BABAR Collaboration(del Amo Sanchez, P. et al), Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2011). Measurements of branching fractions, polarizations, and direct CP-violation asymmetries in B+ -> rho K-0*(+) and B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+) decays. Phys. Rev. D, 83(5), 051101–8pp.
Abstract: We present measurements of the branching fractions, longitudinal polarization, and direct CP-violation asymmetries for the decays B+ -> rho K-0*(+) and B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+) with a sample of (467 +/- 5) x 10(6)B (B) over bar pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We observe B+ -> rho K-0*(+) with a significance of 5: 3 sigma and measure the branching fraction B(B+ -> rho K-0*(+)) = (4.6 +/- 1.0 +/- 0.4) x 10(-6), the longitudinal polarization f(L) = 0.78 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.03, and the CP-violation asymmetry A(CP) = 0.31 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.03. We observe B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+) and measure the branching fraction B(B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+)) x B(f(0)(980) -> pi(+)pi(-)) = (4.2 +/- 0.6 +/- 0.3) x 10(-6) and the CP-violation asymmetry A(CP) = 0.15 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.03. The first uncertainty quoted is statistical and the second is systematic.
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MiniBooNE Collaboration(Aguilar-Arevalo, A. A. et al), & Sorel, M. (2011). Measurement of neutrino-induced charged-current charged pion production cross sections on mineral oil at E-nu similar to 1 GeV. Phys. Rev. D, 83(5), 052007–26pp.
Abstract: Using a high-statistics, high-purity sample of nu(mu)-induced charged current, charged pion events in mineral oil (CH2), MiniBooNE reports a collection of interaction cross sections for this process. This includes measurements of the CC pi+ cross section as a function of neutrino energy, as well as flux-averaged single-and double-differential cross sections of the energy and direction of both the final-state muon and pion. In addition, each of the single-differential cross sections are extracted as a function of neutrino energy to decouple the shape of the MiniBooNE energy spectrum from the results. In many cases, these cross sections are the first time such quantities have been measured on a nuclear target and in the 1 GeV energy range.
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Kiesewetter, S., & Vento, V. (2010). eta-eta '-glueball mixing. Phys. Rev. D, 82(3), 034003–13pp.
Abstract: We have revisited glueball mixing with the pseudoscalar mesons in the MIT bag model scheme. The calculation has been performed in the spherical cavity approximation to the bag using two different fermion propagators, the cavity and the free propagators. We obtain probabilities of mixing for the eta at the level of 0.006%-2.0%, while for the eta' one at the level of 0.6%-40%, depending on the choice of bag radius and, therefore, of the strong coupling constant. Our results differ from previous calculations. The origin of our difference stems from the treatment of the time integrations. The comparison of our calculation with experimental data, which is consistent with small eta – eta' – G mixing, implies that the pseudoscalar glueball is small, R similar to 0.5-0.6 fm and has a large mass, M-G similar to 2000-2500 MeV.
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Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abraham, J. et al), & Pastor, S. (2010). The fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 620(2-3), 227–251.
Abstract: The Pierre Auger Observatory is a hybrid detector for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. It combines a surface array to measure secondary particles at ground level together with a fluorescence detector to measure the development of air showers in the atmosphere above the array. The fluorescence detector comprises 24 large telescopes specialized for measuring the nitrogen fluorescence caused by charged particles of cosmic ray air showers. In this paper we describe the components of the fluorescence detector including its optical system, the design of the camera, the electronics, and the systems for relative and absolute calibration. We also discuss the operation and the monitoring of the detector. Finally, we evaluate the detector performance and precision of shower reconstructions.
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BABAR Collaboration(del Amo Sanchez, P. et al), Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2011). Measurement of partial branching fractions of inclusive charmless B meson decays to K+, K-0, and pi(+). Phys. Rev. D, 83(3), 031103–8pp.
Abstract: We present measurements of partial branching fractions of B -> K+ X, B -> (KX)-X-0, and B -> pi(+) X, where X denotes any accessible final state above the endpoint for B decays to charmed mesons, specifically for momenta of the candidate hadron greater than 2.34 (2.36) GeV for kaons (pions) in the B rest frame. These measurements are sensitive to potential new-physics particles which could enter the b -> s(d) loop transitions. The analysis is performed on a data sample consisting of 383 X 10(6)B (B) over bar pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e(+)e(-) asymmetric energy collider. We observe the inclusive B -> pi(+) X process, and we set upper limits for B -> K+ X and B -> (KX)-X-0. Our results for these inclusive branching fractions are consistent with those of known exclusive modes, and exclude large enhancements due to sources of new physics.
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Lopez Honorez, L., Mena, O., & Panotopoulos, G. (2010). Higher-order coupled quintessence. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 123525–7pp.
Abstract: We study a coupled quintessence model in which the interaction with the dark-matter sector is a function of the quintessence potential. Such a coupling can arise from a field dependent mass term for the dark-matter field. The dynamical analysis of a standard quintessence potential coupled with the interaction explored here shows that the system possesses a late-time accelerated attractor. In light of these results, we perform a fit to the most recent Supernovae Ia, Cosmic Microwave Background, and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation data sets. Constraints arising from weak equivalence principle violation arguments are also discussed.
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Pandolfi, S., Giusarma, E., Kolb, E. W., Lattanzi, M., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., et al. (2010). Impact of general reionization scenarios on extraction of inflationary parameters. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 123527–10pp.
Abstract: Determination of whether the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum for primordial scalar perturbations is consistent with observations is sensitive to assumptions about the reionization scenario. In light of this result, we revisit constraints on inflationary models using more general reionization scenarios. While the bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio are largely unmodified, when different reionization schemes are addressed, hybrid models are back into the inflationary game. In the general reionization picture, we reconstruct both the shape and amplitude of the inflaton potential. We discuss how relaxing the simple reionization restriction affects the reconstruction of the potential through the changes in the constraints on the spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the running of the spectral index. We also find that the inclusion of other Cosmic Microwave Background data in addition to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy probe data excludes the very flat potentials typical of models in which the inflationary evolution reaches a late-time attractor, as a consequence of the fact that the running of the spectral index is constrained to be different from zero at 99% confidence level.
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Carlson, E. D., Anderson, P. R., Fabbri, A., Fagnocchi, S., Hirsch, W. H., & Klyap, S. A. (2010). Semiclassical gravity in the far field limit of stars, black holes, and wormholes. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 124070–24pp.
Abstract: Semiclassical gravity is investigated in a large class of asymptotically flat, static, spherically symmetric spacetimes including those containing static stars, black holes, and wormholes. Specifically the stress-energy tensors of massless free spin 0 and spin 1/2 fields are computed to leading order in the asymptotic regions of these spacetimes. This is done for spin 0 fields in Schwarzschild spacetime using a WKB approximation. It is done numerically for the spin 1/2 field in Schwarzschild, extreme Reissner-Nordstrom, and various wormhole spacetimes. And it is done by finding analytic solutions to the leading order mode equations in a large class of asymptotically flat static spherically symmetric spacetimes. Agreement is shown between these various computational methods. It is found that, for all of the spacetimes considered, the energy density and pressure in the asymptotic region are proportional to r(-5) to leading order. Furthermore, for the spin 1/2 field and the conformally coupled scalar field, the stress-energy tensor depends only on the leading order geometry in the far field limit. This is also true for the minimally coupled scalar field for spacetimes containing either a static star or a black hole, but not for spacetimes containing a wormhole.
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Esteves, J. N., Romao, J. C., Hirsch, M., Vicente, A., Porod, W., & Staub, F. (2010). LHC and lepton flavour violation phenomenology of a left-right extension of the MSSM. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 077–44pp.
Abstract: We study the phenomenology of a supersymmetric left-right model, assuming minimal supergravity boundary conditions. Both left-right and (B-L) symmetries are broken at an energy scale close to, but significantly below the GUT scale. Neutrino data is explained via a seesaw mechanism. We calculate the RGEs for superpotential and soft parameters complete at 2-loop order. At low energies lepton flavour violation (LFV) and small, but potentially measurable mass splittings in the charged scalar lepton sector appear, due to the RGE running. Different from the supersymmetric “pure seesaw” models, both, LFV and slepton mass splittings, occur not only in the left-but also in the right slepton sector. Especially, ratios of LFV slepton decays, such as Br((tau) over bar (R) -> μchi(0)(1))/Br((tau) over bar (L) -> μchi(0)(1)) are sensitive to the ratio of (B-L) and left-right symmetry breaking scales. Also the model predicts a polarization asymmetry of the outgoing positrons in the decay mu(+) -> e(+)gamma, A similar to [0, 1], which differs from the pure seesaw “prediction” A = 1. Observation of any of these signals allows to distinguish this model from any of the three standard, pure (mSugra) seesaw setups.
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Amaldi, U., Bonomi, R., Braccini, S., Crescenti, M., Degiovanni, A., Garlasche, M., et al. (2010). Accelerators for hadrontherapy: From Lawrence cyclotrons to linacs. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 620(2-3), 563–577.
Abstract: Hadrontherapy with protons and carbon ions is a fast developing methodology in radiation oncology. The accelerators used and planned for this purpose are reviewed starting from the cyclotrons used in the thirties. As discussed in the first part of this paper, normal and superconducting cyclotrons are still employed, together with synchrotrons, for proton therapy while for carbon ion therapy synchrotrons have been till now the only option. The latest developments concern a superconducting cyclotron for carbon ion therapy, fast-cycling high frequency linacs and 'single room' proton therapy facilities. These issues are discussed in the second part of the paper by underlining the present challenges, in particular the treatment of moving organs.
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