Is it possible to Measure the Weak Phase of a Penguin Diagram?

The $b\to d$ penguin amplitude receives contributions from internal $u$, $c$ and $t$-quarks. We show that it is impossible to measure the weak phase of any of these penguin contributions without theoretical input. However, a single assumption involving the hadronic parameters makes it possible to obtain the weak phase and test for the presence of new physics in the $b\to d$ flavour-changing neutral current.Comment: 4 pages, latex, no figures, talk given by R. Sinha at the 3rd International Conference on B Physics and CP Violation, Taipei, Taiwan, December 3-7, 1999, to appear in the Proceeding

Parallel String Sample Sort

We discuss how string sorting algorithms can be parallelized on modern multi-core shared memory machines. As a synthesis of the best sequential string sorting algorithms and successful parallel sorting algorithms for atomic objects, we propose string sample sort. The algorithm makes effective use of the memory hierarchy, uses additional word level parallelism, and largely avoids branch mispredictions. Additionally, we parallelize variants of multikey quicksort and radix sort that are also useful in certain situations.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures and 12 table

Angular Distribution and CP Asymmetries in the Decays B->K^-pi^+e^-e^+ and B->pi^-pi^+e^-e^+

The short-distance Hamiltonian describing b->s(d)e^-e^+ in the standard model is used to obtain the decay spectrum of \bar{B}->K^-pi^+e^-e^+ and \bar{B}->pi^-pi^+e^-e^+, assuming the Kpi and pipi systems to be the decay products of K^* and rho respectively. Specific features calculated are (i) angular distribution of K^- (or pi^-) in the K^-pi^+ (or pi^-pi^+) centre-of-mass (c.m.) frame; (ii) angular distribution of e^- in the e^-e^+ c.m. frame; and (iii) the correlation between the meson and lepton planes. We also derive CP-violating observables obtained by combining the above decays with the conjugate processes B->K^+pi^-e^-e^+ and B->pi^-pi^+e^-e^+.Comment: 19 pages, REVTeX, no figures. Equations (2.19a), (2.19b), (5.5)-(5.7) have been corrected; all results remain unchanged. These changes will appear in an Erratum submitted to Phys. Rev.

Scattering in a varying mass PT symmetric double heterojunction

We observe that the reflection and transmission coefficients of a particle within a double, PT symmetric heterojunction with spatially varying mass, show interesting features, depending on the degree of non Hermiticity, although there is no spontaneous breakdown of PT symmetry. The potential profile in the intermediate layer is considered such that it has a non vanishing imaginary part near the heterojunctions. Exact analytical solutions for the wave function are obtained, and the reflection and transmission coefficients are plotted as a function of energy, for both left as well as right incidence. As expected, the spatial dependence on mass changes the nature of the scattering solutions within the heterojunctions, and the space-time (PT) symmetry is responsible for the left-right asymmetry in the reflection and transmission coefficients. However, the non vanishing imaginary component of the potential near the heterojunctions gives new and interesting results.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Robust Emergent Activity in Dynamical Networks

We study the evolution of a random weighted network with complex nonlinear dynamics at each node, whose activity may cease as a result of interactions with other nodes. Starting from a knowledge of the micro-level behaviour at each node, we develop a macroscopic description of the system in terms of the statistical features of the subnetwork of active nodes. We find the asymptotic characteristics of this subnetwork to be remarkably robust: the size of the active set is independent of the total number of nodes in the network, and the average degree of the active nodes is independent of both the network size and its connectivity. These results suggest that very different networks evolve to active subnetworks with the same characteristic features. This has strong implications for dynamical networks observed in the natural world, notably the existence of a characteristic range of links per species across ecological systems.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure