Diffusion through Pulverized Stone Compared to Other Mineral Barrier Materials

Construction of a waste disposal site requires an effective barrier that separates waste from a sub-base and minimizes the migration of contaminants from the site to an aquifer. Barrier layers most often used are natural clayey deposits or compacted clay liners and PEHD geomembranes. However, some regions, the Croatian karst for example, are mostly short of clay. For this reason, the use of pulverized stone, the by-product in the building-stone industry – as a potential liner material was investigated. Considering diffusion is an important mechanism of contaminant transport through barriers, this paper describes the method and apparatus for determining the diffusion coefficient of pulverized stone. Measured diffusion values were related to sample compaction and compared with the physical properties of clay, geosynthetic clay liners and PEHD geomembranes. Other physical properties of pulverized stone such as the filtration coefficient, density and particle size distribution are also presented. Finally, the suitability of pulverized stone for barrier construction is discussed based on the results obtained

Diffusion through Pulverized Stone Compared to Other Mineral Barrier Materials

Construction of a waste disposal site requires an effective barrier that separates waste from a sub-base and minimizes the migration of contaminants from the site to an aquifer. Barrier layers most often used are natural clayey deposits or compacted clay liners and PEHD geomembranes. However, some regions, the Croatian karst for example, are mostly short of clay. For this reason, the use of pulverized stone, the by-product in the building-stone industry – as a potential liner material was investigated. Considering diffusion is an important mechanism of contaminant transport through barriers, this paper describes the method and apparatus for determining the diffusion coefficient of pulverized stone. Measured diffusion values were related to sample compaction and compared with the physical properties of clay, geosynthetic clay liners and PEHD geomembranes. Other physical properties of pulverized stone such as the filtration coefficient, density and particle size distribution are also presented. Finally, the suitability of pulverized stone for barrier construction is discussed based on the results obtained

Search for B0B^{0} decays to invisible final states at Belle

We report a search for $B^{0}$ decays into invisible final states using a data sample of $657 \times 10^{6}$ $B\bar{B}$ pairs collected at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider. The signal is identified by fully reconstructing a hadronic decay of the accompanying $B$ meson and requiring no other particles in the event. No significant signal is observed, and we obtain an upper limit of $1.3 \times 10^{-4}$ at the 90% confidence level for the branching fraction of invisible $B^{0}$ decay.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures (9 figure files

Angular analysis of B0→K∗(892)0ℓ+ℓ−B^0 \to K^\ast(892)^0 \ell^+ \ell^-

We present a measurement of angular observables, $P_4'$, $P_5'$, $P_6'$, $P_8'$, in the decay $B^0 \to K^\ast(892)^0 \ell^+ \ell^-$, where $\ell^+\ell^-$ is either $e^+e^-$ or $\mu^+\mu^-$. The analysis is performed on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $711~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ containing $772\times 10^{6}$ $B\bar B$ pairs, collected at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider KEKB. Four angular observables, $P_{4,5,6,8}'$ are extracted in five bins of the invariant mass squared of the lepton system, $q^2$. We compare our results for $P_{4,5,6,8}'$ with Standard Model predictions including the $q^2$ region in which the LHCb collaboration reported the so-called $P_5'$ anomaly.Comment: Conference paper for LHC Ski 2016. SM prediction for $P_{6}'$ corrected and reference for arXiv:1207.2753 adde

Search for B -> phi pi decays

We report on a search for the charmless decays $B^{+} \to\phi\pi^{+}$ and $B^{0} \to\phi \pi^{0}$ that are strongly suppressed in the Standard Model. The analysis is based on a data sample of $657 \times 10^6$ $B \bar{B}$ pairs collected at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. We find no significant signal and set upper limits of $3.3 \times 10^{-7}$ for $B^{+} \to \phi \pi^{+}$ and $1.5 \times 10^{-7}$ for $B^0 \to \phi \pi^0$ at the 90% confidence level.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. D (RC

Belle II Vertex Detector Performance

The Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB accelerator (KEK, Tsukuba, Japan) collected its first e+e− collision data in the spring 2019. The aim of accumulating a 50 times larger data sample than Belle at KEKB, a first generation B-Factory, presents substantial challenges to both the collider and the detector, requiring not only state-of-the-art hardware, but also modern software algorithms for tracking and alignment. The broad physics program requires excellent performance of the vertex detector, which is composed of two layers of DEPFET pixels and four layers of double sided-strip sensors. In this contribution, an overview of the vertex detector of Belle II and our methods to ensure its optimal performance, are described, and the first results and experiences from the first physics run are presented

Observation of B→D(∗)K−KS0{B\to D^{(*)} K^- K^{0}_S} decays using the 2019-2022 Belle II data sample

We present a measurement of the branching fractions of four $B^{0,-}\to D^{(*)+,0} K^- K^{0}_S$ decay modes. The measurement is based on data from SuperKEKB electron-positron collisions at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance collected with the Belle II detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of ${362~\text{fb}^{-1}}$. The event yields are extracted from fits to the distributions of the difference between expected and observed $B$ meson energy to separate signal and background, and are efficiency-corrected as a function of the invariant mass of the $K^-K_S^0$ system. We find the branching fractions to be: $$\text{B}(B^-\to D^0K^-K_S^0)=(1.89\pm 0.16\pm 0.10)\times 10^{-4},$$ $$\text{B}(\overline B{}^0\to D^+K^-K_S^0)=(0.85\pm 0.11\pm 0.05)\times 10^{-4},$$ $$\text{B}(B^-\to D^{*0}K^-K_S^0)=(1.57\pm 0.27\pm 0.12)\times 10^{-4},$$ $$\text{B}(\overline B{}^0\to D^{*+}K^-K_S^0)=(0.96\pm 0.18\pm 0.06)\times 10^{-4},$$ where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. These results include the first observation of $\overline B{}^0\to D^+K^-K_S^0$, $B^-\to D^{*0}K^-K_S^0$, and $\overline B{}^0\to D^{*+}K^-K_S^0$ decays and a significant improvement in the precision of $\text{B}(B^-\to D^0K^-K_S^0)$ compared to previous measurements