Anomalous heavy-fermion and ordered states in the filled skutterudite PrFe4P12

Specific heat and magnetization measurements have been performed on high-quality single crystals of filled-skutterudite PrFe_4P_{12} in order to study the high-field heavy-fermion state (HFS) and low-field ordered state (ODS). From a broad hump observed in C/T vs T in HFS for magnetic fields applied along the direction, the Kondo temperature of ~ 9 K and the existence of ferromagnetic Pr-Pr interactions are deduced. The {141}-Pr nuclear Schottky contribution, which works as a highly-sensitive on-site probe for the Pr magnetic moment, sets an upper bound for the ordered moment as ~ 0.03 \mu_B/Pr-ion. This fact strongly indicates that the primary order parameter in the ODS is nonmagnetic and most probably of quadrupolar origin, combined with other experimental facts. Significantly suppressed heavy-fermion behavior in the ODS suggests a possibility that the quadrupolar degrees of freedom is essential for the heavy quasiparticle band formation in the HFS. Possible crystalline-electric-field level schemes estimated from the anisotropy in the magnetization are consistent with this conjecture.Comment: 7 pages and 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Confirmation of the Double Charm Baryon Xi_cc+ via its Decay to p D+ K-

We observes a signal for the double charm baryon Xi_cc+ in the charged decay mode Xi_cc+ -> p D+ K- to complement the previously reported decay Xi_cc+ -> Lambda_c K- pi+ in data from SELEX, the charm hadro-production experiment (E781) at Fermilab. In this new decay mode we observe an excess of 5.62 events over an expected background estimated by event mixing to be 1.38+/-0.13 events. The Poisson probability that a background fluctuation can produce the apparent signal is less than 6.4E-4. The observed mass of this state is (3518+/-3)MeV/c^2, consistent with the published result. Averaging the two results gives a mass of (3518.7+/-1.7)MeV/c^2. The observation of this new weak decay mode confirms the previous SELEX suggestion that this state is a double charm baryon. The relative branching ratio Gamma(Xi_cc+ -> pD+K-)/Gamma(Xi_cc+ -> Lambda_c K- pi+) = 0.36+/-0.21.Comment: 11 pages, 6 included eps figures. v2 includes improved statistical method to determine significance of observation. Submitted to PL

First Observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed Decays Xi_c+ -> Sigma+ pi- pi+ and Xi_c+ -> Sigma- pi+ pi+ and Measurement of their Branching Ratios

We report the first observation of two Cabibbo-suppressed decay modes, Xi_c+ -> Sigma+ pi- pi+ and Xi_c+ -> Sigma- pi+ pi+. We observe 59+/-14 over a background of 87, and 22+/-8 over a background of 13 events, respectively, for the signals. The data were accumulated using the SELEX spectrometer during the 1996-1997 fixed target run at Fermilab, chiefly from a 600GeV/c Sigma- beam. The branching ratios of the decays relative to the Cabibbo--favored Xi_c+ -> Xi- pi+ pi+ are measured to be B(Xi_c+ -> Sigma+ pi- pi+)/B(Xi_c+ -> Xi- pi+ pi+) = 0.48+/-0.20, and B(Xi_c+ -> Sigma- pi+ pi+)/B(Xi_c+ -> Xi- pi+ pi+) = 0.18+/-0.09, respectively. We also report branching ratios for the same decay modes of the Lambda_c+ relative to Lambda_c+ -> p K- pi+.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, version 2 as accepted in PL

