49,411 research outputs found
Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(B0→K∗0γ )/B(B0s→φγ ) and the directCP asymmetry inB 0→K∗0γ
The ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0→K⁎0γ and B0s→ϕγ has been measured using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 of pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=7TeV. The value obtained is
B(B0→K⁎0γ)B(B0s→ϕγ)=1.23±0.06(stat.)±0.04(syst.)±0.10(fs/fd),
where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty and the third is associated with the ratio of fragmentation fractions fs/fd. Using the world average value for B(B0→K⁎0γ), the branching fraction B(B0s→ϕγ) is measured to be (3.5±0.4)×10−5.
The direct CP asymmetry in B0→K⁎0γ decays has also been measured with the same data and found to be
ACP(B0→K⁎0γ)=(0.8±1.7(stat.)±0.9(syst.))%.
Both measurements are the most precise to date and are in agreement with the previous experimental results and theoretical expectations
Partial melting of ultramafic granulites from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica: Constraints from melt inclusions and thermodynamic modeling
In the Pan-African belt of the Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, crystallized melt inclusions (nanogranitoids) occur in garnet from ultramafic granulites. The granulites contain the peak assemblage pargasite+garnet+clinopyroxene with rare relict orthopyroxene and biotite, and retrograde symplectites at contacts between garnet and amphibole. Garnet contains two generations of melt inclusions. Type 1 inclusions, interpreted as primary, are isolated, < 10 mu m in size, and generally have negative crystal shapes. They contain kokchetavite, kumdykolite, and phlogopite, with quartz and zoisite as minor phases, and undevitrified glass was identified in one inclusion. Type 2 inclusions are < 30 mu m in size, secondary, and contain amphibole, feldspars, and zoisite. Type 2 inclusions appear to be the crystallization products of a melt that coexisted with an immiscible CO2-rich fluid.
The nanogranitoids were re-homogenized after heating in a piston-cylinder in a series of four experiments to investigate their composition. The conditions ranged between 900 and 950 degrees C at 1.5-2.4 GPa. Type 1 inclusions are trachytic and ultrapotassic, whereas type 2 melts are dacitic to rhyolitic. Thermodynamic modeling of the ultramafic composition in the MnNCKFMASHTO system shows that anatexis occurred at the end of the prograde P-T path, between the solidus (at ca. 860 degrees C-1.4 GPa) and the peak conditions (at ca. 960 degrees C-1.7 GPa). The model melt composition is felsic and similar to that of type 1 inclusions, particularly when the melting degree is low (< 1 mol%), close to the solidus. However the modeling fails to reproduce the highly potassic signature of the melt and its low H2O content. The combination of petrology, melt inclusion study, and thermodynamic modeling supports the interpretation that melt was produced by anatexis of the ultramafic boudins near peak P-T conditions, and that type 1 inclusions contain the anatectic melt that was present during garnet growth. The felsic, ultrapotassic composition of the primary anatectic melts is compatible with low melting degrees in the presence of biotite and amphibole as reactants
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Evidence for the decay B0→J/ψω and measurement of the relative branching fractions of meson decays to J/ψη and J/ψη′
First evidence of the B 0 → J / ψ ω decay is found and the B s 0 → J / ψ η and B s 0 → J / ψ η ′ decays are studied using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb -1 collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. The branching fractions of these decays are measured relative to that of the B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0 decay:frac(B (B 0 → J / ψ ω), B (B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0)) = 0.89 ± 0.19 (stat) - 0.13 + 0.07 (syst),frac(B (B s 0 → J / ψ η), B (B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0)) = 14.0 ± 1.2 (stat) - 1.5 + 1.1 (syst) - 1.0 + 1.1 (frac(f d, f s)),frac(B (B s 0 → J / ψ η ′), B (B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0)) = 12.7 ± 1.1 (stat) - 1.3 + 0.5 (syst) - 0.9 + 1.0 (frac(f d, f s)), where the last uncertainty is due to the knowledge of f d / f s, the ratio of b-quark hadronization factors that accounts for the different production rate of B 0 and B s 0 mesons. The ratio of the branching fractions of B s 0 → J / ψ η ′ and B s 0 → J / ψ η decays is measured to befrac(B (B s 0 → J / ψ η ′), B (B s 0 → J / ψ η)) = 0.90 ± 0.09 (stat) - 0.02 + 0.06 (syst)
Measurement of b-hadron masses
Measurements of b-hadron masses are performed with the exclusive decay modes B +→J/ψK +, B 0→J/ψK +, B0→J/ψKS0, Bs0→J/ψφ and Λb0→J/ψΛ using an integrated luminosity of 35pb -1 collected in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV by the LHCb experiment. The momentum scale is calibrated with J/ψ→μ +μ - decays and verified to be known to a relative precision of 2 ×10 -4 using other two-body decays. The results are more precise than previous measurements, particularly in the case of the Bs0 and Λb0 masses
Carbonatitic and granitic melts produced under conditions of primary immiscibility during anatexis in the lower crust
Carbonatites are peculiar magmatic rocks with mantle-related genesis, commonly interpreted as the products of melting of CO2-bearing peridotites, or resulting from the chemical evolution of mantle-derived magmas, either through extreme differentiation or secondary immiscibility. Here we report the first finding of anatectic carbonatites of crustal origin, preserved as calcite-rich polycrystalline inclusions in garnet from low-to-medium pressure migmatites of the Oberpfalz area, SW Bohemian Massif (Central Europe). These inclusions originally trapped a melt of calciocarbonatitic composition with a characteristic enrichment in Ba, Sr and LREE. This interpretation is supported by the results of a detailed microstructural and microchemical investigation, as well as re-melting experiments using a piston cylinder apparatus. Carbonatitic inclusions coexist in the same cluster with crystallized silicate melt inclusions (nanogranites) and COH fluid inclusions, suggesting conditions of primary immiscibility between two melts and a fluid during anatexis. The production of both carbonatitic and granitic melts during the same anatectic event requires a suitable heterogeneous protolith. This may be represented by a sedimentary sequence containing marble lenses of limited extension, similar to the one still visible in the adjacent central Moldanubian Zone. The presence of CO2-rich fluid inclusions suggests furthermore that high CO2 activity during anatexis may be required to stabilize a carbonate-rich melt in a silica-dominated system. This natural occurrence displays a remarkable similarity with experiments on carbonate–silicate melt immiscibility, where CO2 saturation is a condition commonly imposed. In conclusion, this study shows how the investigation of partial melting through melt inclusion studies may unveil unexpected processes whose evidence, while preserved in stiff minerals such as garnet, is completely obliterated in the rest of the rock due to metamorphic re-equilibration. Our results thus provide invaluable new insights into the processes which shape the geochemical evolution of our planet, such as the redistribution of carbon and strategic metals during orogenesis
Using ocean models to predict spatial and temporal variation in marine carbon isotopes
Natural-abundance stable isotope ratios provide a wealth of ecological information relating to food web structure, trophic level, and location. The correct interpretation of stable isotope data requires an understanding of spatial and temporal variation in the isotopic compositions at the base of the food web. In marine pelagic environments, accurate interpretation of stable isotope data is hampered by a lack of reliable, spatio-temporally distributed measurements of baseline isotopic compositions. In this study, we present a relatively simple, process-based carbon isotope model that predicts the spatio-temporal distributions of the carbon isotope composition of phytoplankton (here expressed as δ13CPLK) across the global ocean at one degree and monthly resolution. The model is driven by output from a coupled physics-biogeochemistry model, NEMO-MEDUSA, and operates offline; it could also be coupled to alternative underlying ocean model systems. Model validation is challenged by the same lack of spatio-temporally explicit data that motivates model development, but predictions from our model successfully reproduce major spatial patterns in carbon isotope values observed in zooplankton, and are consistent with simulations from alternative models. Model predictions represent an initial hypothesis of spatial and temporal variation in carbon isotopic baselines in ocean areas where a few data are currently available, and provide the best currently available tool to estimate spatial and temporal variation in baseline isotopic compositions at ocean basin to global scales
Branching fraction and CP asymmetry of the decays B+→K0Sπ+ and B+→K0SK+
An analysis of B+ → K0
Sπ+ and B+ → K0
S K+ decays is performed with the LHCb experiment. The pp
collision data used correspond to integrated luminosities of 1 fb−1 and 2 fb−1 collected at centre-ofmass
energies of
√
s = 7 TeV and
√
s = 8 TeV, respectively. The ratio of branching fractions and the
direct CP asymmetries are measured to be B(B+ → K0
S K+
)/B(B+ → K0
Sπ+
) = 0.064 ± 0.009 (stat.) ±
0.004 (syst.), ACP(B+ → K0
Sπ+
) = −0.022 ± 0.025 (stat.) ± 0.010 (syst.) and ACP(B+ → K0
S K+
) =
−0.21 ± 0.14 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.). The data sample taken at
√
s = 7 TeV is used to search for
B+
c
→ K0
S K+ decays and results in the upper limit ( fc · B(B+
c
→ K0
S K+
))/( fu · B(B+ → K0
Sπ+
)) <
5.8 × 10−2 at 90% confidence level, where fc and fu denote the hadronisation fractions of a ¯b
quark
into a B+
c or a B+ meson, respectively
Dr. Glendon Swarthout
Hosted by Roger M. Busfield, MSU Assistant Professor of Speech and Theater, Meet the Author is designed to introduce a general audience to a contemporary author and their work through in-depth interviews. This episode features a conversation between Dr. Glendon Swarthout, prolific author and English professor at MSU, and assistant professors Sam S. Baskett and Theodore B. Strandness
Preserved near ultrahigh-pressure melt from continental crust subducted to mantle depths
Remnants of hydrous melt formed at mantle depths have been identified and characterized within high-pressure leucogranulites of the Orlica-Śniez ̇nik Dome (Bohemian Massif, central Europe). They occur as nanogranites in garnet formed via partial melting of granitoids during the Variscan orogeny. Melt composition and H2O content have been investigated in situ after experimental re-homogenization of the nanogranites, and are consistent with melts produced experimentally from crustal lithologies at mantle depths. This is the first geochemical study of melt inclusions from natural crustal rocks equilibrated close to the stability field of coesite, shedding light on how continental crust melts during deep subduction. Whereas decompressional melting is commonly invoked for deeply subducted crustal lithologies, melting occurred near or at the metamorphic peak pressure in the Orlica-Śniez ̇nik granulites. Melting of deeply subducted crustal rocks significantly modifies the rheology and thus promotes fast exhumation: this process has a critical influence on the geodynamic evolution of subduction-collision orogens as well as crustal differentiation at depth
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