Development of a tight-binding potential for bcc-Zr. Application to the study of vibrational properties

We present a tight-binding potential based on the moment expansion of the density of states, which includes up to the fifth moment. The potential is fitted to bcc and hcp Zr and it is applied to the computation of vibrational properties of bcc-Zr. In particular, we compute the isothermal elastic constants in the temperature range 1200K < T < 2000K by means of standard Monte Carlo simulation techniques. The agreement with experimental results is satisfactory, especially in the case of the stability of the lattice with respect to the shear associated with C'. However, the temperature decrease of the Cauchy pressure is not reproduced. The T=0K phonon frequencies of bcc-Zr are also computed. The potential predicts several instabilities of the bcc structure, and a crossing of the longitudinal and transverse modes in the (001) direction. This is in agreement with recent ab initio calculations in Sc, Ti, Hf, and La.Comment: 14 pages, 6 tables, 4 figures, revtex; the kinetic term of the isothermal elastic constants has been corrected (Eq. (4.1), Table VI and Figure 4

An Effective-Medium Tight-Binding Model for Silicon

A new method for calculating the total energy of Si systems is presented. The method is based on the effective-medium theory concept of a reference system. Instead of calculating the energy of an atom in the system of interest a reference system is introduced where the local surroundings are similar. The energy of the reference system can be calculated selfconsistently once and for all while the energy difference to the reference system can be obtained approximately. We propose to calculate it using the tight-binding LMTO scheme with the Atomic-Sphere Approximation(ASA) for the potential, and by using the ASA with charge-conserving spheres we are able to treat open system without introducing empty spheres. All steps in the calculational method is {\em ab initio} in the sense that all quantities entering are calculated from first principles without any fitting to experiment. A complete and detailed description of the method is given together with test calculations of the energies of phonons, elastic constants, different structures, surfaces and surface reconstructions. We compare the results to calculations using an empirical tight-binding scheme.Comment: 26 pages (11 uuencoded Postscript figures appended), LaTeX, CAMP-090594-

Observation of the rare decay K_S -> pi^0mu^+mu^-

A search for the decay K_S -> pi^0mu^+mu^- has been made by the NA48/1 Collaboration at the CERN SPS accelerator. The data were collected during 2002 with a high-intensity K_S beam. Six events were found with a background expectation of 0.22^+0.18_-0.11 event. Using a vector matrix element and unit form factor, the measured branching ratio is B(K_S -> pi^0mu^+mu^-)=[2.9^+1.5_-1.2(stat)+/-0.2(syst)]x10^{-9}.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables. To be published in Physics Letters

First Observation and Measurement of the Decay K+- -> pi+- e+ e- gamma

Using the full data set of the NA48/2 experiment, the decay K+- -> pi+- e+ e- gamma is observed for the first time, selecting 120 candidates with 7.3 +- 1.7 estimated background events. With K+- -> pi+- pi0D as normalisation channel, the branching ratio is determined in a model-independent way to be Br(K+- -> pi+- e+ e- gamma, m_eegamma > 260 MeV/c^2) = (1.19 +- 0.12_stat +- 0.04_syst) x 10^-8. This measured value and the spectrum of the e+ e- gamma invariant mass allow a comparison with predictions of Chiral Perturbation Theory.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys.Lett.

First observation and branching fraction and decay parameter measurements of the weak radiative decay Xi0 --> Lambda e+e-

The weak radiative decay Xi0 --> Lambda e+e- has been detected for the first time. We find 412 candidates in the signal region, with an estimated background of 15 +/- 5 events. We determine the branching fraction B(Xi0 --> Lambda e+e-) = [7.6 +/- 0.4(stat) +/- 0.4(syst) +/- 0.2(norm)] x 10^{-6}, consistent with an internal bremsstrahlung process, and the decay asymmetry parameter alpha_{XiLambdaee} = -0.8 +/- 0.2, consistent with that of Xi0 --> Lambda gamma. The charge conjugate reaction Xi0_bar --> Lambda_bar e+e- has also been observed.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables; revised: 19 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, after reviewers' comments: 1 figure removed, 1 figure corrected, minor editorial changes; to be published in Phys. Lett.

Empirical parameterization of the K+- -> pi+- pi0 pi0 decay Dalitz plot

As first observed by the NA48/2 experiment at the CERN SPS, the \p0p0 invariant mass (M00) distribution from \kcnn decay shows a cusp-like anomaly at M00=2m+, where m+ is the charged pion mass. An analysis to extract the pi pi scattering lengths in the isospin I=0 and I=2 states, a0 and a2, respectively, has been recently reported. In the present work the Dalitz plot of this decay is fitted to a new empirical parameterization suitable for practical purposes, such as Monte Carlo simulations of K+- -> pi+- pi0 pi0 decays.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

Search for direct CP-violation in K+- --> pi+-pi0pi0 decays

A search for direct CP-violation in K+- --> pi+-pi0pi0 decays based on 47.14 million events has been performed by the NA48/2 experiment at the CERN SPS. The asymmetry in the Dalitz plot linear slopes A_g=(g^+ - g^-)/(g^+ + g^-) is measured to be A_g=(1.8 +- 2.6).10^{-4}. The design of the experiment and the method of analysis provide good control of instrumental charge asymmetries in this measurement. The precision of the result is limited by statistics and is almost one order of magnitude better than that of previous measurements by other experiments.Comment: 14 page

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter