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Claude Semay

Publications and source records attributed to Claude Semay.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Light hybrid baryons in the constituent model of QCD

Hybrid baryons, in which gluonic degrees of freedom play an explicit dynamical role, provide a key testing ground for nonperturbative quantum chromodynamics. In this work, we investigate the mass spectrum of light hybrid baryons composed of identical quarks within a phenomenological constituent framework, applied to a quark core-gluon approximation. In this approach, the hybrid baryon is described as a bound state of a color-octet three-quark core and a constituent gluon, allowing the original four-body problem to be reduced to a three-body calculation followed by an effective two-body treatment. The spectrum of the color-octet quark core is obtained by solving a semirelativistic three-quark Hamiltonian with linear confinement, Coulomb, and regularized hyperfine interactions using an oscillator basis expansion. Finite-size effects of the core are incorporated through the convolution of the effective core-gluon interaction with the spatial quark density. The resulting two-body problem, whose associated Hamiltonian has the same shape as the one of the core, is solved applying the helicity formalism and using the Lagrange mesh method. Our results predict the lightest hybrid baryons to occur at energies above $3~\mathrm{GeV}$, with negative-parity states generally lying below their positive-parity counterparts. The predicted spectra are compared with lattice QCD and QCD sum-rule calculations, showing qualitative agreement although the lowest-lying lattice QCD results are significantly lighter than the present ones. Possible extensions of the model and implications for future experimental searches are discussed.

hep-ph

Perturbative results for fractional quantum mechanics

The fractional Schr\"odinger equation is studied with a kinetic energy that slightly deviates from the usual nonrelativistic form. The harmonic oscillator and the Kepler problem are both treated in the context of small perturbations. The usual perturbation theory is used and compared with the envelope theory. The analytical results show good agreement between both methods, indicating possible future developments for many-body systems. A possible connection with experimental observations is briefly discussed.

quant-ph

A Plunge into the Chasm: Surviving Tidal Effects in Kerr Spacetime

We investigate the fate of an observer falling towards a Kerr black hole. The tidal forces are computed for arbitrary trajectories of an observer, and we specify them along the polar axis in order to remain as far as possible from the ring-shaped singularity. Our analysis shows that an observer is not tidally disrupted during the fall provided that the black hole mass exceeds a critical value, which depends on its spin. In practice, any supermassive black hole represents a suitable candidate to allow an observer to traverse the black hole without severe deformation. In contrast, stellar-mass rotating black holes do not satisfy the mass condition and are expected to subject the observer to extreme tidal forces leading to its destruction during the plunge.

gr-qc

Diquark size effects in the quark-diquark approximation for baryons

Baryons can be described within several theoretical frameworks. Among them, the constituent approach is widely used. In this context, we aim to evaluate the accuracy of a particular model of baryons: the quark-diquark approximation. It consists in separating the three-body system into two subsequent two-body ones: a pair of two quarks, the diquark, and a second system consisting of the diquark and the third quark. This approximation is widely used, but its accuracy is rarely evaluated. The goal of this work is to perform this evaluation by comparing the quark-diquark model with a three-body model, both using the same semi-relativistic interaction. The baryon masses and some characteristic distances are computed and analysed within both approaches. Additionally, an original procedure to establish the quark-diquark potential will be presented with the aim to increase the precision of this approximation. It is shown that a diquark must not necessarily be compact to obtain good baryon masses.

hep-ph

Upper bounds for critical coupling constants for binding some quantum many-body systems

When particles interact via two-body short-range central potential wells, binding can occur for some critical values of the coupling constants. Using the envelope theory, upper bounds for critical coupling constants are computed for quantum nonrelativistic systems containing identical particles and systems containing identical particles plus a different one.

