Measurement of time-dependent CP\mathcal{CP} violation in charmless B decays at LHCb

In the following we present the measurements of time-dependent $\mathcal{CP}$ violation in charmless B meson decays performed by LHCb analyzing the $p-p$ collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV during the 2010 and 2011 LHC runs. In particular we will focus on the analysis of charmless two-body B decays where the direct and mixing-induced CP asymmetry terms of the $B^{0}\to\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $B_{s}^{0}\to K^{+}K^{-}$ decays have been measured using 0.69 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected during 2011. The measurement of the branching ratio of the $B_{s}^{0}\to K^{*0}\bar{K}^{*0}$ decay, using 35 pb$^{-1}$ collected during 2010, is also reported. In the end we show the relative branching ratios of all the decay modes of $B_{(s)}^{0}\to K_S h^{+}h^{\prime -}$ decays (where $h^{(\prime)}=\pi,K$), measured analyzing 1 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected during 20 11.Comment: Proceedings of CKM 2012, the 7th International Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle, University of Cincinnati, USA, 28 September - 2 October 201

Measurements of ACP(B0→K+π−)A_{CP}(B^0\rightarrow K^+ \pi^-) and ACP(Bs→π+K−)A_{CP}(B_s\rightarrow \pi^+ K^-) at LHCb

The LHCb experiment is designed to perform flavour physics measurements at the Large Hadron Collider. Using data collected during the 2010 run, we reconstruct a sample of $H_b\rightarrow h^+h'^-$ decays, where $H_b$ can be either a $B^0$ meson, a $B_s^0$ meson or a $\Lambda_b$ baryon, while $h$ and $h^\prime$ stand for $\pi$, $K$ or $p$. We provide preliminary values of the direct $\mathcal{CP}$ asymmetries of the neutral $B^0$ and $B_s^0$ mesons $A_{CP} (B^0\rightarrow K^+\pi^-) = -0.074 \pm 0.033\mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.008\mathrm{(syst.)}$ and $A_{CP}(B_s^0\rightarrow\pi^+K^-)=0.15 \pm 0.19\mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.02\mathrm{(syst.)}$

Recent LHCb results related to the measurement of the CKM phase γ

Using data collected during 2011 at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV LHCb selected samples of B± → Dh± and Hb → h+h− decays. Using these samples the measurement of the full set of partial widths and CP asymmetries of B± → Dh± decays has been performed. From the analysis of the selected charmless charged two-body hadronic B decays LHCb measured the direct CP asymmetries ACP (B0 → Kπ) and ACP (B0 s → πK), the branching ratios BR(B0 → K+K−) and BR(B0 s → π+π−) and the time-dependent CP asymmetries of B0 → π+π− and B0 s → K+K− decays

Geography of a stereotype. A computational study on the Italian presence in the British nineteenth century novel

Often chosen as the privileged setting for plays, poems, and novels, Italy has been one of the core English literary imageries from the Middle Ages to the late Victorian era and beyond. However, more than an actual geographical space, the presence of Italian locations within the corpus of British literature can be configured as a distinctive discursive practice disclosing a variety of literary possibilities or, as what Roland Barthes would say, a situation d’écriture: a writing situation capable of conveying an inexhaustible basin of themes and conventions. But what are the features at the basis of the construction of Italy as a writing situation? And is there a relationship between the use of certain Italian locations and the development of specific sub-genres? Using innovative computer-based tools capable of macro analysis such as topic modelling and words-cohort correlation, in what follows I will give evidence of the occurrences and the transformations of the Italian stereotype throughout the British novel during the 19th century. The aim is to investigate the changes in the relative representation of different geographical areas within the fictional horizon of the novel thus testing the correlation between space and novelistic genres with new empirical tools

