Leptonic universality breaking in Upsilon decays as a probe of new physics

In this work we examine the possible existence of new physics beyond the standard model which could modify the branching fractions of the leptonic (mainly tauonic) decays of bottomonium vector resonances below the $B\bar{B}$ threshold. The decay width is factorized as the product of two pieces: a) the probability of an intermediate pseudoscalar color-singlet $b\bar{b}$ state (coupling to the dominant Fock state of the Upsilon via a magnetic dipole transition) and a soft (undetected) photon; b) the annihilation width of the $b\bar{b}$ pair into two leptons, mediated by a non-standard CP-odd Higgs boson of mass about 10 GeV, introducing a quadratic dependence on the lepton mass in the partial width. The process would be unwittingly ascribed to the $\Upsilon$ leptonic channel thereby (slightly) breaking lepton universality. A possible mixing of the pseudoscalar Higgs and bottomonium resonances is also considered. Finally, several experimental signatures to check out the validity of the conjecture are discussed.Comment: LaTeX, 22 pages, 2 EPS figure

Tests of Lorentz violation in muon antineutrino to electron antineutrino oscillations

A recently developed Standard-Model Extension (SME) formalism for neutrino oscillations that includes Lorentz and CPT violation is used to analyze the sidereal time variation of the neutrino event excess measured by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) experiment. The LSND experiment, performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, observed an excess, consistent with neutrino oscillations, of ${\bar\nu}_e$ in a beam of ${\bar\nu}_\mu$. It is determined that the LSND oscillation signal is consistent with no sidereal variation. However, there are several combinations of SME coefficients that describe the LSND data; both with and without sidereal variations. The scale of Lorentz and CPT violation extracted from the LSND data is of order $10^{-19}$ GeV for the SME coefficients $a_L$ and $E \times c_L$. This solution for Lorentz and CPT violating neutrino oscillations may be tested by other short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, such as the MiniBooNE experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, uses revtex4 replaced with version to be published in Physical Review D, 11 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, uses revtex

Processfolio: uniting Academic Literacies and Critical Emancipatory Action Research for practitioner-led inquiry into EAP writing assessment

This paper reports on the design and implementation of an alternative form of writing assessment on a UK English for Academic Purposes (EAP) presessional course. The assessment, termed processfolio, was a response to research inquiry into how writing assessment in a local context negated student agency and inculcated disempowering models of teaching and learning academic writing. The project merged an Academic Literacies approach to writing (Lea and Street, 1998) with a Critical Emancipatory Action Research (Carr and Kemmis, 1986) framework and a Critical Realist(Bhaskar, 1989) perspective. Data collected from the folios and interviews with students and teachers on their experiences of the processfolio found that a small scale intervention has potential for agency to be exercised within the highly constrained context of a UK EAP pre-sessional. New directions in research are proposed which can engage students and teachers to work for change in UK EAP assessment within their internal and external constraints

Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2

A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172 GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95% confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2, depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited fermio

Search for charginos in e+e- interactions at sqrt(s) = 189 GeV

An update of the searches for charginos and gravitinos is presented, based on a data sample corresponding to the 158 pb^{-1} recorded by the DELPHI detector in 1998, at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV. No evidence for a signal was found. The lower mass limits are 4-5 GeV/c^2 higher than those obtained at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The (\mu,M_2) MSSM domain excluded by combining the chargino searches with neutralino searches at the Z resonance implies a limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino which, for a heavy sneutrino, is constrained to be above 31.0 GeV/c^2 for tan(beta) \geq 1.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Hadronization properties of b quarks compared to light quarks in e+e- -> q qbar from 183 to 200 GeV

The DELPHI detector at LEP has collected 54 pb^{-1} of data at a centre-of-mass energy around 183 GeV during 1997, 158 pb^{-1} around 189 GeV during 1998, and 187 pb^{-1} between 192 and 200 GeV during 1999. These data were used to measure the average charged particle multiplicity in e+e- -> b bbar events, _{bb}, and the difference delta_{bl} between _{bb} and the multiplicity, _{ll}, in generic light quark (u,d,s) events: delta_{bl}(183 GeV) = 4.55 +/- 1.31 (stat) +/- 0.73 (syst) delta_{bl}(189 GeV) = 4.43 +/- 0.85 (stat) +/- 0.61 (syst) delta_{bl}(200 GeV) = 3.39 +/- 0.89 (stat) +/- 1.01 (syst). This result is consistent with QCD predictions, while it is inconsistent with calculations assuming that the multiplicity accompanying the decay of a heavy quark is independent of the mass of the quark itself.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Search for lightest neutralino and stau pair production in light gravitino scenarios with stau NLSP

Promptly decaying lightest neutralinos and long-lived staus are searched for in the context of light gravitino scenarios. It is assumed that the stau is the next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and that the lightest neutralino is the next to NLSP (NNLSP). Data collected with the Delphi detector at centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 183 \GeV are analysed. No evidence of the production of these particles is found. Hence, lower mass limits for both kinds of particles are set at 95% C.L.. The mass of gaugino-like neutralinos is found to be greater than 71.5 GeV/c^2. In the search for long-lived stau, masses less than 70.0 to 77.5 \GeVcc are excluded for gravitino masses from 10 to 150 \eVcc . Combining this search with the searches for stable heavy leptons and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model staus a lower limit of 68.5 \GeVcc may be set for the stau mas

Search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with a gravitino LSP and stau NLSP

Sleptons, neutralinos and charginos were searched for in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. It was assumed that the stau is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. Data collected with the DELPHI detector at a centre-of-mass energy near 189 GeV were analysed combining the methods developed in previous searches at lower energies. No evidence for the production of these supersymmetric particles was found. Hence, limits were derived at 95% confidence level.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure

Search for η\eta-mesic nuclei in recoil-free transfer reaction

We have studied the reaction $p+{^{27}Al}\to {^3{He}}+p+\pi^-+X$ at recoil-free kinematics. An $\eta$ meson possibly produced in this reaction would be thus almost at rest in the laboratory system and could therefore be bound with high probability, if nuclear $\eta$ states exist. The decay of such a state through the $N^*(1535)$ resonance would lead to a proton-$\pi^-$ pair emitted in opposite directions. For these conditions we find some indication of such a bound state. An upper limit of $\approx$ 0.5 nb is found.Comment: 3 figure

Statistical model analysis of multiparticle correlations in e^+e^- annihilation

A new statistical model for multiparticle production in $e^+e^-$ annihilation is proposed based on the idea of the longitudinal phase space with limited transverse momentum. The longitudinal rapidity space is divided into cells of equal size in order to take into account the Bose-Einstein correlations(BEC) with a finite correlation length $\delta y$. The maximum entropy method is used to determine the probability distributions of the final state pions (or $\rho$ mesons) for a given mean multiplicity, mean transverse momentum and mean total energy. Event simulation based on our model is performed in two extreme cases, a $\pi$-model and a $\rho$-model. The $\pi$-model assumes that only pions are produced directly. On the other hand, the $\rho$-model assumes that only $\rho$ mesons are produced directly and they decay into pions. A good overall fit to experimental data from PETRA to LEP energy regions is obtained for $\delta y$ ranging from 0.6 to 1.2 in the $\pi$-model. We found that the BEC plays a very important role to reproduce various correlation data. In some correlation data, resonance effect and conservation laws are also important.Comment: 42pages including 20figures. submitted to Physical Reviw