Evidence for B- -> tau- nu_bar with a Semileptonic Tagging Method

We present a measurement of the decay B- -> tau- nu_bar using a data sample containing 657 million BB_bar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. A sample of BB_bar pairs are tagged by reconstructing one B meson decaying semileptonically. We detect the B- -> tau- nu_bar candidate in the recoil. We obtain a signal with a significance of 3.6 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties, and measure the branching fraction to be Br(B- -> tau- nu_bar) = [1.54+0.38-0.37(stat)+0.29-0.31(syst)]*10^-4. This result confirms the evidence for B- -> tau- nu_bar obtained in a previous Belle measurement that used a hadronic B tagging method.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, corrected references, to appear in PRD-R

Study of the decays B->D_s1(2536)+ anti-D(*)

We report a study of the decays B -> D_s1(2536)+ anti-D(*), where anti-D(*) is anti-D0, D- or D*-, using a sample of 657 x 10^6 B anti-B pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. The branching fractions of the decays B+ -> D_s1(2536)+ anti-D0, B0 -> D_s1(2536)+ D- and B0 -> D_s1(2536)+ D*- multiplied by that of D_s1(2536)+ -> (D*0K+ + D*+K0) are found to be (3.97+-0.85+-0.56) x 10^-4, (2.75+-0.62+-0.36) x 10^-4 and (5.01+-1.21+-0.70) x 10^-4, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figues, submitted to PRD (RC

Salmonella Biofilm Formation on Aspergillus niger Involves Cellulose – Chitin Interactions

Salmonella cycles between host and nonhost environments, where it can become an active member of complex microbial communities. The role of fungi in the environmental adaptation of enteric pathogens remains relatively unexplored. We have discovered that S. enterica Typhimurium rapidly attaches to and forms biofilms on the hyphae of the common fungus, Aspergillus niger. Several Salmonella enterica serovars displayed a similar interaction, whereas other bacterial species were unable to bind to the fungus. Bacterial attachment to chitin, a major constituent of fungal cell walls, mirrored this specificity. Pre-incubation of S. Typhimurium with N-acetylglucosamine, the monomeric component of chitin, reduced binding to chitin beads by as much as 727-fold and inhibited attachment to A. niger hyphae considerably. A cellulose-deficient mutant of S. Typhimurium failed to attach to chitin beads and to the fungus. Complementation of this mutant with the cellulose operon restored binding to chitin beads to 79% of that of the parental strain and allowed for attachment and biofilm formation on A. niger, indicating that cellulose is involved in bacterial attachment to the fungus via the chitin component of its cell wall. In contrast to cellulose, S. Typhimurium curli fimbriae were not required for attachment and biofilm development on the hyphae but were critical for its stability. Our results suggest that cellulose–chitin interactions are required for the production of mixed Salmonella-A. niger biofilms, and support the hypothesis that encounters with chitinaceous alternate hosts may contribute to the ecological success of human pathogens

Measurements of Branching Fractions for B0 --> Ds+pi- and B0-bar --> Ds+K-

We present improved measurements of the branching fractions for the decays B0 --> Ds+pi- and B0-bar --> Ds+K- using a data sample of 657x10^6 BB-bar events collected at the Y(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. The results are BF(B0 --> Ds+pi-) = (1.99 +/- 0.26 +/- 0.18)x10^-5 and BF(B0-bar --> Ds+K-) = (1.91 +/- 0.24 +/- 0.17)x10^-5, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. Based on these results, we determine the ratio between amplitudes of the doubly Cabibbo suppressed decay B0 --> D+pi- and the Cabibbo favored decay B0 --> D-pi+, R_Dpi = [1.71 +/- 0.11(stat) +/- 0.09(syst) +/- 0.02(theo)]%, where the last term denotes the theory error.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, published in PRD(RC

Search for Lepton-number-violating B+->D-l+l'+ Decays

We perform the first search for lepton-number-violating B+->D-l+l'+ decays, where l and l' stand for e or mu, using 772 x 10^6 BB-bar pairs accumulated at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB e^+e^- collider. No evidence for these decays has been found. Assuming uniform three-body phase space distributions for the D-l+l+ decays, we set the following upper limits on the branching fractions at 90% confidence level: Br(B+ -> D-e+e+) < 2.6x10^-6, Br(B+ -> D-e+mu+) D-mu+mu+) < 1.0x10^-6.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Observation of psi(4040) and psi(4160) decay into eta J/psi

C1 - Journal Articles RefereedThe cross section for e^+e^- \to \eta J/\psi between \sqrt{s}=3.8 GeV/c^2 and 5.3 GeV/c^2 is measured via initial state radiation using 980 fb^{-1} of data on and around the \Upsilon(nS)(n=1,2,3,4,5) resonances collected with the Belle detector at KEKB. Two resonant structures at the \psi(4040) and \psi(4160) are observed in the \eta J/\psi invariant mass distribution. Fitting the mass spectrum with the coherent sum of two Breit-Wigner functions, one obtains BR(\psi(4040)\to\eta J/\psi)\cdot\Gamma_{ee}^{\psi(4040)} = (4.8\pm0.9\pm1.4) eV and BR(\psi(4160)\to\eta J/\psi)\cdot\Gamma_{ee}^{\psi(4160)} = (4.0\pm0.8\pm1.4) eV for one solution and BR(\psi(4040)\to\eta J/\psi)\cdot\Gamma_{ee}^{\psi(4040)} = (11.2\pm1.3\pm1.9) eV and BR(\psi(4160)\to\eta J/\psi)\cdot\Gamma_{ee}^{\psi(4160)} = (13.8\pm1.3\pm2.0) eV for the other solution, where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic. This is the first measurement of this hadronic transition mode of these two states, and the partial widths to \eta J/\psi are found to be about 1 MeV. There is no evidence for the Y(4260), Y(4360), \psi(4415), or Y(4660) in the \eta J/\psi final state, and upper limits of their production rates in e^+e^- annihilation are determined