Recent Results from SELEX

The SELEX experiment (E781) is 3-stage magnetic spectrometer for the study of charm hadroproduction at large xF using 600 Gev Sigma-, pi- and p beams. New precise measurements of the Lambda_c, D0, and Ds lifetimes are presented. We also report results on Lambda_c and Ds production by Sigma-, pi- and p beams at xF>0.2. The data agree with expectations from color-drag models to explain charm particle/antiparticle production asymmetries.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Talk given by J.Russ at the XXXth International Conference on High Energy Physics July 27 - August 2, 2000, Osaka, Japan. Proceedings to be published by World Scientifi

The Leading Particle Effect from Heavy-Quark Recombination

The leading particle effect in charm hadroproduction is an enhancement of the cross section for a charmed hadron D in the forward direction of the beam when the beam hadron has a valence parton in common with the D. The large D+/D- asymmetry observed by the E791 experiment is an example of this phenomenon. We show that the heavy-quark recombination mechanism provides an economical explanation for this effect. In particular, the D+/D- asymmetry can be fit reasonably well using a single parameter whose value is consistent with a recent determination from charm photoproduction.Comment: Revtex file, 4 pages, 3 figure

Characteristics of alpha projectile fragments emission in interaction of nuclei with emulsion

The properties of the relativistic alpha fragments produced in interactions of 84^Kr at around 1 A GeV in nuclear emulsion are investigated. The experimental results are compared with the similar results obtained from various projectiles with emulsion interactions at different energies. The total, partial nuclear cross-sections and production rates of alpha fragmentation channels in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions and their dependence on the mass number and initial energy of the incident projectile nucleus are investigated. The yields of multiple alpha fragments emitted from the interactions of projectile nuclei with the nuclei of light, medium and heavy target groups of emulsion-detector are discussed and they indicate that the projectile-breakup mechanism seems to be free from the target mass number. It is found that the multiplicity distributions of alpha fragments are well described by the Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling presentation. The mean multiplicities of the freshly produced newly created charged secondary particles, normally known as shower and secondary particles associated with target in the events where the emission of alpha fragments were accompanied by heavy projectile fragments having Z value larger than 4 seem to be constant as the alpha fragments multiplicity increases, and exhibit a behavior independent of the alpha fragments multiplicity.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures and 3 tables (in press

Rhythmic Oxygen Levels Reset Circadian Clocks through HIF1 alpha

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordThe mammalian circadian system consists of a master clock in the brain that synchronizes subsidiary oscillators in peripheral tissues. The master clock maintains phase coherence in peripheral cells through systemic cues such as feeding-fasting and temperature cycles. Here, we examined the role of oxygen as a resetting cue for circadian clocks. We continuously measured oxygen levels in living animals and detected daily rhythms in tissue oxygenation. Oxygen cycles, within the physiological range, were sufficient to synchronize cellular clocks in a HIF1α-dependent manner. Furthermore, several clock genes responded to changes in oxygen levels through HIF1α. Finally, we found that a moderate reduction in oxygen levels for a short period accelerates the adaptation of wild-type but not of HIF1α-deficient mice to the new time in a jet lag protocol. We conclude that oxygen, via HIF1α activation, is a resetting cue for circadian clocks and propose oxygen modulation as therapy for jet lag.Israel Science FoundationEuropean Research CouncilFeinberg Graduate School, Weizmann Institute of ScienceBritish Heart FoundationEuropean Union, Seventh Framework Programm

The high-intensity hyperon beam at CERN

A high-intensity hyperon beam was constructed at CERN to deliver Sigma- to experiment WA89 at the Omega facility and operated from 1989 to 1994. The setup allowed rapid changeover between hyperon and conventional hadron beam configurations. The beam provided a Sigma-flux of 1.4 x 10^5 per burst at mean momenta between 330 and 345 Gev/c, produced by about 3 x 10^10 protons of 450 GeV/c . At the experiment target the beam had a Sigma-/pi- ratio close to 0.4 and a size of 1.6 x 3.7 cm^2. The beam particle trajectories and their momenta were measured with a scintillating fibre hodoscope in the beam channel and a silicon microstrip detector at the exit of the channel. A fast transition radiation detector was used to identify the pion component of the beam.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Topology of "white" stars in relativistic fragmentation of light nuclei

In the present paper, experimental observations of the multifragmentation processes of light relativistic nuclei carried out by means of emulsions are reviewed. Events of the type of "white" stars in which the dissociation of relativistic nuclei is not accompanied by the production of mesons and the target-nucleus fragments are considered. A distinctive feature of the charge topology in the dissociation of the Ne, Mg, Si, and S nuclei is an almost total suppression of the binary splitting of nuclei to fragments with charges higher than 2. The growth of the nuclear fragmentation degree is revealed in an increase in the multiplicity of singly and doubly charged fragments with decreasing charge of the non-excited part of the fragmenting nucleus. The processes of dissociation of stable Li, Be, B, C, N, and O isotopes to charged fragments were used to study special features of the formation of systems consisting of the lightest $\alpha$, d, and t nuclei. Clustering in form of the $^3$He nucleus can be detected in "white" stars via the dissociation of neutron-deficient Be, B, C, and N isotopes.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables, conference: Conference on Physics of Fundamental Interactions, Moscow, Russia, 1-5 Mar 2004.(Author's translation

The leading particle effect from light quark fragmentation in charm hadroproduction

The asymmetry of $D^-$ and $D^+$ meson production in $\pi^-N$ scattering observed by the E791 experiment is a typical phenomenon known as the leading particle effect in charm hadroproducton. We show that the phenomenon can be explained by the effect of light quark fragmentation into charmed hadrons (LQF). Meanwhile, the size of the LQF effect is estimated from data of the E791 experiment. A comparison is made with the estimate of the LQF effect from prompt like-sign dimuon rate in neutrino experiments. The influence of the LQF effect on the measurement of nucleon strange distribution asymmetry from charged current charm production processes is briefly discussed.Comment: 6 latex pages, 1 figure, to appear in EPJ