quant-ph

A quark core-gluon model for heavy hybrid baryons

Besides the ordinary hadrons, QCD allows the existence of states in which excitations of the gluonic field can play the role of valence particles, either alone in a glueball, or coupled to quarks in a hybrid. So, hybrid baryons, made of three quarks and a gluon, can a priori exist. Till now, there is no experimental evidence for such exotic hadrons but experimental efforts are being made to search for them at CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer. In this work, a hybrid baryon is considered as a two-body system composed of a color octet three-quark core and a gluon, interacting via a QCD-inspired interaction. A semirelativistic potential model is built in which the dominant interaction is a potential simulating the flux tube confinement, and the Casimir scaling is assumed to link interactions between triplet and octet color sources. This picture is similar to the quark-diquark description for baryons. It is chosen in order to take properly into account the helicity of the gluon. Only $cccg$ and $bbbg$ states are considered because the strong mass asymmetry between the quark core and the gluon is expected to favor the formation of the core. As the results for heavy hybrid baryons seem relevant, we consider this paper as a proof of concept which can be extended for the study of light hybrid baryons.

hep-ph

Tests of the envelope theory for three-body forces

Many-body forces, and specially three-body forces, are sometimes a relevant ingredient in various fields, such as atomic, nuclear or hadronic physics. As their precise structure is generally difficult to uncover or to implement, phenomenological effective forces are often used in practice. A form commonly used for a many-body variable is the square-root of the sum of two-body variables. Even in this case, the problem can be very difficult to treat numerically. But this kind of many-body forces can be handled at the same level of difficulty than two-body forces by the envelope theory. The envelope theory is a very efficient technique to compute approximate, but reliable, solutions of many-body systems, specially for identical particles. The quality of this technique is tested here for various three-body forces with non-relativistic systems composed of three identical particles. The energies, the eigenfunctions, and some observables are compared with the corresponding accurate results computed with a numerical variational method.

quant-ph

The envelope theory as a pedagogical tool

The envelope theory is a reliable and easy to implement method to solve time independent Schr\"odinger-like equations (eigenvalues and eigenvectors). It is particularly useful to solve many-body systems since the computational cost is independent from the number of particles. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we want to make known a method that is probably too little used. Second, we also want to show that this method can be used as a pedagogical tool, thanks to its simplicity and the reliable results that can be obtained. To reach these goals, the envelope theory is applied to a simple problem in one dimension, the soft-Coulomb potential $-k/\sqrt{x^2+d^2}$, characterised by a bias distance $d$. Such interaction is used for the study of excitons, electron-hole bound pairs where the two charges are kept separated in two different one-dimensional regions (quantum wires). In addition to its physical interest, this system has never been treated with the envelope theory.

quant-ph

Improvement of the Envelope Theory for Systems with Different Particles

The envelope theory is a method to compute approximate eigensolutions of quantum $N$-body Hamiltonians with a quite general structure in $D$ dimensions. The advantages of the method are that it is easy to implement and that $N$ is treated as any other parameters of the Hamiltonian, allowing the computation for systems of all sizes. If solutions are reliable, they are generally not very accurate. In the case of systems with identical particles for $D \ge 2$, it is possible to improve the precision of the eigenvalues by combining the envelope theory with a generalisation to $N$-body of the dominantly orbital state method. It is shown that a similar improvement can be achieved in the case of systems composed of identical particles plus a different one. The quality of the new procedure is tested with different systems.

quant-ph

Compact equations for the envelope theory

The envelope theory is a method to easily obtain approximate, but reliable, solutions for some quantum many-body problems. Quite general Hamiltonians can be considered for systems composed of an arbitrary number of different particles in $D$ dimensions. In the case of identical particles, a compact set of 3 equations can be written to find the eigensolutions. This set provides also a nice interpretation and a starting point to improve the method. It is shown here that a similar set of 7 equations can be determined for a system containing an arbitrary number of two different particles.

quant-ph

Some specific solutions to the translation-invariant $N$-body harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian

The resolution of the Schr\"odinger equation for the translation-invariant $N$-body harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian in $D$ dimensions with one-body and two-body interactions is performed by diagonalizing a matrix $\mathbb{J}$ of order $N-1$. It has been previously established that the diagonalization can be analytically performed in specific situations, such as for $N \le 5$ or for $N$ identical particles. We show that the matrix $\mathbb{J}$ is diagonal, and thus the problem can be analytically solved, for any number of arbitrary masses provided some specific relations exist between the coupling constants and the masses. We present analytical expressions for the energies under those constraints.

quant-ph

Do bras and kets have dimensions?

