1,578 research outputs found

    Determination of |V_us| from hadronic tau decays

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    The recent update of the strange spectral function and the moments of the invariant mass distribution by the OPAL collaboration from hadronic tau decay data are employed to determine |V_us| as well as m_s. Our result, |V_us|=0.2208\pm0.0034, is competitive to the standard extraction of |V_us| from K_e3 decays and to the new proposals to determine it. Furthermore, the error associated to our determination of |V_us| can be reduced in the future since it is dominated by the experimental uncertainty that will be eventually much improved by the B-factories hadronic tau data. Another improvement that can be performed is the simultaneous fit of both |V_us| and m_s to a set of moments of the hadronic tau decays invariant mass distribution, which will provide even a more accurate determination of both parameters.Comment: 6 pages. Invited talk given by E.G. at the XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy, 5-12 Mar 200

    Strange Quark Mass from the Invariant Mass Distribution of Cabibbo-Suppressed Tau Decays

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    Quark mass corrections to the tau hadronic width play a significant role only for the strange quark, hence providing a method for determining its mass. The experimental input is the vector plus axial-vector strange spectral function derived from a complete study of tau decays into strange hadronic final states performed by ALEPH. New results on strange decay modes from other experiments are also incorporated. The present analysis determines the strange quark mass at the Mtau mass scale using moments of the spectral function. Justified theoretical constraints are applied to the nonperturbative components and careful attention is paid to the treatment of the perturbative expansions of the moments which exhibit convergence problems. The result obtained, m_s(Mtau^2) = (120 +- 11_exp +- 8_Vus +- 19_th) MeV = (120^+21_-26) MeV, is stable over the scale from Mtau down to about 1.4 GeV. Evolving this result to customary scales yields m_s(1 GeV^2) = (160^+28_-35) MeV and m_s(4 GeV^2) = (116^+20_-25) MeV.Comment: LaTex, 8 pages, 4 figures (EPS

    High Efficiency Positron Accumulation for High-Precision Measurements

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    Positrons are accumulated within a Penning trap designed to make more precise measurements of the positron and electron magnetic moments. The retractable radioactive source used is weak enough to require no license for handling radioactive material and the radiation dosage one meter from the source gives an exposure several times smaller than the average radiation dose on the earth's surface. The 100 mK trap is mechanically aligned with the 4.2 K superconducting solenoid that produces a 6 tesla magnetic trapping field with a direct mechanical coupling.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

    Mental Contents in a World of Causes

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    A fundamental issue in cognitive science is whether mental contents are causally efficacious and, therefore, should be preserved in scientific psychology. In this paper, we pursue some aspects of this issue by examining Fred Dretske's recent contributions to it. He defends the causal efficacy of mental content *qua* mental content, but imposes an important constraint: mental contents can operate as structuring, but not as triggering causes. We shall argue, by contrast, that mental contents can also intervene as triggering causes

    Mental Contents, Tracking Counterfactuals, and Implementing Mechanisms

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    In the ongoing debate, there are a set of mind-body theories sharing a certain physicallst assumption: whenever a genuine cause produces an effect, the causal efficacy of each of the non- physical properties that participate In that process is determined by the instantiation of a well-defined set of physical properties. These theories would then Insist that a nonphysical property could only be causally efficacious insofar as it is physically implemented. However, in what follows we will argue against the idea that fine- grained mental contents could be physically implemented In the way that functional properties are. Therefore, we will examine the metaphysical con- ditions under which the implementing mechanism of a particular instance of a functional property may be individuated, and see how genuine beliefs and desires-Insofar as they track the world-cannot meet such conditions

    Determination of the Chiral Couplings L_10 and C_87 from Semileptonic Tau Decays

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    Using recent precise hadronic tau-decay data on the V-A spectral function, and general properties of QCD such as analyticity, the operator product expansion and chiral perturbation theory, we get accurate values for the QCD chiral order parameters L_10^r(M_rho) and C_87^r(M_rho). These two low-energy constants appear at order p^4 and p^6, respectively, in the chiral perturbation theory expansion of the V-A correlator. At order p^4 we obtain L_10^r(M_rho) = -(5.22\pm 0.06)10^{-3}. Including in the analysis the two-loop (order p^6) contributions, we get L_10^r(M_rho) = -(4.06\pm 0.39)10^{-3} and C_87^r(M_rho) = (4.89\pm 0.19)10^{-3}GeV^{-2}. In the SU(2) chiral effective theory, the corresponding low-energy coupling takes the value \overline l_5 = 13.30 \pm 0.11 at order p^4, and \overline l_5 = 12.24 \pm 0.21 at order p^6.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, v2: Added reference, published versio

    Measuring the a0-a2 pion scattering lengths through K→3πK \to 3 \pi decays

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    We discuss the recent Cabibbo's proposal to measure the pion-pion scattering lengths combination a0-a2 from the cusp effect in the pi0-pi0 energy spectrum at threshold for K+ to (pi0 pi0 pi+) and KL to (pi0 pi0 pi0). We estimate the theoretical uncertainty of the a0-a2 determination at NLO in our approach and obtain that it is not smaller than 5% for K+ to (pi0 pi0 pi+). One gets similar theoretical uncertainties if the neutral KL to (pi0 pi0 pi0) decay data below threshold are used instead. For this decay, there are very large theoretical uncertainties above threshold due to cancellations and data above threshold cannot be used to get the scattering lengths
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