A Review of Hadronic and Rare B Decays

We review recent experimental results on B meson decays. These include measurements of the inclusive production of charmed and non-charmed mesons and baryons, the reconstruction of a large number of exclusive hadronic final states with charmed mesons, the search for exclusive hadronic final states without charmed mesons, and the first observation of the decay B-> K* gamma which is described by an electromagnetic penguin diagram. The theoretical implications of these results will be considered. The figures can be obtained in postscript format EMAIL from [email protected]: 77 pages; CLNS 93/1261, UH-511-778-93, OHSTPY-HEP-E-93-018, HEPSY 93-1

CLEO III, A Dectector To Measure Rare BB Decays and CP Violation

The symmetric $e^+e^-$ collider CESR is undergoing a series of upgrades allowing for luminosities in excess of $2\times 10^{33}$cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. The most important goals of the upgrade are precision measurement of standard model parameters $V_{cb}$, $V_{ub}$, $V_{td}/V_{ts}$, $f_{D_s}$, and searching for CP violation and standard model violations in rare $B$ decays. A new detector upgrade, called CLEO III, has started which includes a new silicon-wire drift chamber tracking system and a Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector, RICH, using a LiF radiator and CH$_4$-TEA gas based photon detector

Rare b Decays

Rare b decays provide a unique opportunity to measure Standard Model parameters and probe beyond the Standard Model. We review here the experimentalprogress made in measuring these decays, and the importance of future measurements, including the possible observation of CP violation.Comment: To be published in International Journal of Modern Physics Letters A This is a 34 page review article, the file is uuencoded postscrip

On the use of low-cost computer peripherals for the assessment of motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease – Quantification of bradykinesia using target tracking tasks

The potential of computer games peripherals to measure the motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s diseases is assessed. Of particular interest is the quantification of bradykinesia. Previous studies used modified or custom haptic interfaces, here an unmodified force feedback joystick and steering wheel are used with a laptop. During testing an on screen cursor moves in response to movements of the peripheral, the user has to track a continuously moving target (pursuit tracking), or move to a predetermined target (step tracking). All tasks use movement in the horizontal axis, allowing use of joystick or steering wheel. Two pursuit tracking tasks are evaluated, pseudo random movement, and a swept frequency task. Two step tracking tasks are evaluated, movement between two or between two of five fixed targets. Thirteen patients and five controls took part on a weekly basis. Patients were assessed for bradykinesia at each session using standard clinical measures. A range of quantitative measures was developed to allow comparison between and within patients and controls using ANOVA. Both peripherals are capable of discriminating between controls and patients, and between patients with different levels of bradykinesia. Recommendations for test procedures and peripherals are given

Monte Carlo Studies of a Novel LiF Radiator for RICH Detectors

We show that a multifaceted LiF radiator produces more Cherenkov light and has better resolution per photon than a flat radiator slab when used in a ring imaging Cherenkov counter. Such a system is being considered for the CLEO III upgrade.Comment: 9 page

Mutual cosideration of b→sγb\to s\gamma and μ→eγ\mu\to e\gamma in supersymmetric SO(10) grand unification

We compare the branching ratios for $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ and $\mu\rightarrow e\gamma$ in terms of constraining the parameter space in supersymmetric SO(10) grand unification models where supersymmetry is broken softly near the Planck scale by generationally symmetric operators. We observe two general cases. One with small $\tan\beta =2$ and the other one with large $\tan\beta$ having third generation Yukawa coupling unification at the GUT scale. \newline\indent We show that for small $\tan\beta$ the branching ratio constraints allow only a smaller region of parameter space for $\mu>0$ compared to $\mu<0$ for gluino mass \alt 500 GeV. With large $\tan\beta$, we find acceptable regions of parameter space with \left|\mu \right|\alt 1 TeV only for $\mu<0$. The dominant constraint on large $\tan\beta$ with $\mu >0$ parameter space is found to be given by the $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ branching ratio, while for large $\tan\beta$ with $\mu <0$ it is found to be given by the $\mu\rightarrow e\gamma$ branching ratio. In many of these acceptable regions, we find that the $\mu\rightarrow e\gamma$ branching ratio is predicted to be within one order of magnitude of its current experimental bound. We also show that the usually neglected gluino mediated diagrams in $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ can not be ignored in some regions of parameter space, especially for large $\tan\beta$ scenarios when the gluino mass is near its lower experimental bound.Comment: 14 pages (Latex), 4 PS figs (uuencoded, epsf.tex), slight modification in text, as to appear in Physics Letters

A Simplified Approach to Determine α\alpha and the Penguin Amplitude in Bd→ππB_{d}\to \pi\pi

The effect of inelastic final-state interactions (IFSI's) on the determination of the weak phase $\alpha$ from the isospin triangles of $B\rightarrow \pi\pi$ is qualitatively illustrated. Neglecting the electroweak penguins and IFSI's and assuming the dominance of the top-quark loop in strong penguin diagrams, we propose an experimentally accessible way to approximately determine $\alpha$ and the penguin amplitude in $B_{d}\rightarrow \pi\pi$. This approach relies on a simplified isospin consideration and the factorization approximation, and its feasibility is irrelevant to the time-dependent measurements of $B_d\rightarrow \pi\pi$.Comment: This work has been accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B. In the revised version, we add a new section to give a qualitative illustration of the effect of inelastic final-state interactions on the determination of the weak phase $\alpha$ from the isospin triangles of $B\to \pi\pi$ . 10 Latex pages (with 1 figure