$J/\psi$ gluonic dissociation revisited: I. Fugacity,flux and formation time effects

We revisit the standard treatment due to Xu et al. of suppression due to gluonic bombardment in an equilibrating quark-gluon plasma. Effects arising from gluon fugacity, relative g- flux, and meson formation time are explicitly incorporated in the formulation of the gluon number density, velocity-weighted cross section, and the survival probability. Our new formulae are applied to a numerical study of the pattern of suppression in the central rapidity region at RHIC/LHC energies. The temperature and transverse momentum dependence of our graphs have noticeable differences from those of Xu et al.Received: 27 February 2004, Revised: 3 June 2004, Published online: 6 August 2004     

Twist-3 distribution amplitudes of the pion and kaon from the QCD sum rules

Twist-3 distribution amplitudes of the pion and kaon are studied in this paper. We calculate the first several moments for the twist-3 distribution amplitudes ( and ) of the pion and kaon by applying the QCD sum rules. Our results show that (i) the first three moments of and the first two moments of and of the pion and kaon can be obtained with 30 uncertainty; (ii) the fourth moment of the and the second moment of the can be obtained when the uncertainty are relaxed to 35 ; (iii) the fourth moment of the can be obtained only when the uncertainty are relaxed to 40 ; (iv) we have and after including the -corrections to the perturbative part. These moments will be helpful for constructing the twist-3 wave functions of the pion and kaon.Received: 6 January 2005, Revised: 29 March 2005, Published online: 22 June 2005PACS: 13.20.He, 11.55.Hx     

Measurement of charm fragmentation ratios and fractionsin photoproduction at HERA

The production of , D⁰, D ⁺ , D_s ⁺ and charm hadrons and their antiparticles in e p scattering at HERA was measured with the ZEUS detector using an integrated luminosity of . The measurement has been performed in the photoproduction regime with the exchanged-photon virtuality and for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range . The charm hadrons were reconstructed in the range of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity . The production cross sections were used to determine the ratio of neutral and charged D-meson production rates, , the strangeness-suppression factor, , and the fraction of charged D mesons produced in a vector state, . The measured and values agree with those obtained in deep inelastic scattering and in e ⁺ e^- annihilations. The measured value is smaller than, but consistent with, the previous measurements. The fractions of c quarks hadronising as a particular charm hadron, , were derived in the given kinematic range. The measured open-charm fragmentation fractions are consistent with previous results, although the measured is smaller and is larger than those obtained in e ⁺ e^- annihilations. These results generally support the hypothesis that fragmentation proceeds independently of the hard sub-process. Received: 12 August 2005, Revised: 8 September 2005, Published online: 6 October 2005     

Exclusive semileptonic rare decays $B \to K^{(*)} l^ + l^-$ in a SUSY SO(10) GUT

In the SUSY SO(10) GUT context, we study the exclusive processes . Using the Wilson coefficients of the relevant operators including the new operators which are induced by neutral Higgs boson (NHB) penguins, we evaluate some possible observables associated with these processes like the invariant mass spectrum (IMS), lepton pair forward-backward asymmetry (FBA), lepton polarization asymmetries etc. In this model the contributions from Wilson coefficients , among new contributions, are dominant. Our results show that the NHB effects are sensitive to the FBA, , and of decay, which are expected to be measured in B factories, the deviation of in can reach 0.1 from SM, which could be seen in B factories, and the average of the normal polarization can reach several percent for and it is 0.05 or so for , which could be measured in the future super B factories and provide useful information to probe new physics and discriminate different models.Received: 30 October 2004, Published online: 9 March 2005     

Multijet production in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA and determination of $\alpha_s$

Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities . The data were taken at the ep collider HERA with centre-of-mass energy using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of . Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the k_T cluster algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of differential dijet and trijet cross sections are presented as functions of jet transverse energy ( ), pseudorapidity ( ) and Q² with and . Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant , determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is . Received: 1 April 2005, Revised: 28 June 2005, Published online: 30 August 2005     

