Progress towards a lattice determination of (moments of) nucleon structure functions

Using unimproved and non-perturbatively O(a) improved Wilson fermions, results are given for the three lowest moments of unpolarised nucleon structure functions. Renormalisation, chiral extrapolation and the continuum limit of the matrix elements are briefly discussed. The simulations are performed for both quenched and two flavours of unquenched fermions. No obvious sign of deviation from linearity in the chiral extrapolations are found. (This is most clearly seen in our quenched unimproved data, which extends to lighter quark mass.) Possible quenching effects also seem to be small. The lowest moment thus remains too large, so it seems to be necessary to reach smaller quark masses in numerical simulations.Comment: 3 pages, Latex, 4 figures, Talk presented at Lattice2001(matrixelement

Non-perturbative renormalisation and improvement of the local vector current for quenched and unquenched Wilson fermions

By considering the local vector current between nucleon states and imposing charge conservation, we determine its renormalisation constant and quark mass improvement coefficient for Symanzik $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions. The computation is first performed for quenched fermions (and for completeness also with unimproved fermions) and compared against known results. The two-flavour unquenched case is then considered.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Latex, Final versio

Higher-Twist Contribution to Pion Structure Function: 4-Fermi Operators

We present quenched lattice QCD results for the contribution of higher-twist operators to the lowest non-trivial moment of the pion structure function. To be specific, we consider the combination $F_2^{\pi^+} + F_2^{\pi^-} - 2 F_2^{\pi^0}$ which has $I = 2$ and receives contributions from 4-Fermi operators only. We introduce the basis of lattice operators. The renormalization of the operators is done perturbatively in the $\bar{\rm{MS}}$ scheme using the 't Hooft-Veltman prescription for $\gamma_5$, taking particular care of mixing effects. The contribution is found to be of $O(f_\pi^2/Q^2)$, relative to the leading contribution to the moment of $F_2^{\pi^+}$.Comment: Version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Perturbative Renormalization of Improved Lattice Operators

We derive bases of improved operators for all bilinear quark currents up to spin two (including the operators measuring the first moment of DIS Structure Functions), and compute their one-loop renormalization constants for arbitrary coefficients of the improvement terms. We have thus control over O(a) corrections, and for a suitable choice of improvement coefficients we are only left with errors of O(a^2).Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX + 1 eps file + epscrc2.sty (included). Talk given to the Lattice 97 International Symposium, 22-26 July 1997, Edinburgh, UK. Minor changes in notatio

Optical study of the vibrational and dielectric properties of BiMnO3

BiMnO3 (BMO), ferromagnetic (FM) below Tc = 100 K, was believed to be also ferroelectric (FE) due to a non-centro-symmetric C2 structure, until diffraction data indicated that its space group is the centro-symmetric C2/c. Here we present infrared phonon spectra of BMO, taken on a mosaic of single crystals, which are consistent with C2/c at any T > 10 K, as well as room-temperature Raman data which strongly support this conclusion. We also find that the infrared intensity of several phonons increases steadily for decreasing T, causing the relative permittivity of BMO to vary from 18.5 at 300 K to 45 at 10 K. At variance with FE materials of displacive type, no appreciable softening has been found in the infrared phonons. Both their frequencies and intensities, moreover, appear insensitive to the FM transition at Tc

nDsbD: a redox interaction hub in the Escherichia coli periplasm

Abstract.: DsbD is a redox-active protein of the inner Escherichia coli membrane possessing an N-terminal (nDsbD) and a C-terminal (cDsbD) periplasmic domain. nDsbD interacts with four different redox proteins involved in the periplasmic disulfide isomerization and in the cytochrome c maturation systems. We review here the studies that led to the structural characterization of all soluble DsbD domains involved and, most importantly, of trapped disulfide intermediate complexes of nDsbD with three of its four redox partners. These results revealed the structural features enabling nDsbD, a ‘redox hub' with an immunoglobulin-like fold, to interact efficiently with its different thioredoxin-like partner