Study of decay mechanisms in B--->Lambdac+ppi- decays and observation of low-mass structure in the Lambdac+p system

Using a sample of 152 x 10(6) BB pairs accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider, we study the decay mechanism of three-body charmed decay B- --> Lambdac+ ppi-. The intermediate two-body decay B--->Sigmac (2455)0 p is observed for the first time with a branching fraction of (3.7 +/- 0.7 +/- 0.4 +/- 1.0) x 10(-5) and a statistical significance of 8.4sigma. We also observe a low-mass enhancement in the (Lambdac+p) system, which can be parametrized as a Breit-Wigner function with a mass of (3.35(-0.02)(+0.01) +/-0.02) GeV/c2 and a width of (0.07(-0.03)(+0.04) +/-0.04) GeV/c2. We measure its branching fraction to be (3.9(-0.7)(+0.8) +/- 0.4 +/- 1.0) x 10(-5) with a statistical significance of 6.2sigma. The errors are statistical, systematic, and that of the Lambdac+-->pK- pi+ decay branching fraction.     

Observation of two resonant structures in e+ e- -->pi+ pi- psi(2S) via initial-state radiation at Belle

The cross section for e+ e- --> pi+ pi- psi(2S) between threshold and sqrt[s]=5.5 GeV is measured using 673 fb(-1) of data on and off the Upsilon(4S) resonance collected with the Belle detector at KEKB. Two resonant structures are observed in the pi+ pi- psi(2S) invariant-mass distribution, one at 4361 +/- 9 +/- 9 MeV/c2 with a width of 74 +/- 15 +/- 10 MeV/c2, and another at 4664 +/- 11 +/- 5 MeV/c2 with a width of 48 +/- 15 +/- 3 MeV/c2, if the mass spectrum is parametrized with the coherent sum of two Breit-Wigner functions. These values do not match those of any of the known charmonium states.     

Measurement of the wrong-sign decays D0 --> K+ pi- pi0 and D0 --> K+ pi- pi+ pi-, and search for CP violation

Using 281 fb-1 of data from the Belle experiment recorded at or near the (4S) resonance, we have measured the rates of the "wrong-sign" decays D0 --> K+ pi- pi0 and D0 --> K+ pi- pi+ pi- relative to those of the Cabibbo-favored decays D0 --> K- pi+ pi0 and D0 --> K- pi+ pi+ pi-. These wrong-sign decays proceed via a doubly Cabibbo-suppressed amplitude or via D0-D0 mixing; the latter has not yet been observed. We obtain R(WS)(K pi pi0) = [0.229 +/- 0.015(stat)(+0.013)(-0.009)(syst)]% and R(WS)(K3pi) = [0.320 +/- 0.018(stat)(+0.018)(0.013)(syst)]%. The CP asymmetries are measured to be -0.006 +/- 0.053 and -0.018 +/- 0.044 for the K+ pi- pi0 and K+ pi- pi+ pi- final states, respectively.     

Hexavalent Chromium-Thioacetamide Redox System Initiated Polymerization of Acrylonitrile

Polymerization of acrylonitrile initiated by the Cr⁶⁺/thioacetamide redox system was studied in nitrogen atmosphere in the temperature range 35–45°C. The rate of polymerization and the rate of Cr⁶⁺ ion disappearance were measured. The effect of certain water-miscible organic solvents, neutral electrolytes, and complexing agents on the rate of polymerization was investigated. Chromic acid alone did not initiate the polymerization under deaerated and undeaerated conditions. Depending on the results obtained, a suitable kinetic scheme was proposed and various rate parameters were evaluated.     

High temperature enthalpy increment and thermodynamic functions of U2Ti

This study investigated thermodynamic properties of uranium–titanium alloy to determine its suitability for storage of hydrogen isotopes. The enthalpy increments of U₂Ti were measured using a high temperature inverse drop calorimeter in the temperature range of 299–1,169 K. Temperature dependence of the molar enthalpy increment and molar heat capacity is expressed in the form $ H^\circ_{\text{m}} (T) - H^\circ_{\text{m}} (298.15\,{\text{K}})({\text{J }}\,{\text{mol}}^{ - 1} ) = 23.236(T/{\text{K}}) + 53.292 \times 10^{ - 3} (T/{\text{K}})^{2} - 21.294 \times 10^{5} ({\text{K}}/T) - 4523 $ and $ C^\circ_{\text{p,m}} ({\text{J}}\,{\text{K}}^{ - 1} \,{\text{g}}^{ - 1} ) = 23.236 + 10.6584 \times 10^{ - 2} (T/{\text{K}}) + 21.294 \times 10^{5} ({\text{K}}/T)^{2} (300 \le T/{\text{K}} \le 900) $ , respectively. A set of self consistent thermodynamic functions such as entropy, Gibbs energy function, heat capacity, and Gibbs energy and enthalpy values for U₂Ti have been computed using data obtained in this study and required data from the literature.     

Structural interaction leading to volumetric changes in aqueous solutions of nitrates of rubidium,cesium, strontium,yttrium, and gallium at different temperatures

Densities of the aqueous dilute solutions of rubidium, cesium, strontium, yttrium, and gallium nitrate were measured at different temperatures ranging from (293.15–343.15) K and atmospheric pressure. From these density values, the apparent molal volumes were calculated and fitted to Masson’s correlation and the temperature dependence was correlated by a second order polynomial. The apparent molal volumes at infinite dilution and experimental slopes have been interpreted in terms of ion–solvent and ion–ion interactions, respectively. The measurements include density as per ASTM D-4052, refractive index (nD²⁵) at sodium D line at 25 °C. Thermal isobaric expansibility was calculated and structure making and structure breaking behaviour of electrolytes were inferred from the sign of the second derivative of apparent molal volumes with respect to temperature at constant pressure. The experimental apparent molal volume was compared with the available literature value.     

An electrochemical pathway to prepare circular planar 90Sr/90Y sources for the calibration of surface contamination monitors

In this communication, we describe a novel method to prepare circular planar ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y sources (? = 16 mm) exploiting the intrinsic properties of the anodized titanium to electro-deposit predicted quantity of ⁹⁰Sr activity from an aqueous solution. The influences of various experimental parameters such as pH of the electrolyte, applied current density, electrodeposition time and carrier strontium concentration were thoroughly investigated to arrive at a condition resulting optimal deposition of the ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y activity on the substrate. An optimized electrochemical procedure to prepare ~3.7 MBq (~0.1 mCi) of circular planar ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y sources commensurate with regulatory safety requirement has been the positive outcome.     

Structural,electronic, and mechanical properties of cubic TiO_2:A first-principles study

We present an analysis of structural, electronic, and mechanical properties of cubic titanium dioxide(TiO_2) using an all electron orthogonalzed linear combinations of atomic orbitals(OLCAO) basis set under the framework of density functional theory(DFT). The structural property, especially the lattice constant a, and the electronic properties such as the band diagram and density of states(DOS) are studied and analyzed. The mechanical properties such as bulk moduli, shear moduli, Young's Moduli, and Poison's ratio are also investigated thoroughly. The calculations are carried out on shear moduli and anisotropy factor for cubic TiO_2. The Vickers hardness is also tested for fluorite and pyrite cubic-structured TiO_2. Furthermore, the results are compared with the previous theoretical and experimental results. It is found that DFTbased simulation produces results which are approximation to experimental results, whereas the calculated elastic constants are better than the previous theoretical and experimental values.