arXiv subjects

M. De Nuccio

Publications and source records attributed to M. De Nuccio.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Search for Lepton-Flavor-Violating $τ$ Decays to a Lepton and an Invisible Boson at Belle II

We search for lepton-flavor-violating $τ^-\to e^-α$ and $τ^-\toμ^-α$ decays, where $α$ is an invisible spin-0 boson. The search uses electron-positron collisions at $10.58$ GeV center-of-mass energy with an integrated luminosity of $62.8$ fb$^{-1}$, produced by the SuperKEKB collider and collected with the Belle II detector. We search for an excess in the lepton-energy spectrum of the known $τ^-\to e^-\barν_e ν_τ$ and $τ^-\to μ^-\barν_μν_τ$ decays. We report 95\% confidence-level upper limits on the branching-fraction ratio ${\mathcal B}(τ^-\to e^- α) / {\mathcal B}(τ^- \to e^- \barν_e ν_τ)$ in the range $(1.1-9.7) \times 10^{-3}$ and on ${\mathcal B}(τ^-\to μ^- α) / {\mathcal B}(τ^- \to μ^- \barν_μν_τ)$ in the range $(0.7-12.2) \times 10^{-3}$ for $α$ masses between 0 and 1.6 GeV/c$^2$. These results provide the most stringent bounds on invisible boson production from $τ$ decays.

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arXiv2023

Observation of ${B\to D^{(*)} K^- K^{0}_S}$ decays using the 2019-2022 Belle II data sample

We present a measurement of the branching fractions of four $B^{0,-}\to D^{(*)+,0} K^- K^{0}_S$ decay modes. The measurement is based on data from SuperKEKB electron-positron collisions at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance collected with the Belle II detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of ${362~\text{fb}^{-1}}$. The event yields are extracted from fits to the distributions of the difference between expected and observed $B$ meson energy to separate signal and background, and are efficiency-corrected as a function of the invariant mass of the $K^-K_S^0$ system. We find the branching fractions to be: \[ \text{B}(B^-\to D^0K^-K_S^0)=(1.89\pm 0.16\pm 0.10)\times 10^{-4}, \] \[ \text{B}(\overline B{}^0\to D^+K^-K_S^0)=(0.85\pm 0.11\pm 0.05)\times 10^{-4},\] \[ \text{B}(B^-\to D^{*0}K^-K_S^0)=(1.57\pm 0.27\pm 0.12)\times 10^{-4}, \] \[ \text{B}(\overline B{}^0\to D^{*+}K^-K_S^0)=(0.96\pm 0.18\pm 0.06)\times 10^{-4},\] where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. These results include the first observation of $\overline B{}^0\to D^+K^-K_S^0$, $B^-\to D^{*0}K^-K_S^0$, and $\overline B{}^0\to D^{*+}K^-K_S^0$ decays and a significant improvement in the precision of $\text{B}(B^-\to D^0K^-K_S^0)$ compared to previous measurements.

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arXiv2023

Novel method for the identification of the production flavor of neutral charmed mesons

We propose a new algorithm for the identification of the production flavor of neutral $D$ mesons in the Belle II experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation between the flavor of a reconstructed neutral $D$ meson (signal $D$ meson) and the electric charges of particles reconstructed in the rest of the $e^+e^-\to c \bar{c}$ event. These include those originating from the decay of the other charm hadron produced in the event, as well as those possibly produced in association with the signal $D$ meson. We develop the algorithm using simulation and calibrate it in data using decay modes that identify the flavor of the decaying neutral $D$ meson. We use a data sample of $e^+e^-$ collisions, corresponding to $362\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, collected by Belle II at center-of-mass energies near the $Υ(4S)$ mass. The effective tagging efficiency in data is $(47.91 \pm 0.07 \mathrm{(stat)} \pm 0.51 \mathrm{(syst)})\%$, independent of the neutral-$D$-meson decay mode. This charm flavor tagger will approximately double the effective sample size of many $CP$-violation and charm-mixing measurements that so far have exclusively relied on neutral $D$ mesons originating from $D^{*\pm}$ decays. While developed for Belle II, the basic principles underlying the charm flavor tagger can be used in other experiments, including those at hadron colliders.