L’estetica dell’impossibile: lo strano caso del gotico e della fantascienza

In the history of human creativity, the act of imagining the impossible has always been at the core of the physical and metaphysical perception of the unknown. The scholarly debate regarding the nature of the impossible gained particular relevance in the context of British Enlightenment when the expanding sciences, along with literature, attempted to provide empirical validation to inexplicable and supernatural phenomena. In this way, the discrepancies between the overlapping ontologies of the Age of Faith and the Age of Reason became apparent as the ancestral literary practice of the fantastic merged with the rising genre of the novel. The assimilation of the conventional tropes of supernatural literature within the narrative frame of formal realism led to the development of two fortunate sub-genres: the Gothic and Science Fiction. The former evolved around the mutual disruption of the empirically-based conception of reality and the transgression of the moral code implied in the construction of civic order. The latter derived from the relocation of specific gothic features into a larger dimension of social anxiety concerning the abuses of reason concealed as a path towards common good and future progress. By exploring the evolution of the gothic imagery and its dissolution into the narrative horizon of Science Fiction, this article will trace the early modern roots of the dialogue between science and literature in the human quest for the impossible. The thesis that Gothic and Science Fiction are historically interdependent will be reviewed in light of the common matrix of fear and desire which characterises their ideological function.Nella storia della creatività umana, l'atto di immaginare l'impossibile si pone al centro della percezione fisica e metafisica dell'ignoto. Il dibattito sulla natura dell'impossibile ha poi acquisito particolare rilevanza nel contesto dell'Illuminismo britannico quando la nascente scienze moderna si unì alla letteratura nel tentativo di fornire una validazione empirica al dominio dell’inspiegabile e del soprannaturale. In tal senso, le discrepanze tra le ontologie sovrapposte delle cosiddette Age of Faith e Age of Reason trovarono ulteriore esplicitazione nell’intersezione tra l’ancestrale discorso letterario del fantastico e l’esordiente genere del novel. In particolare, l’assimilazione delle convenzioni tematiche della letteratura soprannaturale all'interno della cornice narrativa del realismo formale ha portato allo sviluppo di due sottogeneri romanzeschi piuttosto longevi e articolati: il gotico e la fantascienza. Il primo, evolutosi attorno ai temi della  trasgressione del codice morale implicito alla costruzione dell'ordine civico, il secondo legato alla trasposizione di specifiche strutture del gotico nella più ampia dimensione di ansia sociale relativa ai pericoli degli abusi della ragione celati dietro l’avanzata progressista verso il bene comune e il futuro.Esplorando le trasformazioni dell’immaginario del romanzo gotico e la sua dissoluzione nell'orizzonte narrativo della fantascienza, questo articolo mira a rintracciare le radici moderne del dialogo tra scienza e letteratura nell’umana ricerca dell'impossibile. L’interdipendenza dei due generi sarà analizzata alla luce della comune matrice di paura e desiderio caratterizzante la loro funzione ideologica

CP violation in B hadron decays at LHCb

LHCb is one of the four major experiments operating at the Large Hadron Collider, and is specifically dedicated to the measurement of CP violation and rare decays in the beauty and charm quark sectors. In this report we present some of the latest and most relevant CP violation measurements in B hadron decays, performed by LHCb using the data sample collected during 2011 and 2012

Figures of Fictionality. Keywords of the Eighteenth-Century English Novel

Recent developments in the polyhedric field of Digital Humanities offer a desirable perspective for corpus-driven literary studies. This is mainly due to both the implementation of tools for the statistical treatment of textual data, as well as the rapid expansion of the Internet in terms of online availability of archives and collections. Notwithstanding a series of contributions highlighting the mutual benefits derived from the combination of computational methods and literary scholarship, traditional criticism seems to ignore the epistemological continuum between qualitative and quantitative approaches to literature, treating them as two separate impermeable realities. In this article I will attempt to reconcile these approaches by presenting an exercise in computational criticism about the linguistic and ideological constructions at the basis of the rising genre of Augustan England: the novel. The aim is to examine the keywords at the core of the extensively theorised modern paradigm of empirical narratives so as to disclose which lexical units may be seen as the distinctive trait of fictionality as well as those which constitute the figure of the novelistic canon. In this way, the article provides an example of how the application of quantitative methods in literary and cultural scholarship can enhance the quality of individual research in the pursuit of the validity of interpretation

Measurements of ACP (B0 → K+π−) and ACP (Bs → π+K−) at LHCb

The LHCb experiment is designed to perform flavour physics measurements at the Large Hadron Collider. Using data collected during the 2010 run, we reconstruct a sample of Hb → h+h− decays, where Hb can be either a B0 meson, a B0s meson or a Λb baryon, while h and h' stand for π, K or p. We provide preliminary values of the direct CP asymmetries of the neutral B0 and B0s mesons ACP (B0 → K+π−) = −0.074 ± 0.033(stat.) ± 0.008(syst.) and ACP (B0s → π+K−) = 0.15 ± 0.19(stat.) ± 0.02(syst.)

CP violation in D meson decays at hadron colliders

The search for CP violation in charmed meson decays represents an important test of the Standard Model and hence a promising sector where to look for New Physics. In this paper, the first observation of D0 mixing with a significance of more than 5 standard deviations performed by a single experiment is presented. The measured mixing parameters are: RD = (3.52±0.15)×10−3, y = (7.2±2.4)×10−3, x2 = (−0.09±0.13)×10−3. Furthermore, the recent measurements of the difference between the CP asymmetries of the D0 → K+K− and D0 → π+π− decays (ΔACP ) are discussed