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Tidal freshwater wetlands in urban settings can be subject to elevated N concentrations, which can promote the exchange of N between the marsh, water, and atmosphere, including denitrification. We used a multitiered approach consisting of direct measurements of N fluxes and denitrification, tidal hypsometry, and N load modeling to examine N exchanges in an urban tidal freshwater wetland of the Delaware River Estuary, Philadelphia, PA. Sediment cores and aboveground biomass were collected at 20 locations across a range of elevations and plant communities in April, July, and October 2010. Nitrate was taken up by the marsh during all seasons. In the spring, the high rate of NH4+ production from the sediment was correlated with NO3− uptake, suggesting dissimilatory reduction to NH4+ as a potentially important process. Denitrification rates were greatest in July, averaging 5.5 ± 0.6 mg N m−2 h−1. Adjusted for tidal inundation using a refined digital elevation model, denitrification averaged 0.08, 0.5, and 0.2 g N m−2 mo−1 for April, July, and October, respectively. Less than 10% of the modeled N load was estimated to have been removed in the months measured. A combination of high N load, limited marsh area that represented ∼1% of the watershed area, and conservative extrapolation of denitrification rates contributed to the low estimate of the N load attenuated.

Along their long propagation from production to detection, neutrinos undergo flavour conversions that convert their types or flavours 1 , 2 . High-energy astrophysical neutrinos propagate unperturbed over a billion light years in vacuum 3 and are sensitive to small effects caused by new physics. Effects of quantum gravity 4 are expected to appear at the Planck energy scale. Such a high-energy universe would have existed only immediately after the Big Bang and is inaccessible by human technologies. On the other hand, quantum gravity effects may exist in our low-energy vacuum 5 – 8 , but are suppressed by inverse powers of the Planck energy. Measuring the coupling of particles to such small effects is difficult via kinematic observables, but could be observable through flavour conversions. Here we report a search with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, using astrophysical neutrino flavours 9 , 10 to search for new space–time structure. We did not find any evidence of anomalous flavour conversion in the IceCube astrophysical neutrino flavour data. We apply the most stringent limits of any known technologies, down to 10 −42  GeV −2 with Bayes factor greater than 10 on the dimension-six operators that parameterize the space–time defects. We thus unambiguously reach the parameter space of quantum-gravity-motivated physics. The IceCube Collaboration reports a search for quantum gravity effects imprinted in flavour conversions of astrophysical neutrinos. No evidence for anomalous conversions between neutrino flavours is observed.

Neutrino oscillations at the highest energies and longest baselines can be used to study the structure of spacetime and test the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. If the metric of spacetime has a quantum mechanical description, its fluctuations at the Planck scale are expected to introduce non-unitary effects that are inconsistent with the standard unitary time evolution of quantum mechanics. Neutrinos interacting with such fluctuations would lose their quantum coherence, deviating from the expected oscillatory flavour composition at long distances and high energies. Here we use atmospheric neutrinos detected by the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory in the energy range of 0.5–10.0 TeV to search for coherence loss in neutrino propagation. We find no evidence of anomalous neutrino decoherence and determine limits on neutrino–quantum gravity interactions. The constraint on the effective decoherence strength parameter within an energy-independent decoherence model improves on previous limits by a factor of 30. For decoherence effects scaling as E 2 , our limits are advanced by more than six orders of magnitude beyond past measurements compared with the state of the art. Interactions of atmospheric neutrinos with quantum-gravity-induced fluctuations of the metric of spacetime would lead to decoherence. The IceCube Collaboration constrains such interactions with atmospheric neutrinos.

A bstract The decays B + → J / ψπ + π − K + are studied using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb − 1 collected with the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions between 2011 and 2018. Precise measurements of the ratios of branching fractions with the intermediate ψ 2 (3823), χ c1 (3872) and ψ(2S) states are reported. The values are B B + → ψ 2 3823 K + × B ψ 2 3823 → J / ψπ + π − B B + → χ c 1 3872 K + × B χ c 1 3872 → J / ψπ + π − = 3.56 ± 0.67 ± 0.11 × 10 − 2 , B B + → ψ 2 3823 K + × B ψ 2 3823 → J / ψπ + π − B B + → ψ 2 S K + × B ψ 2 S → J / ψπ + π − = 1.31 ± 0.25 ± 0.04 × 10 − 3 , B B + → χ c 1 3872 K + × B χ c 1 3872 → J / ψπ + π − B B + → ψ 2 S K + × B ψ 2 S → J / ψπ + π − = 3.69 ± 0.07 ± 0.06 × 10 − 2 , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The decay of B + → ψ 2 (3823)K + with ψ 2 (3823) → J / ψπ + π − is observed for the first time with a significance of 5.1 standard deviations. The mass differences between the ψ 2 (3823), χ c1 (3872) and ψ(2S) states are measured to be m χ c 1 3872 − m ψ 2 3823 = 47.50 ± 0.53 ± 0.13 MeV / c 2 , m ψ 2 3823 − m ψ 2 2 S = 137.98 ± 0.53 ± 0.14 MeV / c 2 , m χ c 1 3872 − m ψ 2 2 S = 185.49 ± 0.06 ± 0.03 MeV / c 2 , resulting in the most precise determination of the χ c1 (3872) mass. The width of the ψ 2 (3823) state is found to be below 5.2 MeV at 90% confidence level. The Breit-Wigner width of the χ c1 (3872) state is measured to be Γ χ c 1 3872 BW = 0.96 − 0.18 + 0.19 ± 0.21 MeV which is inconsistent with zero by 5.5 standard deviations.

The time-dependent CP asymmetries of B0 → π+π– and B⁰_(s) → K+K– decays are measured using a data sample of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 fb–1, collected with the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV.

A bstract The production of ϒ ( nS ) mesons ( n = 1, 2, 3) in p Pb and Pb p collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair s N N = 8.16 TeV is measured by the LHCb experiment, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 31.8 nb −1 . The ϒ ( nS ) mesons are reconstructed through their decays into two opposite-sign muons. The measurements comprise the differential production cross-sections of the ϒ (1 S ) and ϒ (2 S ) states, their forward-to-backward ratios and nuclear modification factors. The measurements are performed as a function of the transverse momentum p T and rapidity in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass frame y * of the ϒ ( nS ) states, in the kinematic range p T < 25 GeV/ c and 1.5 < y * < 4.0 (−5.0 < y * < −2.5) for p Pb (Pb p ) collisions. In addition, production cross-sections for ϒ (3 S ) are measured integrated over phase space and the production ratios between all three ϒ ( nS ) states are determined. Suppression for bottomonium in proton-lead collisions is observed, which is particularly visible in the ratios. The results are compared to theoretical models.

Atmospheric muon neutrinos are produced by meson decays in cosmic-ray-induced air showers. The flux depends on meteorological quantities such as the air temperature, which affects the density of air. Competition between decay and re-interaction of those mesons in the first particle production generations gives rise to a higher neutrino flux when the air density in the stratosphere is lower, corresponding to a higher temperature. A measurement of a temperature dependence of the atmospheric ν μ flux provides a novel method for constraining hadronic interaction models of air showers. It is particularly sensitive to the production of kaons. Studying this temperature dependence for the first time requires a large sample of high-energy neutrinos as well as a detailed understanding of atmospheric properties. We report the significant ( > 10 σ ) observation of a correlation between the rate of more than 260,000 neutrinos, detected by IceCube between 2012 and 2018, and atmospheric temperatures of the stratosphere, measured by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA’s AQUA satellite. For the observed 10 % seasonal change of effective atmospheric temperature we measure a 3.5(3) % change in the muon neutrino flux. This observed correlation deviates by about 2-3 standard deviations from the expected correlation of 4.3 % as obtained from theoretical predictions under the assumption of various hadronic interaction models.

A bstract The prompt production of Λ c + baryons is studied in proton-lead collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.58 nb −1 recorded at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of s N N = 5.02 TeV. Measurements of the differential cross-section and the forwardbackward production ratio are reported for Λ c + baryons with transverse momenta in the range 2 < p T < 10 GeV/c and rapidities in the ranges 1.5 < y ∗ < 4.0 and −4.5 < y ∗ < −2.5 in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass system. The ratio of cross-sections of Λ c + baryons and D 0 mesons is also reported. The results are compared with next-to-leading order calculations that use nuclear parton distribution functions.

A search for direct CP violation in the Cabibbo-suppressed decay D-s(+) -> K-K+ K+ and in the doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decay D+ -> K- K+ K+ is reported. The analysis is performed with data collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 fb(-1). The search is conducted by comparing the D-(s)(+) and D-(s)(-) Dalitz-plot distributions through a model-independent binned technique, based on fits to the K-K+K+ invariantmass distributions, with a total of 0.97 (1.27) million D-s(+) (D+) signal candidates. The results are given as p-values for the hypothesis of CP conservation and are found to be 13.3% for the D+ -> K-K+ K+ decay and 31.6% for the D+ -> K-K+ K+ decay. No evidence for CP violation is observed in these decays.

A bstract An analysis of the angular distribution of the decay Λ b 0  → Λ μ + μ − is presented, using data collected with the LHCb detector between 2011 and 2016 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 fb −1 . Angular observables are determined using a moment analysis of the angular distribution at low hadronic recoil, corresponding to the dimuon invariant mass squared range 15 < q 2 < 20 GeV 2 / c 4 . The full basis of observables is measured for the first time. The lepton-side, hadron-side and combined forward-backward asymmetries of the decay are determined to be A F B ℓ = − 0.39 ± 0.04 stat ± 0.01 syst , A F B h = − 0.30 ± 0.05 stat ± 0.02 syst , A F B ℓ h = + 0.25 ± 0.04 stat ± 0.01 syst . The measurements are consistent with Standard Model predictions.