Revisiting Charmless Hadronic B_{u,d} Decays in QCD Factorization

Within the framework of QCD factorization (QCDF), we consider two different types of power correction effects in order to resolve the CP puzzles and rate deficit problems with penguin-dominated two-body decays of B mesons and color-suppressed tree-dominated $\pi^0\pi^0$ and $\rho^0\pi^0$ modes: penguin annihilation and soft corrections to the color-suppressed tree amplitude. We emphasize that the electroweak penguin solution to the $B\to K\pi$ CP puzzle via New Physics is irrelevant for solving the CP and rate puzzles related to tree-dominated decays. While some channels e.g. $K^-\pi^+,K^-\rho^0,\pi^+\pi^-,\rho^\pm\pi^\mp$ need penguin annihilation to induce the correct magnitudes and signs for their CP violation, some other decays such as $B^-\to K^-\pi^0,\pi^-\eta, K^-\eta$ and $\bar B^0\to \bar K^{*0}\eta,\pi^0\pi^0$ require the presence of both power corrections to account for the measured CP asymmetries. In general, QCDF predictions for the branching fractions and direct CP asymmetries of $\bar B\to PP,VP,VV$ decays are in good agreement with experiment. The predictions of pQCD and soft-collinear effective theory are included for comparison.Comment: 51 pages, 1 figur

Precision Measurement of KS Meson Lifetime with the KLOE detector

Using a large sample of pure, slow, short lived K0 mesons collected with KLOE detector at DaFne, we have measured the KS lifetime. From a fit to the proper time distribution we find tau = (89.562 +- 0.029_stat +- 0.043_syst) ps. This is the most precise measurement today in good agreement with the world average derived from previous measurements. We observe no dependence of the lifetime on the direction of the Ks.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Measurement of the η→3π0\eta\to 3\pi^{0} slope parameter α\alpha with the KLOE detector

We present a measurement of the slope parameter $\alpha$ for the $\eta\to 3\pi^{0}$ decay, with the KLOE experiment at the DA$\Phi$NE $\phi$-factory, based on a background free sample of $\sim$ 17 millions $\eta$ mesons produced in $\phi$ radiative decays. By fitting the event density in the Dalitz plot we determine $\alpha = -0.0301 \pm 0.0035\,stat\;_{-0.0035}^{+0.0022}\,syst\,$. The result is in agreement with recent measurements from hadro- and photo-production experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Vacuum Properties of Mesons in a Linear Sigma Model with Vector Mesons and Global Chiral Invariance

We present a two-flavour linear sigma model with global chiral symmetry and vector and axial-vector mesons. We calculate pion-pion scattering lengths and the decay widths of scalar, vector, and axial-vector mesons. It is demonstrated that vector and axial-vector meson degrees of freedom play an important role in these low-energy processes and that a reasonable theoretical description requires globally chirally invariant terms other than the vector meson mass term. An important question for meson vacuum phenomenology is the quark content of the physical scalar f0(600) and a0(980) mesons. We investigate this question by assigning the quark-antiquark sigma and a0 states of our model with these physical mesons. We show via a detailed comparison with experimental data that this scenario can describe all vacuum properties studied here except for the decay width of the sigma, which turns out to be too small. We also study the alternative assignment f0(1370) and a0(1450) for the scalar mesons. In this case the decay width agrees with the experimental value, but the pion-pion scattering length $a_{0}^{0}$ is too small. This indicates the necessity to extend our model by additional scalar degrees of freedom.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

A Study of the Radiative Ke3 Decay and Search for Direct Photon Emission with the KLOE Detector

We present a measurement of the ratio R = \Gamma(\keg;\Estar>30\mev,\qstar>20^\circ)$/$\Gamma(\kegf)$and a first measurement of the direct emission contribution in KL semileptonic decays. The measurement is done at the DAFNE phi-factory selecting phi->KL KS decays with the KLOE detector. We use 328 pb^{-1}$ of data corresponding to about 3.5 million Ke3(g) events and about 9000 radiative events. Our result is R=(924 +/- 23(stat) +/-16(syst)10^{-5} for the branching ratio and X=-2.3 +/- 1.3(stat) +/- 1.4(syst) for the parameter describing direct emission.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Molecular targets of developmental exposure to bisphenol A in diabesity: a focus on endoderm-derived organs

