Coherence Time Effects on J/psi Production and Suppression in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

Using a coherence time extracted from high precision proton-nucleus Drell-Yan measurements and a nuclear absorption cross section extracted from pA charmonium production experiments, we study J/psi production and absorption in nucleus-nucleus collisions. We find that coherence time effects are large enough to affect the measured J/psi-to-Drell-Yan ratio. The S+U data at 200A GeV/c measured by NA38 are reproduced quantitatively without the introduction of any new parameters. However, when compared with recent NA50 measurements for Pb+Pb at 158A GeV/c, the data is not reproduced in trend or in magnitude.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Search for flavor-changing neutral currents and lepton-family-number violation in two-body D0 decays

Results of a search for the three neutral charm decays, D0 -> mu e, D0 -> mu mu, and D0 -> e e, are presented. This study was based on data collected in Experiment 789 at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory using 800 GeV/c proton-Au and proton-Be interactions. No evidence is found for any of the decays. Upper limits on the branching ratios, at the 90% confidence level, are obtained.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

Search for the Proton Decay Mode proton to neutrino K+ in Soudan 2

We have searched for the proton decay mode proton to neutrino K+ using the one-kiloton Soudan 2 high resolution calorimeter. Contained events obtained from a 3.56 kiloton-year fiducial exposure through June 1997 are examined for occurrence of a visible K+ track which decays at rest into mu+ nu or pi+ pi0. We found one candidate event consistent with background, yielding a limit, tau/B > 4.3 10^{31} years at 90% CL with no background subtraction.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, 3 tables and 3 figures, Accepted by Physics Letters

The Atmospheric neutrino flavor ratio from a 3.9 fiducial kiloton year exposure of Soudan-2

We report a measurement of the atmospheric neutrino flavor ratio, R, using a sample of quasi-elastic neutrino interactions occurring in an iron medium. The flavor ratio (tracks/showers) of atmospheric neutrinos in a 3.9 fiducial kiloton-year exposure of Soudan 2 is 0.64 +- 0.11 (stat.) +- 0.06 (syst.) of that expected. Important aspects of our main analysis have been checked by carrying out two independent, alternative analyses; one is based upon automated scanning, the other uses a multivariate approach for background subtraction. Similar results are found by all three approaches.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Physics Letters

Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino flavor composition in Soudan-2

The atmospheric neutrino flavour ratio measured using a 1.52 kton-year exposure of Soudan 2 is found to be 0.72 +- 0.19 +0.05 -0.07 relative to the expected value from a Monte Carlo calculation. The possible background of interactions of neutrons and photons produced in muon interactions in the rock surrounding the detector has been investigated and is shown not to produce low values of the ratio.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 3 ps files, and 2 style files. Submitted to Physics Letter

A Measurement of the ψ′\psi^\prime to J/ψJ/ \psi Production Ratio in 920 GeV/c Proton-Nucleus Interactions.

Ratios of the Psi' over the J/psi production cross sections in the dilepton channel for C, Ti and W targets have been measured in 920 GeV proton-nucleus interactions with the HERA-B detector at the HERA storage ring. The Psi' and J/psi states were reconstructed in both the mu+mu- and the e+e- decay modes. The measurements covered the kinematic range -0.35 < x_F < 0.1 with transverse momentum p_T < 4.5 GeV/c. The Psi' to J/psi production ratio is almost constant in the covered x_F range and shows a slow increase with p_T. The angular dependence of the ratio has been used to measure the difference of the Psi' and J/psi polarization. All results for the muon and electron decay channels are in good agreement: their ratio, averaged over all events, is R_psi'(mu)/R_psi'(e)=1.00+-0.08+-0.04. This result constitutes a new, direct experimental constraint on the double ratio of branching fractions, (B'(mu)*B(e))/(B(mu)*B'(e)), of Psi' and J/psi in the two channels.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure