LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2016). First Observation of D-0 – (D)over-bar(0) Oscillations in D-0 -> K+pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) Decays and Measurement of the Associated Coherence Parameters. Phys. Rev. Lett., 116(24), 241801–10pp.
Abstract: Charm meson oscillations are observed in a time-dependent analysis of the ratio of D-0 -> K+pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) to D-0 -> K-pi(+)pi(-)pi(+) decay rates, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) recorded by the LHCb experiment. The measurements presented are sensitive to the phase-space averaged ratio of doubly Cabibbo-suppressed to Cabibbo-favored amplitudes r(D)(K3 pi) and the product of the coherence factor R-D(K3 pi) and a charm mixing parameter y'(K3 pi). The constraints measured are r(D)(K3 pi) = (5.67 +/- 0.12) x 10(-2), which is the most precise determination to date, and R-D(K3 pi) y'(K3 pi) = (0.3 +/- 1.8) x 10(-3), which provides useful input for determinations of the CP-violating phase gamma in B-+/- -> DK +/-, D -> K--/+pi(+/-)pi(-/+)pi(+/-) decays. The analysis also gives the most precise measurement of the D-0 -> K+pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) branching fraction, and the first observation of D-0-(D) over bar (0) oscillations in this decay mode, with a significance of 8.2 standard deviations.
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Liddick, S. N., Spyrou, A., Crider, B. P., Naqvi, F., Larsen, A. C., Guttormsen, M., et al. (2016). Experimental Neutron Capture Rate Constraint Far from Stability. Phys. Rev. Lett., 116(24), 242502–6pp.
Abstract: Nuclear reactions where an exotic nucleus captures a neutron are critical for a wide variety of applications, from energy production and national security, to astrophysical processes, and nucleosynthesis. Neutron capture rates are well constrained near stable isotopes where experimental data are available; however, moving far from the valley of stability, uncertainties grow by orders of magnitude. This is due to the complete lack of experimental constraints, as the direct measurement of a neutron-capture reaction on a short-lived nucleus is extremely challenging. Here, we report on the first experimental extraction of a neutron capture reaction rate on Ni-69, a nucleus that is five neutrons away from the last stable isotope of Ni. The implications of this measurement on nucleosynthesis around mass 70 are discussed, and the impact of similar future measurements on the understanding of the origin of the heavy elements in the cosmos is presented.
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Gomis, P., & Perez, A. (2016). Decoherence effects in the Stern-Gerlach experiment using matrix Wigner functions. Phys. Rev. A, 94(1), 012103–11pp.
Abstract: We analyze the Stern-Gerlach experiment in phase space with the help of the matrix Wigner function, which includes the spin degree of freedom. Such analysis allows for an intuitive visualization of the quantum dynamics of the device. We include the interaction with the environment, as described by the Caldeira-Leggett model. The diagonal terms of the matrix provide us with information about the two components of the state that arise from interaction with the magnetic field gradient. In particular, from the marginals of these components, we obtain an analytical formula for the position and momentum probability distributions in the presence of decoherence that shows a diffusive behavior for large values of the decoherence parameter. These features limit the dynamics of the present model. We also observe the decay of the nondiagonal terms with time and use this fact to quantify the amount of decoherence from the norm of those terms in phase space. From here, we can define a decoherence time scale, which differs from previous results that make use of the same model. We analyze a typical experiment and show that, for that setup, the decoherence time is much smaller than the characteristic time scale for the separation of the two beams, implying that they can be described as an incoherent mixture of atoms traveling in the up and down directions with opposite values of the spin projection. Therefore, entanglement is quickly destroyed in the setup we analyzed.
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Ganioglu, E. et al, Rubio, B., Algora, A., Estevez-Aguado, E., & Molina, F. (2016). High-resolution study of Gamow-Teller transitions in the Ti-48(He-3,t)V-48 reaction. Phys. Rev. C, 93(6), 064326–10pp.
Abstract: In this work we have studied T-z = +2 -> +1, Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions in the Ti-48(He-3, t)V-48 chargeexchange reaction at 140 MeV/nucleon and 0 degrees at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka. From the high-resolution facility, consisting of a high-dispersion beamline and the Grand Raiden spectrometer, the spectrum had an energy resolution of 21 keV, among the best achieved. Individual GT transitions were observed and GT strength was derived for each state populated up to an excitation energy of 12 MeV. The total sum of the B(GT) strength observed in discrete states was 4.0, which is 33% of the sum-rule-limit value of 12. The results were compared with the results of shell-model calculations carried out with the GXPF1J interaction. The measured B(GT) distribution was also compared with that obtained in the (He-3, t) charge-exchange reaction on Ti-47. On the assumption of isospin symmetry the beta spectrum of the T-z = -2 nucleus Fe-48 was deduced from the observed spectrum in the Ti-48(He-3, t)V-48 reaction and this predicted spectrum was compared with the measured one.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2016). Constraints on the unitarity triangle angle gamma from Dalitz plot analysis of B-0 -> DK+pi(-) decays. Phys. Rev. D, 93(11), 112018–19pp.
Abstract: The first study is presented of CP violation with an amplitude analysis of the Dalitz plot of B-0 -> DK+pi(-) decays, with D -> K+pi(-), K+K-, and pi(+)pi(-). The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb(-1) of pp collisions collected with the LHCb detector. No significant CP violation effect is seen, and constraints are placed on the angle gamma of the unitarity triangle formed from elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix. Hadronic parameters associated with the B-0 -> DK*(892)(0) decay are determined for the first time. These measurements can be used to improve the sensitivity to gamma of existing and future studies of the B-0 -> DK*(892)(0) decay.
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Caballero-Folch, R. et al, Domingo-Pardo, C., Agramunt, J., Algora, A., Rubio, B., & Tain, J. L. (2016). First Measurement of Several beta-Delayed Neutron Emitting Isotopes Beyond N=126. Phys. Rev. Lett., 117(1), 012501–6pp.
Abstract: The beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities of neutron rich Hg and Tl nuclei have been measured together with beta-decay half-lives for 20 isotopes of Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, and Bi in the mass region N greater than or similar to 126. These are the heaviest species where neutron emission has been observed so far. These measurements provide key information to evaluate the performance of nuclear microscopic and phenomenological models in reproducing the high-energy part of the beta-decay strength distribution. This provides important constraints on global theoretical models currently used in r-process nucleosynthesis.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2016). Search for metastable heavy charged particles with large ionization energy loss in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV using the ATLAS experiment. Phys. Rev. D, 93(11), 112015–25pp.
Abstract: This paper presents a search for massive charged long-lived particles produced in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV at the LHC using the ATLAS experiment. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1). Many extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of massive charged long-lived particles, such as R-hadrons. These massive particles are expected to be produced with a velocity significantly below the speed of light, and therefore to have a specific ionization higher than any Standard Model particle of unit charge at high momenta. The Pixel subsystem of the ATLAS detector is used to measure the ionization energy loss of reconstructed charged particles and to search for such highly ionizing particles. The search presented here has much greater sensitivity than a similar search performed using the ATLAS detector in the root s = 8 TeV data set, thanks to the increase in expected signal cross section due to the higher center-of-mass energy of collisions, to an upgraded detector with a new silicon layer close to the interaction point, and to analysis improvements. No significant deviation from Standard Model background expectations is observed, and lifetime-dependent upper limits on R-hadron production cross sections and masses are set. Gluino R-hadrons with lifetimes above 0.4 ns and decaying to q (q) over bar plus a 100 GeV neutralino are excluded at the 95% confidence level, with lower mass limit ranging between 740 and 1590 GeV. In the case of stable R-hadrons the lower mass limit at the 95% confidence level is 1570 GeV.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2016). Measurement of the neutral D meson mixing parameters in a time-dependent amplitude analysis of the D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0) decay. Phys. Rev. D, 93(11), 112014–10pp.
Abstract: We perform the first measurement on the D-0 – (D) over bar (0) mixing parameters using a time-dependent amplitude analysis of the decay D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0). The data were recorded with the BABAR detector at center-of-mass energies at and near the Upsilon(4S) resonance, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 468.1 fb(-1). The neutral D meson candidates are selected from D*(2010)(+) -> D-0 pi(+)(s) decays where the flavor at the production is identified by the charge of the low-momentum pion, pi(+)(s). The measured mixing parameters are x = (1.5 +/- 1.2 +/- 0.6)% and y = (0.2 +/- 0.9 +/- 0.5)%, where the quoted uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
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Lu, J. X., Chen, H. X., Guo, Z. H., Nieves, J., Xie, J. J., & Geng, L. S. (2016). Lambda(c)(2595) resonance as a dynamically generated state: The compositeness condition and the large N-c evolution. Phys. Rev. D, 93(11), 114028–16pp.
Abstract: Recent studies have shown that the well-established Lambda(c) (2595) resonance contains a large meson-baryon component, which can vary depending on the specific formalism. In this work, we examine such a picture by utilizing the compositeness condition and the large number of colors (N-c) expansion. We examine three different models fulfilling two body unitarily in coupled-channels, and adopting renormalization schemes where the mass of the Lambda(c)(2595) resonance is well described, but not necessarily its width, since we do not consider three body channels and work at the isospin symmetric limit. Both approximations might have an effect larger on the width than on the mass. In this context, our studies show that the compositeness of the Lambda(c)(2595) depends on the number of considered coupled channels, and on the particular regularization scheme adopted in the unitary approaches and, therefore, is model dependent. In addition, we perform an exploratory study of the Lambda(c)(2595) in the large N-c expansion, within a scheme involving only the pi Sigma(c) and K Xi(c)', channels, whose dynamics is mostly fixed by chiral symmetry. In this context and formulating the leading-order interaction as a function of N-c, we show that for moderate N-c > 3 values, the mass and width of the Lambda(c)(2595) deviate from those of a genuine qqq baryon, implying the relevance of meson-baryon components in its wave function. Furthermore, we study the properties of the Lambda(c)(2595), in the strict N-c -> infinity limit, using an extension of the chiral Weinberg-Tomozawa interaction to an arbitrary number of flavors and colors. This latter study hints at the possible existence of a (perhaps) subdominant qqq component in the Lambda(c)(2595) resonance wave function, which would become dominant when the number of colors gets sufficiently large.
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ANTARES, I. C., LIGO and Virgo Collaborations(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Sanchez-Losa, A., Tönnis, C., Zornoza, J. D., et al. (2016). High-energy neutrino follow-up search of gravitational wave event GW150914 with ANTARES and IceCube. Phys. Rev. D, 93(12), 122010–15pp.
Abstract: We present the high-energy-neutrino follow-up observations of the first gravitational wave transient GW150914 observed by the Advanced LIGO detectors on September 14, 2015. We search for coincident neutrino candidates within the data recorded by the IceCube and ANTARES neutrino detectors. A possible joint detection could be used in targeted electromagnetic follow-up observations, given the significantly better angular resolution of neutrino events compared to gravitational waves. We find no neutrino candidates in both temporal and spatial coincidence with the gravitational wave event. Within +/- 500 s of the gravitational wave event, the number of neutrino candidates detected by IceCube and ANTARES were three and zero, respectively. This is consistent with the expected atmospheric background, and none of the neutrino candidates were directionally coincident with GW150914. We use this nondetection to constrain neutrino emission from the gravitational-wave event.
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