Abstract: The spectrum of the negative-parity spin-1/2 Lambda baryons is studied using lattice QCD and hadronic effective theory in a unitarized coupled-channel framework. A direct comparison between the two approaches is possible by considering the hadronic effective theory in a finite volume and with hadron masses and mesonic decay constants that correspond to the situation studied on the lattice. Comparing the energy level spectrum and SU(3) flavor decompositions of the individual states, it is found that the lowest two states extracted from lattice QCD can be associated with one of the two Lambda(1405)-poles and the Lambda(1670) resonance. The quark mass dependences of these two lattice QCD levels are in good agreement with their effective theory counterparts. However, as current lattice QCD studies still rely on three-quark operators to generate the physical states, clear signals corresponding to the meson-baryon scattering states, that appear in the finite volume effective theory calculation, are not yet seen.

Abstract: In this paper, we present a review of recent works on weak decay of heavy mesons and baryons with two mesons, or a meson and a baryon, interacting strongly in the final state. The aim is to learn about the interaction of hadrons and how some particular resonances are produced in the reactions. It is shown that these reactions have peculiar features and act as filters for some quantum numbers which allow to identify easily some resonances and learn about their nature. The combination of basic elements of the weak interaction with the framework of the chiral unitary approach allow for an interpretation of results of many reactions and add a novel information to different aspects of the hadron interaction and the properties of dynamically generated resonances.

Abstract: In a well-established many-body framework, successful in modeling a great variety of nuclear processes, we analyze the role of the spectral functions (SFs) accounting for the modifications of the dispersion relation of nucleons embedded in a nuclear medium. We concentrate in processes mostly governed by one-body mechanisms, and study possible approximations to evaluate the particle hole propagator using SFs. We also investigate how to include together SFs and long-range RPA-correlation corrections in the evaluation of nuclear response functions, discussing the existing interplay between both type of nuclear effects. At low energy transfers (<= 50 MeV), we compare our predictions for inclusive muon and radiative pion captures in nuclei, and charge-current (CC) neutrino-nucleus cross sections with experimental results. We also present an analysis of intermediate energy quasi-elastic neutrino scattering for various targets and both neutrino and antineutrino CC driven processes. In all cases, we pay special attention to estimate the uncertainties affecting the theoretical predictions. In particular, we show that errors on the a,,sigma(mu)/sigma(e) ratio are much smaller than 5%, and also much smaller than the size of the SF+RPA nuclear corrections, which produce significant effects, not only in the individual cross sections, but also in their ratio for neutrino energies below 400 MeV. These latter nuclear corrections, beyond Pauli blocking, turn out to be thus essential to achieve a correct theoretical understanding of this ratio of cross sections of interest for appearance neutrino oscillation experiments. We also briefly compare our SF and RPA results to predictions obtained within other representative approaches.