The "Persuadable Middle" on Same-Sex Marriage: Formative Research to Build Support among Heterosexual College Students

Same-sex marriage is a controversial policy issue that affects the welfare of gay and lesbian couples throughout the USA. Considerable research examines opinions about same-sex marriage; however, studies have not investigated the covariates of the “persuadable middle”— those individuals who are neutral or unsure about their views. This group of people is often the target of same-sex marriage campaigns, yet they have received no empirical attention.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89607/1/Woodford et al 2011 Persuadable Middle.pd

Measurement of branching fractions and direct CPCP asymmetries for B→KπB \to K\pi and B→ππB\to\pi\pi decays at Belle II

We report measurements of the branching fractions and direct $\it{CP}$ asymmetries of the decays $B^0 \to K^+ \pi^-$, $B^+ \to K^+ \pi^0$, $B^+ \to K^0 \pi^+$, and $B^0 \to K^0 \pi^0$, and use these for testing the standard model through an isospin-based sum rule. In addition, we measure the branching fraction and direct $\it{CP}$ asymmetry of the decay $B^+ \to \pi^+\pi^0$ and the branching fraction of the decay $B^0 \to \pi^+\pi^-$. The data are collected with the Belle II detector from $e^+e^-$ collisions at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance produced by the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy collider and contain $387\times 10^6$ bottom-antibottom meson pairs. Signal yields are determined in two-dimensional fits to background-discriminating variables, and range from 500 to 3900 decays, depending on the channel. We obtain $-0.03 \pm 0.13 \pm 0.04$ for the sum rule, in agreement with the standard model expectation of zero and with a precision comparable to the best existing determinations

Search for an invisible Z′Z^\prime in a final state with two muons and missing energy at Belle II

The $L_{\mu}-L_{\tau}$ extension of the standard model predicts the existence of a lepton-flavor-universality-violating $Z^{\prime}$ boson that couples only to the heavier lepton families. We search for such a $Z^\prime$ through its invisible decay in the process $e^+ e^- \to \mu^+ \mu^- Z^{\prime}$. We use a sample of electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58GeV collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019-2020, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.7fb$^{-1}$. We find no excess over the expected standard-model background. We set 90$\%$-confidence-level upper limits on the cross section for this process as well as on the coupling of the model, which ranges from $3 \times 10^{-3}$ at low $Z^{\prime}$ masses to 1 at $Z^{\prime}$ masses of 8$GeV/c^{2}$

Measurement of CPCP asymmetries in B0→ϕKS0B^0\to \phi K^0_S decays with Belle II

We present a measurement of time-dependent rate asymmetries in $B^0\to \phi K^0_S$ decays to search for non-standard-model physics in $b\to q \overline{q}s$ transitions. The data sample is collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider in 2019-2022 and contains $(387\pm 6)\times 10^6$ bottom-antibottom mesons from $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance decays. We reconstruct $162\pm17$ signal events and extract the charge-parity ($CP$) violating parameters from a fit to the distribution of the proper-decay-time difference of the two $B$ mesons. The measured direct and mixing-induced $CP$ asymmetries are $A=0.31\pm0.20\pm0.05$ and $S=0.54\pm0.26^{+0.06}_{-0.08}$, respectively, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. The results are compatible with the $CP$ asymmetries observed in $b\to c\overline{c} s$ transitions

First measurement of R(Xτ/ℓ)R(X_{\tau/\ell}) as an inclusive test of the b→cτνb \to c \tau \nu anomaly

We measure the tau-to-light-lepton ratio of inclusive $B$-meson branching fractions $R(X_{\tau/\ell}) \equiv \mathcal{B}(B\to X \tau \nu)/\mathcal{B}(B \to X \ell \nu)$, where $\ell$ indicates an electron or muon, and thereby test the universality of charged-current weak interactions. We select events that have one fully reconstructed $B$ meson and a charged lepton candidate from $189~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of electron-positron collision data collected with the Belle II detector. We find $R(X_{\tau/\ell}) = 0.228 \pm 0.016~(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.036~(\mathrm{syst})$, in agreement with standard-model expectations. This is the first direct measurement of $R(X_{\tau/\ell})$

Precise Measurement of the D0^{0} and D+^{+} Lifetimes at Belle II

We report a measurement of the D$^{0}$ and D$^{+}$ lifetimes using D$^{0}$→K$^{-}$π$^{+}$ and D$^{+}$→K$^{-}$π$^{+}$π$^{+}$ decays reconstructed in e$^{+}$e$^{-}$→$\overline{cc}$ data recorded by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy e$^{+}$e$^{-}$ collider. The data, collected at center-of-mass energies at or near the Υ(4S) resonance, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 72 fb$^{-1}$. The results, τ(D$^{0}$)=410.5±1.1(stat)±0.8(syst)  fs and τ(D$^{+}$)=1030.4±4.7(stat)±3.1(syst) fs, are the most precise to date and are consistent with previous determinations

Precise measurement of the Ds+D^+_s lifetime at Belle II

We measure the lifetime of the $D_s^+$ meson using a data sample of 207 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the Belle II experiment running at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. The lifetime is determined by fitting the decay-time distribution of a sample of $116\times 10^3$ $D_s^+\rightarrow\phi\pi^+$ decays. Our result is \tau^{}_{D^+_s} = (498.7\pm 1.7\,^{+1.1}_{-0.8}) fs, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This result is significantly more precise than previous measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Physical Review Letter