Phenomenology of neutral D-meson decays and double-flavour oscillations

Decays of neutral D-mesons are considered phenomenologically without invoking any particular models. Special attention is given to cascade decays with intermediate neutral kaons where coherent double-flavour oscillations (CDFO) become possible. We show necessity and unique possibilities of experiments on CDFO. They allow to relate with each other widths and masses of D-meson eigenstates, to separate interference effects due to D ⁰-ˉD ⁰ mixing and/or Cabibbo-favoured vs. doubly-suppressed transitions. Such experiments provide the only known ways to unambiguous model-independent measurements of all CP-violating parameters and of Cabibbo-doubly-suppressed amplitudes, where the New Physics may have more prominent manifestations. Similar experiments would be useful and interesting also for charged D-meson decays to neutral kaons. Received: 13 August 1998     

The E158 experiment

We have carried out a precision measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry A _PV in the scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons off electrons in a liquid-hydrogen target. The measurement was performed with the 50GeV beam line at SLAC. The final result with the full data set collected in three production runs is A _PV = - 131±14 (stat) ±10 (syst) parts per billion. The result leads to new limits on possible contact interactions at the TeV scale. We discuss future prospects for more precise measurements.     

Strangeness contributions to nucleon form factors

We review a recent theoretical determination of the strange quark content of the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon. These are compared with a global analysis of current experimental measurements in parity-violating electron scattering.     

Inelastic final-state interactions in B → VV →π K processes

We study the final-state interactions in B →π K decays through B → VV →π K processes where the inelastic rescattering occurs via single pion exchange. The next-to-leading order low-energy effective Hamiltonian and Bauer-Stech-Wirbel (BSW) model are used to evaluate the weak transition matrix elements and final-state interactions. We found that the final-state interaction effects in B →ρ K^*→π K processes are significant. The Fleischer-Mannel relation for the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) angle γ can be significantly modified. Received: 13 August 1998     

On planar fermions with quartic interaction at finite temperature and density

We study the breaking of parity symmetry in the 2+1 Gross-Neveu model at finite temperature with chemical potential μ, in the presence of an external magnetic field. We find that the requirement of gauge invariance, which is considered mandatory in the presence of gauge fields, breaks parity at any finite temperature and provides for dynamical mass generation, preventing symmetry restoration for any non-vanishing μ. The dynamical mass becomes negligibly small as temperature is raised. Received 4 April 2002 / Received in final form 12 July 2002 Published online 15 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: cabra@venus.fisica.unlp.edu.ar     

Polarization observables in elastic electron deuteron scattering including parity- and time-reversal-violating contributions

The general formalism for polarization observables in elastic electron deuteron scattering is extended to incorporate parity- and time-reversal-violating contributions. Parity-violating effects arise from the interference of γ and Z exchange as well as from the hadronic sector via a small parity-violating component in the deuteron. In addition we have allowed for time-reversal-invariance-violating contributions in the hadronic sector. Formal expressions for the additional structure functions are derived, and their decomposition into the various multipole contributions are given explicitly. Received: 19 December 2000 / Accepted: 14 February 2001     

Low-energy weak-interaction studies

An overview is given of the present status of low-energy tests of the Standard Model in nuclear beta-decay and neutron decay, covering the unitarity problem, searches for right-handed currents, scalar- and tensor-type currents, tests of time-reversal violation, as well as experiments to set the neutrino mass scale. In view of the large amount of ongoing and planned experiments in this sector, many new results can be expected in the coming decade. Received: 21 March 2002 / Accepted: 16 May 2002 / Published online: 31 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: nathal.severijns@fys.kuleuven.ac.be     

Molecular-beam scattering and pressure broadening cross sections for the acetylene-neon system

Integral cross sections and pressure broadening coefficients have been measured for the acetylene — neon system by a molecular beam scattering technique and by high infrared resolution spectroscopy, respectively. We have performed quantal calculations using an ab-initio potential energy surface (PES) [J. Chem. Phys. 109, 8968 (1998)]. Results are found to be in good agreement with both measured integral cross sections and pressure broadening coefficients for the two temperatures investigated (173 and 298 K). We have also derived a semi-empirical PES parameterized using an atom-bond pairwise additive scheme. This PES shows an isotropic component in agreement with the ab-initio calculation, reproduces the scattering data but it only leads to a reasonable agreement for the pressure broadening coefficients.     

Controlling helicity-correlated beam asymmetries in a polarized electron source

The control of helicity-correlated changes in the electron beam is a critical issue for the next generation of parity-violating electron scattering measurements. The underlying causes and methods for controlling these changes are reviewed with reference to recent operational experience at Jefferson Lab.     

P, T violating magneto-electro-optics

We study linear and bilinear magneto-electro-optical effects due to the propagation of light in centro-symmetric media in the presence of P, T violating interactions and external transverse and longitudinal electric and/or magnetic fields. We show that new magneto-electric optical effects appear. In particular, we show the existence of a Jones birefringence proportional to the square of the transverse field amplitude. All these effects are an unambiguous signature of the P, T violation, and a search for such new phenomena could also provide novel limits on electric dipole moment (EDM) of matter.     

The role of enhanced aromatic -electron donating aptitude of the tyrosyl sidechain with respect to that of phenylalanyl in intramolecular interactions

An exhaustive ab initio and DFT search for energetically stable conformers from the topologically possible set was undertaken on the N-acetyl-phenylalanyl-N-methylamide and N-acetyl-tyrosyl-N-methylamide systems. The geometries of all 81 phenylalanyl and 162 tyrosyl possible rotamers, described under the rules outlined by Multi-Dimensional Conformational Analysis (MDCA), were attempted at each of the RHF/3-21G, RHF/6-31G(d) and B3LYP/6-31G(d) levels of theory. A total of 32 and 66 stable conformational minima were found for the phenylalanyl and tyrosyl amino acid diamides, respectively, at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. From the tyrosyl set, 33 unique conformers emerge when the orientation of the A _i ³ dihedral angle (p-OH orientation) is disregarded. A total of 31 conformers were common to both sets and showed nearly identical geometries. The comparison of the optimized DFT geometries of the two systems showed near by perfect linear fits with R² values of 0.9997, 0.9994, 0.9997, and 0.9996 for the φ _i , ψ _i , A _i ¹ , and A _i ² dihedral angles, respectively. Relative energies of the matching 31 conformers also fitted to a linear plot with an R² value of 0.9985. The geometric centroid of the aromatic ring in the sidechain of both systems was found to be within 4.1 ?of the H and O atoms of the peptide groups, in 21 and 2 of the conformers, respectively. None of the non-matching conformers showed any such interaction distance ≤4.1 ?. Received 1st February 2002 / Received in final form 28 May 2002 Published online 13 September 2002     

Transmittance anomalies of a ring with lead-positional asymmetry

We examine the anomalous behavior of the transmittance through a one-dimensional ring having two branches of different lengths, as determined by the lead positions. Jumps in the transmittance phase are occurring in correspondence to both (a) zeros in the transmission at the eigenstates of the isolated ring and (b) destructive interference events. It is also found that when the ratio of the branch lengths is given by p/q satisfying p + q = 0(mod 4), the two characteristic zeros merge into a single point and the transmittance phase becomes identical to the so-called Friedel phase. Received 7 June 2002 / Received in final form 11 December 2002 Published online 4 June 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: juyeon.yi@physik.uni-regensburg.de     

Future directions in parity violation

I discuss the prospects for future studies of parity-violating (PV) interactions at low energies and the insights they might provide about open questions in the standard model as well as physics that lies beyond it. I cover four types of parity-violating observables: PV electron scattering; PV hadronic interactions; PV correlations in weak decays and searches for the permanent electric dipole moments of quantum systems.     

Widely usable interpolation formulae for hyperfine splittings in the 127I2 spectrum

Based on new systematic high precision measurements of hyperfine splittings in different rovibrational bands of ¹²⁷I₂ in the near infrared spectral range between 778 nm and 816 nm, and the data in the range from 660 nm to 514 nm available from literature, the quantum number dependence of the different hyperfine interaction parameters was reinvestigated. As detailed as possible parameters were re-fitted from the reported hyperfine splittings in literature, considering that the interaction parameters should vary smoothly with the vibrational and rotational quantum numbers, and follow appropriate physical models. This type of consistency has not been sufficiently taken into account by other authors. To our knowledge it is now possible for the first time to separate the hfs contributions of the two electronic states B ³ and X ¹ Σ ⁺ _g for optical transitions in a very large wavelength range. New interpolation formulae could be derived for both states, describing the quantum number dependences of the nuclear electric quadrupole, of the nuclear spin-rotation and also of the nuclear spin-spin interactions. Using these new interpolation formulae the hyperfine splittings for the components with the quantum number condition F - J = 0 can be calculated with an uncertainty of ≤30 kHz for transitions in the wavelength range between 514 nm and 820 nm. Received 17 July 2001 and Received in final form 17 October 2001     

