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We report the first observation of the radiative decay $D_{s0}^{*}(2317{)}^{+}\to D_s^{*+}\gamma$ with a statistical significance exceeding 10 standard deviations. The signal is observed in the continuum $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to c\overline{c}$ process, using combined data samples of $980.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ from Belle and $427.9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ from Belle II, collected at the KEKB and SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ colliders, respectively. The branching fraction ratio $\mathcal{B}\left[D_{s0}^{*}\right(2317{)}^{+}\to D_s^{*+}\gamma ]/\mathcal{B}[D_{s0}^{*}(2317{)}^{+}\to D_s^{+}{\pi }^0]$ is measured to be $[7.13\pm 0.70(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.26(\mathrm{syst}\left)\right]\%$ . This result provides crucial discrimination between theoretical models of the $D_{s0}^{*}(2317{)}^{+}$ structure. 

We report measurements of production cross sections for ${\rho }^{+}$ , ${\rho }^0$ , $\omega$ , $K^{*+}$ , $K^{*0}$ , $\varphi$ , $\eta$ , $K_S^0$ , $f_0\left(980\right)$ , $D^{+}$ , $D^0$ , $D_s^{+}$ , $D^{*+}$ , $D^{*0}$ , 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 $571{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ at 10.58 GeV and $74{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ 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 

Using a data sample of $427.9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected by the Belle II detector at or near the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)$ and $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(10753\right)$ resonances, the cross sections for $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to h^{+}{h}^{-}J/\psi (h=\pi /K/p)$ at center-of-mass energies ranging from 3.8 GeV or the production threshold to $5.5/6.0/7.0\mathrm{GeV}$ have been measured via initial-state radiation. The cross sections for the processes $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}J/\psi$ and $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to K^{+}{K}^{-}J/\psi$ are consistent with previously published results. The cross sections for these channels obtained by combining with previous Belle results are also given. The process $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to p\overline{p}J/\psi$ is investigated for the first time. The yields are small and no significant structure is observed in the cross section versus energy. Searches for vector charmoniumlike states in the $h^{+}{h}^{-}J/\psi$ systems, and for associated intermediate states in the $h^{\pm }J/\psi$ systems, are also presented. 

We report a measurement of the branching fraction for the leptonic decay $B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ . This work presents the first $B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ result using Belle II data, an updated Belle measurement that supersedes the previous result, and their combination, which yields the most precise search to date. The analysis is based on $1076{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV with the Belle and Belle II detectors at the KEKB and SuperKEKB colliders, respectively. We measure $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })=(4.4\pm 1.9\pm 1.0)\times {10}^{-7}$ , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The observed significance relative to the background-only hypothesis is 2.4 standard deviations. We set a 90% confidence level upper limit of $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })<6.7\times {10}^{-7}$ using a frequentist approach and a 90% credibility level upper limit of $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })<7.2\times {10}^{-7}$ using a Bayesian approach. These are the most stringent limits to date. The result is interpreted as an exclusion region in the parameter space of type II and type III two-Higgs-doublet models. We search for stable sterile neutrinos with masses $m_N\in [0,1.5]\mathrm{GeV}$ . No signal is observed, and the resulting exclusion on the squared mixing parameter $|U_{\mu N}{|}^2$ provides improvement over previous limits. We report a measurement of the partial branching fraction of semileptonic $B\to X_u\ell {\nu }_{\ell }$ decays with $p_{\mu }^B>2.2\mathrm{GeV}$ , obtaining $\mathrm{\Delta }\mathcal{B}(B\to X_u\ell {\nu }_{\ell })=(2.72\pm 0.05\pm 0.29)\times {10}^{-4}$ . We present a model-dependent study of weak annihilation decays using the muon momentum spectrum. We observe a signal of 2.4 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis in regions where the distribution resembles that of $B\to X_u\ell {\nu }_{\ell }$ decays. 

We report the first search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decays $B\to X_s\nu \overline{\nu }$ , where $X_s$ is a hadronic system with strangeness equal to 1, in data collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $365{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected at the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)$ resonance and $43{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy 60 MeV below resonance for estimation of $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to q\overline{q}$ continuum background. One of the $B$ mesons from the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)\to B\overline{B}$ decay is fully reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode. The $B\to X_s\nu \overline{\nu }$ decay is reconstructed with a sum-of-exclusives approach that uses 30 $X_s$ decay modes. This approach provides high sensitivity to the inclusive decay, despite the presence of two undetected neutrinos. The search is performed in three regions of the $X_s$ mass, $M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}$ , chosen to separate contributions from $K$ , $K^{*}\left(892\right)$ , and heavier strange final states. We do not observe a significant signal and set upper limits at 90% confidence level on the partial branching fractions for the regions $0.0<M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}<0.6\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ , $0.6<M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}<1.0\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ , and $1.0\mathrm{GeV}/c^2<M_{X_s}^{\mathrm{true}}$ of $2.2\times {10}^{-5}$ , $9.3\times {10}^{-5}$ , and $30.9\times {10}^{-5}$ , respectively. Combining the three mass regions, we obtain the upper limit on the branching fraction, $B(B\to X_s\nu \overline{\nu })<3.3\times {10}^{-4}$ . 

Abstract We report the observation of a downward terrestrial gamma‐ray flash (TGF) during the dart‐leader stage in a negative cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash. The observation was recorded by the Telescope Array Surface Detector, in conjunction with a Lightning Mapping Array, an interferometer (INTF), a fast antenna, and a high‐speed camera. The return stroke was the fifth stroke of a negative cloud‐to‐ground lightning flash, which consisted of nine return strokes (RS) with three distinct ground‐strike points. The peak current of the return stroke associated with the TGF was the highest among the nine RS. Its dart leader had the highest propagation speed in the flash, measuring at m/s. The TGF was detected during the final stages of the dart leader, lasting 68 s. The TGF emission was detected within a few microseconds of the return stroke, indicating that it persisted until the final stage of leader development. The total deposited energy of 1,352 MeV was recorded by the TASD; the fluence was estimated to be 8 at the source, and the source altitude was estimated at 1.45 km above the ground. The observation of a downward TGF associated with a dart‐leader stage supports the idea that the production of X‐rays and downward TGFs are part of a continuum of energetic radiation related to lightning leaders. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> Using data samples collected by the Belle and Belle II experiments at the Υ(4S) resonance with integrated luminosities of 571 fb⁻¹and 365 fb⁻¹, respectively, we measure the pseudoscalarB-meson mass difference to bem(B⁰) −m(B⁺) = (0.495 ± 0.024 ± 0.005) MeV/c². The results are based on a simultaneous fit to the variable$${\overline{M} }_{bc}$$, which is related to theBmomentum, forB⁰andB⁺candidates; and to the energy dependence of$$\mathcal{R}=\sigma ({e}^{+}{e}^{-}\to {B}^{0}{\overline{B} }^{0}) / \sigma ({e}^{+}{e}^{-}\to {B}^{+}{B}^{-})$$, which is measured using changes in the average center-of-mass energy over the data taking periods. The phase-space hypothesis$$\mathcal{R}={({p}_{{B}^{0}} /{p}_{{B}^{+}})}^{3}$$, upon which previous measurements rely, is strongly disfavored by our fit; the measured mass-difference value for the phase-space hypothesis also differs significantly from our measurement. We constrain$$\mathcal{R}$$in a broader energy range than covered by the direct measurement and extract the energy dependence of$$\mathcal{R}$$in the range from the$$B\overline{B }$$threshold up to 10.59 GeV. We interpret the results using a phenomenological model and constrain the parameters of the$$B\overline{B }$$potential in the isovector channel. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> We report a search for the lepton-flavor-violating decaysτ^±→ℓ^±α(ℓ=e,μ), whereαis an undetected spin-0 particle, such as an axion-like particle using 736 × 10⁶tau lepton pairs collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energye⁺e⁻collider. We find no evidence of signal and obtain the most stringent upper limits on the branching fractions at 95% confidence level:$$\mathcal{B}$$(τ^±→ e^±α) < (0.4–6.4)×10⁻⁴and$$\mathcal{B}$$(τ^±→ μ^±α) < (0.2–3.5)×10⁻⁴at 95% confidence level for anαmass in the range 0.0≤ m_α≤1.6 GeV/c². 

In the bottomonium sector, the hindered magnetic dipole transitions between P-wave states $h_b\left(2P\right)\to {\chi }_{bJ}\left(1P\right)\gamma$ , $J=0$ , 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: $\mathcal{B}\left[h_b\right(2P)\to \gamma {\chi }_{b0}(1P\left)\right]<2.7\times {10}^{-1}$ , $\mathcal{B}\left[h_b\right(2P)\to \gamma {\chi }_{b1}(1P\left)\right]<5.4\times {10}^{-3}$ and $\mathcal{B}\left[h_b\right(2P)\to \gamma {\chi }_{b2}(1P\left)\right]<1.3\times {10}^{-2}$ . These values help to constrain the parameters of the coupled-channel models. The results are obtained using a $121.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ data sample taken around $\sqrt{s}=10.860\mathrm{GeV}$ with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider. Published by the American Physical Society2025