Semileptonic B→D∗∗B \to D^{**} decays in Lattice QCD : a feasibility study and first results

We compute the decays ${B\to D^\ast_0}$ and ${B\to D^\ast_2}$ with finite masses for the $b$ and $c$ quarks. We first discuss the spectral properties of both the $B$ meson as a function of its momentum and of the $D^\ast_0$ and $D^\ast_2$ at rest. We compute the theoretical formulae leading to the decay amplitudes from the three-point and two-point correlators. We then compute the amplitudes at zero recoil of ${B\to D^\ast_0}$ which turns out not to be vanishing contrary to what happens in the heavy quark limit. This opens a possibility to get a better agreement with experiment. To improve the continuum limit we have added a set of data with smaller lattice spacing. The ${B\to D^\ast_2}$ vanishes at zero recoil and we show a convincing signal but only slightly more than 1 sigma from 0. In order to reach quantitatively significant results, we plan to fully exploit smaller lattice spacings as well as another lattice regularization.Comment: 31 pages with 15 figures ; sections 5 and 6 revised and update

Controlling integrability in a quasi-1D atom-dimer mixture

We analytically study the atom-dimer scattering problem in the near-integrable limit when the oscillator length l_0 of the transverse confinement is smaller than the dimer size, ~l_0^2/|a|, where a<0 is the interatomic scattering length. The leading contributions to the atom-diatom reflection and break-up probabilities are proportional to a^6 in the bosonic case and to a^8 for the up-(up-down) scattering in a two-component fermionic mixture. We show that by tuning a and l_0 one can control the "degree of integrability" in a quasi-1D atom-dimer mixture in an extremely wide range leaving thermodynamic quantities unchanged. We find that the relaxation to deeply bound states in the fermionic (bosonic) case is slower (faster) than transitions between different Bethe ansatz states. We propose a realistic experiment for detailed studies of the crossover from integrable to nonintegrable dynamics.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

Study of the scientific potential of a three 40 cm Telescopes Interferometer at Dome C

Recent site testing (see: http://www-luan.unice.fr/Concordiastro/indexantartic.html) has shown that Dome C in Antarctica might have a high potential for stellar interferometry if some solutions related to the surface atmospheric layer are found. A demonstrator interferometer could be envisioned in order to fully qualify the site and prepare the future development of a large array. We analyse the performances of a prototype interferometer for Dome C made with 3 telescopes of 40 cm diameter. It assumes classical Michelson recombination. The most recent atmospheric and environmental conditions measured at Dome C are considered (see K. Agabi "First whole atmosphere night-time seeing measurements at Dome C, Antarctica"). We also study the possible science reachable with such a demonstrator. Especially we evaluate that even such small aperture interferometer could allow the detection and low resolution spectroscopy of the most favourable pegaside planets.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, conferences SPIE, 0rlando, 200

Gravitational effects in ultrahigh-energy string scattering

Ultrahigh-energy string scattering is investigated to clarify the relative role of string and gravitational effects, and their possible contributions to nonlocal behavior. Different regimes can be characterized by varying the impact parameter at fixed energy. In the regime where momentum transfers reach the string scale, string effects appear subdominant to higher-loop gravitational processes, approximated via the eikonal. At smaller impact parameters, "diffractive" or "tidal" string excitation leads to processes dominated by highly excited strings. However, new evidence is presented that these excitation effects do not play a direct role in black hole formation, which corresponds to breakdown of gravitational perturbation theory and appears to dominate at sufficiently small impact parameters. The estimated amplitudes violate expected bounds on high-energy behavior for local theories.Comment: 19 pages, harvmac. v2: fixed typos, added refs and discussion of longitudinal spread. v3: minor changes to agree with published versio

A comment on a paper by Carot et al

In a recent paper Carot et al. considered carefully the definition of cylindrical symmetry as a specialisation of the case of axial symmetry. One of their propositions states that if there is a second Killing vector, which together with the one generating the axial symmetry, forms the basis of a two-dimensional Lie algebra, then the two Killing vectors must commute, thus generating an Abelian group. In this comment a similar result, valid under considerably weaker assumptions, is recalled: any two-dimensional Lie transformation group which contains a one-dimensional subgroup whose orbits are circles, must be Abelian. The method used to prove this result is extended to apply to three-dimensional Lie transformation groups. It is shown that the existence of a one-dimensional subgroup with closed orbits restricts the Bianchi type of the associated Lie algebra to be I (Abelian), II, III, VII_0, VIII or IX. The relationship between the present approach and that of the original paper is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, Te

The VLBA Calibrator Search for the BeSSeL Survey

We present the results of a survey of radio continuum sources near the Galactic plane using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Our observations are designed to identify compact extragalactic sources of milliarcsecond size that can be used for parallax measurements in the Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy Survey. We selected point sources from the NVSS and CORNISH catalogs with flux densities above 30 mJy and within 1.5\degr of known maser targets. Of the 1529 sources observed, 199 were detected. For sources detected on 3 or more baselines, we determined accurate positions and evaluated their quality as potential calibrators. Most of the 1330 sources that were not detected with the VLBA are probably of extragalactic origin.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Table 3 is available on the homepage of the BeSSeL survey: http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/staff/abrunthaler/BeSSeL/index.shtm