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     

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.     

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     

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     

Structures of the f 0(980), a 0(980) mesons and the strong coupling constants g_{f_0 K^+ K^-} , g_{a_0 K^+ K^-} with light-cone QCD sum rules

Making the assumption of explicit isospin violation arising from f ₀(980)-a ₀(980) mixing, we take the point of view that the scalar mesons f ₀(980) and a ₀(980) have both strange and non-strange quark-antiquark components and evaluate the strong coupling constants within the framework of the light-cone QCD sum rules approach. The large strong scalar-KK couplings through both the and components , , and will support the hadronic dressing mechanism; furthermore, in spite of the constituent structure differences between the f ₀(980) and a ₀(980) mesons, the strange components have larger strong coupling constants with the K ⁺ K ^- state than the corresponding non-strange ones, and . From the existing controversial values, we cannot reach a general consensus on the strong coupling constants and the mixing angles.Received: 9 January 2004, Revised: 23 July 2004, Published online: 2 September 2004     

Search for charged Higgs bosons at LEP in general two Higgs doublet models

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons was performed in the data collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP II at centre-of-mass energies from 189 GeV to 209 GeV. Five different final states, , , , and were considered, accounting for the major expected decays in type I and type II Two Higgs Doublet Models. No significant excess of data compared to the expected Standard Model processes was observed. The existence of a charged Higgs boson with mass lower than 76.7 GeV/c² (type I) or 74.4 GeV/c² (type II) is excluded at the 95% confidence level, for a wide range of the model parameters. Model independent cross-section limits have also been calculated.Received: 30 September 2003, Revised: 12 February 2004, Published online: 8 April 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     

A precise measurement of the tau lifetime

The tau lepton lifetime has been measured with the events collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP in the years 1991-1995. Three different methods have been exploited, using both one-prong and three-prong decay channels. Two measurements have been made using events in which both taus decay to a single charged particle. Combining these measurements gave . A third measurement using taus which decayed to three charged particles yielded These were combined with previous DELPHI results to measure the tau lifetime, using the full LEP1 data sample, to be .Received: 12 November 2003, Revised: 1 June 2004, Published online: 20 July 2004     

The pion nucleon coupling constant

The latest elastic scattering data are re-analysed to determine the coupling constant g_c of the charged pion, using the dispersion relation for the invariant amplitude B^{(+ )}. Depending on the choice of data-base, values to 13.65 are obtained with errors of . The mass difference between charge states of is MeV, close to twice the mass difference between neutron and proton. The difference in widths on resonance is MeV. One may account for a width difference of 4.5 MeV from phase space for decays and the extra channel .Received: 21 January 2004, Published online: 3 March 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     

Measurement of W-pair production in e<Superscript> + </Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript> collisions at centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV

The W ⁺ W^- production cross section is measured from a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 683 pb^-1, collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP at centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV. Individual cross sections for the different topologies arising from W decays into leptons or hadrons, as well as the total W-pair cross section are given at eight centre-of-mass energies. The results are found to be in agreement with recently developed Standard Model calculations at the one percent level. The hadronic branching fraction of the W boson is measured to be = 67.13 0.37(stat.) 0.15(syst.)%, from which the CKM matrix element is determined to be 0.958 0.017(stat.) 0.008(syst.)Received: 1 October 2004, Published online: 15 November 2004     

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     

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     

New gauge bosons from the littlest Higgs modeland the process $e^{ + }e^{-}\rightarrow t\bar{t}$

In the context of the littlest Higgs (LH) model, we study the process . We find that the new gauge bosons Z _H and B _H can produce significant correction effects on this process, which can be further enhanced by suitably polarized beams. In most of the parameter space preferred by the electroweak precision data, the absolute value of the relative correction parameter is larger than 5 %. As long as and the absolute value of the relative correction parameter is larger than . With reasonable values of the parameters of the LH model, the possible signals of the new gauge bosons B _H and Z _H can be detected via the process in the future LC experiments with the CM energy . B _H exchange and Z _H exchange can generate significantly corrections to the forward-backward asymmetry only in a small part of the parameter space.Received: 29 October 2004, Revised: 29 November 2004, Published online: 15 February 2005     

Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA

A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions and has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of . The data were taken at center-of-mass energies, , of 300 and . No evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below , limits were set on , where is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a first-generation quark q₁, and is the branching ratio of the LQ to the final-state lepton (μ or ) and a quark q. For LQ masses much larger than , limits were set on the four-fermion interaction term for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark and to a lepton and a quark , where and are quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in R-Parity-violating supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark is involved and for the process , the ZEUS limits are the most stringent to date. Received: 1 April 2005, Revised: 13 July 2005, Published online: 18 October 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     

Is the Zee model neutrino mass matrix ruled out?

A very economic model of generating small neutrino masses is the Zee model. This model has been studied extensively in the literature with most of the studies concentrated on the simplest version of the model, where all diagonal entries in the mass matrix are zero. SNO, and KamLAND data disfavor this simple version, but only when one also combines information from atmospheric and K2K data can one rule out this model with a high confidence level. We show that the simplest version of the Zee model is ruled out at level. The original Zee model, however, contains more than enough freedom to satisfy constraints from the data. We propose a new form of mass matrix by a naturalness consideration. This new form of the mass matrix is consistent with all experimental data. It predicts that , and increases and decreases with |V_e3|. For and to be in their allowed regions, |V_e3| is sizeable but can be set below the 90% C.L. upper bound.Received: 8 December 2003, Published online: 19 March 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     

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     

Determining resonance parameters of heavy Higgs bosonsat a future linear collider

This study investigates the potential of an Electron-Positron Linear Collider for measuring resonance parameters of Higgs bosons beyond the mass range studied so far. The analysis is based on the reconstruction of events from the Higgs-strahlung process . It is shown that the total width , the mass m_H and the event rate N can be measured from the mass spectrum in a model independent way. Also, the branching ratios BR ^H_WW and BR ^H_ZZ can be measured, assuming these are the only relevant Higgs decay modes. The simulation includes realistic detector effects and all relevant Standard Model background processes. Results are given for m_H = 200-320 GeV assuming fb^-1 integrated luminosity at a collision energy GeV.Received: 13 February 2004, Revised: 14 April 2004, Published online: 18 May 2004