The B -- TAU FCNC connection in SUSY Unified Theories

In the context of SUSY grand unification a link is established between the hadronic and leptonic soft breaking sectors. Such relation is here exploited in particular for FCNC processes in B physics. It is shown how bounds on leptonic FCNC involving the third generation translate into constraints on FC B decays. In the second part of the contribution we show that tests of lepton universality in K and B decays can represent an interesting handle to obtain relevant information on the amount of FCNC in the second and third fermion generation.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Based on talks given at: DIF06, International Workshop on discoveries in flavour physics at e+e- colloders, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (Italy), February 28- March 03, 2006; XLIst Rencontres de Moriond, La Thuile, 5-11 March 2006; CORFU2005, Corfu Summer Institute on EPP, Corfu, Greece, September 4-26, 200

Probing New Physics through mu-e Universality in K->lnu

The recent NA48/2 improvement on R_K=Gamma(K->e nu_e)/Gamma(K->mu nu_mu) emphasizes the role of K_l2 decays in probing the mu-e universality. Supersymmetric (SUSY) extensions of the Standard Model can exhibit mu-e non-universal contributions. Their origin is twofold: those deriving from lepton flavor conserving couplings are subdominant with respect to those arising from lepton flavor violating (LFV) sources. We show that mu-e non-universality in K_l2 is quite effective in constraining relevant regions of SUSY models with LFV (for instance, supergravities with a see-saw mechanism for neutrino masses). A comparison with analogous bounds coming from tau LFV decays proves the relevance of the measurement of R_K to probe LFV in SUSY.Comment: v2: 5 pages, 1 figure. Comments and 2 references adde

Constraints on SUSY Lepton Flavour Violation by rare processes

We study the constraints on flavour violating terms in low energy SUSY coming from several processes as li -> lj gamma, li -> lj lj lj and mu -> e in Nuclei. We show that a combined analysis of the processes allows us to extract additional information with respect to an individual analysis of all the processes. In particular, it makes possible to put bounds on sectors previously unconstrained by li -> lj gamma. We perform the analysis both in the mass eigenstate and in the mass insertion approximations clarifying the limit of applicability of these approximations.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures. Typos corrected, several references and equations added. Results and conclusions completely unchanged. Accepted version for publication in JHE

Atmospheric Pressure Non-thermal Plasma for Air Purification: Ions and Ionic Reactions Induced by dc+ Corona Discharges in Air Contaminated with Acetone and Methanol

Atmospheric pressure mass spectrometry (APCI-MS) was used to investigate the positive ions in air containing acetone (A), methanol (M) and mixtures thereof (A + M), subjected to +dc corona discharges. The results of experiments with isotopically labelled analogues, perdeuterated acetone Adeu and methanol Mdeu, and relevant thermochemical data found in the literature allowed us to identify the main ionic reactions occurring in single component systems (A or M) and in binary mixtures (A + M). It is concluded that, thanks to its significantly higher proton affinity, A is very efficient in quenching M-derived ions at atmospheric pressure. These conclusions provide a rationale for interpreting the results of a parallel investigation on the reciprocal effects of M and A when treated together in air at atmospheric pressure with +dc corona in a non-thermal plasma reactor developed previously in our laboratory. Specifically, we observed a marked drop in the degradation efficiency of methanol when it was treated in the presence of an equivalent amount of acetone. This effect is attributed to acetone interfering with ion-initiated degradation processes of methanol, and supports the conclusion\ua0that ions and ionic reactions are important in dc+ corona induced oxidation of volatile organic pollutants in air

Higgs-Mediated tau --> mu and tau --> e transitions in II Higgs doublet Model and Supersymmetry

We study the phenomenology of the mu-tau and e-tau lepton flavour violation (LFV) in a general two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) including the supersymmetric case. We consider several LFV decay modes of the charged fermion tau, namely tau-> l_jgamma, tau->l_j l_k l_k and tau-> l_jeta. The predictions and the correlations among the rates of the above processes are computed. In particular, it is shown that tau->l_jgamma processes are the most sensitive channels to Higgs-mediated LFV specially if the splitting among the neutral Higgs bosons masses is not below the 10% level.Comment: v2=published version: 13 pages, 4 figures, text improved and reference added. Two loop effects (relevant for tau->l_jgamma) added. Conclusions unchange

Oxidation of clofibric acid in aqueous solution using a non-thermal plasma discharge or gamma radiation

In this work, we study degradation of clofibric acid (CFA) in aqueous solution using either ionizing radiation from a $^{60}$Co source or a non-thermal plasma produced by discharges in the air above the solution. The results obtained with the two technologies are compared in terms of effectiveness of CFA degradation and its by-products. In both cases the CFA degradation follows a quasi-exponential decay in time well modelled by a kinetic scheme which considers the competition between CFA and all reaction intermediates for the reactive species generated in solution as well as the amount of the end product formed. A new degradation law is deduced to explain the results. Although the end-product CO$_2$ was detected and the CFA conversion found to be very high under the studied conditions, HPLC analysis reveals several degradation intermediates still bearing the aromatic ring with the chlorine substituent. The extent of mineralization is rather limited. The energy yield is found to be higher in the gamma radiation experiments.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Model-independent Analysis of Lepton Flavour Violating Tau Decays

Many models for physics beyond the Standard Model predict lepton-flavour violating decays of charged leptons at a level which may become observable very soon. In the present paper we investigate the decays of a Tau into three charged leptons in a generic way, based on effective-field-theory methods, where the relevant operators are classified according to their chirality structure. We work out the decay distributions and discuss phenomenological implications.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, references and comments adde

Exploiting the potential of large eddy simulations (LES) for ducted fuel injection investigation in non-reacting conditions

The diesel combustion research is increasingly focused on ducted fuel injection (DFI), a promising concept to abate engine-out soot emissions in compression-ignition engines. A large set of experiments carried out in constant volume vessel and numerical simulations, at medium-low computational cost, showed that the duct adoption in front of the injector nozzle activates several soot mitigation mechanisms, leading to quasi-zero soot formation in several engine-like operating conditions. However, although the simplified CFD modelling so far played a crucial role for the preliminary understanding of DFI technology, a more accurate turbulence description approach, combined with a large set of numerical experiments for statistical purposes, is of paramount importance for a robust knowledge of the DFI physical behaviour. In this context, the present work exploits the potential of large eddy simulations (LES) to analyse the non-reacting spray of DFI configuration compared with the unconstrained spray. For this purpose, a previously developed spray model, calibrated and validated in the RANS framework against an extensive amount of experimental data related to both free spray and DFI, has been employed. The tests have been carried out considering a single-hole injector in an optical accessible constant volume vessel, properly replicated in the simulation environment. This high-fidelity simulation model has been adapted for LES, firstly selecting the best grid settings, and then carrying out several numerical experiments for both spray configurations until achieving a satisfying statistical convergence. With this aim, the number of independent samples for the averaging procedure has been increased exploiting the axial symmetry characteristics of the present case study. Thanks to this approach, a detailed description of the main DFI-enabled soot mitigation mechanisms has been achieved, shrinking the knowledge gap in the physical understanding of the impact of spray-duct interaction