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     

Isospin constraints from/on $B \to \pi\pi$

The Standard Model constraints on which can be derived from the decays are revisited in some depth. As experimental inputs, the , decays complemented by the decays, the CP parameters and , and/or the value of as determined by the global CKM fit are used. The constraints discussed here are model independent in the sense that they rely only on Isospin symmetry, following the Gronau-London proposal. A new bound on and the function are introduced. While another bound applied to BABAR results is shown to imply that is negative. The Grossman-Quinn bound is rediscussed. A close form expression is given for as a function of the measurements. Various scenarios for the future of the isospin analysis are explored. To probe the Standard Model the plane is introduced.Received: 17 December 2004, Published online: 25 January 2005     

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     

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.     

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     

Spectra and decays of $\pi \pi$ and $\pi K$ atoms

We describe the spectra and decays of and atoms within a non-relativistic effective field theory. The evaluations of the energy shifts and widths are performed at next-to-leading order in isospin symmetry breaking. We provide general formulae for all S-states, and discuss the states with angular momentum one in some detail. The prediction for the lifetime of the atom in its ground state yields s.Received: 9 May 2004, Published online: 23 July 2004     

Search for anomalous weak dipole moments of the $\tau$ lepton

The anomalous weak dipole moments of the lepton are measured in a data sample collected by ALEPH from 1990 to 1995 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 155 pb^-1. Tau leptons produced in the reaction at energies close to the mass are studied using their semileptonic decays to , , or . The real and imaginary components of both the anomalous weak magnetic dipole moment and the CP-violating anomalous weak electric dipole moment, , , and , are measured simultaneously by means of a likelihood fit built from the full differential cross section. No evidence of new physics is found. The following bounds are obtained (95% CL): , , , and .Received: 25 September 2002, Published online: 29 August 2003     

Strongest gravitational waves from neutrino oscillationsat supernova core bounce

Resonant active-to-active ( ), as well as active-to-sterile ( ) neutrino ( ) oscillations can take place during the core bounce of a supernova collapse. Besides, over this phase, weak magnetism increases the antineutrino ( ) mean free path, and thus its luminosity. Because the oscillation feeds mass-energy into the target species, the large mass-squared difference between the species ( ) implies a huge amount of energy to be given off as gravitational waves ( erg s^-1), due to anisotropic but coherent flow over the oscillation length. This asymmetric -flux is driven by both the spin-magnetic and the universal spin-rotation coupling. The novel contribution of this paper stems from (1) the new computation of the anisotropy parameter -0.01, and (2) the use of the tight constraints from neutrino experiments as SNO and KamLAND, and the cosmic probe WMAP, to compute the gravitational-wave emission during neutrino oscillations in supernovae core collapse and bounce. We show that the mass of the sterile neutrino that can be resonantly produced during the flavor conversions makes it a good candidate for dark matter as suggested by Fuller et al. , Phys. Rev. D 68, 103002 (2003). The new spacetime strain thus estimated is still several orders of magnitude larger than those from diffusion (convection and cooling) or quadrupole moments of neutron star matter. This new feature turns these bursts into the more promising supernova gravitational-wave signals that may be detected by observatories as LIGO, VIRGO, etc., for distances far out to the VIRGO cluster of galaxies.Received: 26 November 2003, Revised: 26 February 2004, Published online: 3 June 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     

Exclusive $B \to (K^*, \rho) \gamma$ decays in general two-Higgs-doublet models

By employing the QCD factorization approach, we calculated the next-to-leading order new physics contributions to the branching ratios, CP asymmetries, isospin and U-spin symmetry breaking of the exclusive decays ( ), induced by the charged Higgs penguins in general two-Higgs-doublet models. Within the considered parameter space, we found that (a) the new physics corrections to the observables are generally small in model I and model III-A, moderate in model II, but large in model III-B; (b) from the well measured branching ratios and upper limits, a lower bound of M_H > 200 GeV in model II was obtained, while the allowed range of M_H in model III-B is GeV; these bounds are comparable with those from the inclusive decay; (c) the NLO Wilson coefficient C₇(m_b) in model III-B is positive and disfavored by the measured value of isospin symmetry breaking , but it still cannot be excluded if we take the large errors into account; (d) the CP asymmetry in model III-B has an opposite sign to the one in the standard model (SM), which may be used as a good observable to distinguish the SM from model III-B; (e) the isospin symmetry breaking is less than in the region of preferred by the global fit result, but it can be as large as 20 to in the regions of and . The SM and model III-B predictions for are opposite in sign for small or large values of the CKM angles; (f) the U-spin symmetry breaking in the SM and the general two-Higgs-doublet models is generally small in size: .Received: 9 October 2003, Revised: 11 November 2003, Published online: 18 February 2004     

Multi-ring signatures of the oscillation $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_e$ in a water Cherenkov detector

Multi-ring signatures of appearance via the oscillation are formulated for a water Cherenkov detector. These signatures are appropriate for long-baseline neutrino experiments operating at relatively high neutrino energies GeV that emphasize the matter effect. The NC background is less for selected multi-ring events than for 1e-like events, and may be directly estimated from the data. Our results suggest that best sensitivity to and to the sign of can be reached with baselines over some 6000 km.Received: 14 April 2003, Revised: 19 June 2003, Published online: 26 September 2003M.A. Kubantsev: Now at Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA     

Diffractive $\gamma \gamma$ production at hadron colliders

We compute the cross section for exclusive double-diffractive production at the Tevatron, , and the LHC. We evaluate both the gg and -channel exchange contributions to the process. The observation of exclusive production at the Tevatron will provide a check on the model predictions and offer an opportunity to confirm the expectations for exclusive double-diffractive Higgs production at the LHC.Received: 10 September 2004, Revised: 8 October 2004, Published online: 1 December 2004     

CP-sensitive observables in e^ + e^-\to\tilde\chi^0_i \tilde\chi^0_j and neutralino decay into the Z boson

We study CP-sensitive observables in the neutralino production and the subsequent two-body decays of the neutralino and of the Z boson . We identify the CP-odd elements of the Z boson density matrix and propose CP-sensitive triple-product asymmetries. We calculate these observables and the cross sections in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with complex parameters and M ₁ for an e ⁺ e ^- linear collider with GeV and longitudinally polarized beams. We show that the asymmetries can reach for and for and discuss the feasibility of measuring these asymmetries.Received: 4 February 2004, Revised: 17 May 2004, Published online: 2 July 2004     

The width of the $\Theta^{ + }$ exotic baryon in the chiral soliton model

In 1997 Diakonov, Petrov, and Polyakov, calculated the width of the exotic baryon that they called . The prediction, MeV, has received considerable attention, especially in light of the narrowness of the experimentally reported resonance. However, there is an arithmetic error in their work: when corrected, the width estimate quoted in that paper should have been MeV.Received: 29 January 2004, Published online: 5 May 2004     

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     

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     

$\overline pp$ annihilation into four charged pions at rest and in flight

The spin-parity analysis of the data on the annihilation reaction at rest in liquid and in gaseous hydrogen at 3 bar pressure and in flight at momentum of MeV/c, collected by the Obelix spectrometer at the LEAR complex of CERN, is presented. The relative branching ratios and are obtained. It is also shown that the inclusion of the exotic meson , J^PC = 1^{- +} , mass and width , GeV/c², in its decay to , improves the fit and some implications of these results are briefly discussed. The relative S and P-wave annihilation percentages in four charged pions at two target densities are obtained.Received: 2 December 2003, Published online: 23 April 2004     

Search for chargino and neutralino productionat $\sqrt{s} = 192$-209 GeV at LEP

Approximately 438 pb^-1 of e ⁺ e^- data from the OPAL detector, taken with the LEP collider running at centre-of-mass energies of 192-209 GeV, are analyzed to search for evidence of chargino pair production, , or neutralino associated production, . Limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the product of the cross-section for the process and its branching ratios to topologies containing jets and missing energy, or jets with a lepton and missing energy, and on the product of the cross-section for and its branching ratio to jets. R-parity conservation is assumed throughout this paper. When these results are interpreted in the context of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, limits are also set on the masses of the and , and regions of the parameter space of the model are ruled out. Nearly model-independent limits are also set at the 95% confidence level on with the assumption that each chargino decays via a W boson, and on with the assumed to decay via a Z⁰.Received: 15 December 2003, Revised: 16 February 2004, Published online: 23 April 2004     

Di-jet production in photon-photon collisionsat $\sqrt{s_{\protect\bf\mathrm{ee}}}$ from 189 to 209 GeV

Di-jet production is studied in collisions of quasi-real photons at e ⁺ e^- centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV at LEP. The data were collected with the OPAL detector. Jets are reconstructed using an inclusive -clustering algorithm for all cross-section measurements presented. A cone jet algorithm is used in addition to study the different structure of the jets resulting from either of the algorithms. The inclusive di-jet cross-section is measured as a function of the mean transverse energy of the two leading jets, and as a function of the estimated fraction of the photon momentum carried by the parton entering the hard sub-process, , for different regions of . Angular distributions in di-jet events are measured and used to demonstrate the dominance of quark and gluon initiated processes in different regions of phase space. Furthermore the inclusive di-jet cross-section as a function of and is presented, where is the jet pseudo-rapidity. Different regions of the - -space are explored to study and control the influence of an underlying event. The results are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and to the predictions of the leading order Monte Carlo generator PYTHIA.Received: 20 December 2002, Published online: 17 October 2003