Abstract: The K hindrance to the gamma decay is studied in the warm rotating W-174 nucleus, focusing on the weakening of the selection rules of the K quantum number with increasing excitation energy. W-174 was populated by the fusion reaction of Ti-50 (at 217 MeV) on a Te-128 target, and its gamma decay was detected by the AGATA Demonstrator array coupled to a BaF2 multiplicity filter at Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of INFN. A fluctuation analysis of gamma coincidence matrices gives a similar number of low-K and high-K discrete excited bands. The results are compared to simulations of the gamma-decay flow based on a microscopic cranked shell model at finite temperature in which the K mixing is governed by the interplay of Coriolis force with the residual interaction. Agreement between simulations and experiment is obtained only by hindering the E1 decay between low-K and high-K bands by an amount compatible with that determined by spectroscopic studies of K isomers in the same mass region, with a similar trend with excitation energy. The work indicates that K mixing due to temperature effects may play a leading role for the entire body of discrete excited bands, which probes the onset region of K weakening.

Abstract: The LHCb Collaboration has recently observed two narrow baryon resonances with beauty. Their masses and decay modes look consistent with the quark model orbitally excited states Lambda(b)(5912) and Lambda(b)*(5920), with quantum numbers J(P) = 1/2(-) and 3/2(-), respectively. We predict the existence of these states within a unitarized meson-baryon coupled-channel dynamical model, which implements heavy-quark spin symmetry. Masses, quantum numbers and couplings of these resonances to the different meson-baryon channels are obtained. We find that the resonances Lambda(0)(b)(5912) and Lambda(0)(b)(5920) are heavy-quark spin symmetry partners, which naturally explains their approximate mass degeneracy. Corresponding bottom-strange baryon resonances are predicted at Xi(b)(6035.4) (J(P) = 1/2(-)) and Xi(b)(6043.3) (J(P) = 3/2(-)). The two Lambda(b) and two Xi(b) resonances complete a multiplet of the combined symmetry SU(3)-flavor times heavy-quark spin.

Abstract: We present a detailed, all-order study of gluon mass generation within the massless bound-state formalism, which constitutes the general framework for the systematic implementation of the Schwinger mechanism in non-Abelian gauge theories. The main ingredient of this formalism is the dynamical formation of bound states with vanishing mass, which give rise to effective vertices containing massless poles; these latter vertices, in turn, trigger the Schwinger mechanism, and allow for the gauge-invariant generation of an effective gluon mass. This particular approach has the conceptual advantage of relating the gluon mass directly to quantities that are intrinsic to the bound-state formation itself, such as the “transition amplitude'' and the corresponding ”bound-state wave function.'' As a result, the dynamical evolution of the gluon mass is largely determined by a Bethe-Salpeter equation that controls the dynamics of the relevant wave function, rather than the Schwinger-Dyson equation of the gluon propagator, as happens in the standard treatment. The precise structure and field-theoretic properties of the transition amplitude are scrutinized in a variety of independent ways. In particular, a parallel study within the linear-covariant (Landau) gauge and the background-field method reveals that a powerful identity, known to be valid at the level of conventional Green's functions, also relates the background and quantum transition amplitudes. Despite the differences in the ingredients and terminology employed, the massless bound-state formalism is absolutely equivalent to the standard approach based on Schwinger-Dyson equations. In fact, a set of powerful relations allows one to demonstrate the exact coincidence of the integral equations governing the momentum evolution of the gluon mass in both frameworks.