Design and Operation of Front-End Electronics for the HERA-B Muon Detector

We have implemented a cost-effective design for the readout electronics of both the anode wires and the cathode pads of large area proportional wire chambers for the HERA-B muon system based on the ASD-08 integrated circuit. To control and monitor the large number of readout channels, we have built a distributed control system based on Philips Semiconductors' I2C bus and microcontrollers. To date we have installed about 10800 channels of muon chambers and electronics. The average single channel noise occupancy is less than 10**-5, and the detectors have been operated with target interaction rates as high as 70 MHz

Atomic mass dependence of \Xi^- and \overline{\Xi}^+ production in central 250 GeV \pi^- nucleon interactions

We present the first measurement of the atomic mass dependence of central \Xi^- and \overline{\Xi}^+ production. It is measured using a sample of 22,459 \Xi^-'s and \overline{\Xi}^+'s produced in collisions between a 250 GeV \pi^- beam and targets of beryllium, aluminum, copper, and tungsten. The relative cross sections are fit to the two parameter function \sigma_0 A^\alpha, where A is the atomic mass. We measure \alpha = 0.924+-0.020+-0.025, for Feynman-x in the range -0.09 < x_F < 0.15.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Fermilab E791

Fermilab E791, a very high statistics charm particle experiment, recently completed its data taking at Fermilab's Tagged Photon Laboratory. Over 20 billion events were recorded through a loose transverse energy trigger and written to 8mm tape in the the 1991-92 fixed target run at Fermilab. This unprecedented data sample containing charm is being analysed on many-thousand MIP RISC computing farms set up at sites in the collaboration. A glimpse of the data taking and analysis effort is presented. We also show some preliminary results for common charm decay modes. Our present analysis indicates a very rich yield of over 200K reconstructed charm decays.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, LaTe

Experimental evidence for a light and broad scalar resonance in D+→π−π+π+D^+\to \pi^-\pi^+\pi^+ decay

From a sample of $1172 \pm 61$ $D^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+$ decay, we find $\Gamma (D^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+) / \Gamma (D^+ \to K^- \pi^+ \pi^+) = 0.0311 \pm 0.0018 ^{+0.0016}_{-0.0026}$. Using a coherent amplitude analysis to fit the Dalitz plot of this decays, we find strong evidence that a scalar resonance of mass $478^{+24}_{-23} \pm 17$ MeV/$c^2$ and width $324^{+42}_{-40} \pm 21$ MeV/$c^2$ accounts for approximately half of all decays.Comment: 10 pages, 3 eps figure

Study of the Ds+→π−π+π+D^+_s \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+ decay and measurement of f0f_0 masses and widths

From a sample of 848 $\pm$ 44 $D_s^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+$ decays, we find $\Gamma(D_s^+ \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+) / \Gamma(D_s^+ \to \phi \pi^+) = 0.245 \pm 0.028^{+0.019}_{-0.012}$. Using a Dalitz plot analysis of this three body decay, we find significant contributions from the channels $\rho^0(770)\pi^+$, $\rho^0(1450)\pi^+$, $f_0(980)\pi^+$, $f_2(1270)\pi^+$, and $f_0(1370)\pi^+$. We present also the values obtained for masses and widths of the resonances $f_0(980)$ and $f_0(1370)$.Comment: 10 pages, 3 eps figure

Measurement of the Ds Lifetime

We report the results of a precise measurement of the Ds meson lifetime based on 1662 +/- 56 fully reconstructed Ds -> phi pi decays, from the charm hadroproduction experiment E791 at Fermilab. Using an unbinned maximum likelihood fit, we measure the Ds lifetime to be 0.518 +/- 0.014 +/- 0.007 ps. The ratio of the measured Ds lifetime to the world average D0 lifetime is 1.25 +/- 0.04. This result differs from unity by six standard deviations, indicating significantly different lifetimes for the Ds and the D0.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 2 table. LaTe

A new measurement of direct CP violation in two pion decays of the neutral kaon

The NA48 experiment at CERN has performed a new measurement of direct CP violation, based on data taken in 1997 by simultaneously collecting K_L and K_S decays into pi0pi0 and pi+pi-. The result for the CP violating parameter Re(epsilon'/epsilon) is (18.5 +/- 4.5(stat)} +/- 5.8 (syst))x10^{-4}.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Dalitz Plot Analysis of the Decay D^+ --> K^- pi^+ pi^+ and Indication of a Low-Mass Scalar K pi Resonance

We study the Dalitz plot of the decay D^+ --> K^- pi^+ pi^+ with a sample of 15090 events from Fermilab experiment E791. Modeling the decay amplitude as the coherent sum of known K pi resonances and a uniform nonresonant term, we do not obtain an acceptable fit. If we allow the mass and width of the K^*_0(1430) to float, we obtain values consistent with those from PDG but the chi^2 per degree of freedom of the fit is still unsatisfactory. A good fit is found when we allow for the presence of an additional scalar resonance, with mass 797 +/- 19 +/- 43 MeV/c^2 and width 410 +/- 43 +/- 87 MeV/c^2. The mass and width of the K^*_0(1430) become 1459 +/- 7 +/- 5 MeV/c^2 and 175 +/- 12 +/- 12 MeV/c^2, respectively. Our results provide new information on the scalar sector in hadron spectroscopy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter