Radiative penguin Bs decays at Belle

We report searches for the radiative penguin decays Bs to phi gamma and Bs to gamma gamma based on a 23.6 fb-1 data sample collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- energy-asymmetric collider operating at the Upsilon(5S) resonance.Comment: On behalf of the Belle Collaboration. To appear in the proceedings of the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP2007), Manchester, England, 19-25 July 2007. 3 pages, 2 figure

Azimuthal correlation between the (p⃗l,p⃗Xb)(\vec{p}_l,\vec{p}_{X_b}) and (p⃗l,P⃗t)(\vec{p}_l,\vec{P}_t) planes in the semileptonic rest frame decay of a polarized top quark: An O(αs)O(\alpha_s) effect

The azimuthal correlation between the planes formed by the vectors $(\vec{p}_\ell,\vec{p}_{X_b})$ and $(\vec{p}_\ell,\vec{P}_t)$ in the semileptonic rest frame decay of a polarized top quark $t(\uparrow) \to X_b + l^+ + \nu_\ell$ belongs to a class of polarization observables involving the top quark which vanish at the Born term level in the standard model. We determine the next--to--leading order QCD corrections to the afore-mentioned azimuthal correlation and compare the result to the corresponding contribution of a non--standard--model right--chiral quark current.Comment: latex, 12 pages with 2 figures in the text, typos removed,comment and references added, replaced with published versio

Corrigendum to "Assessment of China's virtual air pollution transport embodied in trade by using a consumption-based emission inventory" published in Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 5443-5456, 2015

No abstract available

HST and LAMOST discover a dual active galactic nucleus in J0038+4128

We report the discovery of a kiloparsec-scale dual active galactic nucleus (AGN) in J0038+4128. From the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFPC2) images, we find two optical nuclei with a projection separation of 4.7 kpc (3.44 arcsec). The southern component (J0038+4128S) is spectroscopically observed with the HST Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph in the UV range and is found to be a Seyfert 1 galaxy with a broad Ly alpha emission line. The northern component (J0038+4128N) is spectroscopically observed during the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (also named the Guoshoujing Telescope) pilot survey in the optical range. The observed line ratios as well as the consistency of redshift of the nucleus emission lines and the host galaxy's absorption lines indicate that J0038+4128N is a Seyfert 2 galaxy with narrow lines only. These results thus confirm that J0038+4128 is a Seyfert 1-Seyfert 2 AGN pair. The HST WFPC2 F336W/U-band image of J0038+4128 also reveals for the first time for a dual AGN system two pairs of bi-symmetric arms, as are expected from the numerical simulations of such system. Being one of a few confirmed kiloparsec-scale dual AGNs exhibiting a clear morphological structure of the host galaxies, J0038+4128 provides an unique opportunity to study the co-evolution of the host galaxies and their central supermassive black holes undergoing a merging process.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Assessment of China's virtual air pollution transport embodied in trade by using a consumption-based emission inventory

Substantial anthropogenic emissions from China have resulted in serious air pollution, and this has generated considerable academic and public concern. The physical transport of air pollutants in the atmosphere has been extensively investigated; however, understanding the mechanisms how the pollutant was transferred through economic and trade activities remains a challenge. For the first time, we quantified and tracked China's air pollutant emission flows embodied in interprovincial trade, using a multiregional input - output model framework. Trade relative emissions for four key air pollutants (primary fine particle matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and non-methane volatile organic compounds) were assessed for 2007 in each Chinese province. We found that emissions were significantly redistributed among provinces owing to interprovincial trade. Large amounts of emissions were embodied in the imports of eastern regions from northern and central regions, and these were determined by differences in regional economic status and environmental policy. It is suggested that measures should be introduced to reduce air pollution by integrating cross-regional consumers and producers within national agreements to encourage efficiency improvement in the supply chain and optimize consumption structure internationally. The consumption-based air pollutant emission inventory developed in this work can be further used to attribute pollution to various economic activities and final demand types with the aid of air quality models

The evolution of stellar metallicity gradients of the Milky Way disk from LSS-GAC main sequence turn-off stars: a two-phase disk formation history?

We use 297 042 main sequence turn-off stars selected from the LSS-GAC to determine the radial and vertical gradients of stellar metallicity of the Galactic disk in the anti-center direction. We determine ages of those turn-off stars by isochrone fitting and measure the temporal variations of metallicity gradients. Our results show that the gradients, both in the radial and vertical directions, exhibit significant spatial and temporal variations. The radial gradients yielded by stars of oldest ages (>11 Gyr) are essentially zero at all heights from the disk midplane, while those given by younger stars are always negative. The vertical gradients deduced from stars of oldest ages (>11Gyr) are negative and show only very weak variations with the Galactocentric distance in the disk plane, $R$, while those yielded by younger stars show strong variations with $R$. After being essentially flat at the earliest epochs of disk formation, the radial gradients steepen as age decreases, reaching a maxima (steepest) at age 7-8 Gyr, and then they flatten again. Similar temporal trends are also found for the vertical gradients. We infer that the assemblage of the Milky Way disk may have experienced at least two distinct phases. The earlier phase is probably related to a slow, pressure-supported collapse of gas, when the gas settles down to the disk mainly in the vertical direction. In the later phase, there are significant radial flows of gas in the disk, and the rate of gas inflow near the solar neighborhood reaches a maximum around a lookback time of 7-8 Gyr. The transition of the two phases occurs around a lookback time between 8 and 11 Gyr. The two phases may be responsible for the formation of the Milky Way thick and thin disks, respectively. And, as a consequence, we recommend that stellar age is a natural, physical criterion to distinguish thin and thick disk stars. ... (abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures, Accepted for publication in a special issue of Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics on LAMOST science