How particle collisions increase the rate of accretion from the cosmological background onto primordial black holes in braneworld cosmology

It is shown that, contrary to the widespread opinion, particle collisions considerably increase accretion rate from the cosmological background onto 5D primordial black holes formed during the high-energy phase of the Randall-Sundrum Type II braneworld scenario. Increase of accretion rate leads to much tighter constraints on initial primordial black hole mass fraction imposed by the critical density limit and measurements of high-energy diffuse photon background and antiproton excess.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Pedogenesis and carbon sequestration in transformed agricultural soils of Sicily

The increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration is a consequence of human activities leading to severe environmental deteriorations. Techniques are thus needed to sequester and reduce atmospheric carbon. One of the proposed techniques is the transformation or construction of new soils into which more organic carbon can be sequestered and CO2 be consumed by increased weathering. By using a chronosequence of new and transformed soils on crushed limestone (0–48 years) in a Mediterranean area (Sicily), we tried to quantify the amount of organic carbon that could be additionally sequestered and to derive the corresponding rates. A further aim was to trace chemical weathering and related CO2 consumption and the evolution of macropores that are relevant for water infiltration and plant nutrition. Owing to the irrigation of the table grape cultivation, the transformed soils developed fast. After about 48 years, the organic C stocks were near 12 kg m−2. The average org. C sequestration rates varied between 68 and 288 g m−2 yr−1. The C accumulation rates in the transformed soils are very high at the beginning and tend to decrease over (modelled) longer time scales. Over these 48 years, a substantial amount of carbonate was leached and reprecipitated as secondary carbonates. The proportion of secondary carbonates on the total inorganic carbon was up to 50%. Main mineralogical changes included the formation of interstratified clay minerals, the decrease of mica and increase of chloritic components as well as goethite. The atmospheric CO2 consumption due to silicate weathering was in the range of about 44–72 g C m−2 yr−1. Due to the high variability, the contribution of chemical weathering to CO2 consumption represents only an estimate. When summing up organic C sequestration and CO2 consumption by silicate weathering, rates in the order of 110–360 g C m−2 yr−1 are obtained. These are very high values. We estimated that high sequestration and CO2 consumption rates are maintained for about 50–100 years after soil transformation. The macropore volume decreased over the observed time span to half (from roughly 10 to 5 %). The transformation of soils may even amend their characteristics and increase agricultural production. Due to the relatively sandy character, enough macropores were present and no substantial compaction of the soils occurred. However, great caution has to be taken as such measures can trigger deterioration of both soil ecosystem services and soil quality

Time-dependent CP Asymmetries in B0→KS0ρ0γB^0\to K^0_S\rho^0\gamma Decays

We report the first measurement of CP-violation parameters in B^0 -> K_S^0\rho^0\gamma decays based on 657 million B\bar B pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy collider. We measure the time-dependent CP violating parameter S_{K_S^0\rho^0\gamma}= 0.11 +/- 0.33(stat.)^{+0.05}_{-0.09}(syst.). We also obtain the effective direct CP violating parameter A_eff=0.05 +/- 0.18(stat.) +/- 0.06(syst.) for m_{K_S\pi^+\pi^-}<1.8 GeV/c^2 and 0.6 GeV/c^2<m_{\pi^+\pi^-}<0.9 GeV/c^2.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be submitted to PR

CeLAND: search for a 4th light neutrino state with a 3 PBq 144Ce-144Pr electron antineutrino generator in KamLAND

The reactor neutrino and gallium anomalies can be tested with a 3-4 PBq (75-100 kCi scale) 144Ce-144Pr antineutrino beta-source deployed at the center or next to a large low-background liquid scintillator detector. The antineutrino generator will be produced by the Russian reprocessing plant PA Mayak as early as 2014, transported to Japan, and deployed in the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND) as early as 2015. KamLAND's 13 m diameter target volume provides a suitable environment to measure the energy and position dependence of the detected neutrino flux. A characteristic oscillation pattern would be visible for a baseline of about 10 m or less, providing a very clean signal of neutrino disappearance into a yet-unknown, sterile neutrino state. This will provide a comprehensive test of the electron dissaperance neutrino anomalies and could lead to the discovery of a 4th neutrino state for Delta_m^2 > 0.1 eV^2 and sin^2(2theta) > 0.05.Comment: 67 pages, 50 figures. Th. Lasserre thanks the European Research Council for support under the Starting Grant StG-30718

Study of charmonia in four-meson final states produced in two-photon collisions

We report measurements of charmonia produced in two-photon collisions and decaying to four-meson final states, where the meson is either a charged pion or a charged kaon. The analysis is based on a 395fb^{-1} data sample accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB electron-positron collider. We observe signals for the three C-even charmonia eta_c(1S), chi_{c0}(1P) and chi_{c2}(1P) in the pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^-, K^+K^-pi^+pi^- and K^+K^-K^+K^- decay modes. No clear signals for eta_c(2S) production are found in these decay modes. We have also studied resonant structures in charmonium decays to two-body intermediate meson resonances. We report the products of the two-photon decay width and the branching fractions, Gamma_{gamma gamma}B, for each of the charmonium decay modes.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure

White paper: CeLAND - Investigation of the reactor antineutrino anomaly with an intense 144Ce-144Pr antineutrino source in KamLAND

We propose to test for short baseline neutrino oscillations, implied by the recent reevaluation of the reactor antineutrino flux and by anomalous results from the gallium solar neutrino detectors. The test will consist of producing a 75 kCi 144Ce - 144Pr antineutrino source to be deployed in the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND). KamLAND's 13m diameter target volume provides a suitable environment to measure energy and position dependence of the detected neutrino flux. A characteristic oscillation pattern would be visible for a baseline of about 10 m or less, providing a very clean signal of neutrino disappearance into a yet-unknown, "sterile" state. Such a measurement will be free of any reactor-related uncertainties. After 1.5 years of data taking the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly parameter space will be tested at > 95% C.L.Comment: White paper prepared for Snowmass-2013; slightly different author lis

Study of B -> D** l nu with full reconstruction tagging

We report a study of semileptonic B decays to P-wave D** mesons. Semileptonic decay to D*_2 meson is observed for the first time and its product branching ratio is measured to be Br(B+ -> anti-D*0_2 l+nu) x Br(anti-D*0_2 -> D- pi+) = 0.22 +- 0.03(stat.) +- 0.04(syst.)%. The result is obtained using the fully reconstructed B tags from a data sample that contains 657 millions BB-bar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+ e- collider.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRD(RC

Search for Lepton Flavor and Lepton Number Violating tau Decays into a Lepton and Two Charged Mesons

We search for lepton flavor and lepton number violating tau decays into a lepton (ell = electron or muon) and two charged mesons (h,h' = pi^\pm or K^\pm), tau- -> ell-h+h'- and tau- -> ell+h-h'-, using 671 fb^{-1} of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We obtain 90% C.L. upper limits on the branching fractions in the range (4.4-8.8)x10^{-8} for tau -> ehh', and (3.3-16)x10^{-8} for tau -> muhh' processes. These results improve upon previously published upper limits by factors between 1.6 to 8.8.Comment: 15 page, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Measurement of the near-threshold e+e−→DDˉe^+e^- \to D \bar D cross section using initial-state radiation

We report measurements of the exclusive cross section for $e^+e^- \to D \bar D$, where $D=D^0$ or $D^+$, in the center-of-mass energy range from the $D \bar D$ threshold to $5\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ with initial-state radiation. The analysis is based on a data sample collected with the Belle detector with an integrated luminosity of 673 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$.Comment: Presented at EPS07 and LP07 conferences, published in PRD(RC