Exotic hadron spectroscopy at the LHCb experiment

The LHCb experiment is designed to study the decays and properties of heavy flavoured hadrons produced in the forward region from proton-proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. During Run 1, it has recorded the world's largest data sample of beauty and charm hadrons, enabling precise studies into the spectroscopy of such particles, including discoveries of new states and measurements of their masses, widths and quantum numbers. An overview of recent LHCb results in the area of exotic hadron spectroscopy is presented, focussing on the discovery of the first pentaquark states in the $\Lambda_b^0 \to J/\psi p K^-$ channel and a search for them in the related $\Lambda_b^0 \to J/\psi p\pi^-$ mode. The LHCb non-confirmation of the D0 tetraquark candidate in the $B_s^0\pi^+$ invariant mass spectrum is presented.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures, proceedings for Rencontres de Blois 201

Fermi-Bose Correspondence and Bose-Einstein Condensation in The Two-Dimensional Ideal Gas

The ideal uniform two-dimensional (2D) Fermi and Bose gases are considered both in the thermodynamic limit and the finite case. We derive May's Theorem, viz. the correspondence between the internal energies of the Fermi and Bose gases in the thermodynamic limit. This results in both gases having the same heat capacity. However, as we shall show, the thermodynamic limit is never truly reached in two dimensions and so it is essential to consider finite-size effects. We show in an elementary manner that for the finite 2D Bose gas, a pseudo-Bose-Einstein condensate forms at low temperatures, incompatible with May's Theorem. The two gases now have different heat capacities, dependent on the system size and tending to the same expression in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures in EPS format, to be published in Journal of Low Temperature Physic

A Note on Equilibrium Systems from a Dialectical /tensional/ Point of View

Equilibrium systems form dialectical or tensional point of vie

NAP (davunetide) rescues neuronal dysfunction in a Drosophila model of tauopathy

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease causing irreversible cognitive decline in the elderly. There is no disease-modifying therapy for this condition and the mechanisms underpinning neuronal dysfunction and neurodegeneration are unclear. Compromised cytoskeletal integrity within neurons is reported in AD. This is believed to result from loss-of-function of the microtubule-associated protein tau, which becomes hyper-phosphorylated and deposits into neurofibrillary tangles in AD. We have developed a Drosophila model of tauopathy in which abnormal human tau mediates neuronal dysfunction characterised by microtubule destabilisation, axonal transport disruption, synaptic defects and behavioural impairments. Here we show that a microtubule-stabilising drug, NAPVSIPQ (NAP), prevents as well as reverses these phenotypes even after they have become established. Moreover, it does not alter abnormal tau levels indicating that it by-passes toxic tau altogether. Thus, microtubule stabilisation is a disease-modifying therapeutic strategy protecting against tau-mediated neuronal dysfunction, which holds great promise for tauopathies like AD

The Feeding Zones of Terrestrial Planets and Insights into Moon Formation

[Abridged] We present an extensive suite of terrestrial planet formation simulations that allows quantitative analysis of the stochastic late stages of planet formation. We quantify the feeding zone width, Delta a, as the mass-weighted standard deviation of the initial semi-major axes of the planetary embryos and planetesimals that make up the final planet. The size of a planet's feeding zone in our simulations does not correlate with its final mass or semi-major axis, suggesting there is no systematic trend between a planet's mass and its volatile inventory. Instead, we find that the feeding zone of any planet more massive than 0.1M_Earth is roughly proportional to the radial extent of the initial disk from which it formed: Delta a~0.25(a_max-a_min), where a_min and a_max are the inner and outer edge of the initial planetesimal disk. These wide stochastic feeding zones have significant consequences for the origin of the Moon, since the canonical scenario predicts the Moon should be primarily composed of material from Earth's last major impactor (Theia), yet its isotopic composition is indistinguishable from Earth. In particular, we find that the feeding zones of Theia analogs are significantly more stochastic than the planetary analogs. Depending on our assumed initial distribution of oxygen isotopes within the planetesimal disk, we find a ~5% or less probability that the Earth and Theia will form with an isotopic difference equal to or smaller than the Earth and Moon's. In fact we predict that every planetary mass body should be expected to have a unique isotopic signature. In addition, we find paucities of massive Theia analogs and high velocity moon-forming collisions, two recently proposed explanations for the Moon's isotopic composition. Our work suggests that there is still no scenario for the Moon's origin that explains its isotopic composition with a high probability event.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in Icarus; fixed typo

Measurements of CP violation in B mixing through B→J/ψXB \to J/\psi X decays at LHCb

B mesons provide an ideal laboratory for measurements of CP violation and searches for CP violation beyond the Standard Model. Recent measurements of the mixing phases of the $B_s^0$ and $B^0$ mesons, $\phi_s$ and $\sin2\beta$, using decays to $J/\psi X$ final states are presented. In view of future improved measurements, a good understanding of pollution from sub-leading penguin topologies in these decays is needed. Those can be probed using suppressed decays like $B_s^0 \to J/\psi K_S^0$ and $B_s^0 \to J/\psi \overline{K}^{*0}$. Recent results using these decay modes are presented.Comment: Proceedings for EPS-HEP 2015. Updated introductio

The impact of disease adaptation information on general population values for rheumatoid arthritis states

Economic evaluation of healthcare technologies uses values for hypothetical health states elicited from the general population rather than patients. However, they may not consider adaptation. This study explored the extent to which the general population changes their initial values, and the factors that influenced this change, after being informed about adaptation. Three rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states were used for illustration. Two respondent groups were interviewed. The Initially Uninformed Group initially valued the RA states. An adaptation exercise followed, where they listened to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted; they then valued the same states again. The Informed Group underwent the adaptation exercise before valuing the states. The difference between the valuations was examined using t-tests. A multivariate regression was developed to assess the factors that impacted individuals to change their initial values. After undergoing the adaptation exercise, the Initially Uninformed Group statistically increased their values for the RA states. When the second values of the Initially Uninformed Group were compared to the first values of the Informed Group, there were no statistical differences, implying that there was no interviewer effect. Younger and healthier individuals were more likely to increase their initial values after being informed about adaptation

Combining Rasch and cluster analysis: a novel method for developing rheumatoid arthritis states for use in valuation studies

Purpose: Health states that describe an investigated condition are a crucial component of valuation studies. The health states need to be distinct, comprehensible, and data-driven. The objective of this study was to describe a novel application of Rasch and cluster analyses in the development of three rheumatoid arthritis health states. Methods: The Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) was subjected to Rasch analysis to select the items that best represent disability. K-means cluster analysis produced health states with the levels of the selected items. The pain and discomfort domain from the EuroQol-5D was incorporated at the final stage. Results: The results demonstrate a methodology for reducing a dataset containing individual disease-specific scores to generate health states. The four selected HAQ items were bending down, climbing steps, lifting a cup to your mouth, and standing up from a chair. Conclusions: Overall, the combined use of Rasch and cluster analysis has proved to be an effective technique for identifying the most important items and levels for the construction of health states

Charm Meson Mixing: An Experimental Review

We review current experimental results on charm mixing and CP violation. We survey experimental techniques, including time-dependent, time-independent, and quantum-correlated measurements. We review techniques that use a slow pion tag from D*+ --> pi+ D0 + c.c. decays and those that do not, and cover two-body and multi-body D0 decay modes. We provide a summary of D-mixing results to date and comment on future experimental prospects at the LHC and other new or planned facilities.Comment: 53 pages, 29 figures, 8 table