Several studies associate foetal human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) to metabolic/endocrine diseases, mainly diabesity. They describe the role of BPA in the disruption of pancreatic beta cell, adipocyte and hepatocyte functions. Indeed, the complexity of the diabesity phenotype is due to the involvement of different endoderm-derived organs, all targets of BPA. Here, we analyse this point delineating a picture of different mechanisms of BPA toxicity in endoderm-derived organs leading to diabesity. Moving from epidemiological data, we summarize the in vivo experimental data of the BPA effects on endoderm-derived organs (thyroid, pancreas, liver, gut, prostate and lung) after prenatal exposure. Mainly, we gather molecular data evidencing harmful effects at low-dose exposure, pointing to the risk to human health. Although the fragmentation of molecular data does not allow a clear conclusion to be drawn, the present work indicates that the developmental exposure to BPA represents a risk for endoderm-derived organs development as it deregulates the gene expression from the earliest developmental stages. A more systematic analysis of BPA impact on the transcriptomes of endoderm-derived organs is still missing. Here, we suggest in vitro toxicogenomics approaches as a tool for the identification of common mechanisms of BPA toxicity leading to the diabesity in organs having the same developmental origin

Vector Correlators in Lattice QCD: methods and applications

We discuss the calculation of the leading hadronic vacuum polarization in lattice QCD. Exploiting the excellent quality of the compiled experimental data for the e^+e^- --> hadrons cross-section, we predict the outcome of large-volume lattice calculations at the physical pion mass, and design computational strategies for the lattice to have an impact on important phenomenological quantities such as the leading hadronic contribution to (g-2)mu and the running of the electromagnetic coupling constant. First, the R(s) ratio can be calculated directly on the lattice in the threshold region, and we provide the formulae to do so with twisted boundary conditions. Second, the current correlator projected onto zero spatial momentum, in a Euclidean time interval where it can be calculated accurately, provides a potentially critical test of the experimental R(s) ratio in the region that is most relevant for (g-2)mu. This observation can also be turned around: the vector correlator at intermediate distances can be used to determine the lattice spacing in fm, and we make a concrete proposal in this direction. Finally, we quantify the finite-size effects on the current correlator coming from low-energy two-pion states and provide a general parametrization of the vacuum polarization on the torus.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure files; corrected a factor 2 in Eq. (7) over the published versio

Measurement of the pseudoscalar mixing angle and η′\eta^{\prime} gluonium content with KLOE detector

We have measured the ratio $R_{\phi}=BR(\phi \to \eta^{\prime} \gamma)/BR(\phi \to \eta \gamma)$ by looking for the radiative decays $\phi \to \eta^{\prime} \gamma$ and $\phi \to \eta \gamma$ in the final states $\pi^+\pi^-$ 7 $\gamma$'s and 7 $\gamma$'s respectively, in a sample of $\sim 1.3\cdot 10^{9}$ $\phi$ mesons produced at the Frascati $\phi$-factory. We obtain $R_{\phi}=(4.77\pm0.09_{stat}\pm0.19_{sys})\cdot 10^{-3}$ from which we derive $BR(\phi \to \eta^{\prime} \gamma)=(6.20\pm0.11_{stat}\pm0.25_{sys})\cdot 10^{-5}$. In the hypothesis of no gluonium content we extract the pseudoscalar mixing angle in the quark-flavor basis $\phi_P=(41.4\pm0.3_{stat}\pm0.7_{sys}\pm0.6_{th})^{\circ}$. Combining the value of $R_{\phi}$ with other constraints, we estimate the gluonium fractional content of $\eta^{\prime}$ meson as $Z^2 = 0.14\pm0.04$ and the mixing angle $\phi_P = (39.7\pm0.7)^{\circ}$.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Dalitz plot analysis of e+ e- --> pi0 pi0 gamma events at SQRT(s) ~ M(phi) with the KLOE detector

We have studied the Dalitz plot of the e+ e- --> pi0 pi0 gamma events collected at SQRT(s) ~ M(phi) with the KLOE detector. In the dipion invariant mass (Mpp) region below 700 MeV, the process under study is dominated by the non-resonant process e+ e- --> omega pi0 with omega --> pi0 gamma whereas, for higher Mpp values, the radiative phi decay to the f0(980) is the dominant mechanism. Different theoretical models are used to fit the Dalitz plot, taking also into account a possible contribution of the sigma(600). For each model, we extract the f0(980) mass and its coupling to pipi, KKbar and to the phi.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, submitted to European Physics Journal

The Glueball in a Chiral Linear Sigma Model with Vector Mesons

We present a two-flavour linear sigma model with global chiral symmetry and (axial-)vector mesons as well as an additional glueball degree of freedom. We study the structure of the well-established scalar resonances f0(1370) and f0(1500): by a fit to experimentally known decay widths we find that f0(1370) is predominantly a \bar{q}q state and f0(1500) is predominantly a glueball state. The overall phenomenology of these two resonances can be well described. Other assignments for our mixed quarkonium-glueball states are also tested, but turn out to be in worse agreement with the phenomenology. As a by-product of our analysis, the gluon condensate is determined.Comment: 8 page