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Thomas Schietinger

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Schietinger.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

High-Power Polarization-Controlled Attosecond-Scale Soft X-ray Pulses

We demonstrate a versatile platform for high-power attosecond soft X-ray pulse generation with polarization and photon energy control at the SwissFEL free-electron laser. An isolated high-current spike embedded within a long electron-beam pedestal emits soft X-ray pulses with single-spike spectra and multi-electronvolt bandwidths in the tunable magnetic fields of Apple-X undulators. Demonstrated pulse parameters include a photon energy range of 450--1070 eV, circular as well as linear polarization, and pulse energies from tens to above hundred microjoules. By tuning the longitudinal slice-dependent transverse electron beam orbit we can rapidly switch between attosecond and few femtosecond pulse length. By exploiting magnetic chicanes in the undulator line we can produce two-colour pulse pairs with tunable delay or increase the pulse energy beyond 200~\textmu J through multi-stage amplification schemes. High-resolution longitudinal phase-space measurements and start-to-end simulations in addition to spectral measurements provide consistent evidence for attosecond-scale pulse durations. This unique combination of high pulse energy and polarization control of attosecond-scale soft X-ray pulses enables the element-specific investigations of spin and chiral dynamics on the natural time scale of electron motion.

physics.acc-ph

Photon helicity in Lambda_b --> p K gamma decays

Radiative decays of polarized Lambda_b baryons represent an attractive possibility to measure the helicity of the photon emitted in the b --> s gamma quark transition and thus to subject the Standard Model to a stringent test at existing and future hadron colliders. The most abundant mode, Lambda(1116) gamma, is experimentally very challenging because of the long decay length of the Lambda(1116). We show that the experimentally more accessible Lambda_b --> p K gamma decays proceeding via Lambda resonances may be used to extract the photon helicity for sufficient Lambda_b polarization, if the resonance spin does not exceed 3/2. A direct comparison of the potential of such resonance decays to assess the photon polarization at a hadron collider with respect to the decay to Lambda(1116) is given.

hep-ph

Review of experimental results on rare radiative, semileptonic and leptonic B decays

We review recent experimental progress in the domain of rare radiative, semileptonic and leptonic B decays. The statistical precision attained for these decays has reached a level where they start to impose meaningful constraints on the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, which are complementary to those obtained from hadronic decays. While the current data indicate no deviations from Standard Model predictions, there is still some room for new physics in these decays.

hep-ex

Probing photon helicity in radiative B decays via charmonium resonance interference

We investigate a new method to probe the helicity of the photon emitted in the b -> s gamma transition. The method relies on the observation of interference effects between two resonance contributions, B -> K*(K gamma) gamma and B -> eta_c(gamma gamma) K or B -> chi_c0(gamma gamma) K to the same final state K gamma gamma. Decays of the type B -> K_res(K gamma) gamma dominate the B -> K gamma gamma yield throughout most of the phase space, and may be accessible at current B meson facilities already.

hep-ph

Charmless Hadronic B Decays at BABAR

We present several searches for charmless hadronic two-body and three-body decays of B mesons from electron-positron annihilation data collected by the BABAR detector near the Upsilon(4S) resonance. We report the preliminary branching fractions BR(B0 --> pi+pi-) = (4.1 +/- 1.0 +/- 0.7) x 10^-6, BR(B0 --> K+pi-) = (16.7 +/- 1.6 +/- 1.3) x 10^-6, BR(B0 --> rho-/+ pi+/-) = (49 +/- 13 +6 -5) x 10^-6, BR(B+ --> eta' K+) = (62 +/- 18 +/- 8) x 10^-6, and present upper limits for nine other decays.

hep-ex

Using kaon regeneration to probe the quark mixing parameter cos(2 beta) in B --> psi K decays

We suggest a novel method to determine the sign of cos(2 beta) in the decays B --> psi K, by creating interference between KL and KS final states via ``regeneration,'' that is propagation through a matter target region to convert some KL to KS. The determination of this quantity resolves an ambiguity between beta and (90o - beta) that remains after the standard measurements of sin(2 beta) and may turn out to be important in resolving whether the result is in agreement with Standard Model predictions or indicates the presence of new physics. We find the measurement is feasible at a B-factory, but requires several years of high-luminosity running with a regeneration target affecting a significant fraction of the detector.

hep-ph