119102102
Absorption features caused by oscillations of electrons on the surface of a quark star
If quark stars exist, they may be enveloped in thin electron layers (electron seas), which uniformly surround the entire star. These layers will be affected by the magnetic fields of quark stars in such a way that the electron seas would transmit hydromagnetic cyclotron waves, as studied in this paper. Particular attention is devoted to vortex hydrodynamical oscillations of the electron sea. The frequency spectrum of these oscillations is derived in analytic form. If the thermal X-ray spectra of quark stars are modulated by vortex hydrodynamical vibrations, the thermal spectra of compact stars, foremost central compact objects (CCOs) and X-ray dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs), could be used to verify the existence of these vibrational modes observationally. The central compact object 1E 1207.4-5209 appears particularly interesting in this context, since its absorption features at 0.7 keV and 1.4 keV can be comfortably explained in the framework of the hydro-cyclotron oscillation model.
118541626
H-cluster stars
The study of dense matter at ultra-high density has a very long history, which is meaningful for us to understand not only cosmic events in extreme circumstances but also fundamental laws of physics. It is well known that the state of cold matter at supra-nuclear density depends on the non-perturbative nature of quantum chromo-dynamics (QCD) and is essential for modeling pulsars. A so-called H-cluster matter is proposed in this paper as the nature of dense matter in reality. 
In compact stars at only a few nuclear densities but low temperature, quarks could be interacting strongly with each other there. That might render quarks grouped in clusters, although the hypothetical quark-clusters in cold dense matter has not been confirmed due to the lack of both theoretical and experimental evidence. Motivated by recent lattice QCD simulations of the H-dibaryons (with structure uuddss), we are therefore considering here a possible kind of quark-clusters, H-clusters, that could emerge inside compact stars during their initial cooling, as the dominant components inside (the degree of freedom could then be H-clusters there).Taking into account the in-medium stiffening effect, we find that at baryon densities of compact stars $H$-cluster matter could be more stable than nuclear matter. We also find that for the H-cluster matter with lattice structure, the equation of state could be so stiff that it would seem to be "superluminal" in most dense region. However, the real sound speed for H-cluster matter is in fact hard to calculate, so at this stage we do not put constraints on our model from the usual requirment of causality.
117033142
Are AXPs/SGRs magnetars?
Anomalous X-ray Pulsars and Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters have been generally recognized as neutron stars with super strong magnetic fields, namely "magnetars". The "magnetars" manifest that the luminosity in X-ray band are larger than the rotational energy loss rate, i.e. $L_{X}>\dot {E}_{\rm rot}$, and then the radiation energy is coming from the energy of magnetic field. Here it is argued that magnetars may not really exist. Some X-ray and radio observational results are contradicted with the magnetar model. 
(1) The X-ray luminosity of PSR J1852+0040 is much larger than the rotational energy loss rate ($L_{X}/\dot {E}_{\rm rot}\simeq 18)$, but the magnetic field is just $3.1\times 10^{11}$ G. Does this X-ray radiation energy come from the magnetic field? 
(2) In contrast to the above, the magnetic fields of radio pulsars J1847-0130 and PSR J1718-3718 are higher than that of AXP 1E 2259+586, why is the radiation energy of those two radio pulsars still coming from rotational energy? Furthermore, the magnetic field of the newly discovered SGR 0418+5729 with the lowest magnetic field is 3.0 e13 G, lower than the critical magnetic field $B_{\rm C}=4.414$ e13 G) (Esposito et al. 2010). 
(3) Some "magnetars" also emit normal transient radio pulses, what is the essential difference between radio pulsars and the "magnetars"? 
The observational fact arguments will be presented at first, then we discuss in what situation the conventional method to obtain magnetic field could not be correct.
119279262
PSR B1257+12: a quark star with planets?
A recent observation has shown that PSR B1257+12 could have quite small X‐ray emitting area, only about 2000 m2, which is more than three orders smaller than the canonical polar cap size. We suggest here that PSR B1257+12 could be a low‐mass quark star with radius of R≃0.6 km and mass of M≃3×10−4 M⊙. Such a low‐mass quark star system may form in an accretion induced collapse process or a collision process of two quark stars.
118508611
The state of cold quark matter: a model-independent view
From a model-independent point of view, we address the possibility that quark clustering could occur in cold quark matter at realistic baryon densities because of the likely strong coupling between quarks in compact stars.
118501168
The Extremely Long-period X-Ray Source in a Young Supernova Remnant: A Thorne-Żytkow Object Descendant?
The origin of the 6.67 hr period X-ray source, 1E161348-5055, in the young supernova remnant RCW 103 is puzzling. We propose that it may be the descendant of a Thorne-Żytkow Object (TŻO). A TŻO may at its formation have a rapidly spinning neutron star as a core and a slowly rotating envelope. We found that the core could be braked quickly to an extremely long spin period by the coupling between its magnetic field and the envelope, and that the envelope could be disrupted by some powerful bursts or exhausted via stellar wind. If the envelope is disrupted after the core has spun down, the core will become an extremely long-period compact object, with a slow proper motion speed, surrounded by a supernova-remnant-like shell. These features all agree with the observations of 1E161348-5055. TŻOs are expected to have produced extraordinarily high abundances of lithium and rapid proton process elements that would remain in the remnants and could be used to test this scenario.
