reactions may represent a test of reaction mechanisms and a promising tool for investigating the dynamics of nucleon pairs in different states. Cross sections and asymmetries for both (\gamma,pn) and (\gamma,pp) turn out to be only slightly affected by short-range correlations and dominated by two-body currents. Therefore, two-nucleon knockout reactions induced by real photons appear well suited to investigate the nuclear current and the selectivity of individual transitions to its different components.Comment: 21 pages, 16 postscript figure

An Inflammation-Centric View of Neurological Disease: Beyond the Neuron

Inflammation is a complex biological response fundamental to how the body deals with injury and infection to eliminate the initial cause of cell injury and effect repair. Unlike a normally beneficial acute inflammatory response, chronic inflammation can lead to tissue damage and ultimately its destruction, and often results from an inappropriate immune response. Inflammation in the nervous system ("neuroinflammation"), especially when prolonged, can be particularly injurious. While inflammation per se may not cause disease, it contributes importantly to disease pathogenesis across both the peripheral (neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia) and central [e.g., Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease, ischemia and traumatic brain injury, depression, and autism spectrum disorder] nervous systems. The existence of extensive lines of communication between the nervous system and immune system represents a fundamental principle underlying neuroinflammation. Immune cell-derived inflammatory molecules are critical for regulation of host responses to inflammation. Although these mediators can originate from various non-neuronal cells, important sources in the above neuropathologies appear to be microglia and mast cells, together with astrocytes and possibly also oligodendrocytes. Understanding neuroinflammation also requires an appreciation that non-neuronal cell-cell interactions, between both glia and mast cells and glia themselves, are an integral part of the inflammation process. Within this context the mast cell occupies a key niche in orchestrating the inflammatory process, from initiation to prolongation. This review will describe the current state of knowledge concerning the biology of neuroinflammation, emphasizing mast cell-glia and glia-glia interactions, then conclude with a consideration of how a cell's endogenousmechanisms might be leveraged to provide a therapeutic strategy to target neuroinflammation

The NN-final-state-interaction in two-nucleon-knockout reactions

The influence of the mutual interaction between the two outgoing nucleons (NN-FSI) in electro- and photoinduced two-nucleon knockout from $^{16}O$ has been investigated perturbatively. It turns out that the effect of NN-FSI depends on the kinematics and on the type of reaction considered. In the kinematics studied so far, the effect is larger in pp- than in pn-knockout and in electron induced than in photoinduced reactions.Comment: 10 pages including 9 postscript figures, contribution to the 6th workshop on "Electromagnetically Induced Two-Hadron Emission", Pavia, September 24-27, 200