MasterChem: Cooking 2D-polymers

2D-polymers are still dominated by graphene and closely related materials such as boron nitride, transition metal sulphides and oxides. However, the rational combination of molecules with suitable design is already showing the high potential of chemistry in this new research field. The aim of this feature article is to illustrate, and provide some perspectives, the current state-of-the-art in the field of synthetic 2D-polymers showing different alternatives to prepare this novel type of polymers based on the rational use of chemistry. This review comprises a brief revision of the essential concepts, the strategies of preparation following the two general approaches, bottom-up and top-down, and a revision of the promising seminal properties showed by some of these nanomaterials.Financial support from Spanish MINECO (MAT2013-46753-C2-1-P and MAT2013-46502-C2-2-P). D. R. thanks the Spanish MECD for a FPU gran

Observation of long-lived polariton states in semiconductor microcavities across the parametric threshold

The excitation spectrum around the pump-only stationary state of a polariton optical parametric oscillator (OPO) in semiconductor microcavities is investigated by time-resolved photoluminescence. The response to a weak pulsed perturbation in the vicinity of the idler mode is directly related to the lifetime of the elementary excitations. A dramatic increase of the lifetime is observed for a pump intensity approaching and exceeding the OPO threshold. The observations can be explained in terms of a critical slowing down of the dynamics upon approaching the threshold and the following onset of the soft Goldstone mode

An acoustic black hole in a stationary hydrodynamic flow of microcavity polaritons

We report an experimental study of superfluid hydrodynamic effects in a one-dimensional polariton fluid flowing along a laterally patterned semiconductor microcavity and hitting a micron-sized engineered defect. At high excitation power, superfluid propagation effects are observed in the polariton dynamics, in particular, a sharp acoustic horizon is formed at the defect position, separating regions of sub- and super-sonic flow. Our experimental findings are quantitatively reproduced by theoretical calculations based on a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Promising perspectives to observe Hawking radiation via photon correlation measurements are illustrated.Comment: 5 pages Main + 5 pages Supplementary, 8 figure

Study of B → πlν and B → ρlν decays and determination of |V_(ub)|

We present an analysis of exclusive charmless semileptonic B-meson decays based on 377 × 10^6 BB̅ pairs recorded with the BABAR detector at the Υ(4S) resonance. We select four event samples corresponding to the decay modes B^0 → π^-ℓ^+ν, B^+ → π^0ℓ^+ν, B^0 → ρ^-ℓ^+ν, and B^+ → ρ^0ℓ^+ν and find the measured branching fractions to be consistent with isospin symmetry. Assuming isospin symmetry, we combine the two B → πℓν samples, and similarly the two B → ρℓν samples, and measure the branching fractions B(B^0→π^-ℓ^+ν)=(1.41 ± 0.05 ± 0.07) × 10^(-4) and B(B^0 → ρ^-ℓ^+ν)=(1.75 ± 0.15 ± 0.27) × 10^(-4), where the errors are statistical and systematic. We compare the measured distribution in q^2, the momentum transfer squared, with predictions for the form factors from QCD calculations and determine the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |V_(ub)|. Based on the measured partial branching fraction for B → πℓν in the range q^2 < 12  GeV^2 and the most recent QCD light-cone sum-rule calculations, we obtain |V_(ub)|=(3.78 ± 0.13^(+0.55)_(-0.40)) × 10^(-3), where the errors refer to the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. From a simultaneous fit to the data over the full q^2 range and the FNAL/MILC lattice QCD results, we obtain |V_(ub)|=(2.95 ± 0.31) × 10^(-3) from B → πℓν, where the error is the combined experimental and theoretical uncertainty

Measurement of partial branching fractions of inclusive charmless B meson decays to K^+, K^0, and π^+

We present measurements of partial branching fractions of B → K^+X, B → K^0X, and B → π^+X, where X denotes any accessible final state above the endpoint for B decays to charmed mesons, specifically for momenta of the candidate hadron greater than 2.34 (2.36) GeV for kaons (pions) in the B rest frame. These measurements are sensitive to potential new-physics particles which could enter the b → s(d) loop transitions. The analysis is performed on a data sample consisting of 383 × 10^6B B̅ pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e^+e^- asymmetric energy collider. We observe the inclusive B→π+X process, and we set upper limits for B → K^+X and B → K^0X. Our results for these inclusive branching fractions are consistent with those of known exclusive modes, and exclude large enhancements due to sources of new physics

Measurement of the B → D̅ ^((*))D^((*))K branching fractions

We present a measurement of the branching fractions of the 22 decay channels of the B^0 and B+ mesons to D̅ ^((*))D^((*))K, where the D^((*)) and D̅ ^((*)) mesons are fully reconstructed. Summing the 10 neutral modes and the 12 charged modes, the branching fractions are found to be B(B^0→D̅6((*))D^((*))K)=(3.68 ± 0.10 ± 0.24)% and B(B^+→D̅ ^((*))D^((*))K)=(4.05 ± 0.11 ± 0.28)%, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are based on 429  fb^(-1) of data containing 471 × 10^6BB̅ pairs collected at the Υ(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Search for Production of Invisible Final States in Single-Photon Decays of Y(1S)

We search for single-photon decays of the Υ(1S) resonance, Υ → γ + invisible, where the invisible state is either a particle of definite mass, such as a light Higgs boson A^0, or a pair of dark matter particles, χχ̅ . Both A^0 and χ are assumed to have zero spin. We tag Υ(1S) decays with a dipion transition Υ(2S)→π^+π^-Υ(1S) and look for events with a single energetic photon and significant missing energy. We find no evidence for such processes in the mass range m_(A^0 ≤ 9.2  GeV and m_χ ≤ 4.5  GeV in the sample of 98×10^6 Υ(2S) decays collected with the BABAR detector and set stringent limits on new physics models that contain light dark matter states