High Invariant Mass Research Articles

Subthreshold ϕ-meson production and medium effects in proton-nucleus reactions

Within the spectral function approach, we study the direct production and decay via the dikaon (dimuon) channel of ϕ mesons in the interactions of 2.4-and 2.7-GeV protons with light and medium target nuclei. It is shown that the K+K− (µ+ µ−) invariant-mass distribution consists of the two components, which correspond to the ϕ decay “outside” and “inside” the target nucleus. The first (narrow) component has the free ϕ width, while the second (broad) component is distorted by the nuclear matter owing to resonance-nucleon scattering and a possible in-medium modification of the kaons and ρ meson at finite baryon density. The relative strength of the “inside” and “outside” components is analyzed in different scenarios for the ϕ width and momentum cut. It is demonstrated that the width of the resulting dimuon invariant-mass distribution on medium nuclei is larger than the free ϕ width by a factor of about 2 if the total ϕ in-medium width is used and the respective cutoff for the ϕ three-momentum is applied, whereas the resulting dikaon invariant-mass distribution has an insignificant sensitivity to the ϕ in-medium properties owing to the strong absorption of the K− in the surrounding nuclear matter. On the other hand, because of the distortion of the K+ and K− on their way out of the target nucleus mainly due to the hadronic kaon potentials, the latter distribution is broadened and shifted to higher invariant masses, which means that the measurement of such broadening would give additional evidence for the modification of the kaon and antikaon properties in the nuclear medium.

Theory of charmless inclusiveBdecays and the extraction ofVub

We present ``state-of-the-art'' theoretical expressions for the triple differential B->X_u l^- nu decay rate and for the B->X_s gamma photon spectrum, which incorporate all known contributions and smoothly interpolate between the ``shape-function region'' of large hadronic energy and small invariant mass, and the ``OPE region'' in which all hadronic kinematical variables scale with M_B. The differential rates are given in a form which has no explicit reference to the mass of the b quark, avoiding the associated uncertainties. Dependence on m_b enters indirectly through the properties of the leading shape function, which can be determined by fitting the B->X_s gamma photon spectrum. This eliminates the dominant theoretical uncertainties from predictions for B->X_u l^- nu decay distributions, allowing for a precise determination of |V_{ub}|. In the shape-function region, short-distance and long-distance contributions are factorized at next-to-leading order in renormalization-group improved perturbation theory. Higher-order power corrections include effects from subleading shape functions where they are known. When integrated over sufficiently large portions in phase space, our results reduce to standard OPE expressions up to yet unknown O(alpha_s^2) terms. Predictions are presented for partial B->X_u l^- nu decay rates with various experimental cuts. An elaborate error analysis is performed that contains all significant theoretical uncertainties, including weak annihilation effects. We suggest that the latter can be eliminated by imposing a cut on high lepton invariant mass.

Electroweak radiative corrections to neutral-current Drell-Yan processes at hadron colliders

We calculate the complete electroweak O(alpha) corrections to pp, pbar p -> l+l- X (l=e, mu) in the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. They comprise weak and photonic virtual one-loop corrections as well as real photon radiation to the parton-level processes q bar q -> gamma,Z -> l+l-. We study in detail the effect of the radiative corrections on the l+l- invariant mass distribution, the cross section in the Z boson resonance region, and on the forward-backward asymmetry, A_FB, at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The weak corrections are found to increase the Z boson cross section by about 1%, but have little effect on the forward-backward asymmetry in the Z peak region. Threshold effects of the W box diagrams lead to pronounced effects in A_FB at m(l+l-) approx 160 GeV which, however, will be difficult to observe experimentally. At high di-lepton invariant masses, the non-factorizable weak corrections are found to become large.

Looking for novelCP−violatingeffects inB¯→K*l+l−

The CP-violating asymmetries in the exclusive decay B->K^*l^+l^- (l=e,mu,tau) are predicted to be exceedingly small in the standard model (SM), thereby offering an opportunity to assess various new-physics scenarios. We derive quantitative predictions for various integrated observables in B->K^*mu^+mu^- decay in the presence of physics beyond the SM with additional CP phases and an extended operator basis. In particular, a model-independent analysis of CP asymmetries that require the presence of unitarity phases, in addition to CP violation, is performed. We find that in the low dimuon invariant mass region 2m_mu<M_{mu^+mu^-}<M_{J/psi}, the CP asymmetries are highly suppressed by small dynamical phases, assuming that new physics is unlikely to significantly alter the Wilson coefficients of the operators governing two-body hadronic B decays. Taking into account current experimental data on the measured b->s gamma rate and the upper limit on BR(B^0->K^{*0}mu^+mu^-), CP-violating effects of a few per cent are estimated, even in the presence of new physics with CP phases of O(1). By contrast, in the high dimuon invariant mass region M_{psi'}<M_{mu^+mu^-}<(M_B-M_{K^*}) significant CP-violating effects are possible. Given a branching ratio of 1.8 x 10^{-6}, the CP asymmetries can be quite substantial (\sim 20% or more), and thus may serve as a means of discovering physics transcending the SM.

Observing an invisible Higgs boson

Given its weak coupling to bottom quarks and tau leptons, the Higgs boson may predominantly decay into invisible particles like gravitinos, neutralinos, or gravitons. We consider the manifestation of such an invisibly decaying Higgs boson in weak boson fusion at the CERN LHC. Distinctive kinematic distributions of the two quark jets of the signal as compared to Zjj and Wjj backgrounds allow to restrict the Higgs branching ratio to ‘invisible’ final states to some 13% with 10 fb −1 of data, provided events with two energetic forward jets of high dijet invariant mass and with substantial missing transverse momentum can be triggered efficiently. It is also possible to discover these particles with masses up to 480 GeV in weak boson fusion, at the 5 σ level, provided their invisible branching ratio is close to 100%.

Dijet production at hadron colliders in theories with large extra dimensions

We consider the production of high invariant mass jet pairs at hadron colliders as a test for TeV scale gravitational effects. We find that this signal can probe effective Planck masses of about 10 TeV at the CERN LHC with a center of mass energy of 14 TeV and 1.5 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron with a center of mass energy of 2 TeV. These results are compared to analogous scattering processes at leptonic colliders.

Two-loop contribution to high mass dilepton production by a quark-gluon plasma

We calculate the order ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}$ finite temperature correction to dilepton production in quark-gluon plasma arising from the two-loop photon self-energy diagrams for high invariant mass $M\ensuremath{\gg}T.$

Photon-photon and photon-hadron physics at relativistic heavy ion colliders

Due to the coherence of all the protons in a nucleus, there are very strong electromagnetic fields of short duration in relativistic heavy ion collisions. They give rise to quasireal photon-photon and photon-nucleus collisions with a large flux. RHIC will begin its experimental program this year and such types of collisions will be studied experimentally at the STAR detector. RHIC will have the highest flux of (quasireal) photons up to now in the GeV region. At the LHC the invariant mass range available in gamma-gamma-interactions will be of the order of 100 GeV, i.e., in the range currently available at LEP2, but with a higher gamma-gamma-luminosity. Therefore one has there also the potential to study new physics. (Quasireal) photon-hadron (i.e., photon-nucleus) interactions can be studied as well, similar to HERA, at higher invariant masses. Vector mesons can be produced coherently through photon-Pomeron and photon-meson interactions in exclusive reactions such as A+A -> A+A+V, where A is the heavy ion and V=rho,omega,phi or J/Psi.

Exclusive pion and kaon pair production in photon-photon collisions at LEP

The cross sections for the two-photon production of charged pion and kaon pairs have been measured using data collected by the DELPHI experiment at e + e − centre-of-mass energies √ s=91 GeV and √ s=183 GeV. The cross sections for high invariant masses (above 1.7 GeV) have been compared to leading order and next-to-leading order QCD predictions.

Measurement of the High-Mass Drell-Yan Cross Section and Limits on Quark-Electron Compositeness Scales

We present a measurement of the Drell-Yan cross section at high dielectron invariant mass using 120/pb of data collected in pbar-p collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV by the D0 collaboration during 1992-96. No deviation from standard model expectations is observed. We use the data to set limits on the energy scale of quark-electron compositeness with common constituents. The 95% confidence level lower limits on the compositeness scale vary between 3.3 TeV and 6.1 TeV depending on the assumed form of the effective contact interaction.

Measurement of W-pair cross sections in e +e − interactions at [formula omitted] and W-decay branching fractions

We report on the measurement of W-boson pair-production with the L3 detector at LEP. In a data sample corresponding to a total luminosity of 55.47 pb −1 collected at an average centre-of-mass energy of 182.68 GeV , we select 824 four-fermion events with pairs of hadronic jets or pairs of leptons with high invariant masses. Branching fractions of W decays into different fermion-antifermion pairs are determined. Assuming charged-current lepton universality, the branching fraction for hadronic W decays is measured to be: B( W→hadrons)=70.1±1.3 (stat.)±0.4 (syst.) % . Combining all final states the total cross section for W-pair production is measured to be: σ WW =16.53±0.67 (stat.)±0.26 (syst.) pb.

Determination of the CKM unitarity triangle byB→Xdl+l−decay

I examine a possibility to extract the angle $\gamma$ of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle by the inclusive $B \to X_d \l^+ \l^- $ decay. An independent information for the angle is expected from the non-trivial contribution induced in $u \bar{u}$ and $c \bar{c}$ loops. The contributions induce CP asymmetry which has high sensitivity to the angle $\gamma$ in the whole dilepton invariant mass region. Particularly, in the low dilepton invariant mass region, the sensitivity is also recognized in the branching-ratio with any dilepton final states and the lepton polarization asymmetry with dimuon final state. In the high dilepton invariant mass region, the sensitivity is tiny in all measurements with the exception of the CP asymmetry, that make them to be good probes to confirm the measurement of ${V_{td}}^\ast V_{tb}$ in addition to the present data from $B_d^0-\bar{B}_d^0$ mixing. The decay rate and asymmetries are examined in the Standard Model with taking into account the long-distance contributions due to vector-mesons as well as its momentum dependences that would reduce the long-distance backgrounds in the channel.

Estimates of dilepton spectra from open charm and bottom decays in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The spectra of lepton pairs from correlated open charm and bottom decays in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions are calculated. Our approach includes energy loss effects of heavy quarks in deconfined matter which are determined by temperature and density of the expanding parton medium. We find a noticeable suppression of the initial transverse momentum spectrum of heavy quarks due to the energy loss at LHC conditions. Within the central rapidity covered by the ALICE detector system, the dominant contribution from bottom decays to the high invariant mass dielectron spectrum is predicted.

Measurement of W-pair cross sections in e+e− interactions at =172 and W-decay branching fractions

Abstract We report on the measurement of W-boson pair-production with the L3 detector at LEP at an average centre-of-mass energy of 172.13 GeV. In a data sample corresponding to a total luminosity of 10.25 pb−1 we select 110 four-fermion events with pairs of hadronic jets or leptons with high invariant masses. Branching fractions of W decays into different fermion-antifermion pairs are determined with and without the assumption of charged-current lepton universality. The branching fraction for hadronic W decays is measured to be: B(W → hadrons) = 64.2−3.8+3.7 (stat.) ± 0.5 (syst.) %. Combining all final states the total cross section for W-pair production is measured to be: σWW = 12.27−1.32+1.41 (stat.) ± 0.23 (syst.) pb. The results are in good agreement with the Standard Model.

Pair-production of W bosons in e +e − interactions at [formula omitted] GeV

We report on the measurement of W-boson pair-production with the L3 detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 161.34 GeV. In a data sample corresponding to a total luminosity of 11 pb −1, we select four-fermion events with high invariant masses of pairs of hadronic jets or leptons. Combining all final states, the measured total cross section for W-pair production is: sigma WW = 2.89 −0.70 +0.81(stat.) ± 0.14 (syst.) pb. Within the Standard Model, this corresponds to a mass of the W boson of: M W = 80.80 −0.42 +0.48 (exp.) ± 0.03 (LEP) GeV. Limits on anomalous triple-vector-boson couplings are derived.

The resummation of soft gluons in hadronic collisions

We compute the effects of soft-gluon resummation for the production of high mass systems in hadronic collisions. We carefully analyse the growth of the perturbative expansion coefficients of the resummation formula. We propose an expression consistent with the known leading and next-to-leading resummation results, in which the coefficients grow much less than factorially. We apply our formula to Drell-Yan pair production, heavy flavour production, and the production of high invariant mass jet pairs in hadronic collisions. We find that, with our formula, resummation effects become important only fairly close to the threshold region. In the case of heavy flavour production we find that resummation effects are small in the experimental configurations of practical interest.

Detector KEDR tagging system for two-photon physics

A special system to tag scattered electrons from γγ-processes is described. The system is intended for the experiments at the VEPP-4M storage ring. This system has a high detection efficiency and good invariant mass resolution.

Detector KEDR tagging system for two-photon physics

A special system to tag scattered electrons from γγ-processes is described. The system is intended for the experiments at the VEPP-4M storage ring. This system has a high detection efficiency and good invariant mass resolution.

A Nonperturbative Renormalization Group Procedure for Light-Front Hamiltonian

We propose a non-perturbative renormalization procedure for light-front Hamiltonian. Wilson's renormalization group prescription is applied to ..1<,64-model within a light-front Fock space truncated up to three-body state. Renormalized Hamiltonian which preserves lowenergy physics for arbitrary renormalization transformations is presented. Renormalization group equations for mass parameter tl and coupling constant A are derived by integrating high invariant mass space and rescaling transverse momenta and fields.

Why a scalar explanation of the L3 events is implausible

We investigate the question of whether an additional light neutral scalar can explain the l+l−γγ events with high invariant mass photon pairs recently observed by the L3 Collaboration. We parameterize the low energy effects of the unknown dynamics in terms of higher dimensional effective operators. We show that operators which allow for the scalar to be produced and decay into photon pairs will allow other observable processes that should have been seen in current experiments.