15227858
Measurement of W pair production in e+ e- collisions at 183-GeV
Abstract The production of W + W − pairs is analysed in a data sample collected by ALEPH at a mean centre-of-mass energy of 182.7 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 57 pb −1 . Cross sections are given for different topologies of W decays into leptons or hadrons. Under Standard Model assumptions for the W-pair production and decay, the W-pair cross section is measured to be 15.57±0.62 (stat.) ±0.29 (syst.) pb . Using also the W-pair data samples collected by ALEPH at lower centre-of-mass energies, the decay branching ratio of the W boson into hadrons is measured to be B(W→hadrons) =68.93±1.21 (stat.) ±0.51 (syst.) % , allowing a determination of the CKM matrix element |V cs |=1.043±0.058 (stat.) ±0.026 (syst.) . The agreement of the cross sections with the Standard Model prediction allows a limit to be set on the W decay rate to undetectable final states.
9662073
Effect of asymmetric strange–antistrange sea to the NuTeV anomaly
Abstract We calculate the strange quark and antiquark distributions of the nucleon by using the effective chiral quark model, and find that the strange–antistrange asymmetry can bring a contribution of about 60–100% to the NuTeV deviation of sin 2 θ w from the standard value measured in other electroweak processes. The results are insensitive to different inputs. The light-flavor quark asymmetry of d ¯ – u ¯ is also investigated and found to be consistent with the experimental measurements. Therefore the chiral quark model provides a successful picture to understand the NuTeV anomaly, as well as the light-flavor quark asymmetry and the proton spin problem in previous studies.
121643356
Update of electroweak parameters fromZ decays
AbstractBased on 520 000 fermion pairs accumulated during the first three years of data collection by the ALEPH detector at LEP, updated values of the resonance parameters of theZ are determined to beMZ=(91.187±0.009) GeV, ΓZ=(2.501±0.012) GeV, σhad0=(41.60±0.27) nb, andRℓ=20.78±0.13. The corresponding number of light neutrino species isNν=2.97±0.05. The forward-backward asymmetry in lepton-pair decays is used to determine the ratio of vector to axial-vector couplings of leptons:gV2(MZ2)/gA2(MZ2)=0.0052±0.0016. Combining this with ALEPH measurements of theb andc quark asymmetries and τ polarization gives sin2θWeff=0.2326±0.0013. Assuming the minimal Standard Model, and including measurements ofMW/MZ fromp
$$\bar p$$
 colliders and neutrino-nucleon scattering, the mass of the top quark is
$$M_{top} = 156 \pm \begin{array}{*{20}c} {22} \\ {25} \\ \end{array} \pm \begin{array}{*{20}c} {17} \\ {22Higgs} \\ \end{array} $$
 GeV.
121699704
Resonant structure and flavour tagging in the Bπ±system using fully reconstructed B decays
Abstract Starting from a sample of four million hadronic Z decays collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP, 404 charged and neutral B mesons are fully reconstructed and used to look for resonant structure in the Bπ system. An excess of events is observed above the expected background in the Bπ mass spectrum at a mass ≈5.7 GeV/c 2 , consistent with the production and decay to B (∗) π of the B ∗∗ states predicted by Heavy Quark Symmetry (HQS). In the framework of HQS, it is found that the mass of the B 2 ∗ state is (5739 + 8 −11 ( stat ) +6 −4 ( syst )) MeV/c 2 and the relative production rate of the B ∗∗ system is BR(b→B ∗∗ →B (∗) π)/BR(b→B u,d )=(31±9 (stat) +6 −5 (syst)) % . In the same sample of B mesons, significant Bπ ± charge-flavour correlations are observed, which may prove important for tagging the initial B state in future CP violation studies.
121698210
Measurement of the D*+- cross-section in two photon collisions at LEP
The inclusive production of D∗± mesons in photon-photon collisions has been measured by the Aleph experiment at LEP with a beam energy of 45 GeV. The D∗+ are detected in their decay to D0π+ with the D0 observed in three separate decay modes: (1) K−π+, (2) K−π+π0 and (3) K−π+π−π+, and analagously for the D∗− modes. A total of 33 events was observed from an integrated luminosity of 73 pb−1 which corresponds to a cross section for ) of 155 ± 33 ± 21 pb. This result is compatible with both the direct production γγ → c in the Born approximation and with a more complete calculation which includes both radiative QCD corrections and contributions in which one of the photons is first resolved into its quark and gluon constituents. The shapes of distributions for events containing a D∗+ are found to be better described by the latter.