Lenses in the forest: cross-correlation of the Lyman-alpha flux with CMB lensing

We present a theoretical estimate for a new observable: the cross-correlation between the Lyman-alpha flux fluctuations in quasar (QSO) spectra and the convergence of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as measured along the same line-of-sight. As a first step toward the assessment of its detectability, we estimate the signal-to-noise ratio using linear theory. Although the signal-to-noise is small for a single line-of-sight and peaks at somewhat smaller redshifts than those probed by the Lyman-alpha forest, we estimate a total signal-to-noise of 9 for cross-correlating QSO spectra of SDSS-III with Planck and of 20 for cross-correlating with a future polarization based CMB experiment. The detection of this effect would be a direct measure of the neutral hydrogen-matter cross-correlation and could provide important information on the growth of structures at large scales in a redshift range which is still poorly probed by observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, matches published versio

Measurement of the Charge Collection Efficiency after Heavy Non-Uniform Irradiation in BaBar Silicon Detectors

We have investigated the depletion voltage changes, the leakage current increase and the charge collection efficiency of a silicon microstrip detector identical to those used in the inner layers of the BaBar Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) after heavy non-uniform irradiation. A full SVT module with the front-end electronics connected has been irradiated with a 0.9 GeV electron beam up to a peak fluence of 3.5 x 10^14 e^-/cm^2, well beyond the level causing substrate type inversion. We irradiated one of the two sensors composing the module with a non-uniform profile with sigma=1.4 mm that simulates the conditions encountered in the BaBar experiment by the modules intersecting the horizontal machine plane. The position dependence of the charge collection properties and the depletion voltage have been investigated in detail using a 1060 nm LED and an innovative measuring technique based only on the digital output of the chip.Comment: 7 pages, 13 figures. Presented at the 2004 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium, October 18-21, Rome, Italy. Accepted for publication by IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Scienc

Quarkonium Spectroscopy and New States from BaBar

We review results on charmonium and bottomonium spectroscopy by the BaBar experiment at the PEP-II e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at SLAC. More space is reserved to the new results like the observation of hadronic non-B{bar B} {Upsilon}(4S) decays and the investigation on the production and decay properties of the recently discovered charmonium-like states X(3872) and Y (4260). These results are preliminary, unless otherwise specified

Recent heavy flavor results from the Tevatron

The CDF and D0 experiments at the Tevatron p{bar p} collider have pioneered and established the role of flavor physics in hadron collisions. A broad program is now at its full maturity. We report on three new results sensitive to physics beyond the standard model, obtained using the whole CDF dataset: a measurement of the difference of CP asymmetries in K{sup +}K{sup -} and {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} decays of D{sup 0} mesons, new bounds on the B{sub s}{sup 0} mixing phase and on the decay width difference of B{sub s}{sup 0} mass-eigenstates, and an update of the summer 2011 search for B{sub (s)}{sup 0} mesons decaying into pairs of muons. Finally, the D0 confirmation of the observation of a new hadron, the {chi}{sub b}(3P) state, is briefly mentioned

Mass Corrections to Flavor-Changing Fermion-Graviton Vertices in the Standard Model

In a previous study, the flavor-changing fermion-graviton interactions have been analyzed in the framework of the standard model, where analytical results for the relevant form factors were obtained at the leading order in the external fermion masses. These interactions arise at one-loop level by the charged electroweak corrections to the fermion-graviton vertex, when the off-diagonal flavor transitions in the corresponding charged weak currents are taken into account. Due to the conservation of the energy-momentum tensor, the corresponding form factors turn out to be finite and gauge invariant when external fermions are on-shell. Here we extend this previous analysis by including the exact dependence on the external fermion masses. Complete analytical results are provided for all the relevant form factors to the flavor-changing fermion-graviton transitions.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure

Study of B0 to D(*)0h0 Decay and Measurement ofsin(2beta)

This thesis describes a measurement of a CP violating asymmetry in neutral B meson decays, B{sup 0} yields D{sup *0}h{sup 0}, where D{sup *0} is a charmed meson and h{sup 0} is a light meson, performed on data collected by the BABAR experiment at the SLAC asymmetric-energy electron-positron collider PEP-II