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arXiv2023

Measurement of the $Ω_c^0$ lifetime at Belle II

We report on a measurement of the $Ω_c^0$ lifetime using $Ω_c^0 \to Ω^-π^+$ decays reconstructed in $e^+e^-\to c\bar{c}$ data collected by the Belle II experiment and corresponding to $207~{\rm fb^{-1}}$ of integrated luminosity. The result, $\rmτ(Ω_c^0)=243\pm48( stat)\pm11(syst)~fs$, agrees with recent measurements indicating that the $Ω_c^0$ is not the shortest-lived weakly decaying charmed baryon.

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arXiv2023

Measurement of the $B^0$ lifetime and flavor-oscillation frequency using hadronic decays reconstructed in 2019-2021 Belle II data

We measure the $B^0$ lifetime and flavor-oscillation frequency using $B^0\to D^{(*)-}π^+$ decays collected by the Belle II experiment in asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collisions produced by the SuperKEKB collider operating at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance. We fit the decay-time distribution of signal decays, where the initial flavor is determined by identifying the flavor of the other $B$ meson in the event. The results, based on $33000$ signal decays reconstructed in a data sample corresponding to ${190}\text{fb}^{-1}$, are $τ_{B^0} = {1.499}\pm{0.013}\pm{0.008}\;\text{ps}$, $Δm_d = {0.516}\pm{0.008}\pm{0.005}\;\text{ps}^{-1}$, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. These results are consistent with the world-average values.

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arXiv2023

Observation of $e^+e^-\toωχ_{bJ}(1P)$ and search for $X_b \to ωΥ(1S)$ at $\sqrt{s}$ near 10.75 GeV

We study the processes $e^+e^-\toωχ_{bJ}(1P)$ ($J$ = 0, 1, or 2) using samples at center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}$ = 10.701, 10.745, and 10.805 GeV, corresponding to 1.6, 9.8, and 4.7 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, respectively. These data were collected with the Belle II detector during special operations of the SuperKEKB collider above the $Υ(4S)$ resonance. We report the first observation of $ωχ_{bJ}(1P)$ signals at $\sqrt{s}$ = 10.745 GeV. By combining Belle II data with Belle results at $\sqrt{s}$ = 10.867 GeV, we find energy dependencies of the Born cross sections for $e^+e^-\to ωχ_{b1,b2}(1P)$ to be consistent with the shape of the $Υ(10753)$ state. These data indicate that the internal structures of the $Υ(10753)$ and $Υ(10860)$ states may differ. Including data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 10.653 GeV, we also search for the bottomonium equivalent of the $X(3872)$ state decaying into $ωΥ(1S)$. No significant signal is observed for masses between 10.45 and 10.65 GeV/$c^2$.

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arXiv2023

Measurement of the $B^{0} \rightarrow D^{*-} \ell^{+} ν_{\ell}$ branching ratio and $|V_{cb}|$ with a fully reconstructed accompanying $B$ meson in 2019-2021 Belle II data

We present a measurement of the $B^{0} \rightarrow D^{*-} \ell^{+} ν_{\ell}$ ($\ell=e,μ$) branching ratio and of the CKM parameter $|V_{cb}|$ using signal decays accompanied by a fully reconstructed $B$ meson. The Belle II data set of electron-positron collisions at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance, corresponding to 189.3$\,$fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, is analyzed. With the Caprini-Lellouch-Neubert form factor parameterization, the parameters $η_{\rm EW} F(1) |V_{cb}|$ and $ρ^{2}$ are extracted, where $η_{\rm EW}$ is an electroweak correction, $F(1)$ is a normalization factor and $ρ^{2}$ is a form factor shape parameter. We reconstruct 516 signal decays and thereby obtain $\mathcal{B} (B^{0} \rightarrow D^{*-} \ell^{+} ν_{\ell} ) = \left(5.27 \pm 0.22~\rm{\left(stat\right)} \pm 0.38~\rm{\left(syst\right)}\right) \%$, $η_{EW} F(1) |V_{cb}| \times 10^{3} = 34.6 \pm 1.8~\rm{\left(stat\right)} \pm 1.7~\rm{\left(syst\right)}$, and $ρ^{2} = 0.94 \pm 0.18~\rm{\left(stat\right)} \pm 0.11~\rm{\left(syst\right)}$.

