Search for Lepton Flavor-Violating "tau -> mu gamma" decay

We search for the lepton flavor-violating "tau -> mu gamma" decay using 29.7 million tau pairs accumulated by the Belle experiment. The main background sources are found to be tau pairs with "tau -> mu nu nu" decay and radiative dimuon events. One event is observed in the signal region, while 2.5 +- 0.6 background events are expected. A preliminary upper limit Br(tau -> mu gamma) < 6 x 10^{-7} at the 90% confidence limit is obtained.Comment: Invited talk at the Seventh International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics (TAU02), Santa Cruz, Ca, USA, Sept 2002, 6 pages, LaTeX, 13 eps figure

Cross-talk suppressed multi-anode MCP-PMT

We have developed a 4-channel multi-anode MCP-PMT, SL10, which exhibits a performance of sigma_TTS ~ 30 ps for single photons with G ~ 10^6 and QE=20% under a magnetic field of B <= 1.5 T. The cross-talk among anodes has been extensively studied. We have taken two measures to suppress it: one is to configure the SL10 to an effectively independent 4 small pieces of MCP-PMT's by segmenting an electrode of the second MCP-layer; the other is to use a constant fractional discriminator. Remarkable improvement has been achieved.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figure

Seesaw and Lepton Flavour Violation in SUSY SO(10)

That $\mu \to e, \gamma$ and $\tau \to \mu,\gamma$ are sensitive probes of SUSY models with a see-saw mechanism is a well accepted fact. Here we propose a `top-down' approach in a general SUSY SO(10) scheme. In this framework, we show that at least one of the neutrino Yukawa couplings is as large as the top Yukawa coupling. This leads to a strong enhancement of these leptonic flavour changing decay rates. We examine two `extreme' cases, where the lepton mixing angles in the neutrino Yukawa couplings are either small (CKM-like) or large (PMNS-like). In these two cases, we quantify the sensitivity of leptonic radiative decays to the SUSY mass spectrum. In the PMNS case, we find that the ongoing experiments at the B-factories can completely probe the spectrum up to gaugino masses of 500 GeV (any tan $\beta$). Even in the case of CKM-like mixings, large regions of the parameter space will be probed in the near future, making these two processes leading candidates for indirect SUSY searches.Comment: 22 pages with 2 figures. Figures for \tau -> \mu \gamma decay corrected after typo found in the program. Decay \mu -> e gamma completely unchanged and conclusions basicaly unchange

An Improved Standard Model Prediction Of BR(B -> tau nu) And Its Implications For New Physics

The recently measured B -> tau nu branching ratio allows to test the Standard Model by probing virtual effects of new heavy particles, such as a charged Higgs boson. The accuracy of the test is currently limited by the experimental error on BR(B -> tau nu) and by the uncertainty on the parameters fB and |Vub|. The redundancy of the Unitarity Triangle fit allows to reduce the error on these parameters and thus to perform a more precise test of the Standard Model. Using the current experimental inputs, we obtain BR(B -> tau nu)_SM = (0.84 +- 0.11)x10^{-4}, to be compared with BR(B -> tau nu)_exp = (1.73 +- 0.34)x10^{-4}. The Standard Model prediction can be modified by New Physics effects in the decay amplitude as well as in the Unitarity Triangle fit. We discuss how to disentangle the two possible contributions in the case of minimal flavour violation at large tan beta and generic loop-mediated New Physics. We also consider two specific models with minimal flavour violation: the Type-II Two Higgs Doublet Model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 7 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. v2: added references and discussion of B -> D tau nu in the 2HDM. v3: added Bs->mumu in the 2HDM. Final version to appear in PL

Evidence for CP Violation in B0 -> D+D- Decays

We report measurements of the branching fraction and CP violation parameters in B0 -> D+D- decays. The results are based on a data sample that contains 535 x 10^6 BBbar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance, with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We obtain [1.97 +- 0.20 (stat) +- 0.20 (syst)] x 10^(-4) for the branching fraction of B0 -> D+D-. The measured values of the CP violation parameters are: S = -1.13 +- 0.37 +- 0.09, A = 0.91 +- 0.23 +- 0.06, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. We find evidence of CP violation in B0 -> D+D- at the 4.1 sigma confidence level. While the value of S is consistent with expectations from other measurements, the value of the parameter A favors large direct CP violation at the 3.2 sigma confidence level, in contradiction to Standard Model expectations.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Search for the h_c meson in B^+- ->h_c K^+-

We report a search for the $h_c$ meson via the decay chain $B^{\pm}\to h_c K^{\pm}$, \etac \gamma with $\eta_c \to K_S^0 K^{\pm} \pi^{\mp}$ and $p\bar{p}$. No significant signals are observed. We obtain upper limits on the branching fractions for $B^{\pm} \to \eta_c\gamma K^{\pm}$ in bins of the $\eta_c\gamma$ invariant mass. The results are based on an analysis of 253 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Study of the Baryon-Antibaryon Low-Mass Enhancements in Charmless Three-body Baryonic B Decays

The angular distributions of the baryon-antibaryon low-mass enhancements seen in the charmless three-body baryonic B decays B+ -> p pbar K+, B0 -> p pbar Ks, and B0 -> p Lambdabar pi- are reported. A quark fragmentation interpretation is supported, while the gluonic resonance picture is disfavored. Searches for the Theta+ and Theta++ pentaquarks in the relevant decay modes and possible glueball states G with 2.2 GeV/c2 < M-ppbar < 2.4 GeV/c2 in the ppbar systems give null results. We set upper limits on the products of branching fractions, B(B0 -> Theta+ p)\times B(Theta+ -> p Ks) Theta++ pbar) \times B(Theta++ -> p K+) G K+) \times B(G -> p pbar) < 4.1 \times 10^{-7} at the 90% confidence level. The analysis is based on a 140 fb^{-1} data sample recorded on the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure files, update of hep-ex/0409010 for journal submisssio

Measuring V_ub and probing SUSY with double ratios of purely leptonic decays of B and D mesons

The experimental prospects for precise measurements of the leptonic decays B_u -> tau nu / mu nu, B_s -> mu+ mu-, D -> mu nu and D_s -> mu nu / tau nu are very promising. Double ratios involving four of these decays can be defined in which the dependence on the values of the decay constants is essentially eliminated, thus enabling complementary measurements of the CKM matrix element V_ub with a small theoretical error. We quantify the experimental error in a possible future measurement of |V_ub| using this approach, and show that it is competitive with the anticipated precision from the conventional approaches. Moreover, it is shown that such double ratios can be more effective than the individual leptonic decays as a probe of the parameter space of supersymmetric models. We emphasize that the double ratios have the advantage of using |V_ub| as an input parameter (for which there is experimental information), while the individual decays have an uncertainty from the decay constants (e.g. f_B_s), and hence a reliance on theoretical techniques such as lattice QCD.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Evidence of the Purely Leptonic Decay B- --> tau- nu_tau-bar

We present the first evidence of the decay B- --> tau- nu_tau-bar using 414 fb^-1 of data collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. Events are tagged by fully reconstructing one of the B mesons in hadronic modes. We detect the signal with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations including systematics, and measure the branching fraction to be Br(B- --> tau- nu_tau-bar) = (1.79 +0.56-0.49(stat) +0.46-0.51(syst))*10^-4. This implies that f_B = 0.229 +0.036-0.031(stat) +0.034-0.037(syst) GeV and is the first direct measurement of this quantity.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physical Review Letter

Observation of B+->Lambda_c+Lambda_c-K+ and B0->Lambda_c+Lambda_c^-K0 decays

We report first measurements of the doubly charmed baryonic B decays B->Lambda_c+Lambda_c-K. The B+->Lambda_c+Lambda_c-K+ decay is observed with a branching fraction of (6.5+1.0-0.9+-1.1+-3.4)x10^{-4} and a statistical significance of 15.4sigma. The B0->Lambda_c+Lambda_c-K0 decay is observed with a branching fraction of (7.9+2.9-2.3+-1.2+-4.2)x10^{-4} and a statistical significance of 6.6sigma. The branching fraction errors are statistical, systematic, and the error resulting from the uncertainty of Lambda_c+->pK-pi+ decay branching fraction. The analysis is based on 357fb-1 of data accumulated at the Y(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric e+e- collider.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure