On the possibility of Deeply Bound Hadronic Molecules from single Pion Exchange

Pion exchange in S-wave between hadrons that are themselves in a relative S-wave can shift energies by hundreds of MeV. In the case of charmed mesons $D,D^*,D_0,D_1$ a spectroscopy of quasi-molecular states may arise consistent with enigmatic charmonium states observed above 4 GeV in $e^+e^-$ annihilation. A possible explanation of $Y(4260)\to \psi\pi\pi$ and $Y(4360) \to \psi'\pi\pi$ is found. Searches in $D\bar{D}3\pi$ channels as well as B decays are recommended to test this hypothesis.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Version accepted to PRL. Equation 3 of v1 of this paper was wrong and has been taken into account in this version. Other minor typos corrected... conclusions unchange

The role of secondary Reggeons in central meson production

We estimate the contribution of f_2 trajectory exchange to the central \eta and \eta^\prime production. It is shown that secondary Reggeons may give a large contribution to processes of double diffractive meson production at high energy.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, 5 figure

Dynamics of hadron strong production and decay

We generalize results of lattice QCD to determine the spin-dependent symmetries and factorization properties of meson production in OZI allowed processes. This explains some conjectures previously made in the literature about axial meson decays and gives predictions for exclusive decays of vector charmonia, including ways of establishing the structure of Y(4260) and Y(4325) from their S-wave decays. Factorization gives a selection rule which forbids $e^+e^- \to D^* D_2$ near threshold with the tensor meson in helicity 2. The relations among amplitudes for double charmonia production \e^+e^-\to \psi\chi_{0,1,2} are expected to differ from the analagous relations among light flavour production such as \e^+e^-\to \omega f_{0,1,2}.Comment: 13 pages; journal versio

A chromomagnetic mechanism for the X(3872) resonance

The chromomagnetic interaction, with proper account for flavour-symmetry breaking, is shown to explain the mass and coupling properties of the X(3872) resonance as a $J^{PC}$ = 1$^{++}$ state consisting of a heavy quark-antiquark pair and a light one. It is crucial to introduce all the spin-colour configurations compatible with these quantum numbers and diagonalise the chromomagnetic interaction in this basis. This approach thus differs from the molecular picture $D\bar {D}*$ and from the diquark-antidiquark picture.Comment: 4 pages - revtex4 - Typos corrected, refs. added, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Mass Predictions for Pseudoscalar JPC=0−+J^{PC}=0^{-+} Charmonium and Bottomonium Hybrids in QCD Sum-Rules

Masses of the pseudoscalar $(J^{PC}=0^{-+})$ charmonium and bottomonium hybrids are determined using QCD Laplace sum-rules. The effects of the dimension-six gluon condensate are included in our analysis and result in a stable sum-rule analysis, whereas previous studies of these states were unable to optimize mass predictions. The pseudoscalar charmonium hybrid is predicted to have a mass of approximately 3.8 GeV and the corresponding bottomonium prediction is 10.6 GeV. Calculating the full correlation function, rather than only the imaginary part, is shown to be necessary for accurate formulation of the sum-rules. The charmonium hybrid mass prediction is discussed within the context of the X Y Z resonances.Comment: 10 pages, 7 embedded figures. Analysis extended and refined in v

Efficacy of B-cell-targeted therapy with rituximab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

BACKGROUND: An open-label study indicated that selective depletion of B cells with the use of rituximab led to sustained clinical improvements for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. To confirm these observations, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, controlled study. METHODS: We randomly assigned 161 patients who had active rheumatoid arthritis despite treatment with methotrexate to receive one of four treatments: oral methotrexate (> or =10 mg per week) (control); rituximab (1000 mg on days 1 and 15); rituximab plus cyclophosphamide (750 mg on days 3 and 17); or rituximab plus methotrexate. Responses defined according to the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) were assessed at week 24 (primary analyses) and week 48 (exploratory analyses). RESULTS: At week 24, the proportion of patients with 50 percent improvement in disease symptoms according to the ACR criteria, the primary end point, was significantly greater with the rituximab-methotrexate combination (43 percent, P=0.005) and the rituximab-cyclophosphamide combination (41 percent, P=0.005) than with methotrexate alone (13 percent). In all groups treated with rituximab, a significantly higher proportion of patients had a 20 percent improvement in disease symptoms according to the ACR criteria (65 to 76 percent vs. 38 percent, P< or =0.025) or had EULAR responses (83 to 85 percent vs. 50 percent, P< or =0.004). All ACR responses were maintained at week 48 in the rituximab-methotrexate group. The majority of adverse events occurred with the first rituximab infusion: at 24 weeks, serious infections occurred in one patient (2.5 percent) in the control group and in four patients (3.3 percent) in the rituximab groups. Peripheral-blood immunoglobulin concentrations remained within normal ranges. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with active rheumatoid arthritis despite methotrexate treatment, a single course of two infusions of rituximab, alone or in combination with either cyclophosphamide or continued methotrexate, provided significant improvement in disease symptoms at both weeks 24 and 48

Decisive Search for a Diquark-Antidiquark Meson with Hidden Strangeness

Diquark-antidiquark states are expected to exist as a natural complement of mesons and baryons. Although they were predicted long ago, and some candidates were found experimentally, none has, as yet, been reliably identified. We suggest that the search for the so-called $C(1480)$-meson in reactions such as photoproduction $\gamma N\rightarrow\phi\pi N$ and $K N \rightarrow \phi \pi \Lambda$ should provide a decisive way to settle this issue. Estimates of the cross sections are given using present experimental information on the C-meson and assuming its diquark-antidiquark structure. Sizable cross sections are predicted (of the order of 0.1 $\mu$b for photoproduction and of the order of 0.1 mb for $KN$ at the maximum with an insignificant background). Failure to find this kind of signal would imply that the C-meson is {\it not} a diquark-antidiquark state.Comment: 9 pages in LATex + 6 figs. (available from authers upon request), IUHET-269/9

Universality of Leading Relativistic Corrections to Bound State Gyromagnetic Ratios

We discuss the leading relativistic (nonrecoil and recoil) corrections to bound state $g$-factors of particles with arbitrary spin. These corrections are universal for any spin and depend only on the free particle gyromagnetic ratios. We explain the physical reasons behind this universality.Comment: 10 pp., based on talks given at the Gribov-80 Memorial Workshop, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, May 2010 and at PSAS 2010 workshop, Les Houches, June 2010. To be published in the Gribov-80 Proceedings and in Can. J. Phy

Appearance of quark-hadron duality in the Rein-Sehgal model

Quark-hadron duality in neutrino-nucleon reactions is investigated under the assumption that cross sections in the resonance region are given by the Rein-Sehgal model. The quantitative analysis of the duality is done by means of appropriate integrals of the structure functions in the Nachtmann variable. We conclude that with the definition of the resonance region $W\in (M+m_{\pi}, 2$ GeV) the duality holds for neutrino-proton reaction $F_2$ structure function for $Q^2\in (0.5, 3)$ GeV$^2$ and it is absent for neutrino-neutron reaction.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, presented at NuInt05 conference, Okayama, Sept. 26-29, 200