Soft interactions in jet quenching

We study the collisional aspects of jet quenching in a high energy nuclear collision, especially in the final state pion gas. The jet has a large energy, and acquires momentum transverse to its axis more effectively by multiple soft collisions than by few hard scatterings (as known from analogous systems such as J/\psi production at Hera). Such regime of large E and small momentum transfer corresponds to Regge kinematics and is characteristically dominated by the pomeron. From this insight we estimate the jet quenching parameter in the hadron medium (largely a pion gas) at the end of the collision, which is naturally small and increases with temperature in line with the gas density. The physics in the quark-gluon plasma/liquid phase is less obvious, and here we revisit a couple of simple estimates that suggest indeed that the pomeron-mediated interactions are very relevant and should be included in analysis of the jet quenching parameter. Finally, the ocasional hard collisions produce features characteristic of a L\`evy flight in the q_perp^2 plane perpendicular to the jet axis. We suggest one- and two-particle q_perp correlations as interesting experimental probes.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure

X(3872) and its Partners in the Heavy Quark Limit of QCD

In this letter, we propose interpolating currents for the X(3872) resonance, and show that, in the Heavy Quark limit of QCD, the X(3872) state should have degenerate partners, independent of its internal structure. Magnitudes of possible I=0 and I=1 components of the X(3872) are also discussed.Comment: 12 page

Drawing the Horton Set in an Integer Grid of Minimum Size

In 1978 Erd\H os asked if every sufficiently large set of points in general position in the plane contains the vertices of a convex $k$-gon, with the additional property that no other point of the set lies in its interior. Shortly after, Horton provided a construction---which is now called the Horton set---with no such $7$-gon. In this paper we show that the Horton set of $n$ points can be realized with integer coordinates of absolute value at most $\frac{1}{2} n^{\frac{1}{2} \log (n/2)}$. We also show that any set of points with integer coordinates combinatorially equivalent (with the same order type) to the Horton set, contains a point with a coordinate of absolute value at least $c \cdot n^{\frac{1}{24}\log (n/2)}$, where $c$ is a positive constant

Heavy quark spin symmetry and SU(3)-flavour partners of the X (3872)

In this work, an Effective Field Theory (EFT) incorporating light SU(3)-flavour and heavy quark spin symmetries is used to describe charmed meson-antimeson bound states. At Lowest Order (LO), this means that only contact range interactions among the heavy meson and antimeson fields are involved. Besides, the isospin violating decays of the X(3872) will be used to constrain the interaction between the D and a (D) over bar* mesons in the isovector channel. Finally, assuming that the X(3915) and Y(4140) resonances are D* (D) over bar* and D-s* (D) over bar (s)* molecular states, we can determine the four Low Energy Constants (LECs) of the EFT that appear at LO and, therefore, the full spectrum of molecular states with isospin I = 0, 1/2 and 1

Long-distance structure of the X(3872)

We investigate heavy quark symmetries for heavy meson hadronic molecules, and explore the consequences of assuming the X(3872) and $Z_b(10610)$ as an isoscalar $D\bar D^*$ and an isovector $B\bar B^*$ hadronic molecules, respectively. The symmetry allows to predict new hadronic molecules, in particular we find an isoscalar $1^{++}$ $B\bar B^*$ bound state with a mass about 10580 MeV and the isovector charmonium partners of the $Z_b(10610)$ and the $Z_b(10650)$ states. Next, we study the $X(3872) \to D^0 \bar D^0\pi^0$ three body decay. This decay mode is more sensitive to the long-distance structure of the X(3872) resonance than its $J/\psi\pi\pi$ and $J/\psi3\pi$ decays, which are mainly controlled by the short distance part of the X(3872) molecular wave function. We discuss the $D^0 \bar D^0$ final state interactions, which in some situations become quite important. Indeed in these cases, a precise measurement of this partial decay width could provide precise information on the interaction strength between the $D^{(*)}\bar D^{(*)}$ charm mesons.Comment: Talk presented at the "XI International Conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH 2014)", Birmingham (U.K.), July 201