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Creators/Authors contains: "Di_Capua, F"

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  1. We report measurements of production cross sections for ρ + , ρ 0 , ω , K * + , K * 0 , ϕ , η , K S 0 , f 0 ( 980 ) , D + , D 0 , D s + , D * + , D * 0 , and D s * + in e + e collisions at a center-of-mass energy near 10.58 GeV. The data were recorded by the Belle experiment, consisting of 571 fb 1 at 10.58 GeV and 74 fb 1 at 10.52 GeV. Production cross sections are extracted as a function of the fractional hadron momentum x p . The measurements are compared to Monte Carlo generator predictions with various fragmentation settings, including those that have increased fragmentation into vector mesons over pseudoscalar mesons. The cross sections measured for light hadrons are consistent with no additional increase of vector over pseudoscalar mesons. The charmed-meson cross sections are compared to earlier measurements—when available—including older Belle results, which they supersede. They are in agreement before application of an improved initial-state radiation correction procedure that causes slight changes in their x p shapes. Published by the American Physical Society2025 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 1, 2026
  2. Free, publicly-accessible full text available January 1, 2026
  3. In the bottomonium sector, the hindered magnetic dipole transitions between P-wave states h b ( 2 P ) χ b J ( 1 P ) γ , J = 0 , 1, 2, are expected to be severely suppressed according to the relativized quark model, due to the spin flip of the b quark. Nevertheless, a recent model following the coupled-channel approach predicts the corresponding branching fractions to be enhanced by orders of magnitude. In this Letter, we report the first search for such transitions. We find no significant signals and set upper limits at 90% confidence level on the corresponding branching fractions: B [ h b ( 2 P ) γ χ b 0 ( 1 P ) ] < 2.7 × 10 1 , B [ h b ( 2 P ) γ χ b 1 ( 1 P ) ] < 5.4 × 10 3 and B [ h b ( 2 P ) γ χ b 2 ( 1 P ) ] < 1.3 × 10 2 . These values help to constrain the parameters of the coupled-channel models. The results are obtained using a 121.4 fb 1 data sample taken around s = 10.860 GeV with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e + e collider. Published by the American Physical Society2025 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available January 1, 2026
  4. Abstract The DarkSide-20k dark matter experiment, currently under construction at LNGS, features a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) with a ∼ 50 t argon target from an underground well. At this scale, it is crucial to optimise the argon flow pattern for efficient target purification and for fast distribution of internal gaseous calibration sources with lifetimes of the order of hours. To this end, we have performed computational fluid dynamics simulations and heat transfer calculations. The residence time distribution shows that the detector is well-mixed on time-scales of the turnover time (∼ 40 d). Notably, simulations show that despite a two-order-of-magnitude difference between the turnover time and the half-life of83mKr of 1.83 h, source atoms have the highest probability to reach the centre of the TPC 13 min after their injection, allowing for a homogeneous distribution before undergoing radioactive decay. We further analyse the thermal aspects of dual-phase operation and define the requirements for the formation of a stable gas pocket on top of the liquid. We find a best-estimate value for the heat transfer rate at the liquid-gas interface of 62 W with an upper limit of 144 W and a minimum gas pocket inlet temperature of 89 K to avoid condensation on the acrylic anode. This study also informs the placement of liquid inlets and outlets in the TPC. The presented techniques are widely applicable to other large-scale, noble-liquid detectors. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available June 1, 2026
  5. We report the first evidence for the h b ( 2 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) η transition with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations. The decay branching fraction is measured to be B [ h b ( 2 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) η ] = ( 7.1 3.2 + 3.7 ± 0.8 ) × 10 3 , which is noticeably smaller than expected. We also set upper limits on π 0 transitions of B [ h b ( 2 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) π 0 ] < 1.8 × 10 3 , and B [ h b ( 1 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) π 0 ] < 1.8 × 10 3 , at the 90% confidence level. These results are obtained with a 131.4 fb 1 data sample collected near the ϒ ( 5 S ) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e + e collider. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available December 1, 2025
  6. We perform an angular analysis of the B K * e + e decay for the dielectron mass squared, q 2 , range of 0.0008 1.1200 GeV 2 / c 4 using the full Belle dataset in the K * 0 K + π and K * + K S 0 π + channels, incorporating new methods of electron identification to improve the statistical power of the dataset. This analysis is sensitive to contributions from right-handed currents from physics beyond the Standard Model by constraining the Wilson coefficients C 7 ( ) . We perform a fit to the B K * e + e differential decay rate and measure the imaginary component of the transversality amplitude to be A T Im = 1.27 ± 0.52 ± 0.12 , and the K * transverse asymmetry to be A T ( 2 ) = 0.52 ± 0.53 ± 0.11 , with F L and A T Re fixed to the Standard Model values. The resulting constraints on the value of C 7 are consistent with the Standard Model within a 2 σ confidence interval. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
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  7. We report the results of the first search for Standard Model and baryon-number-violating two-body decays of the neutral B mesons to Λ 0 and Ω c ( * ) 0 using 711 fb 1 of data collected at the ϒ ( 4 S ) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e + e collider. We observe no evidence of signal from any such decays and set 95% confidence-level upper limits on the products of B 0 and B ¯ 0 branching fractions for these two-body decays with B ( Ω c 0 π + Ω ) in the range between 9.5 × 10 8 and 31.2 × 10 8 . Published by the American Physical Society2024 
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  8. We measure the complete set of angular coefficients J i for exclusive B ¯ D * ν ¯ decays ( = e , μ ). Our analysis uses the full 711 fb 1 Belle dataset with hadronic tag-side reconstruction. The results allow us to extract the form factors describing the B ¯ D * transition and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element | V cb | . Using recent lattice QCD calculations for the hadronic form factors, we find | V cb | = ( 40.7 ± 0.7 ) × 10 3 using the Boyd-Grinstein-Lebed parametrization, compatible with determinations from inclusive semileptonic decays. We search for lepton flavor universality violation as a function of the hadronic recoil parameter w and investigate the differences of the electron and muon angular distributions. We find no deviation from standard model expectations. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
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  9. We report the results of the first search for B decays to the Ξ ¯ c 0 Λ ¯ c final state using 711 fb 1 of data collected at the ϒ ( 4 S ) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e + e collider. The results are interpreted in terms of both direct baryon-number-violating B decay and Ξ c 0 Ξ ¯ c 0 oscillations which follow the standard model decay B Ξ c 0 Λ ¯ c . We observe no evidence for baryon number violation and set the 95% confidence-level upper limits on the ratio of baryon-number-violating and standard model branching fractions B ( B Ξ ¯ c 0 Λ ¯ c ) / B ( B Ξ c 0 Λ ¯ c ) to be < 2.7 % and on the effective angular frequency of mixing ω in Ξ c 0 Ξ ¯ c 0 oscillations to be < 0.76 ps 1 (equivalent to τ mix > 1.3 ps ). Published by the American Physical Society2024 
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  10. We present a measurement of the branching fraction and fraction of longitudinal polarization of B 0 ρ + ρ decays, which have two π 0 ’s in the final state. We also measure time-dependent C P violation parameters for decays into longitudinally polarized ρ + ρ pairs. This analysis is based on a data sample containing ( 387 ± 6 ) × 10 6 ϒ ( 4 S ) mesons collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy e + e collider in 2019–2022. We obtain B ( B 0 ρ + ρ ) = ( 2.8 9 0.22 + 0.23 0.27 + 0.29 ) × 10 5 , f L = 0.92 1 0.025 + 0.024 0.015 + 0.017 , S = 0.26 ± 0.19 ± 0.08 , and C = 0.02 ± 0.1 2 0.05 + 0.06 , where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. We use these results to perform an isospin analysis to constrain the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle ϕ 2 and obtain two solutions; the result consistent with other Standard Model constraints is ϕ 2 = ( 92.6 4.7 + 4.5 ) ° . Published by the American Physical Society2025 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2026