Modification of Quark-Gluon Distributions in Nuclei by Correlated Nucleon Pairs.

We extend the QCD Parton Model analysis using a factorized nuclear structure model incorporating individual nucleons and pairs of correlated nucleons. Our analysis of high-energy data from lepton deep-inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan, and W and Z boson production simultaneously extracts the universal effective distribution of quarks and gluons inside correlated nucleon pairs, and their nucleus-specific fractions. Such successful extraction of these universal distributions marks a significant advance in our understanding of nuclear structure properties connecting nucleon- and parton-level quantities.

Extracting the Top-Quark Width from Nonresonant Production.

In the context of the standard model of particle physics, the relationship between the top-quark mass and width (Γ_{t}) has been precisely calculated. However, the uncertainty from current direct measurements of the width is nearly 50%. A new approach for directly measuring the top-quark width using events away from the resonance peak is presented.