A Pre-Landing Assessment of Regolith Properties at the InSight Landing Site

This article discusses relevant physical properties of the regolith at the Mars InSight landing site as understood prior to landing of the spacecraft. InSight will land in the northern lowland plains of Mars, close to the equator, where the regolith is estimated to be ≥3--5 m thick. These investigations of physical properties have relied on data collected from Mars orbital measurements, previously collected lander and rover data, results of studies of data and samples from Apollo lunar missions, laboratory measurements on regolith simulants, and theoretical studies. The investigations include changes in properties with depth and temperature. Mechanical properties investigated include density, grain-size distribution, cohesion, and angle of internal friction. Thermophysical properties include thermal inertia, surface emissivity and albedo, thermal conductivity and diffusivity, and specific heat. Regolith elastic properties not only include parameters that control seismic wave velocities in the immediate vicinity of the Insight lander but also coupling of the lander and other potential noise sources to the InSight broadband seismometer. The related properties include Poisson’s ratio, P- and S-wave velocities, Young’s modulus, and seismic attenuation. Finally, mass diffusivity was investigated to estimate gas movements in the regolith driven by atmospheric pressure changes. Physical properties presented here are all to some degree speculative. However, they form a basis for interpretation of the early data to be returned from the InSight mission.Additional co-authors: Nick Teanby and Sharon Keda

Search for the doubly heavy baryon Ξbc+\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+} decaying to J/ψΞc+J/\it{\psi} \it{\Xi}_{c}^{+}

A first search for the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}\to J/\it{\psi}\it{\Xi}_{c}^{+}$ decay is performed by the LHCb experiment with a data sample of proton-proton collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ recorded at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and $13\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. Two peaking structures are seen with a local (global) significance of $4.3\,(2.8)$ and $4.1\,(2.4)$ standard deviations at masses of $6571\,\mathrm{Me\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^2$ and $6694\,\mathrm{Me\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^2$, respectively. Upper limits are set on the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}$ baryon production cross-section times the branching fraction relative to that of the $B_{c}^{+}\to J/\it{\psi} D_{s}^{+}$ decay at centre-of-mass energies of 8 and $13\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$, in the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}$ and in the $B_{c}^{+}$ rapidity and transverse-momentum ranges from 2.0 to 4.5 and 0 to $20\,\mathrm{Ge\kern -0.1em V\!/}c$, respectively. Upper limits are presented as a function of the $\it{\Xi}_{bc}^{+}$ mass and lifetime.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-005.html (LHCb public pages

Measurement of the electron energy spectrum and its moments in inclusive B -> Xe nu decays

We report a measurement of the inclusive electron energy spectrum for semileptonic decays of B mesons in a data sample of 52 million Y(4S)-->B(B) over bar decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B-meson factory at SLAC. We determine the branching fraction, first, second, and third moments of the spectrum for lower cutoffs on the electron energy between 0.6 and 1.5 GeV. We measure the partial branching fraction to be B(B-->Xenu,E-e>0.6 GeV)=[10.36+/-0.06(stat.)+/-0.23(sys.)]%

Study of the lineshape of the chi(c1) (3872) state

A study of the lineshape of the chi(c1) (3872) state is made using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1) collected in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the LHCb detector. Candidate chi(c1)(3872) and psi(2S) mesons from b-hadron decays are selected in the J/psi pi(+)pi(-) decay mode. Describing the lineshape with a Breit-Wigner function, the mass splitting between the chi(c1 )(3872) and psi(2S) states, Delta m, and the width of the chi(c1 )(3872) state, Gamma(Bw), are determined to be (Delta m=185.598 +/- 0.067 +/- 0.068 Mev,)(Gamma BW=1.39 +/- 0.24 +/- 0.10 Mev,) where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. Using a Flatte-inspired model, the mode and full width at half maximum of the lineshape are determined to be (mode=3871.69+0.00+0.05 MeV.)(FWHM=0.22-0.04+0.13+0.07+0.11-0.06-0.13 MeV, ) An investigation of the analytic structure of the Flatte amplitude reveals a pole structure, which is compatible with a quasibound D-0(D) over bar*(0) state but a quasivirtual state is still allowed at the level of 2 standard deviations

Measurement of the CKM angle γγ in B±→DK±B^\pm\to D K^\pm and B±→Dπ±B^\pm \to D π^\pm decays with D→KS0h+h−D \to K_\mathrm S^0 h^+ h^-

A measurement of $CP$-violating observables is performed using the decays $B^\pm\to D K^\pm$ and $B^\pm\to D \pi^\pm$, where the $D$ meson is reconstructed in one of the self-conjugate three-body final states $K_{\mathrm S}\pi^+\pi^-$ and $K_{\mathrm S}K^+K^-$ (commonly denoted $K_{\mathrm S} h^+h^-$). The decays are analysed in bins of the $D$-decay phase space, leading to a measurement that is independent of the modelling of the $D$-decay amplitude. The observables are interpreted in terms of the CKM angle $\gamma$. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9\,\text{fb}^{-1}$ collected in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $7$, $8$, and $13\,\text{TeV}$ with the LHCb experiment, $\gamma$ is measured to be $\left(68.7^{+5.2}_{-5.1}\right)^\circ$. The hadronic parameters $r_B^{DK}$, $r_B^{D\pi}$, $\delta_B^{DK}$, and $\delta_B^{D\pi}$, which are the ratios and strong-phase differences of the suppressed and favoured $B^\pm$ decays, are also reported