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arXiv2022

Reconstruction of $B \to ρ\ell ν_\ell$ decays identified using hadronic decays of the recoil $B$ meson in 2019 -- 2021 Belle II data

We present results on the semileptonic decays $B^0 \to ρ^- \ell^+ ν_\ell$ and $B^+ \to ρ^0 \ell^+ ν_\ell$ in a sample corresponding to 189.9/fb of Belle II data at the SuperKEKB $e^- e^+$ collider. Signal decays are identified using full reconstruction of the recoil $B$ meson in hadronic final states. We determine the total branching fractions via fits to the distributions of the square of the "missing" mass in the event and the dipion mass in the signal candidate and find ${\mathcal{B}(B^0\toρ^-\ell^+ ν_\ell) = (4.12 \pm 0.64(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 1.16(\mathrm{syst})) \times 10^{-4}}$ and ${\mathcal{B}({B^+\toρ^0\ell^+ν_\ell}) = (1.77 \pm 0.23 (\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.36 (\mathrm{syst})) \times 10^{-4}}$ where the dominant systematic uncertainty comes from modeling the nonresonant $B\to (ππ)\ell^+ν_\ell$ contribution.

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arXiv2022

Determination of $|V_{ub}|$ from untagged $B^0\toπ^- \ell^+ ν_{\ell}$ decays using 2019-2021 Belle II data

We present an analysis of the charmless semileptonic decay $B^0\toπ^- \ell^+ ν_{\ell}$, where $\ell = e, μ$, from 198.0 million pairs of $B\bar{B}$ mesons recorded by the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider. The decay is reconstructed without identifying the partner $B$ meson. The partial branching fractions are measured independently for $B^0\toπ^- e^+ ν_{e}$ and $B^0\toπ^- μ^+ ν_μ$ as functions of $q^{2}$ (momentum transfer squared), using 3896 $B^0\toπ^- e^+ ν_{e}$ and 5466 $B^0\toπ^- μ^+ ν_μ$ decays. The total branching fraction is found to be $(1.426 \pm 0.056 \pm 0.125) \times 10^{-4}$ for $B^0\toπ^- \ell^+ ν_{\ell}$ decays, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. By fitting the measured partial branching fractions as functions of $q^{2}$, together with constraints on the nonperturbative hadronic contribution from lattice QCD calculations, the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $V_{ub}$, $(3.55 \pm 0.12 \pm 0.13 \pm 0.17) \times 10^{-3}$, is extracted. Here, the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic and the third is theoretical.

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arXiv2022

Measurement of the branching fraction for the decay $B \to K^{\ast}(892)\ell^+\ell^-$ at Belle II

We report a measurement of the branching fraction of $B \to K^{\ast}(892)\ell^+\ell^-$ decays, where $\ell^+\ell^- = μ^+μ^-$ or $e^+e^-$, using electron-positron collisions recorded at an energy at or near the $Υ(4S)$ mass and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $189$ fb$^{-1}$. The data was collected during 2019--2021 by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB $e^{+}e^{-}$ asymmetric-energy collider. We reconstruct $K^{\ast}(892)$ candidates in the $K^+π^-$, $K_{S}^{0}π^+$, and $K^+π^0$ final states. The signal yields with statistical uncertainties are $22\pm 6$, $18 \pm 6$, and $38 \pm 9$ for the decays $B \to K^{\ast}(892)μ^+μ^-$, $B \to K^{\ast}(892)e^+e^-$, and $B \to K^{\ast}(892)\ell^+\ell^-$, respectively. We measure the branching fractions of these decays for the entire range of the dilepton mass, excluding the very low mass region to suppress the $B \to K^{\ast}(892)γ(\to e^+e^-)$ background and regions compatible with decays of charmonium resonances, to be \begin{equation} {\cal B}(B \to K^{\ast}(892)μ^+μ^-) = (1.19 \pm 0.31 ^{+0.08}_{-0.07}) \times 10^{-6}, {\cal B}(B \to K^{\ast}(892)e^+e^-) = (1.42 \pm 0.48 \pm 0.09)\times 10^{-6}, {\cal B}(B \to K^{\ast}(892)\ell^+\ell^-) = (1.25 \pm 0.30 ^{+0.08}_{-0.07}) \times 10^{-6}, \end{equation} where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. These results, limited by sample size, are the first measurements of $B \to K^{\ast}(892)\ell^+\ell^-$ branching fractions from the Belle II experiment.