Proposal of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiment with molecules

Suppose that a pair of entities which have been generated jointly from a common source are separated by an experimental device so that they cannot interact any more. Then, strictly formulating within the framework of traditional quantum mechanics, the ensemble of all pairs may be represented by either a separable or a non-separable statistical operator. The former stands for the independence of the sub-ensembles whereas the latter admits correlations (EPR correlations) due to the presence of interference or cross terms. The second-order correlation function Δ, which is also amenable by experiment, adopts different values depending on the choice of the statistical operator. So, by performing an experiment of this kind with molecules, the question could be decided whether EPR correlations appear in the molecular domain too. A detailed elaboration of the following idea is presented: let an achiral precursor molecule M₂ dissociate so that two chiral fragments of different handedness are obtained. After separation R-M (L-M) interacts in a region of space A (B) with a photon I (II) in an already known linear polarization state. The enantiomeric correlation between the fragments is thereby conferred to the photons, and the corresponding changes of the polarization state are detected for different polarizer settings to finally yield Δ. Received 10 May 2000 and Received in final form 25 August 2000     

An atomic linear Stark shift violating P but not T arising from the electroweak nuclear anapole moment

We propose a direct method of detection of the nuclear anapole moment. It is based on the existence of a linear Stark shift for alkali atoms in their ground state perturbed by a quadrupolar interaction of uniaxial symmetry around a direction and a magnetic field. This shift is characterized by the T-even pseudoscalar ( ^. )(∧ ^. )/B ². It involves on the one hand the anisotropy of the hyperfine interaction induced by the quadrupolar interaction and, on the other, the static electric dipole moment arising from electroweak interactions inside the nucleus. The case of ground state Cs atoms trapped in a uniaxial (hcp) phase of solid ⁴He is examined. From an explicit evaluation of both the hyperfine structure anisotropy and the static dipole deduced from recent empirical data about the Cs nuclear anapole moment, we predict the Stark shift. It is three times the experimental upper bound to be set on the T-odd Stark shift of free Cs atoms in order to improve the present limit on the electron EDM. Received 20 December 2000     

New results from the HAPPEX Experiments at Q<Superscript>2</Superscript> = 0.1GeV/c<Superscript>2</Superscript>

The nucleon's strange electric and magnetic form factors G _E ^s and G _M ^s can be probed via parity-violating electron scattering. The HAPPEX Collaboration has made new measurements of the parity-violating asymmetry A _PV in elastic scattering of 3GeV electrons off hydrogen and ⁴He targets with 〈θ_lab〉 ≈ 6.0^° . For ⁴He the preliminary result is A _PV = (+ 6.43±0.23(stat)±0.22(syst))×10^-6 . For hydrogen the preliminary result is A _PV = (- 1.60±0.12(stat)±0.05(syst))×10^-6 . From these values we extract G ^s _E = 0.004±0.014±0.013 at 〈Q ²〉 = 0.077 GeV/c^2 , and G ^s _E +0.09G ^s _M = 0.004±0.011±0.005 at 〈Q ²〉 = 0.109 GeV/c^2 , both consistent with zero, providing stringent new limits on the role of strange quarks in the vector structure of the nucleon.     

Structural and vibrational properties of C36 and its oligomers (C36) M = 2, 3, 4 by tight-binding molecular dynamics

Non-orthogonal tight-binding molecular-dynamics is employed to calculate structural and vibrational properties of C₃₆ and its oligomers (C₃₆) _{M = 2, 3, 4} . The lowest energy configuration of the C ₃₆ cage is confirmed to have D _6h symmetry. For the dimer, too, the D _2h structure reported in the literature is found. The vibrational spectrum is identified with the power spectrum of the displacement autocorrelation function. Additional vibrational properties are extracted from the dynamical matrix. For the monomer, fair agreement with available ab initio calculations is achieved, with comparatively smaller deviations in the Raman-frequencies than for published semi-empirical calculations. The features of the vibrational modes are correlated with the structural properties of the oligomers. Received 24 November 2000 and Received in final form 24 August 2001