Probing the light neutral Higgs boson scenario of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">CP</Emphasis>-violating MSSM Higgs sector at the LHC

In the CP-violating minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), for certain values of the CP-violating phases associated to the universal trilinear couplings (A_t, A_b) and the gluino mass , e.g., or , for GeV and -5, the lightest Higgs boson mass ( ) is GeV. This mass interval is still allowed by results of standard LEP Higgs searches because of a strongly suppressed H₁ZZ coupling. However, in the same region of parameter space in which these two conditions occur, the coupling is enhanced because the two mentioned sets of couplings satisfy a sum rule. In this paper we probe such a light Higgs scenario at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by studying associate production, leading to a signal. We show that the latter is readily accessible at the CERN hadron collider, upon the application of suitable selection cuts against the standard model (SM) backgrounds. Our parton level Monte Carlo (MC) analysis yields -45 signal events, completely free of SM background, for - 30 fb^-1 of accumulated luminosity, after taking into account the overall efficiency for tagging four b-jets.Received: 21 February 2005, Published online: 6 July 2005     

e<Superscript> + </Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript>-pair production in Pb-Au collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

We present the combined results on electron-pair production in 158 GeV/n Pb-Au ( = 17.2 GeV) collisions taken at the CERN SPS in 1995 and 1996, and give a detailed account of the data analysis. The enhancement over the reference of neutral meson decays amounts to a factor of 2.31 for semi-central collisions (28 ) when yields are integrated over m > 200 MeV/c² in invariant mass. The measured yield, its stronger-than-linear scaling with , and the dominance of low pair p_t strongly suggest an interpretation as thermal radiation from pion annihilation in the hadronic fireball. The shape of the excess centring at 500 MeV/c², however, cannot be described without strong medium modifications of the meson. The results are put into perspective by comparison to predictions from Brown-Rho scaling governed by chiral symmetry restoration, and from the spectral-function many-body treatment in which the approach to the phase boundary is less explicit.Received: 2 March 2005, Published online: 8 June 2005     

Tachyonic cyclotron radiation

We study superluminal cyclotron emission by electrons and muons in semiclassical orbits. The tachyonic line spectra of hydrogenic ions such as , , and , as well as their muonic counterparts , and are calculated, in particular the tachyonic power transversally and longitudinally radiated, the total intensity, and the power radiated in the individual harmonics. We also investigate tachyonic continuum radiation from electrons and protons cycling in the surface and light cylinder fields of -ray and millisecond pulsars, such as the Crab pulsar, PSR B1509-58, and PSR J0218 + 4232. The superluminal spectral densities generated by non-relativistic, mildly relativistic and ultra-relativistic source particles are derived. We study the parameters determining the global shape of the transversal and longitudinal densities and the energy scales of the broadband spectrum. The observed cutoff frequency in the -ray band of the pulsars is used to infer the upper edge of the orbital energy, and we conclude that electrons and nuclei cycling in the surface fields can reach energies beyond the "ankle" of the cosmic ray spectrum. This suggests -ray pulsars as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Arrival of the final proofs: 17 November 2005 PACS: 41.60.Ap, 11.10.Lm, 36.10.Dr, 98.70.Sa     

The $\beta$-function in duality-covariant non-commutative $\phi^4$-theory

We compute the one-loop -functions describing the renormalisation of the coupling constant and the frequency parameter for the real four-dimensional duality-covariant non-commutative -model, which is renormalisable to all orders. The contribution from the one-loop four-point function is reduced by the one-loop wavefunction renormalisation, but the -function remains non-negative. Both and vanish at the one-loop level for the duality-invariant model characterised by . Moreover, also vanishes in the limit , which defines the standard non-commutative -quantum field theory. Thus, the limit exists at least at the one-loop level.Received: 19 March 2004, Published online: 5 May 2004     

The $\eta_{c}(2980)$ formation in two-photon collisions at LEP energies

production in interactions has been detected via its decays into ,K ⁺ K ^- K ⁺ K ^- and in the data taken with the DELPHI detector at LEP1 and LEP2 energies. The two-photon radiative width averaged over all observed decay channels is = 13.9 2.0 (stat.) 1.4(syst.) 2.7 (BR) keV. No direct decay channel has been observed. An upper limit < 5.5 keV at 95% confidence level has been evaluated for this decay mode.Received: 3 July 2003, Published online: 7 November 2003     

Factorisation,parton entanglement and the Drell-Yan process

We discuss the angular distribution of the lepton pair in the Drell-Yan process, . This process gives information on the spin-density matrix of the annihilating quark-antiquark pair in . There is strong experimental evidence that even for unpolarised initial hadrons is non-trivial, and therefore the quark-antiquark system is polarised. We discuss the possibilities of a general - which could be entangled - and a factorising . We argue that instantons may lead to a non-trivial of the type indicated by experiments.Received: 6 December 2004, Published online: 9 February 2005     

Flavour-independent h<Superscript>0</Superscript>A<Superscript>0</Superscript> search and two Higgs doublet model interpretation of neutral Higgs boson searches at LEP

Upper limits on the cross-section of the pair-production process , assuming 100 branching fraction to hadrons, are derived from a new search for the hadrons final state, independently of the hadronic flavour of the decay products. This study, combined with previously published searches for the neutral Higgs bosons h⁰ and A⁰, is used to constrain the Type II Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM(II)) with no CP violation in the Higgs sector and no additional non-Standard Model particles besides the five Higgs bosons. The analysis combines LEP1 and LEP2 data collected with the OPAL detector up to the highest available centre-of-mass energies. The searches are sensitive to the and decay modes of the Higgs bosons. A benchmark scan of the 2HDM(II) parameter space is performed. Large regions of the 2HDM(II) parameter space explored are excluded at the 95% CL in the ( and planes, using both direct neutral Higgs boson searches and indirect limits derived from Standard Model high precision measurements. The region GeV and GeV is excluded at 95 % CL, independently of and for selected values of which are representative of a complete -scan.Received: 28 July 2004, Revised: 4 January 2005, Published online: 3 March 2005     

Study of B c → D π in the perturbative QCD approach

We investigate the branching ratios and direct CP-asymmetries of the and decays in the PQCD approach. All the diagrams with emission topology or annihilation topology are calculated strictly. A branching ratio of 10^-6 and 10^-7 for and decay is predicted, respectively. Because of the different weak phase and strong phase from penguin operator and two kinds of tree operator contributions, we predict a possible large direct CP-violation: and when γ = 55°, which can be tested in the coming LHC. PACS: 13.25.Hw, 12.38.Bx     

A flavor symmetry for quasi-degenerate neutrinos: L_\mu - L_\tau

We consider the flavor symmetry for the neutrino mass matrix. The most general neutrino mass matrix conserving predicts quasi-degenerate neutrino masses with one maximal and two zero mixing angles. The presence of can also be motivated by the near-bimaximal form of the neutrino mixing matrix. Furthermore, it is a special case of symmetric mass matrices. Breaking the flavor symmetry by adding a small flavor-blind term to the neutrino mass matrix and/or by applying radiative corrections is shown to reproduce the observed neutrino oscillation phenomenology. Both the normal and inverted mass ordering can be accommodated within this scheme. Moderate cancellation for neutrinoless double beta decay is expected. The observables |U _e3|² and are proportional to the inverse of the fourth power of the common neutrino mass scale. We comment on whether the atmospheric neutrino mixing is expected to lie above or below . We finally present a model based on the see-saw mechanism which generates a light neutrino mass matrix with an (approximate) flavor symmetry. This is a minimal model with just one standard Higgs doublet and three heavy right-handed neutrinos. It needs only small values for the soft breaking terms to reproduce the phenomenological viable mass textures analyzed.Received: 18 November 2004, Revised: 13 December 2004, Published online: 15 February 2005     

Low mass dilepton production at RHIC energies

Recent results on low mass dilepton measurements from the PHENIX experiment are reported. Invariant mass spectra of are measured for the first time in Au-Au collisions at GeV in Run2. In d-Au collisions, the yields and M_T slopes of both and are measured. Both results are consistent with each other within errors. In the future, a Hadron Blind Detector will be installed in PHENIX which will enhance our capabilities of rejecting external photon conversions and Dalitz pairs, that will result in a significant reduction of the large combinatorial background. ^* Deceased Spokesperson     

Neutral pion production in d-Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

In this paper, preliminary results are presented on high inclusive neutral pion measurements in d-Au collisions at GeV in the pseudo-rapidity range . Photons from the decay are detected in the Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter of the STAR experiment at RHIC. The analysis of this first BEMC hadron measurement is described in detail. The results are compared to earlier RHIC findings. Furthermore, the obtained invariant differential cross sections show good agreement with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations. Arrival of the final proofs: 4 July 2005 PACS: 25.75.-q     

$J/\psi$ gluonic dissociation revisited: II. Hydrodynamic expansion effects

We explicitly take into account the effect of the hydrodynamic expansion profile on the gluonic break-up of the 's produced in an equilibrating parton plasma. Attention is paid to the space-time inhomogeneities as well as Lorentz frames while deriving new expressions for the gluon number density n_g, the average dissociation rate , and the survival probability of , S. A novel type of partial wave interference mechanism is found to operate in the formula of . A non-relativistic longitudinal expansion from the small length of the initial cylinder is found to push the S(p_T) graph above the no flow case considered by us earlier [9]. However, the relativistic flow corresponding to the large length of the initial cylinder pushes the curve of S(p_T) downwards at LHC but upwards at RHIC. This mutually different effect on S(p_T) may be attributed to the different initial temperatures generated at LHC and RHIC. Received: 16 March 2005, Published online: 27 September 2005 PACS: 12.38.Mh     

Impact of four-quark shape functions on inclusive B decay spectra

It has recently been pointed out that a new class of subleading shape functions involving B-meson matrix elements of non-local four-quark operators contributes at order to decay distributions in the endpoint region. The corresponding functions and are estimated using the vacuum-insertion approximation. A numerical analysis of various decay spectra suggests that these power corrections are very small, below present theoretical uncertainties due to other subleading shape-function contributions. Received: 29 June 2005, Published online: 13 September 2005     

Search for a narrow charmed baryonic state decaying to $D^{\ast \pm} p^\mp$in ep collisions at HERA

A resonance search has been made in the invariant-mass spectrum with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of . The decay channels and (and the corresponding antiparticle decays) were used to identify mesons. No resonance structure was observed in the mass spectrum from more than 60 000 reconstructed mesons. The results are not compatible with a report of the H1 Collaboration of a charmed pentaquark, .Received: 14 September 2004, Revised: 29 September 2004, Published online: 9 November 2004     

Application of the two-scale model to the HERMES data on nuclear attenuation

The two-scale model and its improved version were used to perform a fit to the HERMES data for the (the virtual photon energy) and z (the fraction of carried by hadron) dependences of the nuclear multiplicity ratios for and mesons electro-produced on two nuclear targets (¹⁴N and ⁸⁴Kr). The quantitative criterion was used for the first time to analyze the results of the model fit to the nuclear multiplicity ratios data. The two-parameter's fit gave satisfactory agreement with the HERMES data. Best values of the parameters were then used to calculate the and z dependences of the nuclear attenuation for , K ⁺ , K^-, and produced on the ⁸⁴Kr target, and also make predictions for , z, and the Q² (the photon virtuality) dependences of the nuclear attenuation data for those identified hadrons and nuclei that will be published by HERMES. Received: 10 February 2005, Revised: 7 July 2005, Published online: 13 September 2005 L. Grigoryan Supported by DESY, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron.