Thermal Resonance in Signal Transmission

We use temperature tuning to control signal propagation in simple one-dimensional arrays of masses connected by hard anharmonic springs and with no local potentials. In our numerical model a sustained signal is applied at one site of a chain immersed in a thermal environment and the signal-to-noise ratio is measured at each oscillator. We show that raising the temperature can lead to enhanced signal propagation along the chain, resulting in thermal resonance effects akin to the resonance observed in arrays of bistable systems.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

Superconductivity in the two dimensional Hubbard Model.

Quasiparticle bands of the two-dimensional Hubbard model are calculated using the Roth two-pole approximation to the one particle Green's function. Excellent agreement is obtained with recent Monte Carlo calculations, including an anomalous volume of the Fermi surface near half-filling, which can possibly be explained in terms of a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory. The calculated bands are very flat around the (pi,0) points of the Brillouin zone in agreement with photoemission measurements of cuprate superconductors. With doping there is a shift in spectral weight from the upper band to the lower band. The Roth method is extended to deal with superconductivity within a four-pole approximation allowing electron-hole mixing. It is shown that triplet p-wave pairing never occurs. Singlet d_{x^2-y^2}-wave pairing is strongly favoured and optimal doping occurs when the van Hove singularity, corresponding to the flat band part, lies at the Fermi level. Nearest neighbour antiferromagnetic correlations play an important role in flattening the bands near the Fermi level and in favouring superconductivity. However the mechanism for superconductivity is a local one, in contrast to spin fluctuation exchange models. For reasonable values of the hopping parameter the transition temperature T_c is in the range 10-100K. The optimum doping delta_c lies between 0.14 and 0.25, depending on the ratio U/t. The gap equation has a BCS-like form and (2*Delta_{max})/(kT_c) ~ 4.Comment: REVTeX, 35 pages, including 19 PostScript figures numbered 1a to 11. Uses epsf.sty (included). Everything in uuencoded gz-compressed .tar file, (self-unpacking, see header). Submitted to Phys. Rev. B (24-2-95

Neutrino Masses, Mixing and New Physics Effects

We introduce a parametrization of the effects of radiative corrections from new physics on the charged lepton and neutrino mass matrices, studying how several relevant quantities describing the pattern of neutrino masses and mixing are affected by these corrections. We find that the ratio omega = sin theta / tan theta_atm is remarkably stable, even when relatively large corrections are added to the original mass matrices. It is also found that if the lightest neutrino has a mass around 0.3 eV, the pattern of masses and mixings is considerably more stable under perturbations than for a lighter or heavier spectrum. We explore the consequences of perturbations on some flavor relations given in the literature. In addition, for a quasi-degenerate neutrino spectrum it is shown that: (i) starting from a bi-maximal mixing scenario, the corrections to the mass matrices keep tan theta_atm very close to unity while they can lower tan theta_sol to its measured value; (ii) beginning from a scenario with a vanishing Dirac phase, corrections can induce a Dirac phase large enough to yield CP violation observable in neutrino oscillations.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figures. Uses RevTeX4. Added several comments and references. Final version to appear in PR

Randomness Increases Order in Biological Evolution

n this text, we revisit part of the analysis of anti-entropy in Bailly and Longo (2009} and develop further theoretical reflections. In particular, we analyze how randomness, an essential component of biological variability, is associated to the growth of biological organization, both in ontogenesis and in evolution. This approach, in particular, focuses on the role of global entropy production and provides a tool for a mathematical understanding of some fundamental observations by Gould on the increasing phenotypic complexity along evolution. Lastly, we analyze the situation in terms of theoretical symmetries, in order to further specify the biological meaning of anti-entropy as well as its strong link with randomness

Study of the production of Λb0\Lambda_b^0 and B‾0\overline{B}^0 hadrons in pppp collisions and first measurement of the Λb0→J/ψpK−\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^- branching fraction

