B--> eta' X_s in the Standard Model

We study $B \to \eta' X_s$ within the framework of the Standard Model. Several mechanisms such as $b \to \eta' s g$ through the QCD anomaly, and $b \to \eta's$ and $B\to \eta' s \bar q$ arising from four-quark operators are treated simultaneously. Using QCD equations of motion, we relate the effective Hamiltonian for the first mechanism to that for the latter two. By incorporating next-to-leading-logarithmic(NLL) contributions, the first mechanism is shown to give a significant branching ratio for $B\to \eta' X_s$, while the other two mechanisms account for about 15% of the experimental value. The Standard Model prediction for $B\to \eta' X_s$ is consistent with the CLEO data.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, revtex; final version to appear in Phys. Lett.

Probing Flavor Changing Neutral Higgs Couplings at LHC

Uniquely heavy with mass at the weak scale, the top quark may have large flavor changing couplings to Higgs bosons that are as yet unexplored. We show that such couplings can be directly probed at the LHC through the parton subprocess $c(\bar c)g \to t (\bar t)A^0$, where the pseudoscalar $A^0$ subsequently decays into $t \bar c$ or ${\bar t} c$, giving rise to the intriguing final state of like sign top quark pairs. After demanding $\ell^\pm\ell^\pm$, missing energy and two $b$-jets, the major background turns out to be $q\bar q' \to Wt \bar t$, which can be partially suppressed by jet counting. The signal can then manifest itself in the asymmetry of numbers of $\ell^+\ell^+$ and $\ell^-\ell^-$ events. To further improve the signal over background, efficient $t$ vs. $\bar t$ tagging methods should be developed.Comment: 14 pages, REVTEX, 3 figures include

Topographic Study of Extracted Molars with Advanced Furcation Involvement: Furcation Entrance Dimension and Molar Type

This study investigated the topography of the furcation entrance dimension (FED) on molars with advanced furcation involvement (FI). The sample pool consisted of 169 maxillary and mandibular molars from a group of 165 individuals with severely advanced periodontal destruction. The subjects included men and women aged 24 to 84 years (mean, 47.8 ± 7.2 years). The FEDs of the maxillary buccal, mesial, and distal surfaces as well as the mandibular buccal and lingual surfaces were measured under a stereomicroscope and clarified into grades I (FED < 0.55 mm), II (0.55-0.75 mm), and III (> 0.75 mm) using automatic grading system software designed by our research associates. The differences and relationships among molar location, furcation site, and FED grade were analyzed using the chi-square test. There was a significant difference among buccal (BFED), mesial (MFED), and distal (DFED) FEDs in both the maxillary first (χ24 = 58.915, p < 0.001) and second (χ24 = 66.839, p < 0.001) molars. The relationship between molar type and FED grade was statistically significant for both the BFED (p < 0.001) and the DFED (p < 0.001) of maxillary molars, as well as for both the BFED (p < 0.0001) and LFED (p < 0.0001). The difference in FED grade between the first and second molars was statistically significant in both maxillary (p < 0.001) and mandibular (p < 0.0001) molars. There was a significant relationship between FED grade and tooth location at molars with advanced FI

Flavor Changing Neutral Higgs Couplings and Top-Charm Production at Next Linear Collider

We explore the possibility of detecting flavor changing neutral Higgs couplings at the Next Linear Collider (NLC) through $e^+e^-\to \nu_e\bar{\nu_e} t\bar{c}$. In the framework of a general two-Higgs doublet model, we perform a complete calculation and find that $\sigma (e^+e^-\to \nu_e\nu_e t\bar{c}, \nu_e\bar{\nu_e} {\bar t}c)$ could reach $\sim 9$ fb for $\sqrt{s}=2 TeV$. This amounts to an annual production of 500 $t\bar{c}$ plus $\bar{t}c$ pairs at the NLC with an integrated luminosity of 50 fb$^{-1}$. The dependence of $tc$-production rate on the neutral scalar mixing angle is mild except when $\sin^2\alpha \to 0 or 1$. The $\nu\nu W^+W^-$ background should be manageable after $b$-tagging, while $\nu\nu t\bar t$ background should not be a problem when the signal event rate is still interesting. The process, together with $e^+e^-\to \nu_e\bar{\nu_e} W^+W^-, \nu_e\bar{\nu_e} ZZ$ studies, offer the chance of measuring the $t$-$c$-Higgs coupling.Comment: REVTEX, 18 pages, 7 figures; Report number change

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure