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# Smectic ordering in liquid crystal - aerosil dispersions I. X-ray scattering

## I Introduction

Liquid crystals have long served as important model systems in statistical mechanics. For example, experiments on phase transitions in liquid crystals have provided many of the most detailed tests of the modern theories of critical phenomena. Recent studies in liquid crystals have investigated the effects that quenched disorder produces in phase behavior and mesophase ordering, and a fruitful strategy in experiments for introducing quenched disorder has been through confinement in random porous media. The fragile nature of the mesomorphic phases and the importance of surface interactions make such confinement particularly well suited for liquid crystalline systems. For example, a series of experiments  has characterized the effects on the nematic to isotropic and nematic to smectic-A transitions of liquid crystals confined in aerogels – highly-porous, chemically bonded silica gels. The primary conclusion of this work has been that the transition behavior becomes severely smeared and that long-range nematic and smectic ordering is suppressed by the aerogel. In particular, these studies have verified theoretical expectations about the fragility of the smectic phase to disorder .

In order to access a weaker regime of disorder than is possible with aerogel or other rigid porous media, several recent studies have focused on liquid crystals confined
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Present Address: NCNR, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.
Permanent Address: IPCMS-GMO, Strasbourg, France.

within aerosil gels – weak, thixotropic gels comprised of nanometer scale silica particles. The disorder imposed by the aerosil gels can be made less severe than in the case of aerogels both because lower volume fractions are possible with aerosils and because the compliance of the aerosil gels leads to partial annealing of the disorder. This work on liquid crystals in aerosil dispersions, including calorimetry , NMR , dielectric susceptibility , and static light scattering , has revealed important differences between such systems and liquid crystals in aerogels, which can be ascribed to the weaker nature of the aerosil disorder. In particular, an x-ray scattering investigation into the nematic to smectic-A transition in a prototypical thermotropic liquid crystal, octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB), in the presence of dispersed aerosil gels has shown that the aerosil gel can be quantitatively understood as introducing weak-to-intermediate strength random fields that compete with smectic ordering in the liquid crystal .

Random field sytems have been fruitful models for exploring effects of quenched disorder, and experimentally random field Ising magnets have been at the center of this work . The nematic to smectic transition breaks a 3D-XY symmetry, thus 8CB with dispersed aerosils provides an opportunity to study experimentally a random field system that breaks a continuous symmetry . In this paper we provide a comprehensive picture of the smectic correlations in 8CB confined in aerosil gels, as determined by the x-ray scattering. The analysis we apply adopts a random-field picture, and consistent with theoretical predictions for a 3D-XY system with random fields, we find that the smectic phase is destroyed by the disorder and is replaced by the growth of short-range smectic correlations. A noteworthy feature of these x-ray results and corresponding calorimetric studies  is the lack of any measurable hysteresis or time dependent effects that would indicate out-of-equilibrium behavior. In the random field Ising magnet slow dynamics and metastability  severely complicate efforts to understand the underlying equilibrium behavior. The absence of such problems for the smectic in aerosil, presumably a consequence of the system’s continuous symmetry, thus provides a unique perspective on equilibrium behavior in a random field system. The companion paper that follows this paper , hereafter called Paper II, compares the x-ray and calorimetry results to reveal scaling behavior, including finite-size scaling effects, in the smectic ordering due to the presence of the aerosil gel.

Recent theoretical work has emphasized the strong effect of confinement in random media on liquid crystal phases . A detailed study by Radzihovsky and Toner , which models the confinement as introducing random fields, has predicted the destruction of the smectic-A phase by arbitrarily weak quenched disorder, consistent with experiment, and has introduced the possibility that a topologically ordered “smectic Bragg glass” phase may appear at low temperatures. The smectic Bragg glass is a possible manifestation of the anomalous elasticity that the theory predicts for the smectic in the presence of disorder. Distinguishing features of this anomalous elasticity and smectic Bragg glass phase are the smectic correlations in the system. Thus, x-ray scattering, which can directly probe the smectic correlation function, is an ideal probe for testing some of these ideas, and recent analysis of x-ray studies on 8CB in aerogels has been reported to show agreement with many of these predictions . The weaker nature of disorder from aerosil gels should place 8CB + aerosil samples more firmly in the regime addressed by the theory. However, as shown in the present work, the agreement between the observed smectic correlations in 8CB in aerosil gels and more detailed predictions of the theory is limited.

Section II of this paper describes the sample preparation and the details of the x-ray scattering measurements on 8CB in aerosil gels, and Sec. III outlines the results of the x-ray lineshape analysis, which yields insight into both thermal and static smectic fluctuations and the temperature dependence of correlation lengths and smectic susceptibilities. Section IV provides a discussion of the pseudo-critical structural behavior of 8CB in weak aerosil gels. The latter aspects are extended by the scaling behavior and comparisons with calorimetry covered in Paper II.

## II Experimental Procedures

### A Sample preparation and characteristics

The 8CB used in this study came from a single synthetic batch obtained from Aldrich Corp. The liquid crystal had a quoted purity of 99% and was used without further purification. In the absence of disorder, pure 8CB undergoes an isotropic (I) to nematic (N) transition at $`T_{NI}^0=313.98`$ K and a nematic to smectic-A (SmA) transition at $`T_{NA}^0=306.97`$. Below 290 K, 8CB forms a three-dimensional ordered crystal phase. The aerosil, obtained from Degussa Corp., consists of 70-Å diameter SiO2 spheres, and the type 300 aerosil used in this study is strongly hydrophilic.

The aerosil gels were formed directly in the liquid crystal following established procedures . Appropriate quantities of degassed 8CB and dried aerosil powder were mixed with high purity acetone, and the suspension was sonicated for several hours to achieve a uniform dispersion. The suspension was then gently heated to 315 K to evaporate the acetone slowly. After no signs of acetone remained, the samples were placed under vacuum at 10-2 Torr for 12 hours at 320 K to remove any trace amounts of solvent or absorbed water vapor. For aerosil densities above a gelation threshold of approximately 1% silica by volume, the resulting material was a highly uniform soft solid that maintained its shape when heated above $`T_{NI}^0`$. Small-angle x-ray scattering has revealed that aerosil gels formed under this procedure bear a strong resemblance to rigid aerogels . An extended discussion of the gel structure formed by aerosils is given in Paper II. The samples in this study ranged in aerosil densities from $`\rho _S=0.025`$ g sil/cm3 8CB, which is just above the gelation threshold, to $`\rho _S=0.341`$ g sil/cm3 8CB. Several efforts to prepare samples below the threshold density produced macroscopically inhomogeneous materials that were unsuitable for study.

### B X-ray scattering

The x-ray scattering studies were conducted on the X20A and X20C beamlines of the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory using 8 keV x-rays. The samples were placed in aluminum holders with epoxy-sealed Kapton windows designed to maintain a sample thickness of approximately 1 mm, closely matching the attenuation length for the 8 keV radiation through the material. The holders were mounted in a brass block which in turn was positioned in a beryllium can containing dry nitrogen gas. A thermoelectric cooler mounted on top of the beryllium can allowed us to cool the sample below room temperature when desired, and a home-built P-I temperature controller maintained a set temperature for the brass block. Preliminary x-ray scattering measurements showed that the crystallization of 8CB was suppressed approximately 7 K by confinement in aerosil gels. Because such crystallization irreversibly damages the aerosil gels, we limited our studies to temperatures safely above this point. The measurement temperatures ranged from 287 K, approximately 20 K below the N-SmA transition in pure 8CB, to 318 K, approximately 4 K above the N-I transition. The temperature stability during a measurement was better than $`\pm `$ 0.001 K.

The scattering intensity was measured in transmission in a vertical scattering geometry. The scattered beam was reflected from a single-crystal germanium analyzer to achieve high wavevector resolution and was measured with a point scintillation detector. Because the scattering intensity from the liquid crystal-aerosil gel composites had the azimuthal symmetry of a powder pattern, two sets of slits between the sample and the analyzer were used to define tightly the horizontal acceptance and thus provide an undistorted measurement of the scattering intensity as a function of wavevector transfer, $`I(q)`$ .

Preliminary measurements of the scattering from 8CB + aerosil samples revealed damage to the material from prolonged exposure to the x-ray radiation. This damage was reflected in irreproducibility in the observed $`I(q)`$ and a progressive shift in the onset of the short-ranged smectic order described in Section IIID. To combat this problem a protocol was developed which made these effects immeasurably small. Immediately after the sample was loaded into the scattering cell and before any x-ray measurements were made, the material was heated to approximately 318 K, several degrees above $`T_{NI}^0`$. The material was then cooled through a series of temperatures at which measurements of the scattering intensity, $`I(q)`$, were made. A process of trial-and-error during preliminary studies revealed the appropriate exposure times for the final measurements to optimize statistics while avoiding measurable damage. After the series of measurements ending at the lowest temperature was complete, the material was reheated and measurements were repeated at several temperatures to assure that no measurable changes in the scattering had occurred. Finally, the material was heated back to 318 K, and a measurement with a long counting time was conducted to determine the background scattering from the aerosil gel structure.

## III Results

### A Lineshape analysis

Figure 1 displays representative results for $`I(q)`$ from a sample with $`\rho _S=0.161`$ g/cm3 at three temperatures spanning the N-SmA transition temperature in pure 8CB, $`T_{NA}^0=306.97`$ K. The scattering lineshape contains two salient features: a broad, sloping background that is approximately temperature independent and a strongly temperature-dependent peak that develops on cooling near 0.2 Å-1. The background consists primarily of scattering from the aerosil gel structure. The temperature-dependent peak results from smectic fluctuations in the 8CB. The shape of this peak is a direct measure of the smectic correlation function for the 8CB confined in the aerosil gel.

For the full range of aerosil densities and to the lowest measurement temperatures, the observed smectic peak is significantly broader than the resolution limit set by the x-ray optics, as illustrated in Figure 2. Measurements of pure 8CB below $`T_{NA}^0`$, shown by the solid line in the figure, revealed a lineshape whose width is virtually indistinguishable from that of the resolution, which we determined from the shape of the profile of the direct x-ray beam. (The subtle increase in width in pure 8CB due to Landau-Pieirls instability is not resolved.) The solid circles in Fig. 2 are the lineshape measured for an 8CB + aerosil sample with $`\rho _S=0.025`$, the lowest aerosil density, at 287.8 K ($`T_{NA}^019.2`$ K). The larger width of the aerosil peak with respect to the resolution reflects the finite extent of the smectic correlations in the presence of the aerosil gel, and the consequent destruction of the transition to a quasi-long-range ordered smectic state by the quenched disorder. The length scale for this short-range order depends strongly on $`\rho _S`$, as revealed by the contrast between the low-temperature width for the $`\rho _S=0.025`$ sample and that for a $`\rho _S=0.220`$ sample, shown by the open circles in Fig. 2.

To characterize these short-range correlations, we model the structure factor for the smectic ordering with the form

$`S(𝐪)={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _1}{1+(q_{}q_0)^2\xi _{}^2+q_{}^2\xi _{}^2+cq_{}^4\xi _{}^4}}`$ (1)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{a_2(\xi _{}\xi _{}^2)}{(1+(q_{}q_0)^2\xi _{}^2+q_{}^2\xi _{}^2+cq_{}^4\xi _{}^4)^2}}`$ (2)
where the wave vector $`q_{}`$ is along the smectic layer normal and $`q_{}`$ is perpendicular to it. The first term in $`S(q)`$, an anisotropic Lorentzian with quartic corrections, has the same form as the structure factor in pure nematic 8CB and represents the smectic susceptibility, with $`\sigma _1`$ equal to the magnitude of the susceptibility at the ordering wavevector, $`q_0`$. This term characterizes the critical thermal fluctuations on approaching the N-SmA transition . The second term, whose shape is given by the susceptibility squared, is designed to account for the static fluctuations induced by the quenched disorder. This second term is motivated by studies on random field systems. Such an expression, known as the disconnected susceptibility, has been shown to describe accurately the short-range correlations induced by the static fluctuations in random field Ising magnets  and has been justified theoretically  for these systems. A very similar expression has also been derived specifically for smectic liquid crystals in the presence of random fields . In the limit of long-range order, the second term evolves into a Bragg peak, $`a_2\delta (q_{}q_0)\delta (q_{})`$ . In applying Eq. (1) to the smectic correlations of 8CB in aerosil gels, $`\xi _{}`$ and $`c`$ are treated as functions of $`\xi _{}`$, with $`\xi _{}(\xi _{})`$ and $`c(\xi _{})`$ set by their relations in pure 8CB, which are known to high precision .

The total measured scattering intensity is fit to the powder average of $`S(𝐪)`$ from Eq. (1), convolved with the resolution, plus a term to account for the background scattering from the aerosil gel shown in Fig. 1:

$$I(q)=𝑑q^{}𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }S(𝐪^{})Res(qq^{})+A(T)B(q)$$
(3)
The powder average, represented by the integral over solid angles, can be solved analytically for the $`S(𝐪)`$ form given by Eq. (1). The details of this calculation are provided in the Appendix. The convolution with the resolution function, $`Res(q)`$, was performed numerically. The shape of the background, $`B(q)`$, was taken from measurements at a high temperature, where scattering from the aerosil gel dominates, and this quantity is multiplied by a temperature dependent parameter, $`A(T)`$, which accounts for variations in the scattering contrast between the silica and 8CB due to differences in their thermal expansion. We found that $`A(T)`$ typically differed from unity by less than 10% over the full temperature range of the measurements.

At temperatures near and above $`T_{NA}^0`$, the measured lineshapes in the aerosil samples are described very well by the thermal fluctuation term alone (i.e., fitted $`a_2`$ are very small, and one can set $`a_2=0`$ with almost no effect on the other parameters). Thus, for $`T>T_{NA}^0`$, the smectic correlations in aerosil samples are very similar to the critical fluctuations of the pure liquid crystal. This strong similarity is demonstrated in Fig. 3 which compares the smectic peak for two values of $`\rho _S`$ with that measured for pure 8CB at temperatures several degrees above $`T_{NA}^0`$.

We note that the lineshapes of the smectic peaks in Figs. 1-3 are nearly symmetric in $`q`$ about the peak position. Such highly symmetric shapes are, in general, not expected from powder averaging Eq. (1). We interpret this symmetry as a consequence of the relative values of $`\xi _{}`$, $`\xi _{}`$, and $`c`$, particular to 8CB, which conspire to produce such a shape. Indeed, this symmetry highlights the importance of including the quartic term ($`c>0`$) in Eq. (1) to account correctly for the measured lineshapes. To illustrate this point, Fig. 4 shows the measured scattering peak from smectic fluctuations in pentylphenylthiol-octyloxybenzoate ($`\overline{8}`$S5) confined in an aerosil gel with $`\rho _S=0.030`$ at 2.56 K above the N-SmA transition temperature of pure $`\overline{8}`$S5. For a given $`\xi _{}`$, the quartic term $`c`$ is considerably smaller in $`\overline{8}`$S5 than in 8CB. This difference leads to a much more asymmetric shape to the powder average of the thermal term in Eq. (1). The solid line in Fig. 4 is a fit with Eqs. (1) and (2) with $`a_2=0`$ , so that only the thermal term is included in describing the smectic fluctuations above $`T_{NA}`$.

In measurements on pure 8CB above $`T_{NI}^0`$, we observe a very broad liquid structure peak near 0.3 Å-1. This feature vanishes in the nematic phase below $`T_{NI}^0`$. Careful measurements also revealed evidence of this peak at high temperatures in 8CB confined in aerosil gels. We note that this feature introduces a small inconsistency in our treatment of the background in Eq. (2). Specifically, $`B(q)`$ is obtained from the scattering intensity above $`T_{NI}`$, but any high-temperature liquid crystal contribution should not be included as part of the background below $`T_{NI}`$. However, we have found that the liquid crystal contributions to $`B(q)`$ are sufficiently small that including or excluding them does not influence the characterization of the smectic peaks at $`q0.2`$ Å-1. The relative strengths of the aerosil and liquid crystal scattering can, however, provide a method for normalizing the scattering intensity and thus for comparing the intensities from different samples. In particular, we decompose $`B(q)`$ into two separate contributions:

$$I(q,T>T_{NI}^0)=B(q)=v_SB_S(q)+v_{LC}B_{LC}(q)$$
(4)
where the shape of the liquid crystal contribution, $`B_{LC}(q)`$, is obtained from measurements on pure 8CB and the aerosil gel contribution, $`B_S(q)`$, is assumed to have a simple power-law form . The ratio of the prefactors $`v_{LC}/v_S`$ scales with aerosil volume fraction as expected . The prefactor to the liquid crystal contribution, $`v_{LC}`$, which is proportional to the quantity of 8CB in the beam, provides a method for placing the scattering intensities on an absolute scale. We define normalized strengths for the thermal and static fluctuation terms by

$`\sigma _1^N`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma _1/v_{LC}`$ (5)
$`a_2^N`$ $`=`$ $`a_2/v_{LC}`$ (6)
which give the sizes of the two terms for each sample normalized by the scattering volume of 8CB for that sample.

Figure 5, which shows representative fits to the lineshapes of two samples with Eqs. (1) and (2), illustrates the good agreement we observe for this fitting form over the entire investigated range of densities and temperatures. The solid lines in the figure correspond to the full fit while the dotted, dash-dotted and dashed lines correspond to contributions made by each of the three terms – thermal fluctuations, static fluctuations, and background – respectively. As mentioned above, in the fits with Eq. (1), $`\xi _{}`$ and $`c`$ are treated as functions of $`\xi _{}`$, with $`\xi _{}(\xi _{})`$ and $`c(\xi _{})`$ set by their relations in pure 8CB. Thus, each fit has only five free parameters – $`q_0`$, $`A(T)`$, $`\xi _{}`$, $`\sigma _1`$, and $`a_2`$ – with two parameters, $`\xi _{}`$ and $`a_2/\sigma _1`$, controlling the shape of the peaks.

### B Smectic layer spacing

The wavevector $`q_0`$ in Eq. (1) characterizes the spacing of the smectic layers, and Fig. 6 displays the values of $`q_0`$ extracted from fits for three aerosil densities. At high temperatures, where the smectic peak has a large width and small amplitude, the scatter in $`q_0`$ is too large to determine confidently any systematic dependence on temperature or $`\rho _S`$. At low temperatures, $`q_0`$ appears to be virtually independent of $`\rho _S`$ and increases slightly with decreasing temperature. This temperature dependence is shown in Fig. 6 as a function of the difference in temperature from $`T^{}`$, the temperature below which the magnitude of static smectic fluctuations becomes non-zero. The procedure for obtaining $`T^{}`$ and its value as a function of $`\rho _S`$ are discussed below in Sec. IIID.

The temperature dependence for $`q_0`$ was also measured for pure 8CB below $`T_{NA}^0`$. Due to small systematic uncertainties introduced by variations in the x-ray optics, precise comparisons on an absolute scale between the values of $`q_0`$ for pure 8CB and those for the aerosil samples should not be made. However, $`q_0`$ for the aerosil samples at low temperatures and for pure 8CB in the smectic phase showed very similar temperature dependencies, and we estimate that for a given effective temperature difference, $`TT^{}`$, the fractional difference in $`q_0`$ between pure 8CB and any aerosil sample is not more than 0.2%. Thus, the presence of the aerosil has little, if any, effect on the partial bilayer smectic layer spacing in 8CB.

### C Thermal fluctuations

The amplitude of the thermal fluctuation term, $`\sigma _1^N`$, is displayed Fig. 7 as a function of temperature for several values of $`\rho _S`$. Consistent with Fig. 3, the temperature dependence of $`\sigma _1^N`$ at temperatures well above $`T^{}`$ tracks that of the susceptibility for pure 8CB, which is shown by the solid line in the figure. However, unlike the pure system, where the susceptibility diverges at $`T_{NA}^0`$, $`\sigma _1^N`$ for 8CB confined in aerosil gels remains finite through the “transition” region.

At temperatures below $`T^{}`$, $`\sigma _1^N`$ exhibits a roughly temperature independent value. In Fig. 7, $`\sigma _1^N`$ for the $`\rho _S=0.220`$ and $`\rho _S=0.282`$ samples are shown as free parameters to low temperatures in order to illustrate the very weak temperature dependence at low $`T`$. Below the pseudo-transition region near $`T^{}`$, the thermal term should be dominated by long wavelength excitations, and the scattering intensity from these contributions should be dictated by the Bose occupation factor, which gives $`\sigma _1^N(T)T`$. Over the narrow absolute temperature range below $`T^{}`$ (approximately 290 K to 307 K), the roughly constant behavior for $`\sigma _1^N`$ is consistent with this expectation. On the basis of this observed low-temperature $`\sigma _1^N`$ behavior in unconstrained fits, we have repeated the fitting with Eqs. (1) and (2) for each $`\rho _S`$ for $`T<T^{}`$ with $`\sigma _1^N`$ fixed at the average low temperature value for that density. This second iteration of fitting was designed to obtain better stability in the results for the other fit parameters (namely $`a_2^N`$ and $`\xi _{}`$) that are coupled to $`\sigma _1^N`$ . The results for $`\rho _S=0.025,0.041,0.051,`$ and $`0.105`$ in Fig. 7 show $`\sigma _1^N`$ held constant at low temperature under this procedure. Near and above $`T^{}`$, we treat $`\sigma _1^N`$ as a free, temperature-dependent parameter, leading to the behavior shown in Fig. 7.

### D Static fluctuations

As mentioned above, the scattering intensity from 8CB in aerosil gels above $`T_{NA}^0`$ is well described by thermal fluctuations alone, and the static term in Eq. (1) is effectively zero. With decreasing temperature, the contributions from static fluctuations rise sharply from zero. Figure 8 displays the temperature dependence of the static fluctuation term, $`a_2^N`$, for three values of $`\rho _S`$. The solid lines in the figure are the results of fits with the form

$$a_2^N=B(T^{}T)^x,$$
(7)
where $`B`$, $`x`$, and $`T^{}`$ depend on $`\rho _S`$. Values for $`B`$, $`x`$, and $`T^{}`$ are tabulated in Paper II. As the figure illustrates, this expression describes the temperature dependence of $`a_2^N`$ quite well. The significance of this functional form is discussed in Section IV.

Fits with Eq. (6) provide unambiguously the onset temperature $`T^{}`$ of static fluctuations induced by the quenched disorder. The open symbols in the inset of Fig. 8 are the resulting $`T^{}`$ values as a function of $`\rho _S`$. As the inset illustrates, the onset of static smectic order becomes increasingly suppressed in temperature as $`\rho _S`$ increases. This suppression in $`T^{}`$ quantitatively tracks the decreasing position of the peak in the heat capacity with $`\rho _S`$ observed in calorimetry studies  and shown in the inset with solid symbols. Due to the considerable uncertainty in the values of $`T^{}`$ extracted from the fits with Eq. (6), the nonmonotonic variation in “transition” temperature with $`\rho _S`$ that was observed calorimetrically for $`\rho _S<0.1`$  cannot be resolved.

### E Smectic correlation length

Consistent with Fig. 3, the values of the smectic correlation lengths, $`\xi _{}`$, extracted from the fits with Eqs. (1) and (2) for $`T>T^{}`$ are like those of pure 8CB and track its temperature dependence. Figure 9(a) displays $`\xi _{}`$ at temperatures above $`T^{}`$. Any possible systematic variation in $`\xi _{}`$ with $`\rho _S`$ is overwhelmed by the scatter in the data. The solid line in the figure is $`\xi _{}`$ for pure 8CB , where we use $`T_{NA}^0`$ for $`T^{}`$. A detailed scaling analysis of the temperature dependence expected for $`\xi _{}`$ of 8CB + aerosils above $`T^{}`$ is provided in Paper II.

As with $`\sigma _1^N`$, $`\xi _{}`$ for aerosil samples fails to track the diverging behavior of the pure system through $`T_{NA}`$ and remains finite to low temperature. At temperatures below $`T^{}`$, $`\xi _{}`$ approaches an essentially temperature independent value. Figure 9(b) shows the correlation lengths at low temperature for four densities of aerosil. The variation of the low temperature correlation length, $`\xi _{}^{LT}\xi _{}(T<<T^{})`$, with $`\rho _S`$ is described in Section IV.

## IV Discussion

As the results outlined in Sec. III demonstrate, confinement by aerosil gels strongly affects the smectic transition in 8CB. The success of Eq. (1) indicates that these effects can be modeled as random fields. Consistent with theoretical predictions the random fields destroy the transition to a quasi-long-range-ordered smectic phase and replace it with the formation of short-ranged correlations. In this Section, we investigate the relationship between the strength of this disorder and the corresponding short-ranged smectic order, including possible connections with theoretical predictions, as well as aspects of the pseudocritical behavior exhibited by 8CB confined in aerosil gels.

### A Pseudocritical behavior

As Figs. 7 and 9(a) illustrate, the smectic scattering in 8CB confined in aerosil gels above $`T^{}`$ resembles, to a first approximation, thermal critical fluctuations unaffected by quenched disorder. This close connection between the thermal term in Eq. (1) for 8CB + aerosils and the corresponding term for pure liquid crystals in the nematic phase is strengthened by considering the scaling relation between $`\sigma _1^N`$ and $`\xi _{}`$. In a pure isotropic critical system for $`T>T_c`$, one has $`\sigma _1t^\gamma `$ and $`\xi t^\nu `$ which leads to $`\sigma _1\xi ^{\gamma /\nu }=\xi ^{2\eta }`$. For liquid crystals, which exhibit critical anisotropy in the behavior of the correlation lengths, one obtains $`\sigma _1\xi _{}^{\gamma /\nu _{}}`$ where $`\gamma /\nu _{}=2\eta _{}`$. This scaling relation between the thermal susceptibility and the parallel correlation length for 8CB + aerosils can be written as

$$\sigma _1^N=A\xi _{}^{2\eta }$$
(8)
where the subscript on $`\eta `$ has been dropped for convenience. Figure 10 displays a log-log plot of $`\sigma _1^N`$ versus $`\xi _{}`$ for a series of samples of varying $`\rho _S`$ and a line representing $`\sigma _1\xi _{}^2`$. As the figure demonstrates, the scaling relation holds for 8CB confined in aerosil gels over the entire experimental temperature range, both in the pseudo-critical regime above $`T^{}`$ and at low temperature where both $`\sigma _1^N`$ and $`\xi _{}`$ have only weak temperature dependence. Further, the scaling amplitude, $`A`$, shows no systematic variation with $`\rho _S`$. Indeed, the successful collapse of data from different samples in Fig. 10 suggests the validity of the normalization procedure for $`\sigma _1^N`$ using $`v_{LC}`$. Also clear from the figure is the fact that $`2\eta `$ is close to 2 for 8CB + aerosils. The mean field and the Gaussian tricritical values of $`2\eta `$ are 2.00, and the 3D-XY value is 1.962. Furthermore, the value of $`\gamma /\nu _{}`$ is 1.88 for pure 8CB . The correspondence between the scaling given in Eq. (7) applied to 8CB + aerosil gels of varying $`\rho _S`$ and that for pure liquid crystals is discussed below.

This pseudocritical behavior of 8CB confined in aerosil gels also extends below $`T^{}`$, where $`c`$ in Eq. (1) approaches a small constant value, and $`a_2`$ becomes proportional to the integrated intensity of the static fluctuation term in $`I(q)`$. The growth of this intensity, shown in Fig. 8, strongly resembles that of an order parameter squared, as the success of the fits of $`a_2`$ with Eq. (6) illustrates. Figure 11(a) shows the values of the effective exponent $`x`$ extracted from these fits as a function of $`\rho _S`$. For pure liquid crystals, the critical behavior observed at the N-SmA transition is affected by the proximity of the higher temperature nematic to isotropic transition through a coupling between the nematic and smectic order parameters (e.g. de Gennes coupling; see Paper II) . The strength of this coupling depends on the magnitude of the nematic susceptibility at $`T_{NA}`$, which for pure liquid crystals depends on the width of the nematic range and can be roughly parameterized by the MacMillan ratio, $`R_MT_{NA}/T_{NI}`$. When $`R_M`$ becomes small ($`R_M0.7`$), the N-SmA transition is observed to approach 3D-XY behavior but still exhibits a small anisotropy in the critical correlations , while it approaches tricritical behavior and then becomes first order as $`R_M1`$ . Values of $`2\beta `$, determined through the Rushbrooke scaling equality $`2\beta =2\alpha \gamma `$ , for a series of pure liquid crystals  with varying $`R_M`$ are included in Fig. 11(a). The effective 8CB + aerosil exponents, $`x`$, span the range from near the tricritical value $`2\beta =0.5`$ (like pure 8CB) at small $`\rho _S`$ to 3D XY-like, $`2\beta =0.691`$, at large $`\rho _S`$. With increasing $`\rho _S`$, the quenched disorder has the apparent effect of suppressing the nematic susceptibility and thus the coupling that drives the critical behavior of the N-SmA transition in pure liquid crystals away from 3D-XY universality.

This trend agrees very closely with the corresponding behavior observed in specific heat studies of 8CB with dispersed aerosils . Figure 11(b) shows the values of the effective heat capacity exponent $`\alpha `$ from the calorimetric study versus $`\rho _S`$. As the figure illustrates, $`\alpha `$ decreases toward the 3D-XY value with increasing $`\rho _S`$. The solid circles in Fig. 11(b) are the critical exponents measured for pure liquid crystals as a function of $`R_M`$. The same linear scaling between $`\rho _S`$ and $`R_M`$ successfully collapses the aerosil data onto the pure liquid crystals in Figs. 11(a) to 11(b) and suggests the notion of an effective MacMillan ratio for 8CB in aerosil gels,

$$R_M^{eff}(sil)=0.9770.47\rho _S$$
(9)
This general relationship between $`R_M^{eff}(sil)`$ and $`\rho _S`$ for two distinct pseudo-critical behaviors strengthens the idea that the presence of quenched disorder suppresses the nematic susceptibility in 8CB near $`T^{}`$. This suppression likely results from the role of surface anchoring on the gel strands in changing the properties of the nematic since the observed ratio $`T_{NA}/T_{NI}`$ for 8CB + aerosils varies little with $`\rho _S`$ . Figure 11(c) displays values of $`2\eta _{}`$ extracted from fits with Eq. (7) to $`\sigma _1^N`$ and $`\xi _{}`$ values obtained for different $`\rho _S`$ samples. Also shown in Fig. 11(c) are values of $`\gamma /\nu _{}`$ ($`=2\eta _{}`$) for pure liquid crystals as a function of $`R_M`$. Due to the small difference in $`2\eta _{}`$ between the tricritical and 3D-XY values and the large scatter in the results both for pure liquid crystals and for 8CB + aerosil samples, systematic trends like those seen in Fig. 11(a) and 11(b) are less clear for $`2\eta `$. Tabulated values for $`2\eta `$ are given in Paper II.

### B Low temperature correlations

As Fig. 9(b) demonstrates, the correlation length for smectic order in 8CB confined in aerosil gels saturates at low-temperature. Figure 12(a) shows these low temperature parallel correlation lengths, $`\xi _{}^{LT}`$, as a function of $`\rho _S`$. The solid line in Fig. 12(a) shows the trend in the nematic correlation lengths of the homolog 6CB with dispersed aerosils, as measured by Bellini et al.  with static light scattering. These light scattering studies demonstrate that the nematic order in a liquid crystal with dispersed aerosil breaks up into very large, but finite, domains. Since smectic layering forms within regions with nematic order, the nematic domain sizes set upper limits for the range of the smectic correlations. However, $`\xi _{}^{LT}`$ remains well below these limits for all $`\rho _S`$, demonstrating the sensitivity of the smectic phase to quenched disorder. The dashed line in Fig. 12(a) is the mean aerosil void size, $`l_0`$, as a function of $`\rho _S`$ . Over the range of densities studied, $`\xi _{}^{LT}`$ exceeds $`l_0`$ by a factor of three or more, consistent with an intermediate strength disordering field. Paper II provides a detailed discussion of the role of $`l_0`$ in setting the range of the smectic correlations.

Figure 12(b) displays $`a_2^N/\sigma _1^N`$ as a function of $`\rho _S`$ for $`T=T^{}6`$ K. We plot this ratio rather than $`\sigma _1^N`$ or $`a_2^N`$ alone to characterize the magnitude of the fluctuations in order to remove any errors that the uncertainties in $`v_{LC}`$ might introduce through the normalization. Because the exponent, $`x`$, characterizing the growth of $`a_2^N`$ below $`T^{}`$ is only weakly dependent on $`\rho _S`$, the trends observed for this ratio are insensitive (on a logarithmic scale) to the temperature difference $`T^{}T`$ used to evaluate $`a_2^N`$. Figure 12(c) shows the quantity $`a_2^N\overline{\xi }^3/\sigma _1^N`$, where $`\overline{\xi }(\xi _{}\xi _{}^2)^{1/3}`$ is the mean correlation length at low temperature. This quantity, which is approximately the ratio of the integrated intensities of the thermal and disorder terms at low temperature, shows little variation with $`\rho _S`$.

### C Comparisons with theory

As mentioned in the introduction, random field models have served as important examples for understanding possible consequences of quenched disorder, and extensive theoretical work has been devoted to random field systems. For the case of transitions that break a continuous symmetry in three dimensions, like the nematic to smectic-A transition, the domain wall energy arguments of Imry and Ma conclude that the transition is unstable to arbitrarily weak random fields . Subsequent theoretical work has rigorously established this conclusion , consistent with the short-ranged smectic order measured for all 8CB + aerosil samples well below $`T_{NA}^0`$. For quantitative comparisons with these short-range smectic correlations two theoretical efforts provide guidance. In the first, Aharony and Pytte apply scaling arguments to predict the low temperature form of the structure factor for systems with transitions breaking continuous symmetries in the presence of random fields. In the second, Radzihovsky and Toner develop a detailed theory for smectics with random quenched disorder.

The strength of the disorder imposed on smectic 8CB by confinement in aerosil gels clearly correlates with the density of the aerosil; however, the precise relation between density and disorder is unknown. Within the simplest assumption, confinement in the gels induces random fields whose disorder strength is proportional to the gel density. With this assumption, the scaling arguments of Aharony and Pytte predict $`\xi \mathrm{\Delta }^1\rho _S^1`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the strength of the random field disorder. The exponent $`1`$ is obtained from $`1/(d_cd)`$ where $`d=3`$ is the spatial dimension and $`d_c=4`$ is the lower critical dimension for the random field XY model . The long-dashed line in Fig. 12(a) is the power-law form $`\xi _{}^{LT}\rho _S^1`$. Over the range of $`\rho _S`$ covered experimentally, measured values of $`\xi _{}^{LT}`$ appear roughly to follow this behavior. A best fit to a power-law form over the full range of $`\rho _S`$ gives $`\xi _{}^{LT}\rho _S^{1.1\pm 0.2}`$. The scaling arguments of Aharony and Pytte further lead to $`a_2^N/\sigma _1^N\mathrm{\Delta }^3`$. The long-dashed line in Fig. 12(b) is this relation, again assuming $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho _S`$. As with $`\xi _{}`$, $`a_2^N/\sigma _1^N`$ follows a trend crudely consistent with the predicted power-law behavior, but clear deviations from the predicted form are also apparent. One possible source for these discrepancies could be a more subtle relation between $`\rho _S`$ and disorder strength. Paper II elaborates on this issue.

In order to make comparisons that are free of the dependence of disorder on $`\rho _S`$, we plot in Fig. 13 $`a_2^N/\sigma _1^N`$ against $`\overline{\xi }`$. In this plot we use $`\overline{\xi }`$ rather than $`\xi _{}`$ since the scaling theory is for an isotropic system, and $`\overline{\xi }^3`$ represents the correlation volume. According to the scaling theory, $`a_2^N/\sigma _1^N`$ should vary with correlation length like $`\overline{\xi }^3`$, while a best fit shown by the solid line gives $`\overline{\xi }^{2.68\pm 0.26}`$. This relatively good agreement with the theory is also reflected in the weak variation with disorder strength of $`a_2^N\overline{\xi }^3/\sigma _1^N`$ shown in Fig. 12(c).

A second possible source of discrepancy between the smectic correlations in 8CB + aerosil and the scaling arguments of Aharony and Pytte is that additional disordering effects enter the confined smectic beyond those of the random field 3D XY system. In their discussion of smectic liquid crystals with quenched disorder, Radzihovsky and Toner identify two sources of disorder, tilt disorder that couples to orientation (ie, the nematic director) and a layer displacement disorder that couples directly to the smectic order parameter. While the latter corresponds to the disorder of the XY model, the former is predicted to be the dominant disorder for the smectic. An important prediction of the work of Radzihovsky and Toner is that the disordered smectic should possess anomalous elasticity, and one consequence of this prediction is that the correlation length ratio, $`\xi _{}/\xi _{}`$, is reduced from that of the pure system. In our modeling of the smectic correlations with Eq. (1), we find that maintaining $`\xi _{}/\xi _{}`$ equal to its values in pure 8CB produces good fits to the data. However, the powder nature of the measured lineshapes creates considerable uncertainties in $`\xi _{}`$, so that we can not exclude some reduction in the correlation length ratio. Despite this inconsistency, the prediction from Radzihovsky and Toner that $`\xi _{}^{LT}\mathrm{\Delta }^1`$ is roughly consistent with our results in Fig. 12(a), assuming again $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho _S`$ holds approximately.

Radzihovsky and Toner further predict that $`\xi (T)B(T)^{1/\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ at low temperature, where $`B(T)`$ is the layer compression modulus of the pure liquid crystal. Within this theory, $`1/\mathrm{\Gamma }>1/2`$ is required for a smectic Bragg glass phase to be stable. Published data for $`B(T)`$ of 8CB extend only 3 K below $`T_{NA}^0`$ , so a direct test of this scaling prediction is difficult. However, the essentially temperature independent behavior of $`\xi _{}`$ at low temperature shown in Fig. 9(b) indicates that such scaling does not hold for 8CB in aerosils. We note that this conclusion differs from that reported for 8CB confined in aerogels, in which the analysis of those x-ray scattering results yielded $`\xi (T)`$ consistent with $`\xi (T)B(T)^{1/\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ and with marginal Bragg glass stability . This contrast between the aerosil and aerogel results is somewhat surprising since the validity of the prediction of a Bragg glass is within a regime of weak disorder, and the aerosil gels impose a more gentle perturbation on the smectic than aerogels. One source for the different $`\xi _{}(T)`$ behaviors could be the partial compliance of the aerosil gel to the elasticity of the liquid crystal, a feature which is not incorporated into the theory and which may complicate comparisons with it. However, a number of differences also exist between the approach used for analyzing the smectic lineshapes in the aerogel study and the analysis presented here for aerosil samples. For 8CB + aerosil data, analysis like that used in the aerogel study has strong consequences for $`\xi (T)`$. Further study of other liquid crystals would clearly help in determining whether the contrast between the aerogel and aerosil systems in their agreement with Bragg glass stability is a consequence of elastic coupling that is not considered in the theory or, perhaps, an artifact of the differing approaches to the lineshape analysis. Such studies would also be invaluable in testing the generality of trends observed for 8CB, such as the crossover to 3D XY behavior shown in Fig. 11, with the introduction of quenched disorder through confinement in aerosil.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank S. Lamarra for technical support and P. Clegg and L. Radzihovsky for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Toronto) and by the NSF under CAREER Award No. DMR-0134377 (JHU), CAREER Award No. DMR-0092786 (WPI), and Contract No. DMR-0071256 (MIT).

APPENDIX: ANALYTIC POWDER AVERAGING OF THE SMECTIC STRUCTURE FACTOR

The x-ray structure factor for the smectic fluctuations in 8CB confined by aerosil gels, given in Eq. (1), includes two terms. The first term (LFC) is an anisotropic Lorentzian with a 4th order correction in the transverse direction that accounts for critical thermal fluctuations. The second term (LFC2) is proportional to the thermal term squared and accounts for random-field induced static fluctuations. Although an anisotropic Lorentzian raised to a power along the transverse direction, $`S(𝐪)=\sigma /\left\{\xi _{}^2(q_{}q_0)^2+(1+\xi _{}^2q_{}^2)^{1\eta _{}/2}\right\}`$, is equally successful in describing the thermal fluctuations, we use the LFC because its powder average can be calculated analytically. The structure factor for a powdered sample is equivalent to that for a single-domain sample averaged with equal weight over all orientations of the smectic wave vector, $`𝐪_0`$, relative to the scattering wave vector, $`𝐪`$,

$$S^{powder}(q)=\frac{1}{4\pi }𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }_{𝐪_0}S(𝐪).$$
(10)
For the LFC term, the integral has the form

$`S_{LFC}^{powder}\left(q\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\sigma }{\left\{1+\xi _{}^2(q_{}q_0)^2+\xi _{}^2q_{}^2+c\xi _{}^4q_{}^4\right\}}}`$ (11)
$`=`$ $`{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}_1^1d\mathrm{cos}\theta {\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\sigma }{\left\{1+\xi _{}^2(q\mathrm{cos}\theta q_0)^2+\xi _{}^2q^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta +c\xi _{}^4q^4\mathrm{sin}^4\theta \right\}}}`$ (12)
$`=`$ $`{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\sigma }{2}}_1^1𝑑\mu {\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{(A+2B\mu +C\mu ^2+D\mu ^4)}},`$ (13)
where

$`A`$ $`=`$ $`1+\xi _{}^2q_0^2+\xi _{}^2q^2+c\xi _{}^4q^4,`$ (14)
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`\xi _{}^2q_0q,`$ (15)
$`C`$ $`=`$ $`(\xi _{}^2\xi _{}^2)q^22c\xi _{}^4q^4,`$ (16)
$`D`$ $`=`$ $`c\xi _{}^4q^4.`$ (17)
This integral in turn can be written as

$$S_{LFC}^{powder}(q)=\frac{1}{D}_1^1𝑑\mu \underset{i}{}\frac{1}{(\mu \alpha _i)_i^m},$$
(18)
where $`\alpha _i`$ are the roots with multiplicity $`m`$ of the quartic equation:

$$A+2B\mu +C\mu ^2+D\mu ^4=0.$$
(19)
With the integrand in this form, it can be expanded into a sum of terms,

$$\underset{i}{}\frac{1}{(\mu \alpha _i)_i^m}=\underset{i,1jm}{}\frac{C_{ij}}{(\mu \alpha _i)^j},$$
(20)
where the coefficients $`C_{ij}`$ are obtained through the expansion process and are listed in Table I. At this stage, each term can be evaluated analytically using elementary definite integrals, such as

$`{\displaystyle _1^1}𝑑\mu {\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mu \alpha }}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{\left(1\alpha _R\right)^2+\alpha _I^2}{\left(1+\alpha _R\right)^2+\alpha _I^2}}\right|`$ (21)
$`+i\left[\mathrm{tan}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\alpha _R}{\alpha _I}}\right)+\mathrm{tan}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+\alpha _R}{\alpha _I}}\right)\right],`$ (22)
where $`\alpha =\alpha _R+i\alpha _I`$.

The analytic powder averaging of the LFC2 term follows the same approach:

$`S_{LFC^2}^{powder}\left(q\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\sigma }{\left\{1+\xi _{}^2(q_{}q_0)^2+\xi _{}^2q_{}^2+c\xi _{}^4q_{}^4\right\}^2}}`$ (23)
$`=`$ $`{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\sigma }{2}}_1^1𝑑\mu {\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{(A+2B\mu +C\mu ^2+D\mu ^4)^2}}`$ (24)
$`=`$ $`{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\sigma }{2D^2}}_1^1𝑑\mu _i{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{(\mu \alpha _i)^{2m_i}}}.`$ (25)
As with the LFC term, this integral can be expanded into a series of elementary definite integrals. The coefficients for the expansion of the LFC2 integral are listed in Table II.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In spite of the remarkable phenomenological success of the Standard Model (SM) the problem of the $`CP`$-violation mechanism still remains unexplained. In SM the $`CP`$-violation appears due to the complexity of the CKM matrix; however, there is a set of models offering other mechanisms of $`CP`$-violation. For instance, the Weinberg three Higgs boson doublets model stands for one of the simplest SM extension, where $`CP`$-violation appears due to the complex Higgs boson couplings to fermions .The investigation of the $`CP`$-violation phenomenon will help us to understand its mechanism and hence, to clarify one of the fundamental problems of elementary particle physics.

The experimental observables sensitive to $`CP`$-violating effects are, for example, transverse lepton polarization in weak decays and $`T`$-odd correlation. Muon transverse polarization in the $`K^+\mu ^+\nu \pi ^0`$, $`K^+\mu ^+\nu \gamma `$ processes is the object of intensive study by many theoretical and experimental groups. In some SM extensions a non-zero transverse muon polarization appears already at the tree level . The SM contribution to lepton transverse polarization is equal to zero in the leading order, and this fact explains the smallness of the SM background. Final state interaction gives rise to non-zero $`CP`$-conserving contribution to $`P_T`$. In the $`K^+\mu ^+\nu \gamma `$ decay the lepton transverse polarization appears at the one-loop level and varies in the range of $`(0.01.1)10^3`$ on the Dalitz plot. The $`P_T`$ value averaged over the physical region with the cut on photon energy $`E_\gamma 20`$ MeV is equal to $`4.7610^4`$ . In the $`K^+\mu ^+\nu \pi ^0`$ decay the muon transverse polarization is of order $`10^6`$ , and therefore this decay is rather effective to search for new physics effects. The measurement of muon transverse polarization in this process is carried out by the KEK-E246 experiment, where the following result is obtained :

$$P_T=0.0042+0.0049(stat.)+0.0009(syst.).$$
(1)
This experimental result does not allow to state that the value of $`P_T`$ is stipulated by new physics effects. However, an increase of experimental accuracy is planned in the nearest future, which seems very promising from the point of $`CP`$-violation research.

Another experimental observable, suppressed in SM, is the $`T`$-odd correlation in the charged kaon decays  (the distribution of the decay width over the kinematical variable, which is the mixing product of the final particle momenta, for instance, $`\stackrel{}{p}_\pi [\stackrel{}{p}_\mu \times \stackrel{}{q}]`$ in the $`K^+\pi ^0\mu ^+\nu \gamma `$ decay). The small SM contribution to this observable can be explained by the same reason, as the SM contribution to the lepton transverse polarization in $`K_{l2\gamma }`$ decay. Here, new perspectives to search for $`T`$-odd contributions from new physiscs are connected with the OKA experiment , where it is planned to achieve $`710^5`$ events for the $`K_{l3\gamma }`$ decay.

