Measurement of the WWγ cross section and direct limits on anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings at LEP

The process e⁺e⁻→W⁺W⁻γ is analysed using the data collected with the L3 detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176.8 pb⁻¹. Based on a sample of 42 selected W⁺W⁻ candidates containing an isolated hard photon, the W⁺W⁻γ cross section, defined within phase-space cuts, is measured to be: σ_WWγ=290±80±16 fb, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Including the process , limits are derived on anomalous contributions to the Standard Model quartic vertices W⁺W⁻γγ and W⁺W⁻Zγ at 95% CL: −0.043 GeV⁻²<a₀/Λ²<0.043 GeV⁻², −0.08 GeV⁻²<a_c/Λ²<0.13 GeV⁻², −0.41 GeV⁻²<a_n/Λ²<0.37 GeV⁻².     

The isotope dependence of diatomic Dunham coefficients

The isotope dependence of the Dunham vibration-rotation coefficients Y_kl of a diatomic molecule is studied. Rovibronic interactions between different electronic states are taken into account by transformation to an effective vibration-rotation Hamiltonian for each electronic state. This contains modified vibrational and rotational reduced masses as well as the adiabatic correction to the potential energy. The effects of these contributions on the vibration-rotation energies are expressed in terms of two functions and for each atom i. The resultant formula for Y_kl is Y_kl=μ_c^−(k+2l)/2U_kl{1+m_eΔ_kl^a/M_a+m_eΔ_kl^b/M_b+O(m_e²/M_i²)}, where U_kl, Δ_kl^a, and Δ_kl^b are isotopically invariant, M_a and M_b are the atomic masses, and μ_c = M_aM_b/(M_a + M_b − Cm_e) is the atomic reduced mass, modified by the molecular charge number C for charged species. The U_kl with l ≥ 2 can be calculated from those with l = 0 and 1. The corrections U_klΔ_klⁱ are related to the functions and and to the Dunham corrections. Recent data for the CO molecule are discussed, and it is suggested that some large Δ_klⁱ values are associated with accidentally small U_kl values, since the size of U_klΔ_klⁱ is not directly related to that of U_kl.     

Cross sections for five jet production above theW + W − threshold ine + e − annihilation

We describe the calculation of five jet production from theW ⁺ W ^– intermediate state ine ⁺ e ^– annihilation in lowest order QCD. Some results for integrated cross-sections are presented.     

New non-abelian couplings and radiative corrections to the main decay of the top quark

We calculate first order radiative corrections to the main decay of the top quark,tb+W, beyond the Standard Model, by grafting onto the standard lagrangian (using the terminology of de Rújula, Gavela, Hernandez and Massó), a new operator, which respects the gauge symmetry of the Standard Model and modifies theZ ⁰ W ⁺ W ^–,W ⁺ W ^– vertices In our renormalization scheme we use ,G _F,M _Z as input parameters. Them _t dependence is given where we use =1 TeV as a possible scale of the new physics. Form _t =150(200) GeV and =1 TeV, the maximal effect due to the new non-abelian couplings, is to change the relative size of the electroweak radiative corrections of the Standard Model by adding a value of –2.98(–6.96)%, i.e. from a value of 5.55(3.26)% to 2.57(–3.7)%.     

Heavy ion physics with CMS detector

We analyse the impact of systematic effects due to the scale dependence of QCD corrections in combination with the use of different jet clustering algorithms in the measurement of the W^± mass in the fully hadronic decay mode of W⁺W⁻ pairs produced at LEP2. We consider higher order contributions induced by both virtual and real gluon radiation onto the electroweak CC03 and CC11 channels through (α_s) at the parton level. We find that the associated uncertainties can be of order 100 MeV, thus competitive with those possibly arising in the non-perturbative regime and indeed above the current experimental estimates.Work supported in part by the Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Scientifica and by the European Union under contract HPRN-CT-2000-00149.     

Γ(Z → b ): A signature of hard mass terms for a heavy top

We calculate analytically the weak radiative corrections to the weak neutral current gauge boson-bottom fermion vertex, keeping the mass m_t of the internal fermion line for the relevant diagrams. We find, to order α, a hard mass-term dependence m_t²/M_W² of the amplitude, for large m_t values. Its origin comes from the unphysical charged Higgs coupling to fermions in the renormalizable gauge or, equivalently, from the longitudinal charged gauge boson couplings. The diagonal Z⁰ decay width to b-quarks decreases, due to these weak radiative corrections, by 0.6%–2.5% when the top mass m_t varies from 45 to 200 GeV.     

W boson inclusive decays to quarkonium and $B_{c}^{(*)}$ meson at the LHC

In this paper, the production rates of quarkonia η _c , J/ψ, η _b , ϒ and B_c^(*)B_{c}^{(*)} mesons through W ⁺ boson decay at the LHC are calculated, at the leading order in both the QCD coupling α _s and in v, the typical velocity of the heavy quark inside mesons. It shows that a sizable number of quarkonia and B_c^(*)B_{c}^{(*)} mesons from W ⁺ boson decay will be produced at the LHC. Comparison with the predictions by using quark fragmentation mechanism is also discussed. Results show that, for the charmonium production through W ⁺ decay, the difference between predictions by the fragmentation mechanism and complete leading order calculation is around 3%, and it is insensitive to the uncertainties of theoretical parameters; however, for the bottomonium and B_c^(*)B_{c}^{(*)} productions, the difference cannot be ignored as the fragmentation mechanism is less applicable here due to the relatively large ratio m _b /m _w .     

Non-leptonic weak decay rate of explicitly flavored heavy mesons

It is argued quantitatively that a large difference between the D⁰ and D⁺ lifetimes is mainly due to non-perturbative long-distance effects. The total non-leptonic weak decay rates are related to the soft limit of short-distance processes. Scaling laws for the decay rates of heavy mesons with respect to mass are inferred from the QCD analysis of the soft limit of fragmentation. It is found that the decay rates are not determined by the disconnected spectator diagrams alone even in the limit of the heavy quark mass M going to infinity (< M_W), since the leading term after the QCD correction scales like M⁵ exp √clog M. Some numerical discussion is made for the decay of B mesons and T mesons.     

Search for charged Higgs bosons at LEP 2

A search for pair produced charged Higgs bosons has been performed in the high energy data collected by DELPHI at LEP with , 172 and 183 GeV. The analysis uses the τντν, and final states and a combination of event shape variables, di-jet masses and jet flavour tagging for the separation of a possible signal from the dominant W⁺W⁻ and QCD backgrounds. The number of selected events has been found to be compatible with the expected background. The lower excluded value of the H^± mass obtained by varying the H^±→ hadrons decay branching ratio has been found to be 56.3 GeV/c².     

The oscillator representation and the stability of three-body Coulomb systems

Within nonrelativistic quantum mechanics the Wick-ordering method, called the oscillator representation, is suggested for calculating the energy spectrum for a wide class of potentials allowing the existence of a bound state. As test cases, anharmonic (V(r)=r ²) and screened Coulomb potentials are considered. In particular, the method is applied to three-body Coulomb systems to obtain the dependence of the bound-state energy on the masses and charges of the particles. The calculations of the bound-state energies for the moleculesH ^–=(pee),H ₂ ⁺ =(ppe), (e ^–e^–e⁺) and (pp), (dd), (dt) prove the accuracy of the zeroth approximation to be better than one per cent. For the three-body Coulomb system with charges +, –, – and arbitrary masses the region of stability is determined. For the systems (pe ^–C⁺), (A ⁺e^–e⁺), and (pB ^–e^–) the critical masses are calculated to beM _c=1.945m_e,M _A=4.350m_e andM _B=1.575m_e. It turns out that the system (pe ^–e⁺) is unstable.     

Further evidence for neutrino oscillations from LSND: the νμ → νe decay-in-flight channel

A search for ν_μ → ν_e oscillations has been conducted at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) using ν_μ from π⁺ decay in flight. An excess in the number of beam-related events from the ν_e C → e⁻ X inclusive reaction is observed. The excess is too large to be explained by normal ν_e contamination in the beam at a confidence level greater than 99%. If interpreted as an oscillation signal, the observed oscillation probability of (2.6 ± 1.3 ± 0.5) × 10⁻³ is consistent with the previously reported oscillation evidence from LSND.     

Observation of χb production in the exclusive reaction ′→γγχb→γγ→γγ(eeorμμ−)

We report on the observation of 1 ³P_J (χ_b) production in the reaction ′→γχ_b→γγ→γγ(e⁺e⁻ or μ⁺μ⁻). The data were recorded with the nonmagnetic CUSB detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, CESR. We observe 124 γγ events with either an electron or muon pair in the final state. In the γγ correlation plot about 40% of the events cluster around (120, 430) MeV.     

Examination of two new low-lying electronic states of SiS observed in chemiluminescent flame spectra

Diatomic silicon sulfide molecules have been produced in the chemiluminescent reaction of silicon atoms with OCS. Spectra of the resulting flame consist mainly of two new band systems in the region 350–400 and 385–600 nm. These systems have been assigned as b ³Π_r-X ¹Σ⁺ and a ³Σ⁺-X ¹Σ⁺ on the basis of band structure, spin-orbit splitting, molecular constants, and comparison with chemiluminescent spectra of isovalent molecules. Vibrational assignments were made with the help of the isotope effect and vibrational constants were obtained. Rotational structure was observed in some a-X bands and a partial analysis yielded an approximate rotational constant, B 0.247 ± 0.007 cm⁻¹, for the a ³Σ⁺ state. Franck-Condon factors, calculated for the a-X system, are shown to fit the general trend of the intensity distribution. Irregularities in spin-orbit splitting and in relative intensities of the spin-orbit components of the b ³Π-X ¹Σ⁺ system were observed and an attempt is made to explain them in terms of interactions with neighboring states. Addition of active nitrogen to the flame was shown to greatly increase the intensity of the b-X system relative to the a-X system. Constants (in cm⁻¹) obtained for the new state are: a³σ⁺: T_e=24 582.1 ± 1.3, ω_e=503.8±1.0, ω_ex_e=1.86±0.21b³σ⁺: T_e=27 314.5 ± 2.2, ω_e=619.4±2.0, ω_ex_e=5.75±0.52b³σ⁺: T_e=27 407.9 ± 1.1, ω_e=524.3±1.2, ω_ex_e=3.97±0.28     

Condition for adiabatic passage in the earth’s-field NMR technique

The equation of motion dM/dt=γ M×B(t) is solved for the case B(t)=jB_p(t)+kB_e. The field B_e is a small static field, typically the earth’s field. The field B_p(t) decays exponentially toward zero with time constant T. This decay is produced by an overdamped switching transient that occurs near the end of the rapid cutoff of the coil current used to polarize the sample. It is assumed that B_p is initially large compared to B_e, and that magnetization M is initially along the resultant field B. Exact solutions are obtained numerically for several decay time constants of B_p, and the motion of M is depicted graphically. It is found that for adiabatic passage, the final cone angle β of the precession in field B_e is related to the decay time constant of B_p by β=2e^{−(π/2)ω_eT}. This is confirmed by measurements of the amplitudes of the ensuing free-precession signals for various decay rates of B_p. Near-perfect adiabatic passage (magnetization aligned within 2° of the earth’s field) can be achieved for time constants T2.6/ω_e. For the case of sudden passage, an approximate analytic solution is developed by linearizing the equation of motion in the laboratory frame of reference. For the adiabatic case, an approximate analytic solution is obtained by linearizing the equation of motion in a rotating frame of reference that follows the resultant field B=B_p+B_e.     

Electroweak corrections to the fermionic decay width of the standard Higgs boson

The partial decay width of the standard model Higgs particle into a general species of fermions is given at the electroweak 1-loop level. The analytic formulae are applicable to light and heavy fermions. Numerical results are presented for Higgs decays intob andt quarks and into charged leptons. For not too heavy Higgs bosons the radiative corrections are of the order of a few per cent. In particular for Higgs bosons below theW ⁺ W ^– threshold the correction to the partial width intob quarks is very small and insensitive to the top mass. For every heavy Higgs bosons the 1-loop corrections increase the fermionic decay widths for all channels up to 15%.     

KARMEN: Neutrino oscillation limits and new results with the upgrade

The neutrino experiment KARMEN is situated at the beam stop neutrino source ISIS which provides ν_μ's, ν_e's and from the π⁺−μ⁺-decay at rest. The oscillation channels ν_{μ → νe} and are investigated with a 56 t liquid scintillation calorimeter. No evidence for oscillations could be found with KARMEN, resulting in 90% CL exclusion limits of sin²(2Θ) < 8.5 · 10⁻³ ( ) and sin²(2Θ) < 4.0 · 10⁻² (ν_μ → ν_e) for Δm² > 100 eV². In 1996, the experiment has been upgraded by an additional veto counting system with a total coverage of 300 m². The new system allows the identification of cosmic muons in the vicinity of the detector. Vetoing these muons suppresses energetic neutrons from deep inelastic scattering of muons as well as from μ-capture by a factor of 40. Up to 1996, these neutrons represented the main background for oscillation search. The experimental sensitivity for will be significantly enhanced towards sin²(2Θ) 1.0 · 10⁻³ after a further measuring period of 2–3 years.     

The spectra and structure of indium iodide: The rotational and vibrational constants of the A0 state

The rotational constants of the A0⁺ state of InI are reported for the first time as B_e = 0.038077 cm⁻¹ and α_e = 0.0002373 cm⁻¹, while T_e = 24402.91 cm⁻¹ for the A0⁺-X0⁺ transition. Accurate vibrational constants for both the A0⁺ and X0⁺ states are computed from the derived band origins.     

e+e− → γ + Hadrons

We give the spectrum in momentum and angle of directly produced γ's in e⁺e^? → γ + hadrons, and show that in QCD if p_⊥² of the recoil hadron jet relative to the photon is large, the leading logarithmic corrections to the lowest order result are absent. This process is therefore of great value in learning whether QCD actually governs quark dynamics.     

Study of the (9.46) meson in electron-positron annihilations

New data for the reaction e⁺e⁻→(9.46) have been obtained using the DASP detector at the DORIS storage ring. The electronic width Γ_ee is (1.5±0.4) keV. The branching ratio for the decay into muon pairs is (2.5 ± 2.1)%. Energy spectra for inclusive production of hadrons are given.