1,578 research outputs found
Determination of |V_us| from hadronic tau decays
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
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
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
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
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
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 decays
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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