Weak Decays of Doubly Heavy Baryons: the 1/2→1/21/2\to 1/2 case

Very recently, the LHCb collaboration has observed in the final state $\Lambda_c^+ K^-\pi^+\pi^+$ a resonant structure that is identified as the doubly-charmed baryon $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$. Inspired by this observation, we investigate the weak decays of doubly heavy baryons $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$, $\Xi_{cc}^{+}$, $\Omega_{cc}^{+}$, $\Xi_{bc}^{(\prime)+}$, $\Xi_{bc}^{(\prime)0}$, $\Omega_{bc}^{(\prime)0}$, $\Xi_{bb}^{0}$, $\Xi_{bb}^{-}$ and $\Omega_{bb}^{-}$ and focus on the decays into spin $1/2$ baryons in this paper. At the quark level these decay processes are induced by the $c\to d/s$ or $b\to u/c$ transitions, and the two spectator quarks can be viewed as a scalar or axial vector diquark. We first derive the hadronic form factors for these transitions in the light-front approach and then apply them to predict the partial widths for the semi-leptonic and non-leptonic decays of doubly heavy baryons. We find that a number of decay channels are sizable and can be examined in future measurements at experimental facilities like LHC, Belle II and CEPC.Comment: 40 pages, 4 figures, to appear in EPJ

Resummation prediction on top quark transverse momentum distribution at large pT

We study the factorization and resummation of t-channel top quark transverse momentum distribution at large pT in the SM at both the Tevatron and the LHC with soft-collinear effective theory. The cross section in the threshold region can be factorized into a convolution of hard, jet and soft functions. In particular, we first calculate the NLO soft functions for this process, and give a RG improved cross section by evolving the different functions to a common scale. Our results show that the resummation effects increase the NLO results by about 9%-13% and 4%-9% when the top quark pT is larger than 50 and 70 GeV at the Tevatron and the 8 TeV LHC, respectively. Also, we discuss the scale independence of the cross section analytically, and show how to choose the proper scales at which the perturbative expansion can converge fast.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, version published in Phys.Rev.

The Importance of Proper Renormalization Scale-Setting for Testing QCD at Colliders

A primary problem for perturbative QCD analyses is how to set the renormalization scale of the QCD running coupling in order to achieve maximally precise fixed-order predictions for physical observables. The Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC) eliminates the ambiguities associated with the conventional renormalization scale-setting procedure, giving predictions which are independent of the choice of renormalization scheme. The scales of the QCD couplings and the effective number of quark flavors are set order by order in the pQCD series. The PMC has a solid theoretical foundation, satisfying the standard renormalization group invariance and all of the the self-consistency conditions derived from the renormalization group......In this brief report, we summarize the results of our recent PMC applications for a number of collider processes, emphasizing their generality and applicability....... These results demonstrate that the application of the PMC systematically eliminates a major theoretical uncertainty for pQCD predictions, thus increasing the sensitivity of the colliders to possible new physics beyond the Standard Model.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. The title has been changed. This review, submitted to Frontiers of Physics, is based on a contribution by S.J.B. at the Conference {\it Workshop on Physics at a Future High Intensity Collider @ 2-7 GeV in China} Hefei, China January 14-16, 201

Time-reversal-symmetry-broken quantum spin Hall effect

Quantum spin Hall (QSH) state of matter is usually considered to be protected by time-reversal (TR) symmetry. We investigate the fate of the QSH effect in the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling and an exchange field, which break both inversion and TR symmetries. It is found that the QSH state characterized by nonzero spin Chern numbers $C_{\pm}=\pm 1$ persists when the TR symmetry is broken. A topological phase transition from the TR symmetry-broken QSH phase to a quantum anomalous Hall phase occurs at a critical exchange field, where the bulk band gap just closes. It is also shown that the transition from the TR symmetry-broken QSH phase to an ordinary insulator state can not happen without closing the band gap.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure