A search for the decay modes B+/- to h+/- tau l

We present a search for the lepton flavor violating decay modes B+/- to h+/- tau l (h= K,pi; l= e,mu) using the BaBar data sample, which corresponds to 472 million BBbar pairs. The search uses events where one B meson is fully reconstructed in one of several hadronic final states. Using the momenta of the reconstructed B, h, and l candidates, we are able to fully determine the tau four-momentum. The resulting tau candidate mass is our main discriminant against combinatorial background. We see no evidence for B+/- to h+/- tau l decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on each branching fraction at the level of a few times 10^-5.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Evidence for the h_b(1P) meson in the decay Upsilon(3S) --> pi0 h_b(1P)

Using a sample of 122 million Upsilon(3S) events recorded with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at SLAC, we search for the $h_b(1P)$ spin-singlet partner of the P-wave chi_{bJ}(1P) states in the sequential decay Upsilon(3S) --> pi0 h_b(1P), h_b(1P) --> gamma eta_b(1S). We observe an excess of events above background in the distribution of the recoil mass against the pi0 at mass 9902 +/- 4(stat.) +/- 2(syst.) MeV/c^2. The width of the observed signal is consistent with experimental resolution, and its significance is 3.1sigma, including systematic uncertainties. We obtain the value (4.3 +/- 1.1(stat.) +/- 0.9(syst.)) x 10^{-4} for the product branching fraction BF(Upsilon(3S)-->pi0 h_b) x BF(h_b-->gamma eta_b).Comment: 8 pages, 4 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Study of (B)over-bar -> X(u)l(v)over-bar decays in B(B)over-bar events tagged by a fully reconstructed B-meson decay and determination of vertical bar V-ub vertical bar

We report measurements of partial branching fractions for inclusive charmless semileptonic B decays B̄→

Search for the Z1(4050)+Z_1(4050)^+ and Z2(4250)+Z_2(4250)^+ states in Bˉ0→χc1K−π+\bar B^0 \to \chi_{c1} K^- \pi^+ and B+→χc1KS0π+B^+ \to \chi_{c1} K^0_S \pi^+

We search for the $Z_1(4050)^+$ and $Z_2(4250)^+$ states, reported by the Belle Collaboration, decaying to $\chi_{c1} \pi^+$ in the decays $\bar B^0 \to \chi_{c1} K^- \pi^+$ and $B^+ \to \chi_{c1} K^0_S \pi^+$ where \chi_{c1} \to \jpsi \gamma. The data were collected with the BaBar detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider operating at center-of-mass energy 10.58 GeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 429 fb$^{-1}$. In this analysis, we model the background-subtracted, efficiency-corrected $\chi_{c1}\pi$ mass distribution using the $K \pi$ mass distribution and the corresponding normalized $K \pi$ Legendre polynomial moments, and then test the need for the inclusion of resonant structures in the description of the $\chi_{c1}\pi$ mass distribution. No evidence is found for the $Z_1(4050)^+$ and $Z_2(4250)^+$ resonances, and 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions are reported for the corresponding $B$-meson decay modes.Comment: 15 pages, 12 postscript figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Measurements of charged current lepton universality and |Vus| using tau lepton decays to e- (e) ( ), - ( ) ( ), - ( ), and K- ( ).

9 pages, 12 encapsulated postscript figures, submitted to Physical Review LettersInternational audienceUsing 467 $fb^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ annihilation data collected with the BaBar detector, we measure $\frac{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to \mu^- \bar{\nu}_\mu \nu_\tau)}{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to e^- \bar{\nu}_e \nu_\tau)} = (0.9796 \pm 0.0016 \pm 0.0036)$, $\frac{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to \pi^- \nu_\tau)}{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to e^- \bar{\nu}_e \nu_\tau)} = (0.5945 \pm 0.0014 \pm 0.0061)$, and \frac{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to \K^- \nu_\tau)}{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to e^- \bar{\nu}_e \nu_\tau)} = (0.03882 \pm 0.00032 \pm 0.00057), where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. From these precision measurements we test the Standard Model assumption of $\mu$-$e$ and $\tau$-$\mu$ charged current lepton universality and also obtain a value for $|V_{us}| = 0.2255 \pm 0.0024$, which is consistent with the prediction from the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix

Search for the highly suppressed decays B- -> K+π-π- and B- -> K-K-π+

We report a search for the decays B- -> K+pi(-)pi(-) and B- -> K-K-pi(+), which are highly suppressed in the standard model. Using a sample of (467 +/- 5) x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs collected with the BABAR detector, we do not see any evidence of these decays and determine 90% confidence level upper limits of B(B- -> K+pi(-)pi(-)) and K-K-pi(+)) and < 1.6 x 10(-7) on the corresponding branching fractions, including systematic uncertainties

Observing Planetary Systems in the Making

We discuss science cases to support the development of sub-au imaging capabilities to image forming planets in the terrestrial region of nearby proto-planetary disks