$J/\psi$ 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     

Exclusive photoproduction of a heavy vector meson in QCD

The process of exclusive heavy vector meson photoproduction, , is studied in the framework of QCD factorization. The mass of the produced meson, or , provides a hard scale for the process. We demonstrate that, in the heavy quark limit and at the one-loop order in perturbation theory, the amplitude factorizes in a convolution of a perturbatively calculable hard-scattering amplitude with the generalized parton densities and the non-relativistic QCD matrix element . We evaluate the hard-scattering amplitude at one-loop order and compare the data with theoretical predictions using an available model for generalized parton distributions.Received: 22 January 2004, Published online: 23 March 2004     

A new measurement of $J/\psi$ suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

We present a new measurement of production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon, from the data sample collected in year 2000 by the NA50 Collaboration, under improved experimental conditions with respect to previous years. With the target system placed in vacuum, the setup was better adapted to study, in particular, the most peripheral nuclear collisions with unprecedented accuracy. The analysis of this data sample shows that the cross-sections ratio measured in the most peripheral Pb-Pb interactions is in good agreement with the nuclear absorption pattern extrapolated from the studies of proton-nucleus collisions. Furthermore, this new measurement confirms our previous observation that the cross-sections ratio departs from the normal nuclear absorption pattern for semi-central Pb-Pb collisions and that this ratio persistently decreases up to the most central collisions. Received: 25 August 2004, Revised: 15 December 2004, Published online: 21 January 2005     

ATLAS sensitivity to top quark and W boson polarizationin $t\bar{t}$ events

The inelastic production of mesons in ep collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of . The mesons were identified using the decay channel . The measurements were performed in the kinematic range , , 0.2 < z < 0.9 and , where Q² is the virtuality of the exchanged photon, W is the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy, z is the fraction of the photon energy carried by the meson in the proton rest frame and is the rapidity of the in the laboratory frame. The measured cross sections are compared to theoretical predictions within the non-relativistic QCD framework including colour-singlet and colour-octet contributions, as well as to predictions based on the k_T-factorisation approach. Calculations of the colour-singlet process generally agree with the data, whereas inclusion of colour-octet terms spoils this agreement.Received: 18 May 2005, Revised: 24 June 2005, Published online: 27 July 2005     

Direct fragmentation of quarkonia including Fermi motionusing light-cone wave function

We investigate the effect of Fermi motion on the direct fragmentation of the and states employing a light-cone wave function. Consistent with such a wave function we set up the kinematics of a heavy quark fragmenting into quarkonia such that the Fermi motion of the constituents splits into a longitudinal as well as a transverse direction and thus calculate the fragmentation functions for these states. In the framework of our investigation, we estimate that the fragmentation probabilities of and may increase at least up to 14 percent when including this degree of freedom. Received: 11 May 2004, Revised: 23 April 2005, Published online: 31 May 2005 PACS: 13.87.Fh, 13.85.Ni, 12.38.Bx, 12.39.Hg An erratum to this article is available at .     

An analysis of the time-dependent CP asymmetryin $B \to \pi \pi$ decays in the standard model

Measurements of the time-dependent CP-asymmetry in the decay and its charge conjugate by the BELLE and BABAR collaborations currently yield and , characterizing the direct and mixing-induced CP-asymmetries, respectively. We study the implication of these measurements on the CKM phenomenology taking into account the available information in the quark mixing sector. Our analysis leads to the results that the ratio |P _c /T _c | involving the QCD-penguin and tree amplitudes and the related strong phase difference in the decays are quite substantial. Using the isospin symmetry to constrain |P _c /T _c | and , where parameterizes the penguin-induced contribution, we present a fit of the current data including the measurements of and . Our best-fits yield , , , , and . At 68% C.L., the ranges are , , , and . Currently en vogue dynamical approaches to estimate the hadronic matrix elements in decays do not provide a good fit of the current data.Received: 5 April 2004, Published online: 14 July 2004A.Ya. Parkhomenko: On leave of absence from Department of Theoretical Physics, Yaroslavl State University, Sovietskaya 14, 150000 Yaroslavl, Russia.     

CP asymmetry in $B \rightarrow \phi K_{S}$ in a general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-generation quarks

We discuss the time-dependent CP asymmetry of the decay in an extension of the standard model with both a two Higgs doublet and additional fourth-generation quarks. We show that, although the standard model with a two Higgs doublet and the standard model with fourth-generation quarks alone are not likely to largely change the effective from the decay , the model with both an additional Higgs doublet and fourth-generation quarks can easily account for the possible large negative value of without conflicting with other experimental constraints. In this model, additional large CP violating effects may arise from the flavor-changing Yukawa interactions between neutral Higgs bosons and the heavy fourth-generation down type quark, which can modify the QCD penguin contributions. With the constraints obtained from processes such as and , this model can lead to an effective as large as - 0.4 in the CP asymmetry of .Received: 25 March 2004, Revised: 20 April 2004, Published online: 18 June 2004     

Strange particle production at RHIC in the dual parton model

We compute the mid-rapidity densities of pions, kaons, baryons and antibaryons in Au-Au collisions at GeV in the dual parton model supplemented with final state interaction (comovers interaction). The ratios ( ) increase between peripheral ( ) and central ( collisions by a factor 2.4 (2.0) for the , 4.8 (4.1) for the and 16.5 (13.5) for the . The ratio increases by a factor 1.3 in the same centrality range. A comparison with the available data is presented.Received: 28 April 2003, Published online: 11 July 2003     

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     

New J/\psi suppression data and the comovers interaction model

New data on the suppression both in proton-nucleus and in lead-lead interactions have been presented recently by the NA50 collaboration. We show that these data, together with the final ones on sulfur-uranium interactions, can be described in the framework of the comovers interaction model with a unique set of three parameters: the nuclear absorption cross-section, the comovers interaction cross-section and a single (rescaled) absolute normalization. Expectations for suppression at RHIC are also discussed.Received: 3 April 2003, Published online: 11 July 2003     

Measurement of the strange spectral function in hadronic \tau decays

Tau lepton decays with open strangeness in the final state are measured with the OPAL detector at LEP to determine the strange hadronic spectral function of the lepton. The decays , and with final states consisting of neutral and charged kaons and pions have been studied. The invariant mass distributions of of these final states have been experimentally determined. Monte Carlo simulations have been used for the remaining and for the strange final states including mesons. The reconstructed strange final states, corrected for resolution effects and detection efficiencies, yield the strange spectral function of the lepton. The moments of the spectral function and the ratio of strange to non-strange moments, which are important input parameters for theoretical analyses, are determined. Furthermore, the branching fractions and have been measured.Received: 18 February 2004, Revised: 30 April 2004, Published online: 15 June 2004     

Open and hidden charm production in dA collisions at RHIC and LHC

We discuss aspects of open and hidden charm production in deuterium-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. We describe calculations of the total cross section and the charm quark transverse momentum distributions. We next explain how shadowing and moderate nuclear absorption can explain the PHENIX d Au/pp ratios and predict the combined effect of shadowing and absorption in 6.2 TeV d + Pb collisions.Arrival of the final proofs: 28 April 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     

Scale dependent partitioning of one-dimensional aperiodic set diffraction

We give a multiresolution partition of pure point parts of diffraction patterns of one-dimensional aperiodic sets. When an aperiodic set is related to the Golden Ratio, denoted by , it is well known that the pure point part of its diffractive measure is supported by the extension ring of , denoted by . The partition we give is based on the formalism of the so called -integers, denoted by . The set of -integers is a selfsimilar set obeying , . The pure point spectrum is then partitioned with respect to this Russian doll like sequence of subsets . Thus we deduce the partition of the pure point part of the diffractive measure of aperiodic sets.Received: 24 March 2004, Published online: 12 July 2004PACS: 61.44.Br Quasicrystals - 61.10.Dp Theories of diffraction and scattering     

An analysis of $B \to \eta' K$ decays using a global fit in QCD factorization

In the framework of QCD factorization, we study decays. In order to more reliably determine the phenomenological parameters X _H and X _A arising from end-point divergences in the hard spectator scattering and weak annihilation contributions, we use the global analysis for twelve and VP decay modes, such as , , , , et cetera, but excluding the modes whose (dominant) internal quark-level process is . Based on the global analysis, we critically investigate possible magnitudes of X _H,A and find that both large and small X _H,A terms are allowed by the global fit. In the case of the large X _H,A effects, the standard model (SM) prediction of the branching ratios (BRs) for is large and well consistent with the experimental results. In contrast, in the case of the small X _H,A effects, the SM prediction for these BRs is smaller than the experimental data. Motivated by the recent Belle measurement of through , if we take into account possible new physics effects on the quark-level process , we can explicitly show that these large BRs can be understood even in the small X _H,A case. Specifically, we present two new physics scenarios: R-parity violating SUSY and R-parity conserving SUSY.Received: 28 April 2004, Revised: 12 July 2004, Published online: 7 September 2004     

The rare annihilation decays $\bar{B}^0_{s,d} \to J/\psi\gamma$

We investigate the physics potential of the annihilation decays in the standard model and beyond. In a naive factorization approach, the branching ratios are estimated to be and . In the framework of QCD factorization, we compute the non-factorizable corrections and get , . Future measurements of these decays would be useful for testing the factorization frameworks. The smallness of these decays in the SM makes them sensitive probes of new physics. As an example, we will consider the possible admixture of the (V + A) charge current to the standard (V-A) current. This admixture will give a significant contribution to the decays.Received: 29 August 2003, Revised: 17 January 2004, Published online: 19 March 2004Corresponding author: Y.D. Yang     

Resumming QCD vacuum fluctuations in three-flavor Chiral Perturbation Theory

Due to its light mass, of order , the strange quark can play a special role in chiral symmetry breaking ( SB): differences in the pattern of SB in the limits N_f = 2 ( , m_s physical) and N_f = 3 ( ) may arise due to vacuum fluctuations of pairs, related to the violation of the Zweig rule in the scalar sector and encoded in particular in the O(p⁴) low-energy constants L₄ and L₆. In case of large fluctuations, we show that the customary treatment of SU(3) x SU(3) chiral expansions generates instabilities upsetting their convergence. We develop a systematic program to cure these instabilities by resumming non-perturbatively vacuum fluctuations of pairs, in order to extract information about SB from experimental observations even in the presence of large fluctuations. We advocate a Bayesian framework for treating the uncertainties due to the higher orders. As an application, we present a three-flavor analysis of the low-energy scattering and show that the recent experimental data imply a lower bound on the quark mass ratio at 95% confidence level. We outline how additional information may be incorporated to further constrain the pattern of SB in the N_f = 3 chiral limit.Received: 2 December 2003, Published online: 3 March 2004J. Stern: stern@ipno.in2p3.fr     

Waiting for the discovery of $B^0_d\to K^0\bar K^0$

The CP asymmetries of the decay , which originates from flavor-changing neutral-current processes, and its CP-averaged branching ratio BR offer interesting avenues to explore flavor physics. We show that we may characterize this channel, within the standard model, in a theoretically clean manner through a surface in observable space. In order to extract the relevant information from BR , further information is required, which is provided by the system and the SU(3) flavor symmetry, where we include the leading factorizable SU(3)-breaking corrections and discuss how experimental insights into non-factorizable effects can be obtained. We point out that the standard model implies a lower bound for BR , which is very close to its current experimental upper bound, thereby suggesting that this decay should soon be observed. Moreover, we explore the implications for color suppression in the system, and convert the data for these modes in a peculiar standard-model pattern for the CP-violating observables.Received: 3 August 2004, Published online: 15 November 2004     

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     

Hadrons with charmed quarks in matter

We investigate the decay width of excited charmonium states at finite nuclear density with simultaneous modification of both D- and -mesons in nuclear matter. The strongest effect is found for the -meson. The medium modification can be detected by dilepton spectroscopy as substantial broadening and anomalous absorption.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 13.25.Gv Decays of , , and other quarkonia - 14.40.Lb Charmed mesons - 14.65.Dw Charmed quarks - 24.85. + p Quarks, gluons, and QCD in nuclei and nuclear processes