Search for new physics in semileptonic B-decays

Semileptonic decays provide an excellent environment for testing the Standard Model (SM). Violation of lepton universality would be a smoking gun for physics beyond the SM. Using semi-tauonic $B$ decays, LHCb finds a value of $\mathcal{R}(D^*) = \mathcal{B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^{*+} \tau^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^{*+} \mu^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\mu}) = 0.336 \pm 0.027 \rm{(stat)} \pm 0.030 \rm{(syst)}$, which is 2.1 standard deviations larger than the value expected from the SM. Moreover, the measurement of the $CP$ asymmetry in mixing of $B_s^0$ mesons is highly sensitive to physics beyond the SM. This article presents the latest result on semileptonic asymmetries; using the full Run 1 dataset, it is found that $a_{\rm{sl}}^s = (0.39 \pm 0.26 \rm{(stat)} \pm 0.20 \rm{(syst)})\%$, which is consistent with the Standard Model.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Contribution to the Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on High Energy Physics, ICHEP 2016, Chicago, IL, US

Measuring Semileptonic Asymmetries in LHCb

The $C\!P$-violating flavour-specific asymmetry in neutral $b$ mesons provides a method for testing the Standard Model. The measurements from the D0 experiment yield values of this asymmetry that disagree with the Standard Model at a level of 3.6 $\sigma$. This contribution discusses the latest LHCb measurements in this sector both from $B^0$ mesons ($a_{\mathrm{sl}}^d$) and $B^0_s$ mesons ($a_{\mathrm{sl}}^s$). Using their 2011 dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ obtained in 2011, LHCb measured a value of $a_{\mathrm{sl}}^s = (-0.06 \pm 0.50_{\text{stat}} \pm 0.36_{\text{syst}}) \%$. Combining the 2011 and 2012 datasets, with an integrated luminosity of 3 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$, LHCb measured $a_{\mathrm{sl}}^d = (-0.02 \pm 0.19_{\text{stat}} \pm 0.30_{\text{syst}}) \%$. These are the most precise measurements of the parameters $a_{\mathrm{sl}}^s$ and $a_{\mathrm{sl}}^d$ to date. Plans for an updated result for $a_{\mathrm{sl}}^s$ using the full 3 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ dataset are discussed. This will include new methods to determine detection asymmetries which are the dominating systematic uncertainty of the 2011 measurement.Comment: Proceedings of the workshop "Flavorful Ways to New Physics", 28-31 October 2014, Freudenstadt, German

Multi-stakeholder design of forest governance and accountability arrangements in Equator province, Democratic Republic of Congo

Good forest governance is an increasingly important topic for stakeholders in many different settings around the world. Two of the best-known international initiatives to improve forest governance are the regional Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) ministerial processes supported by the World Bank, and the European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. Designed to support and complement such initiatives, the IUCN project “Strengthening Voices for Better Choices” (SVBC) is piloting improved forest governance arrangements in six countries in Africa, Asia and South America. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of three project countries in Africa, SVBC has created multi-stakeholder platforms at local, territorial and provincial levels for this purpose

Harmonisation, decentralisation and local governance: Enhancing aid effectiveness

During the last decades, international development assistance was often marked by overlaps, duplication of efforts and rivalry between multitudes of donor organisations. In order to translate the principles of the Paris Declaration into practice in the field of Local Governance and Decentralisation (LGD), different donor organisations have joined forces on headquarter level and formed a working group, the Development Partners Working Group for Local Governance and Decentralisation (DPWG-LGD), which is operating since 2006. InWEnt is hosting the secretariat of the group since 2008 and assigned Wageningen International to organise two lead donor workshops. The workshop drew a cross section of delegates who comprised development partners, consultants, academicians, members of parliament and local governance practitioners. The partner countries included Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda whose experiences were mutually re-enforcing and beneficial

Good Governance of land and natural resources : Balancing local and global interests

This report presents the results of a seminar on ‘good governance of land and natural resources; balancing local and global interests’. Three case studies were presented on large-scale land acquisitions, biofuels – fuelling development in Brazil and governance of the mineral sector in Eastern DRC. Participants identified 6 important challenges for improving land and natural resource governance and concluded that: more research and information sharing is needed; collaborative voluntary and legally binding initiatives are needed at international level to balance local and global interests; accountability arrangements need to be set up that enable stakeholders to hold each other accountable; capacity building of all actors is needed and that each actor has its own contributions to make to good governance

Impacts of radiative corrections on measurements of lepton flavour universality in B→DℓνℓB \to D \ell \nu_{\ell} decays

Radiative corrections to $B \to D \ell \nu_{\ell}$ decays may have an impact on predictions and measurements of the lepton flavour universality observables $\mathcal{R}(D^+)$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^0)$. In this paper, a comparison between recent calculations of the effect of soft-photon corrections on $\mathcal{R}(D^+)$ and $\mathcal{R}(D^0)$, and corrections generated by the widely used package PHOTOS is given. The impact of long-distance Coulomb interactions, which are not simulated in PHOTOS, is discussed. Furthermore, the effect of high-energy photon emission is studied through pseudo-experiments in an LHCb-like environment. It is found that over- or underestimating these emissions can cause a bias on $\mathcal{R}(D)$ as high as 7%. However, this bias depends on individual analyses, and future high precision measurements require an accurate evaluation of these QED corrections.Comment: 8 pages, 21 figures, published by EPJ

Geochemical reactivity of subsurface sediments as potential buffer to anthropogenic inputs: a strategy for regional characterization in the Netherlands

Geochemical reactivity of subsurface sediments as potential buffer to anthropogenic inputs: a strategy for regional characterization in the Netherland