We show that parity-violating deep-inelastic scattering (PVDIS) of longitudinally polarized electrons from deuterium can in principle be a relatively clean probe of higher twist quark-quark correlations beyond the parton model. As first observed by Bjorken and Wolfenstein, the dominant contribution to the electron polarization asymmetry, proportional to the axial vector electron coupling, receives corrections at twist four from the matrix element of a single four-quark operator. We reformulate the Bjorken-Wolfenstein argument in a matter suitable for the interpretation of experiments planned at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). In particular, we observe that because the contribution of the relevant twist-four operator satisfies the CallanGross relation, the ratio of parity-violating longitudinal and transverse cross sections, R γ Z , is identical to that for purely electromagnetic scattering, R γ , up to perturbative and power-suppressed contributions. This result simplifies the interpretation of the asymmetry in terms of other possible novel hadronic and electroweak contributions. We use the results of MIT Bag Model calculations to estimate contributions of the relevant twist-four operator to the leading term in the asymmetry as a function of Bjorken x and Q 2 . We compare these estimates with possible leading twist corrections from violation of charge symmetry in the parton distribution functions.

A statistical analysis of simultaneous observations of more than 800 hailstorms over the continental United States performed by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and the ground-based Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) network has been carried out. Several distinctive features of DPR measurements of hail-bearing columns, potentially exploitable by hydrometeor classification algorithms, are identified. In particular, the height and the strength of the Ka-band reflectivity peak show a strong relationship with the hail shaft area within the instrument field of view (FOV). Signatures of multiple scattering (MS) at the Ka band are observed for a range of rimed particles, including but not exclusively for hail. MS amplifies uncertainty in the effective Ka reflectivity estimate and has a negative impact on the accuracy of dual-frequency rainfall retrievals at the ground. The hydrometeor composition of convective cells presents a large inhomogeneity within the DPR FOV. Strong nonuniform beamfilling (NUBF) introduces large ambiguities in the attenuation correction at Ku and Ka bands, which additionally hamper quantitative retrievals. The effective detection of profiles affected by MS is a very challenging task, since the inhomogeneity within the DPR FOV may result in measurements that look remarkably like MS signatures. The shape of the DPR reflectivity profiles is the result of the complex interplay between the scattering properties of the different hydrometeors, NUBF, and MS effects, which significantly reduces the ability of the DPR system to detect hail at the ground.

We analyze the degree to which parity-violating (PV) electroexcitation of the ∆(1232) resonance may be used to extract the weak neutral axial vector transition form factors. We find that the axial vector electroweak radiative corrections are large and theoretically uncertain, thereby modifying the nominal interpretation of the PV asymmetry in terms of the weak neutral form factors. We also show that, in contrast to the situation for elastic electron scattering, the axial N → ∆ PV asymmetry does not vanish at the photon point as a consequence of a new term entering the radiative corrections. We argue that an experimental determination of these radiative corrections would be of interest for hadron structure theory, possibly shedding light on the violation of Hara's theorem in weak, radiative hyperon decays.

We compute the chiral corrections to octet baryon axial vector currents through O(p 3 ) in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory, including both octet and decuplet baryon intermediate states. We include the latter in a consistent way by using the small scale expansion. We find that, in contrast to the situation at O(p 2 ), there exist no cancellations between octet and decuplet contributions at O(p 3 ). Consequently, the O(p 3 ) corrections spoil the expected scaling behavior of the chiral expansion. We discuss this result in terms of the 1/N c expansion. We also consider the implications for the determination of the strange quark contribution to the nucleon spin from polarized deep inelastic scattering data.