Preface: MENU-2019, the 15th International Conference on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon
In the first part I briefly survey recent issues in constituent quark models raised by the observation of unusual hadronic states. In particular I discuss the role of higher Fock components in the wave function of baryons and the possible interpretation of open charm and of new charmonium-type resonances as tetraquarks. In the second part I show support for the quark model dynamics obtained in a model independent way from the 1/Nc expansion approach of QCD which proved to be successful in describing baryon properties.
On the existence of heavy tetraquarks
Previous work done in collaboration with David Brink is reviewed in the light of the recent observation of new charmonium-like resonances which can be interpreted as tetraquarks. In the framework of a schematic quark model the spectrum of ccqq tetraquarks is presented. 1 e-mail: fstancu@ulg.ac.be
The peculiar thermo-structural behavior of the anionic lipid DMPG.
Aqueous dispersions of the anionic phospholipid dimyristoyl phosphatidylglycerol (DMPG), around 100 mM ionic strength, are known to exhibit a thermal behavior similar to that of the largely studied lipid dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC), which undergoes a gel to liquid crystalline phase transition at 23 degrees C, well characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and other methods. However, at low ionic strength, DMPG has been shown to present a large gel-fluid transition region, ranging from 18 to 35 degrees C. This intermediate phase is optically transparent and characterized by a continuous change in membrane packing. Structural properties of the DMPG gel-fluid transition region will be discussed, based on results obtained by several techniques: electron spin resonance (ESR) of spin labels at the membrane surface and intercalated at different depths in the bilayer; light scattering; DSC; small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS); and fluorescence spectroscopy of probes in the bilayer.