The product of the $\Lambda_b^0$ ($\overline{B}^0$) differential production cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ ($\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$) is measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, and rapidity, $y$. The kinematic region of the measurements is $p_{\rm T}<20~{\rm GeV}/c$ and $2.0<y<4.5$. The measurements use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb detector in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=7~{\rm TeV}$ in 2011 and $\sqrt{s}=8~{\rm TeV}$ in 2012. Based on previous LHCb results of the fragmentation fraction ratio, $f_{\Lambda_B^0}/f_d$, the branching fraction of the decay $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$ is measured to be \begin{equation*} \mathcal{B}(\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-)= (3.17\pm0.04\pm0.07\pm0.34^{+0.45}_{-0.28})\times10^{-4}, \end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the decay $\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/\psi\overline{K}^*(892)^0$, and the fourth is due to the knowledge of $f_{\Lambda_b^0}/f_d$. The sum of the asymmetries in the production and decay between $\Lambda_b^0$ and $\overline{\Lambda}_b^0$ is also measured as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and $y$. The previously published branching fraction of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi p\pi^-$, relative to that of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow J/\psi pK^-$, is updated. The branching fractions of $\Lambda_b^0\rightarrow P_c^+(\rightarrow J/\psi p)K^-$ are determined.Comment: 29 pages, 19figures. All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-032.htm

Evidence for the strangeness-changing weak decay Ξb−→Λb0π−\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-

Using a $pp$ collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0~fb$^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb detector, we present the first search for the strangeness-changing weak decay $\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-$. No $b$ hadron decay of this type has been seen before. A signal for this decay, corresponding to a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, is reported. The relative rate is measured to be ${{f_{\Xi_b^-}}\over{f_{\Lambda_b^0}}}{\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-) = (5.7\pm1.8^{+0.8}_{-0.9})\times10^{-4}$, where $f_{\Xi_b^-}$ and $f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ are the $b\to\Xi_b^-$ and $b\to\Lambda_b^0$ fragmentation fractions, and ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ is the branching fraction. Assuming $f_{\Xi_b^-}/f_{\Lambda_b^0}$ is bounded between 0.1 and 0.3, the branching fraction ${\cal{B}}(\Xi_b^-\to\Lambda_b^0\pi^-)$ would lie in the range from $(0.57\pm0.21)\%$ to $(0.19\pm0.07)\%$.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-047.htm

BB flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral $B$ mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a $B$ meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other $b$ hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes $B^+ \to J/\psi \, K^+$ and $B^0 \to J/\psi \, K^{*0}$ using $3.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of data collected by the LHCb experiment at $pp$ centre-of-mass energies of $7\mathrm{\,TeV}$ and $8\mathrm{\,TeV}$. Its tagging power on these samples of $B \to J/\psi \, X$ decays is $(0.30 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.01) \%$.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-027.htm

Measurements of long-range near-side angular correlations in sNN=5\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5TeV proton-lead collisions in the forward region

Two-particle angular correlations are studied in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5$TeV, collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on data recorded in two beam configurations, in which either the direction of the proton or that of the lead ion is analysed. The correlations are measured in the laboratory system as a function of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta\eta$, and relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta\phi$, for events in different classes of event activity and for different bins of particle transverse momentum. In high-activity events a long-range correlation on the near side, $\Delta\phi \approx 0$, is observed in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.9$. This measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to $\eta=4.9$. The correlation increases with growing event activity and is found to be more pronounced in the direction of the lead beam. However, the correlation in the direction of the lead and proton beams are found to be compatible when comparing events with similar absolute activity in the direction analysed.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-040.htm

Search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=7  TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ candidates is consistent with background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions of both decays are determined to be B(Bs0→e±μ∓)101  TeV/c2 and MLQ(B0→e±μ∓)>126  TeV/c2 at 95% C.L., and are a factor of 2 higher than the previous bounds

Identification of beauty and charm quark jets at LHCb

Identification of jets originating from beauty and charm quarks is important for measuring Standard Model processes and for searching for new physics. The performance of algorithms developed to select $b$- and $c$-quark jets is measured using data recorded by LHCb from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV in 2011 and at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV in 2012. The efficiency for identifying a $b(c)$ jet is about 65%(25%) with a probability for misidentifying a light-parton jet of 0.3% for jets with transverse momentum $p_{\rm T} > 20$ GeV and pseudorapidity $2.2 < \eta < 4.2$. The dependence of the performance on the $p_{\rm T}$ and $\eta$ of the jet is also measured