Aside from $`K`$-meson decays, it is possible to study the lepton transverse polarization in similar $`B`$-meson decays. It should be noted that the value of $`P_T`$ is especially sensitive to $`CP`$-violating Higgs boson Yukawa couplings in these decays. Obviously, in the case of $`BD^{()}\tau \nu _\tau `$, the value of transverse polarization, due to the complexity of these couplings is $`(m_bm_\tau )/(m_sm_\mu )800`$ times greater then $`P_T`$ in analogues $`K\pi \mu \nu _\mu `$ decay.

In  the effects of $`CP`$-violating transverse polarization of leptons in the decays $`BD(^{})ł\nu `$ in various SM extensions are analyzed. From these studies it follows that the $`\tau `$-lepton transverse polarization can have the values $`P_T1`$ in models with $`CP`$-violation in the Higgs sector , and $`P_T0.26`$ in the leptoquark models . Thus, one can expect that the value of transverse polarization in various extensions of SM is rather large. However, to estimate the impact of new physics and perform the dedicated study of the polarization phenomenon it is necessary to carry out the calculation of SM contribution to this observable. In this paper we calculate the $`CP`$-conserving SM contribution to $`P_T`$ in the $`B^+\overline{D}^0l^+\nu `$ decays ($`l=\tau ,\mu `$). For simplicity, the calculations are carried out in the framework of HQET in the leading approximation of $`1/m_Q`$ expansion. It is shown below that the value of transverse polarization is not equal to zero if and only if there is a non-zero phase shift of decay formfactors. Electromagnetic final state interaction induces the non-zero phase shift at the one-loop level and that, in turn, results in non-zero value of $`P_T`$. In our calculations we take into account only the $`(D,D^{})`$ doublet contribution to the transverse polarization.

In the next section we discuss the matrix elements contributing to the polarization value. In section 3 the procedure of transverse polarization calculation is given. The last section contains results and discussion.

## 2 Matrix elements

The general form for the $`D(D^{})|V^\mu (A^\mu )|B`$ matrix elements is as follows:

$`D(k)|V^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`f_+(p^\mu +k^\mu )+f_{}(p^\mu k^\mu ),`$
$`D(k)|A^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$
$`D^{}(k,ϵ)|V^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`ive^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }ϵ_\nu ^{}k_\alpha p_\beta ,`$
$`D^{}(k,ϵ)|A^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`a_1(ϵ^{})^\mu +a_2(ϵ^{}p)p^\mu +a_3(ϵ^{}p)k^\mu ,`$ (2)
where $`V^\mu =\overline{b}\gamma ^\mu c`$ and $`A^\mu =\overline{b}\gamma ^\mu \gamma _5c`$.

The $`D(k)|A^\mu |B(p)`$ matrix element is equal to zero, since it is impossible to construct the axial vector composed of two momenta available. In our calculations we use the following definition of the Levi-Civita tensor: $`ϵ^{0123}=1`$.

Estimates of transverse polarization are carried out in the leading order of HQET, i.e. under the assumption of $`m_b,m_c\mathrm{}`$. In this approximation the formfactors of the process are expressed in terms of the Isgur-Wise function $`\xi (vv^{})`$  and, accordingly, expressions (2) can be rewritten as:

$`D(k)|V^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega )}{\sqrt{m_Dm_B}}}(m_Dp^\mu +m_Bk^\mu ),`$
$`D(k)|A^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$
$`D^{}(k,ϵ)|V^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega )}{\sqrt{m_Dm_B}}}e^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }ϵ_\nu ^{}k_\alpha p_\beta ,`$
$`D^{}(k,ϵ)|A^\mu |B(p)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega )}{\sqrt{m_Dm_B}}}((m_Bm_D+pk)ϵ^\mu (ϵ^{}p)k^\mu ),`$ (3)
where $`\omega =(pk)/(m_Dm_B)`$. Except for the given matrix elements, it is necessary to take into account the matrix elements of the vector current between $`D`$ and $`D`$ ($`D^{}`$ and $`D`$) states. In the framework of HQET the formfactors of these matrix elements are also expressed through Isgur-Wise function:

$`D(p^{})|\overline{c}\gamma ^\mu c|D(k)=\xi (\omega ^{})(p^\mu +k^\mu ),`$
$`D(p^{})|\overline{c}\gamma ^\mu c|D^{}(k,ϵ)=i{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega ^{})}{m_D}}e^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }ϵ_\nu p_\alpha ^{}k_\beta ,`$ (4)
where $`\omega ^{}=(kp^{})/(m_Dm_B)`$. The $`D`$ and $`D^{}`$ mass difference is neglected in Eqs. (3) and (4) as it does not contribute to these matrix elements in the leading order of HQET.

The function $`\xi `$ is conventionally parameterized as:

$$\xi (\omega )=1\rho ^2(\omega 1).$$
(5)
In numerical estimates we use the value $`\rho ^2=0.94`$ obtained in  within the framework of potential quark model. This result is in good agreement with the experimental data . Different values can not drastically change the numerical results, since the kinematical area of the decay is quite narrow. In the $`BD\tau \nu _\tau `$ decay, $`\omega `$ varies from $`1`$ to $`(m_B^2+m_D^2m_\tau ^2)/2m_Bm_D=1.43`$, and in the $`BD\mu \nu _\mu `$ decay this value varies in the range of 1-1.59.

The $`D|J_{em}^\mu |D^{}`$ and $`D|J_{em}^\mu |D`$ matrix elements, where $`J_{em}^\mu `$ is the electromagnetic current, are also required. It is possible to write down this operator as the sum of heavy and light quark components:

$$J_{em}^\mu =J_h^\mu +J_l^\mu .$$
(6)
The matrix elements of heavy component of this electromagnetic current are expressed through Isgur-Wise function (4):

$`D(p^{})|J_h^\mu |D(k)=q_c\xi (\omega ^{})(p^\mu +k^\mu ),`$
$`D(p^{})|J_h^\mu |D^{}(k,ϵ)=iq_c{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega ^{})}{m_D}}e^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }ϵ_\nu p_\alpha ^{}k_\beta ,`$ (7)
where $`q_c`$ is $`c`$-quark charge. The matrix elements of $`J_l^\mu `$ have the form:

$`D(p^{})|J_l^\mu |D(k)=q_lf_l^1(q^2)(p^\mu +k^\mu ),`$
$`D(p^{})|J_l^\mu |D^{}(k,ϵ)=iq_l\beta f_l^2(q^2)e^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }ϵ_\nu p_\alpha ^{}k_\beta ,`$ (8)
where $`q_l`$ is the light quark charge and $`f_l^{(1,2)}(0)=1`$. The constant $`\beta `$, evaluated in  is equal to $`1.9\text{ GeV}^1`$. In our calculations we use $`q^2`$-dependence of $`f_l^i(q^2)`$ formfactors $`(i=1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2})`$, obtained under the assumption of dominant contribution of the $`\omega `$ and $`\rho `$-resonances to these formfactors . Neglecting the $`\omega `$ and $`\rho `$ mesons mass difference the expressions for $`f_l^i`$ take the form:

$`f_l^i={\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\frac{q^2}{m_\rho ^2}}},i=1,2`$ (9)
where $`m_\rho `$ is the $`\rho `$ meson mass.

## 3 Lepton transverse polarization

The amplitude of $`BD(D^{})l^+\nu _l`$ decay can be written as follows:

$$M=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}V_{cb}^{}D|V^\mu A^\mu |B\overline{u}(p_\nu )(1+\gamma _5)\gamma _\mu v(p_l),$$
(10)
where $`G_F`$ is the Fermi constant and $`V_{cb}^{}`$ is the corresponding CKM matrix element. Matrix elements $`D|V^\mu A^\mu |B`$ are discussed in the previous section. For the case of the $`BDl\nu _l`$ process it is convenient to introduce the following parameterization of the amplitude:

$$M=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}V_{cb}^{}\overline{u}(p_\nu )(1+\gamma _5)(C_1\widehat{p}+C_2)v(p_l).$$
(11)
It should be noted that Eq. (11) is the most general form of the decay amplitude. The expressions for $`C_1,C_2`$ in the leading order of HQET can be written as follows:

$`C_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega )}{\sqrt{m_Bm_D}}}(m_D+m_B),`$
$`C_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi (\omega )}{\sqrt{m_Bm_D}}}(m_Bm_l).`$ (12)
The partial width of the $`BDl^+\nu _l`$ decay in the $`B`$-meson rest frame can be expressed as:

$$d\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{|M|^2}{2m_B}(2\pi )^4\delta (pp_Dp_lp_\nu )\frac{d^3p_D}{(2\pi )^32E_D}\frac{d^3p_l}{(2\pi )^32E_l}\frac{d^3p_{\nu _l}}{(2\pi )^32E_{\nu _l}},$$
(13)
where summation over lepton and photon spin states is performed.

Introducing the unit vector along the muon spin direction in lepton rest frame, $`\stackrel{}{𝐬}`$, where $`\stackrel{}{𝐞}_i(i=L,N,T)`$ are the unit vectors along the longitudinal, normal and transverse components of lepton polarization, one can write down the matrix element squared for the transition into the particular lepton polarization state in the following form:

$$|M|^2=\rho _0[1+(P_L\stackrel{}{𝐞}_L+P_N\stackrel{}{𝐞}_N+P_T\stackrel{}{𝐞}_T)\stackrel{}{𝐬}],$$
(14)
where $`\rho _0`$ is the Dalitz plot probability density averaged over polarization states. The unit vectors $`\stackrel{}{𝐞}_i`$ can be expressed in terms of the three-momenta of final particles:

$$\stackrel{}{𝐞}_L=\frac{\stackrel{}{p}_l}{|\stackrel{}{p}_l|},\stackrel{}{𝐞}_N=\frac{\stackrel{}{p}_l\times (\stackrel{}{p}_D\times \stackrel{}{p}_l)}{|\stackrel{}{p}_l\times (\stackrel{}{p}_D\times \stackrel{}{p}_l)|},\stackrel{}{𝐞}_T=\frac{\stackrel{}{p}_D\times \stackrel{}{p}_l}{|\stackrel{}{p}_D\times \stackrel{}{p}_l|}.$$
(15)
With such definition of $`\stackrel{}{𝐞}_i`$ vectors, $`P_T,P_L`$, and $`P_N`$ denote transverse, longitudinal, and normal components of the muon polarization, correspondingly.

The Dalitz plot probability density has the following form:

$`\rho _0=G_F^2|V_{cb}|^2(4|C_1|^2(pp_\nu )(pp_l)+2|C_2|^2(p_\nu p_l)`$
$`2|C_1|^2(p_\nu p_l)m_B^24m_lRe(C_2C_1^{})(pp_\nu )).`$ (16)
The expression for transverse polarization can be written as follows:

$$P_T=\frac{\rho _T}{\rho _0},$$
(17)
where $`\rho _T`$ has the form

$$\rho _T=4G_F^2|V_{cb}|^2m_B\text{Im}(C_1C_2^{})|\stackrel{}{p}_D\times \stackrel{}{p}_l|.$$
(18)
Obviously, the lepton transverse polarization arises only in the case of nonzero phase shift between $`C_1`$ and $`C_2`$ formfactors. At the tree level of SM these formfactors are real and thus the lepton transverse polarization in this case is equal to zero. The non-vanishing $`P_T`$ arises due to the effect of final state interaction. To calculate the imaginary parts of the formfactors one can use the $`S`$-matrix unitarity as it has been done in  for the case of the $`K^0\pi \mu \nu `$ decay.

The diagrams inducing the transverse lepton polarization are shown in Fig. 1. As it has been mentioned earlier, in our calculations we take into account only the diagrams with intermediate $`D,D^{}`$-mesons. The contribution of these diagrams to the imaginary part of the decay amplitude can be written as follows:

$`\text{Im}M={\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}}V_{cb}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{2\pi }}{\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{d\rho }{k_\gamma ^2}}\overline{u}(p_\nu )(1+\gamma _5)\gamma _\sigma (\widehat{k}_lm_l)\gamma _\lambda v(p_l)`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{n=D,D^{}}{}}D|J_{em}^\lambda |nn|V^\sigma A^\sigma |B,`$ (19)
where $`k_l,k_D`$ denotes the four-momenta of the intermediate $`D`$, $`D^{}`$ mesons, correspondingly, $`k_\gamma ^2=(k_Dp_D)^2`$ is the squared transferred momentum, $`d\rho `$ is the two particle phase space. Expressions for the $`D|J_{em}^\lambda |n,n|V^\sigma A^\sigma |B`$ matrix elements are given in the previous section.

It should be noted that $`D`$-meson contribution to the imaginary part of the decay amplitude comprises an infrared divergence, but the latter doesn’t affect the value of transverse polarization. One may explain this fact by the factorization of soft photon contribution, which, in turn, does not lead to non-zero phase difference of formfactors required for a non-vanishing transverse polarization. So, we do not have to take into account divergent terms as it was done in . As for the $`D^{}`$-meson contribution it is free from infrared divergence, since in this case the lower bound of transferred momentum is:

$`(k_\gamma ^2)_{min}=(m_D^{}^2m_D^2){\displaystyle \frac{m_l}{m_l+m_D}},`$ (20)
which is equal to 500 and 160 MeV for the $`\tau `$-lepton and muon cases, correspondingly. Taking into account this numerical values one can conclude that it is necessary to regard mass difference of $`D`$ and $`D^{}`$-mesons when integrating over the phase space.

Evidently, there are contributions to transverse polarization coming from excited $`D`$-meson states. But we suppose that this contribution can not change the result dramatically, since the Isgur-Wise function defined in (5) is greater than that in the case of $`B`$-meson decay into excited $`D`$-meson. The Isgur-Wise function for transition into $`(0^+,1^+)`$ doublet, $`\tau _{1/2}(\omega )`$, was calculated in . The value of $`\tau _{1/2}(1)`$ obtained in this paper is equal to 0.24. One can see that the heavy quark contribution to $`P_T`$ is proportional to second power of $`\tau _{1/2}(1)`$ and the light quark contribution is linear in $`\tau _{1/2}(1)`$. Furthermore, the physical region, where the value of transverse polarization is not equal to zero is bounded by inequality $`(p_l+p_D)^2(m_D+m_l)^2`$. In the case of intermediate $`D^{}`$-meson this restriction does not cut physical region significantly. Contrary to the case of intermediate state with $`D^{}`$-meson, the physical region for the $`(0^+,1^+)`$ case is strongly confined which results in the reduction of average transverse polarization.

We do not give the analytical expressions for imaginary parts of formfactors and integrals entering the imaginary part of one loop decay amplitude for their complexity.

## 4 Numerical results and discussion

It is convenient to use the following $`x,y`$ variables

$`E_D={\displaystyle \frac{m_B}{2}}x,E_\gamma ={\displaystyle \frac{m_B}{2}}y,`$ (21)
where $`E_D`$ and $`E_\gamma `$ are the $`D`$-meson and photon energies; $`m_B`$ is the $`B`$-meson mass.

The three-dimensional distributionss of lepton transverse polarization in the kinematical region $`(x,y)`$ for the processes $`B^0D^{}\tau \nu _\mu `$, $`B^0D^{}\mu \nu _\tau `$, $`B^+\overline{D}^0\tau \nu _\mu `$, and $`B^+\overline{D}^0\mu \nu _\tau `$ are shown in Figs. 2, 4, 6, 8 correspondingly. The contour lines for $`P_T`$ in these decays are shown in Figs. 3, 5, 7, 9.

Corresponding values of transverse polarization averaged over the physical region are as follows

| Decay | $`<P_T>`$ |
| --- | --- |
| $`B^0D^{}\tau \nu _\tau `$ | $`2.6010^3`$ |
| $`B^0D^{}\mu \nu _\mu `$ | $`2.9710^4`$ |
| $`B^+\overline{D}^0\tau \nu _\tau `$ | $`1.5910^3`$ |
| $`B^+\overline{D}^0\mu \nu _\mu `$ | $`6.7910^4`$ |

As it was mentioned earlier, the lepton transverse polarization can be represented as the sum of heavy and light quarks contributions.

Formfactors of heavy and light electromagnetic current defined in (7) and (8) have different scales. The heavy formfactors scale is of the order of $`m_D`$ and the light formfactors scale is smaller and it is of the order of $`m_\rho `$. Due to this fact and $`\overline{D}^0`$-meson neutrality one can state that the contribution to $`P_T`$ from the diagram with intermediate $`\overline{D}^0`$-meson in the $`B^+\overline{D}^0l\nu `$ decay is rather small in $`k_\gamma ^2m_\rho ^2`$ region and appreciably large in $`k_\gamma ^2m_\rho ^2`$ kinematical region.

The contribution to $`P_T`$ coming from the diagram with intermediate $`D^{}`$-meson turns out to be larger than that one of the diagram with intermediate $`D`$-meson due to $`\overline{D}^0`$-meson neutrality. This fact explains the sign difference of averaged transverse polarization in the $`B^+\overline{D}^0l\nu `$ and $`B^0D^{}l\nu `$ decays.

Finally, we would like to remark that the averaged values of $`P_T`$ in SM is quite small in comparison to some models predictions . This allows one to conclude that $`B`$-meson decays provide appealing possibility to search for new physics effects.

## Acknowledgements

The authors thank Drs. V.V. Kiselev and A.K. Likhoded for fruitful discussion and valuable remarks. This woks is in part supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grants 99-02-16558 and 00-15-96645; Russian Education Ministry, grant E00-3.3-62 and CRDF MO-011-0.The work of A.A.Likhoded is partially supported by FAPESP under grant 01/0639-04.

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## Figure captions

Feynman diagrams contributing to lepton transverse polarization in $`B^0D^{}l\nu _l`$ decay at one-loop level of SM.

The 3D plot for $`\tau `$-lepton transverse polarization for the case of $`B^0D^{}\tau \nu _\tau `$ decay.

The level lines for $`\tau `$-lepton transverse polarization for the case of $`B^0D^{}\tau \nu _\tau `$ decay.

The 3D plot for muon transverse polarization for the case of $`B^0D^{}\mu \nu _\mu `$ decay.

The level lines for muon transverse polarization for the case of $`B^0D^{}\mu \nu _\mu `$ decay.

The 3D plot for $`\tau `$-lepton transverse polarization for the case of $`B^+\overline{D}^0\tau \nu _\tau `$ decay.

The level lines for $`\tau `$-lepton transverse polarization for the case of $`B^+\overline{D}^0\tau \nu _\tau `$ decay.

The 3D plot for muon transverse polarization for the case of $`B^+\overline{D}^0\mu \nu _\mu `$ decay.

