778 research outputs found
Newly observed two-body decays of B mesons in a hybrid perspective
In consistency with the b --> c type of (quasi) two body decays, recently
observed two body decays of B mesons are studied in a hybrid perspective in
which their amplitude is given by a sum of factorizable and non-factorizable
ones, and a role of the latter in these decays are discussed.Comment: 7 page
Reconstructing the relatedness of cooperatively breeding queens in the Panamanian leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
The evolution of permanent inquiline social parasites in ants has been conjectured to be facilitated by secondary poly gyny, that is, the re-adoption of new queens into existing mature colonies. This idea was first formulated by Wasmann, Wheeler, and Emery more than a century ago. Emery predicted that inquilines should be the sister-lineages of their hosts, which prompted Alfred Buschinger to propose that they evolve by sympatric speciation. However, these scenarios hinge on two vital conditions that have not been quantitatively documented: 1. That host sister species are secondarily polygynous and primarily recruit close kin, and 2. That such adoptions are prone to occasional mistakes that would select for the condition-dependent expression of exploitative traits and reproductive isolation by disruptive selection. Here, we use a long-term data set on the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior (ForEl, 1899), known to have a closely related inquiline social parasite A. insinuator schultz, BEKKEvolD & Boomsma, 1998, to address the first of these conditions. We estimate the frequency of secondary polygyny and the degree to which cooperatively breeding queens are related. We find that the overall frequency of polygynous colonies is ca. 8% and that polygynous colonies typically have two queens. Most queen pairs are first-degree relatives, consistent with colonies adopting one or two daughters either before or just after becoming orphaned. However, we also document a few pairs of cooperatively breeding queens that are unrelated and estimate that this social structure may apply to ca. 20% of the polygynous colonies, and thus ca. 1% of all colonies. Our findings show that the breeding system of A. echinatior matches the polygyny characteristics that are believed to facilitate the emergence of socially parasitic queen morphs
Topological Defects and Interactions in Nematic Emulsions
Inverse nematic emulsions in which surfactant-coated water droplets are
dispersed in a nematic host fluid have distinctive properties that set them
apart from dispersions of two isotropic fluids or of nematic droplets in an
isotropic fluid. We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the
distortions produced in the nematic host by the dispersed droplets and of
solvent mediated dipolar interactions between droplets that lead to their
experimentally observed chaining. A single droplet in a nematic host acts like
a macroscopic hedgehog defect. Global boundary conditions force the nucleation
of compensating topological defects in the nematic host. Using variational
techniques, we show that in the lowest energy configuration, a single water
droplet draws a single hedgehog out of the nematic host to form a tightly bound
dipole. Configurations in which the water droplet is encircled by a
disclination ring have higher energy. The droplet-dipole induces distortions in
the nematic host that lead to an effective dipole-dipole interaction between
droplets and hence to chaining.Comment: 17 double column pages prepared by RevTex, 15 eps figures included in
text, 2 gif figures for Fig. 1
New FOCUS results on charm mixing and CP violation
We present a summary of recent results on CP violation and mixing in the
charm quark sector based on a high statistics sample collected by
photoproduction experiment FOCUS (E831 at Fermilab). We have measured the
difference in lifetimes for the decays: and . This translates into a measurement of the mixing parameter in
the \d0d0 system, under the assumptions that is an equal mixture of
CP odd and CP even eigenstates, and CP violation is negligible in the neutral
charm meson system. We verified the latter assumption by searching for a CP
violating asymmetry in the Cabibbo suppressed decay modes , and . We show preliminary
results on a measurement of the branching ratio .Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, requires espcrc2.sty. Presented by S.Bianco at
CPConf2000, September 2000, Ferrara (Italy). In this revision, fixed several
stylistic flaws, add two significant references, fixed a typo in Tab.
A Measurement of the Ds+ Lifetime
A high statistics measurement of the Ds+ lifetime from the Fermilab
fixed-target FOCUS photoproduction experiment is presented. We describe the
analysis of the two decay modes, Ds+ -> phi(1020)pi+ and Ds+ ->
\bar{K}*(892)0K+, used for the measurement. The measured lifetime is 507.4 +/-
5.5 (stat.) +/- 5.1 (syst.) fs using 8961 +/- 105 Ds+ -> phi(1020)pi+ and 4680
+/- 90 Ds+ -> \bar{K}*(892)0K+ decays. This is a significant improvement over
the present world average.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, submitted to PR
A High Statistics Measurement of the Lambdac+ Lifetime
A high statistics measurement of the Lambdac+ lifetime from the Fermilab
fixed-target FOCUS photoproduction experiment is presented. We describe the
analysis technique with particular attention to the determination of the
systematic uncertainty. The measured value of 204.6 +/- 3.4 (stat.) +/- 2.5
(syst.) fs from 8034 +/- 122 Lambdac -> pKpi decays represents a significant
improvement over the present world average.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
A measurement of branching ratios of and hadronic decays to four-body final states containing a
We have studied hadronic four-body decays of and mesons with a
in the final state using data recorded during the 1996-1997 fixed-target
run at Fermilab high energy photoproduction experiment FOCUS. We report a new
branching ratio measurement of . We make the first observation
of three new decay modes with branching ratios ,
\Gamma(D^+\to\K_S K^+ K^-\pi^+)/\Gamma(D^+\to K_S
\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-)=0.0077\pm0.0015\pm0.0009, and , where
in each case the first error is statistical and the second error is systematic.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Search for CP Violation in the decays D+ -> K_S pi+ and D+ -> K_S K+
A high statistics sample of photo-produced charm from the FOCUS(E831)
experiment at Fermilab has been used to search for direct CP violation in the
decays D+->K_S pi+ and D+ -> K_S K+. We have measured the following asymmetry
parameters relative to D+->K-pi+pi+: A_CP(K_S pi+) = (-1.6 +/- 1.5 +/- 0.9)%,
A_CP(K_S K+) = (+6.9 +/- 6.0 +/- 1.5)% and A_CP(K_S K+) = (+7.1 +/- 6.1 +/-
1.2)% relative to D+->K_S pi+. The first errors quoted are statistical and the
second are systematic. We also measure the relative branching ratios:
\Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}pi+)/\Gamma(D+->K-pi+pi+) = (30.60 +/- 0.46 +/- 0.32)%,
\Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}K+)/\Gamma(D+->K-pi+pi+) = (6.04 +/- 0.35 +/- 0.30)% and
\Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}K+)/\Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}pi+) = (19.96 +/- 1.19 +/- 0.96)%.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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