The bra and ket notation introduced by Dirac and the dimensional analysis are two powerful tools for the physicist. Curiously, almost nothing is said about connections between these two topics in the literature. We show here that bras and kets have dimensions. This could help students to grasp a better comprehension of this abstract notation.

physics.ed-ph

Tests of the Envelope Theory in One Dimension

The envelope theory is a simple technique to obtain approximate, but reliable, solutions of many-body systems with identical particles. The accuracy of this method is tested here for two systems in one dimension with pairwise forces. The first one is the fermionic ground state of the analytical Calogero model with linear forces supplemented by inverse-cube forces. The second one is the ground state of up to 100 bosons interacting via a Gaussian potential. Good bounds can be obtained depending on values of the model parameters.

quant-ph

Quantum support to BoHua Sun's conjecture

A generalization of the Kepler's third law has been proposed by BoHua Sun for $N$-body periodic orbits in a Newtonian gravitation field. In this paper, it is shown that this formula can apply for a quantum system of $N$ self-gravitating identical particles, for a good choice of the period for the quantum motion.

physics.class-ph

Many-body forces with the envelope theory

Many-body forces are sometimes a relevant ingredient in various fields, such as atomic, nuclear or hadronic physics. Their precise structure is generally difficult to uncover. So, phenomenological effective forces are often used in practice. Nevertheless, they are always very heavy to treat numerically. The envelope theory, also known as the auxiliary field method, is a very efficient technique to obtain approximate, but reliable, solutions of many-body systems interacting via one- or two-body forces. It is adapted here to allow the treatment of a special form of many-body forces. In the most favourable cases, the approximate eigenvalues are analytical lower or upper bounds. Otherwise, numerical approximation can always be computed. Two examples of many-body forces are presented, and the critical coupling constants for generic attractive many-body potentials are computed. Finally, a semiclassical interpretation is given for the generic formula of the eigenvalues.

quant-ph

$c$ at the belfry

In 1849, Hippolyte Fizeau determined the speed of light in a famous experiment. The idea was to measure the time taken for a pulse of light to travel between an intense light source and a mirror about 8 km away. A rotating cogwheel with 720 notches, that could be rotated at a variable speed, was used to chop the light beam and determine the flight time. In 2017, physicists and technicians of the University of Mons in Belgium reproduced the experiment with modern devices to allow members of the public to measure the speed of light themselves. The light source used was a low power laser, and the cogwheel was replaced by an electrically driven chopper, but the general spirit of Fizeau's experiment was preserved. The exhibition was organised in the belfry of Mons, a baroque-style building classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The solutions found for the main problems encountered are presented here to help colleagues intending to reproduce the experiment.

physics.ed-ph

Three theorems of quantum mechanics and their classical counterparts

The Hellmann-Feynman, virial and comparison theorems are three fundamental theorems of quantum mechanics. For the first two, counterparts exist for classical mechanics with relativistic or nonrelativistic kinetic energy. It is shown here that these three theorems are valid for classical mechanics with a nonstandard kinetic energy. This brings some information about the connections between the quantum and classical worlds. Constraints about the functional form of the kinetic energy are also discussed.

quant-ph

Quantum and classical probability distributions for arbitrary Hamiltonian

In the limit of large quantum excitations, the classical and quantum probability distributions for a Schrödinger equation can be compared by using the corresponding WKBJ solutions whose rapid oscillations are averaged. This result is extended for one-dimensional Hamiltonians with a non-usual kinetic part. The validity of the approach is tested with a Hamiltonian containing a relativistic kinetic energy operator.

quant-ph