Nuclear Dependence Of Charm Production

Using data taken by SELEX during the 1996-1997 fixed target run at Fermilab, we study the production of charmed hadrons on copper and carbon targets with ∑ -, p, π -, and π + beams. Parametrizing the dependence of the inclusive production cross section on the atomic number A as A α, we determine α for D +, D 0, D s +, D +(2010), Λ c +, and their respective anti-particles, as a function of their transverse momentum p t and scaled longitudinal momentum x F . Within our statistics there is no dependence of α on x F for any charm species for the interval 0.1<x F <1.0. The average value of α for charm production by pion beams is α meson=0.850±0.028. This is somewhat larger than the corresponding average α baryon=0.755±0.016 for charm production by baryon beams (∑ -, p). © 2009 Springer-Verlag/Società Italiana di Fisica.644637644Cobbaert, H., (1987) Phys. Lett. B, 191, p. 456. , 10.1016/0370-2693(87)90639-3 1987PhLB.191.456CCobbaert, H., (1988) Phys. Lett. B, 206, p. 546. , 10.1016/0370-2693(88)91627-9Cobbaert, H., (1988) Phys. Lett. B, 213, p. 395. , 10.1016/0370-2693(88)91783-2 1988PhLB.213.395CLeitch, M.J., (2000) Phys. Rev. Lett., 84, p. 3256. , 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.3256 2000PhRvL.84.3256L arXiv:nucl-ex/9909007Alessandro, B., Alexa, C., Arnaldi, R., Atayan, M., Baglin, C., Baldit, A., Beole, S., Willis, N., Charmonium production and nuclear absorption in p-A interactions at 450 GeV (2004) European Physical Journal C, 33 (1), pp. 31-40. , DOI 10.1140/epjc/s2003-01539-yAbt, I., (2009) Eur. Phys. J. C, 60, p. 525. , 10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-0965-7 2009EPJC.60.525A arXiv:0812.0734 [hep-ex]Heller, K.J., (1977) Phys. Rev. D, 16, p. 2737. , 10.1103/PhysRevD.16.2737 1977PhRvD.16.2737HSkubic, P., (1978) Phys. Rev. D, 18, p. 3115. , 10.1103/PhysRevD.18.3115 1978PhRvD.18.3115SAleev, A.N., (1987) Sov. J. Nucl. Phys., 46, p. 657. , [Yad. Fiz. 46, 1127 (1987)]Vecko, M., (1989) Czech. J. Phys. B, 39, p. 297. , 10.1007/BF01597781 1989CzJPh.39.297VAdamovich, M., (1992) Phys. Lett. B, 284, p. 453. , 10.1016/0370-2693(92)90460-L 1992PhLB.284.453AAlves, G.A., (1993) Phys. Rev. Lett., 70, p. 722. , 10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.722 1993PhRvL.70.722AAlves, G.A., (1994) Phys. Rev. D, 49, p. 4317. , 10.1103/PhysRevD.49.R4317 1994PhRvD.49.4317ALeitch, M.J., (1994) Phys. Rev. Lett., 72, p. 2542. , 10.1103/PhysRevLett.72.2542 1994PhRvL.72.2542LAdamovich, M., (1997) Nucl. Phys. B, 495, p. 3. , 10.1016/S0550-3213(97)00223-X 1997NuPhB.495.3AApanasevich, L., (1997) Phys. Rev. D, 56, p. 1391. , 10.1103/PhysRevD.56.1391 1997PhRvD.56.1391A arXiv:hep-ex/9702014Abt, I., (2007) Eur. Phys. J. C, 52, p. 531. , 10.1140/epjc/s10052-007-0427-z 2007EPJC.52.531A arXiv:0708.1443 [hep-ex]Duffy, M.E., (1985) Phys. Rev. Lett., 55, p. 1816. , 10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1816 1985PhRvL.55.1816DVogt, R., The A dependence of open charm and bottom production (2003) International Journal of Modern Physics E, 12 (2), pp. 211-269. , DOI 10.1142/S0218301303001272Lourenco, C., Wohri, H.K., Heavy-flavour hadro-production from fixed-target to collider energies (2006) Physics Reports, 433 (3), pp. 127-180. , DOI 10.1016/j.physrep.2006.05.005, PII S0370157306001815Frawley, A.D., Ullrich, T., Vogt, R., (2008) Phys. Rept., 462, p. 125. , 10.1016/j.physrep.2008.04.002 2008PhR.462.125F arXiv:0806.1013 [nucl-ex]Russ, J.S., (1998) Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on High Energy Physics II World Scientific Singapore, 1259. , A. Astbury (eds), et al. arXiv:hep-ex/9812031Russ, J.S., (1998) Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on High Energy Physics, 2, p. 1259. , ed. by A. Astbury, et al. (World Scientific, Singapore) arXiv:hep-ex/9812031Engelfried, J., (1999) Nucl. Instrum. Methods A, 431, p. 53. , 10.1016/S0168-9002(99)00043-1 1999NIMPA.431.53E arXiv:hep-ex/9811001Kushnirenko, A., Alkhazov, G., Atamantchouk, A.G., Balatz, M.Y., Bondar, N.F., Cooper, P.S., Dauwe, L.J., Vishnyakov, V.E., Precision measurements of the ∧c+ and D 0 lifetimes (2001) Physical Review Letters, 86 (23), pp. 5243-5246. , DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.5243Garcia, F.G., (2002) Phys. Lett. B, 528, p. 49. , 10.1016/S0370-2693(01)01484-8 2002PhLB.528.49S arXiv:hep-ex/0109017Kaya, M., (2003) Phys. Lett. B, 558, p. 34. , 10.1016/S0370-2693(03)00246-6 2003PhLB.558.34S arXiv:hep-ex/0302039Brodsky, S.J., Kopeliovich, B., Schmidt, I., Soffer, J., (2006) Phys. Rev. D, 73, p. 113005. , 2006PhRvD.73k3005B arXiv:hep-ph/0603238Adamovich, M.I., (2003) Eur. Phys. J. C, 26, p. 357. , 10.1140/epjc/s2002-01073-6 2003EPJC.26.357WA. Blanco-Covarrubias, et al. (SELEX Collaboration), in preparatio