The level lines for muon transverse polarization for the case of $`B^+\overline{D}^0\mu \nu _\mu `$ decay.


text:
# A measurement of the rate of wrong-sign decays 𝐷⁰→𝐾⁺𝜋⁻

## I Introduction

The Standard Model predicts that $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ mixing is small, with many estimates for the mixing parameters $`x=\mathrm{\Delta }M/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`y=\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }/2\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at the $`10^3`$ level, although long-distance effects in the Standard Model may raise both parameters to $`10^2`$ Bigi:2000wn ; Golowich:1998pz . New physics effects may enhance $`x`$, but are not expected to affect $`y`$. Consequently, a discovery of large $`x`$ with small $`y`$ would imply new physics.

Experimentally, mixing can be identified by the study of the wrong-sign (WS) process $`D^0K^+\pi ^{}`$, which can proceed directly through doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decay (DCSD) or through mixing followed by Cabibbo-favored decay (CFD). The decay of an initial $`D^{}{}_{}{}^{+}D^0\pi _s^+`$ yields a charged “slow” pion, denoted $`\pi _s^+`$, whose sign can be used to tag the initial $`D`$ as either $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$.

The differential WS rate relative to the right-sign process is ref:wst

$`r_{WS}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^0(t)K^+\pi ^{})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^0K^{}\pi ^+)}}`$ (1)
$`=`$ $`\left[R_D+\sqrt{R_D}y^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }t+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(x^2+y^2)\mathrm{\Gamma }^2t^2\right]e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }t},`$
where $`R_D`$ is the relative rate of DCSD to CFD. We use the convention of CLEO ref:cleo , with $`y^{}=y\mathrm{cos}\delta x\mathrm{sin}\delta `$ and $`x^{}=x\mathrm{cos}\delta +y\mathrm{sin}\delta `$, where $`\delta `$ is the relative strong phase between the DCSD and CFD channels. A fit to the $`r_{WS}(t)`$ distribution in Belle data, to obtain the mixing parameters, is underway. In this paper, we present a preliminary measurement of the time-integrated wrong-sign rate,

$$R_{WS}=R_D+\sqrt{R_D}y^{}+\frac{1}{2}(x^2+y^2),$$
(2)
based on the same event reconstruction and background-handling techniques used for the full analysis.

## II Experimental Apparatus and Data sample

The analysis is based on data accumulated by the Belle detector at KEKB ref:kekb , an asymmetric collider with 8 GeV electron and 3.5 GeV positron storage rings. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 46.2 fb<sup>-1</sup>.

Belle ref:belle  is a general-purpose detector based on a 1.5 T superconducting solenoid. Charged tracks are reconstructed using a 50-layer Central Drift Chamber (CDC) and a 3-layer double sided Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD). Particle identification for charged kaons and pions is performed by combining information from the CDC ($`dE/dx`$), a set of time-of-flight counters (TOF) and a set of aerogel Čerenkov counters (ACC). The combined result of the three systems provides $`K/\pi `$ separation up to 3.5 GeV.

## III Candidate Reconstruction

For $`D^0K^+\pi ^{}`$ decay, we use oppositely charged tracks where both tracks have good SVD hits. Charged $`K`$ and $`\pi `$ mesons are required to be positively identified, with efficiencies 88.0% and 88.5% respectively, and fake rates of 8.5% ($`\pi `$ fakes $`K`$) and 8.8% ($`K`$ fakes $`\pi `$). $`D^{}^+`$ candidates are then reconstructed by combining the $`D^0`$ candidate with another charged track, $`\pi _s^+`$. The reconstructed $`D^{}^+`$ momentum in the center of mass frame $`P^{}(D^{})`$ is required to be greater than 2.5 GeV to eliminate $`B\overline{B}`$ events. Vertex fits are performed, requiring the two tracks forming the $`D^0`$ candidate to originate from a common vertex, the $`D^0`$ flight direction to be consistent with a particle originating from the interaction point, and the $`\pi _s^+`$ to originate from the $`D^0`$ production vertex. We accept candidates with good vertex quality. The value of $`D^0`$ mass $`M`$ and the energy released in $`D^{}^+`$ decay $`Q=M(K^+,\pi ^{},\pi _s^+)M(K^+,\pi ^{})M(\pi _s^+)`$ are then obtained.

The right-sign decay $`D^{}{}_{}{}^{+}D^0\pi _s^+`$, $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ is reconstructed in the same way. Here and throughout this paper, the inclusion of charge conjugate modes is implied.

## IV Background Determination

The information in the signal region alone is insufficient to determine the signal time distribution, because the background level is comparable to the signal in the signal box, and the various backgrounds have different time distributions. We therefore divide the background into categories, and determine the population of each using $`M,Q`$ information. To obtain the signal yield as well as the level of each background, we perform a two-dimensional (2D) fit to $`(M,Q)`$. By studying a large number of continuum Monte-Carlo (MC) events, we categorize the backgrounds as follows:

* $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ with double misidentification ($`K^{}\pi ^{},\pi ^+K^+`$).
* $`D^0K^+K^{}`$ with single misidentification ($`K^{}\pi ^{}`$).
* $`D^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ with single misidentification ($`\pi ^+K^+`$).
* $`\overline{D}{}_{}{}^{0}K^+\pi ^{}`$ combines with a random slow $`\pi ^+`$ to form a fake $`D^{}^+`$.
* $`D^03`$ body decay, with two daughters identified as $`K,\pi `$.
* $`D^+,D_s^+`$ decay, with two daughters identified as $`K,\pi `$.
* Pure combinatorial background.

The $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ double misidentification background can be rejected by kinematic requirements. We evaluate the $`D^0`$ mass under swapped mass assignment $`M_{\text{flip}}=M_{K\pi ,\pi K}`$. If $`M_{\text{flip}}`$ falls within 28 MeV ($`4\sigma `$) of the nominal $`D^0`$ mass, the $`D^0K^+\pi ^{}`$ candidate is rejected. For the $`D^0K^+K^{},\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ single misidentification background, the change from the hypothesis that a charged track is a $`\pi (K)`$ to a $`K(\pi )`$ in the $`D^0`$ 2 body decay daughters results in an increase(decrease) in the reconstructed $`D^0`$ mass $`M`$ of at least 60 MeV. This behavior has been studied in both data and MC. So we choose the $`D^0`$ mass window $`1.811.91`$ GeV for histogram making and fitting to exclude these two backgrounds.

Each of the remaining four types of background is parametrized and fitted with a 2D function to obtain its shape, as shown in Figs 24.

The backgrounds in the right-sign sample are categorized and fitted in a similar way. They are grouped into three types:

* $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ combines with a random slow $`\pi ^+`$ to form a fake $`D^{}^+`$.
* Charmed ground state meson $`3`$ body decay, with two daughters identified as $`K,\pi `$ (“$`D`$3 body” background).
* Pure combinatorial background.

## V Results

We perform a 2D fit to the ($`M,Q`$) distribution for the right-sign data, with the normalization of each background allowed to float in the fit. The signal is represented by a double Gaussian in $`M`$ and a bifurcated Student’s t function in $`Q`$. The projections onto $`M`$ and $`Q`$ are shown in Fig. 5. To perform the 2D fit for the wrong-sign data, we fix the wrong-sign signal shape to the shape of the right-sign signal, and float the normalization of the signal and each type of background, but fix the relative normalization between the $`D_s^+,D^+`$ and $`D^03`$ body backgrounds. The projections of the wrong-sign data and the fit results are shown in Fig. 6. The data are the circles with error bars, and there are 20 bins in $`M`$ ($`1.811.91`$ GeV) and 160 bins in $`Q`$ ($`020`$ MeV). We find $`120795\pm 371`$ $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ and $`450\pm 31`$ $`D^0K^+\pi ^{}`$ events. The ratio $`R_{WS}`$ is then calculated to be $`\left(0.372\pm 0.025\right)\%`$.

Many systematics cancel because $`R_{WS}`$ is a ratio between two decay modes with similar kinematics. The dominant systematic errors stem from potential imperfect modeling of the shapes for our backgrounds. We vary selection criteria ($`K`$ and $`\pi `$ identification cuts, vertexing criteria, the $`P^{}(D^{})`$ cut) and use different background parameterizations, and then repeat the fit on each category of MC background as well as on the right-sign and wrong-sign data. The variation in the result is taken as a measure of the systematic error. We also vary the background shape parameters according to their errors and calculate the resulting error on $`R_{WS}`$. The correlations among these background shape parameters are considered either in the variation or in the $`R_{WS}`$ error calculation. The results are summarized in Table 1. All systematic errors are combined in quadrature.

In summary, we have measured the ratio $`R_{WS}`$ of the rate of the wrong-sign process $`D^0K^+\pi ^{}`$ relative to the right-sign process $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ to be

$$R_{WS}=\left(0.372\pm 0.025(\text{stat})_{0.014}^{+0.009}(\text{syst})\right)\%.$$
(3)
This result is preliminary. It is compared with other experimental results ref:babar ; ref:cleo ; ref:focus ; ref:e791  in Fig 7.

## Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the KEKB accelerator group for the excellent operation of the KEKB accelerator. We acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Australian Research Council and the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources; the National Science Foundation of China under contract No. 10175071; the Department of Science and Technology of India; the BK21 program of the Ministry of Education of Korea and the CHEP SRC program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation; the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research under contract No. 2P03B 17017; the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia; the National Science Council and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan; and the U.S. Department of Energy.