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arXiv2022

Measurement of the branching fractions and $CP$ asymmetries of $B^+ \rightarrow π^+ π^0$ and $B^+ \rightarrow K^+ π^0$ decays in 2019-2021 Belle II data

We determine the branching fractions ${\mathcal{B}}$ and $CP$ asymmetries ${\mathcal{A}_{\it CP}}$ of the decays $B^+ \rightarrow π^+ π^0$ and $B^+ \rightarrow K^+ π^0$. The results are based on a data set containing 198 million bottom-antibottom meson pairs corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $190\;\text{fb}^{-1}$ recorded by the Belle II detector in energy-asymmetric electron-positron collisions at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance. We measure ${\mathcal{B}(B^+ \rightarrow π^+ π^0) = (6.12 \pm 0.53 \pm 0.53)\times 10^{-6}}$, ${\mathcal{B}(B^+ \rightarrow K^+ π^0) = (14.30 \pm 0.69 \pm 0.79)\times 10^{-6}}$, ${\mathcal{A}_{\it CP}(B^+ \rightarrow π^+ π^0) = -0.085 \pm 0.085 \pm 0.019}$, and ${\mathcal{A}_{\it CP}(B^+ \rightarrow K^+ π^0) = 0.014 \pm 0.047 \pm 0.010}$, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. These results improve a previous Belle II measurement and agree with the world averages.

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arXiv2022

Measurement of Branching Fraction and Longitudinal Polarization in $B^0 \to ρ^+ ρ^-$ Decays at Belle II

We present a measurement of the branching fraction and longitudinal polarization of $B^0 \to ρ^+ ρ^-$ decays. SuperKEKB electron-positron collision data corresponding to 189~fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity and containing $198 \times 10^6 B\bar{B}$ pairs collected with the Belle II detector are used. We obtain \begin{eqnarray*} \mathcal{B}(B^0\toρ^+ρ^-) &=& [2.67\pm0.28\,(\mathrm{stat})\,\pm0.28\,(\mathrm{syst})] \times 10^{-5}, \end{eqnarray*} \begin{eqnarray*} f_L &=& 0.956\pm0.035\,(\mathrm{stat})\,\pm 0.033\,(\mathrm{syst}), \end{eqnarray*} These results are consistent with previous measurements and can be used to constrain penguin pollution and to extract the quark-mixing angle $ϕ_2$.

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arXiv2022

Measurements of the branching fraction, isospin asymmetry, and lepton-universality ratio in $B \to J/ψK$ decays at Belle II

We report a study of $B \to J/ψ(\ell^{+}\ell^{-})K$ decays, where $\ell$ represents an electron or a muon, using $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance. The data were collected by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy collider during 2019-2021, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $189$ fb$^{-1}$. The measured quantities are the branching fractions (${\mathcal B}$) of the decay channels $B^{+} \to J/ψ(e^{+}e^{-})K^{+}$, $B^{+} \to J/ψ(μ^{+}μ^{-}) K^{+}$, $B^{0} \to J/ψ(e^{+}e^{-}) K^{0}_{S}$, and $B^{0} \to J/ψ(μ^{+}μ^{-})K^{0}_{S}$; the lepton-flavor-dependent isospin asymmetries for the electron [$A_{I}\left(B \to J/ψ(e^{+}e^{-}) K\right)$] and muon [$A_{I}\left(B \to J/ψ(μ^{+} μ^{-}) K\right)$] channels; and the ratios of branching fractions between the muon and electron channels for the charged [$R_{K^{+}}\left(J/ψ\right)$] and neutral kaon [$R_{K^{0}}\left(J/ψ\right)$] case. The measurements are consistent with the world-average values.

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arXiv2022

First decay-time-dependent analysis of $B^{0} \to K_{S}^{0} π^{0}$ at Belle II

We report measurements of the branching fraction ($\mathcal{B}$) and direct $CP$-violating asymmetry ($A_{CP}$) of the charmless decay $B^{0} \to K^0 π^0$ at Belle II. A sample of $e^{+} e^{-}$ collisions, corresponding to $189.8 fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, recorded at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance is used for the first decay-time-dependent analysis of these decays within the experiment. We reconstruct about 135 signal candidates, and measure $\mathcal{B}(B^{0} \to K^{0} π^{0})= [11.0 \pm 1.2 (stat) \pm 1.0 (syst)] \times 10^{-6}$ and $A_{CP} (B^{0} \to K^{0} π^{0})= -0.41_{-0.32}^{+0.30} (stat) \pm 0.09 (syst)$.

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arXiv2021

Combined analysis of Belle and Belle II data to determine the CKM angle $ ϕ_{3} $ using $B^+ \to D(K_{S}^0 h^- h^+) h^+$ decays

We present a measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle angle $ ϕ_{3} $ (also known as~$γ$) using a model-independent Dalitz plot analysis of \linebreak $B^+\to D\left(K_{S}^{0}h^{+}h^{-}\right)h^+$, where $D$ is either a $D^0$ or $\bar{D}{}^0$ meson and $h$ is either a $π$ or $K$. This is the first measurement that simultaneously uses Belle and Belle~II data, combining samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of \SI{711}{fb^{-1}} and \SI{128}{fb^{-1}}, respectively. All data were accumulated from energy-asymmetric $e^+e^-$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy corresponding to the mass of the $Υ(4S)$ resonance. We measure $ϕ_3 = \left(78.4 \pm 11.4 \pm 0.5 \pm 1.0 \right)^{\circ}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty and the third is from the uncertainties on external measurements of the $D$-decay strong-phase parameters.

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arXiv2021

Punzi-loss: A non-differentiable metric approximation for sensitivity optimisation in the search for new particles

We present the novel implementation of a non-differentiable metric approximation and a corresponding loss-scheduling aimed at the search for new particles of unknown mass in high energy physics experiments. We call the loss-scheduling, based on the minimisation of a figure-of-merit related function typical of particle physics, a Punzi-loss function, and the neural network that utilises this loss function a Punzi-net. We show that the Punzi-net outperforms standard multivariate analysis techniques and generalises well to mass hypotheses for which it was not trained. This is achieved by training a single classifier that provides a coherent and optimal classification of all signal hypotheses over the whole search space. Our result constitutes a complementary approach to fully differentiable analyses in particle physics. We implemented this work using PyTorch and provide users full access to a public repository containing all the codes and a training example.

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arXiv2021

Exclusive $B \to X_u \ell ν_\ell$ Decays with Hadronic Full-event-interpretation Tagging in 62.8 fb$^{-1}$ of Belle II Data

We present a reconstruction in early data of the semileptonic decay $B^+ \to π^0 \ell^+ ν_\ell$, and first results of a reconstruction of the decays $B^+ \to ρ^0 \ell^+ ν_\ell$ and $B^0 \to ρ^- \ell^+ ν_\ell$ in a sample corresponding to 62.8 fb$^{-1}$ of Belle II data using hadronic $B$-tagging via the full-event-interpretation algorithm. We determine the total branching fractions via fits to the distribution of the square of the missing mass, and find $\mathcal{B}(B^+ \to π^0 \ell^+ ν_\ell)$ = (8.29 $\pm$ 1.99(stat) $\pm$ 0.46(syst)) $\times 10^{-5}$. We obtain $95\%$ CL upper limits on the branching fractions with $\mathcal{B}(B^0 \to ρ^- \ell^+ ν_\ell) < 3.37 \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(B^+ \to ρ^0 \ell^+ ν_\ell) < 19.7 \times 10^{-5}$. We also obtain an updated branching fraction for the $B^0 \to π^- \ell^+ ν_\ell$ decay, $\mathcal{B}(B^0 \to π^- \ell^+ ν_\ell)$ = (1.47 $\pm$ 0.29(stat) $\pm$ 0.05(syst)) $\times 10^{-4}$, based on the sum of the partial branching fractions in three bins of the squared momentum transfer to the leptonic system.

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arXiv2021

Search for $B^{+}\to K^{+}ν\barν$ decays using an inclusive tagging method at Belle II

A search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decay $B^{+}\to K^{+}ν\barν$ is performed at the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB asymmetric energy electron-positron collider. The results are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $63\,\mbox{fb}^{-1}$ collected at the $Υ{(4S)}$ resonance and a sample of $9\,\mbox{fb}^{-1}$ collected at an energy $60\mathrm{\,Me\kern -0.1em V}$ below the resonance. A novel measurement method is employed, which exploits topological properties of the $B^{+}\to K^{+}ν\barν$ decay that differ from both generic bottom-meson decays and light-quark pair production. This inclusive tagging approach offers a higher signal efficiency compared to previous searches. No significant signal is observed. An upper limit on the branching fraction of $B^{+}\to K^{+}ν\barν$ of $4.1 \times 10^{-5}$ is set at the 90% confidence level.

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