Two decay channels of the ω(782) meson, into π+π-π0 and π+π-, are studied. The dynamics of the three-pion channel is represented using a two-dimensional distribution, called a Dalitz plot. A high-statistics Dalitz plot distribution is needed to test theoretical predictions and increase understanding of the decay mechanism. The isospin-breaking two-pion decay gives insight into the ρ-ω mixing. The ω→π+π- decay has previously been studied in π+π- spectra in high statistics e+e- experiments and with lower statistics in hadroproduction experiments. The collected evidence indicates that the resulting interference pattern strongly depends on the production reaction. In 2011 an experiment to investigate ω hadronic decays in pd→3Heω reaction was performed with the WASA detector. Two studies based on the collected data are included in this thesis. In the first, the dominant decay channel ω→π+π-π0 is selected and two experimental Dalitz plot distributions are created. Each distribution corresponds to one of the two incident beam energies used in the experiment. A fit to the Dalitz plots is performed using a parametrisation including the expected P-wave shape. The result indicates an onset of the intermediate ρ in the two-pion channel, as predicted by theoretical models. The efficiency corrected Dalitz plot bin contents are reported to facilitate comparison to theoretical predictions by direct fits to the experimental data. In the second study, the ω→π+π- decay channel is selected. For events with a 3Heπ+π- final state, the 3He missing mass is constructed in search for the ρ-ω interference pattern in pd production. No significant deviations around the ω mass position was found. Dedicated studies using experimental data to estimate background contribution and to extract signal acceptance shows that the background is too large to observe the expected signal with the collected data sample. The last part of the thesis presents pre-studies for using data collected at the KLOE detector for an ω→π+π-π0 Dalitz plot analysis. Since the ω mesons are produced in the e+e-→ωπ0 reaction, the study focuses on the impact of the π0-π0 interference.

The present thesis describes two experiments performed in the storage ring CELSIUS at The Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala. In the first experiment the importance of three - nucleon clustering in the six - nucelon system was investigated. The total cross section for the production of the ground state and the 3.56 MeV second excited state of 6Li in the 3He(3He,6Li)π+ reaction has been measured at two beam energies, 261.1 and 262.5 MeV, corresponding to center - of - mass energies 1.2 and 1.9 MeV above the production threshold for the 3.56 MeV state. For the ground state the result was 347 ± 84 ± 42 and 92 ± 84 ± 11 nb respectively. The result for the 3.56 MeV state, 104 ± 23 ± 12 and 56 ± 35 ± 7 nb respectively, is compared to the result of a previous study where the 3.56 MeV state was populated in the d(4He,6Li)π0 reaction. In the second experiment a clean sample of 5×105 eta mesons was prepared by means of the d(p,3He)η reaction. Eta production was tagged by the precise determination of the kinetic energy of the associated 3He ions. In the subsequent decay of eta mesons, channels with lepton - anti - lepton pairs were studied in the WASA detector. In a separate study properties of the WASA deuterium pellet target were investigated and in particular the effects on the beam of the beam - target interactions. In both sets of experiments the fused nuclear system was detected by means of a zero - degree spectrometer with a semiconductor detector telescope. Choosing the detectors to match the rather different requirements, precise information regarding the identity and the momentum of the detected ions could be obtained in both cases.

The mechanism of the isospin violating η→π+π−π0 decay is studied in a high precision experiment using a Dalitz plot analysis. The process is sensitive to the difference between up and down quark masses. The measurement provides an important input for the determination of the light quark masses and for the theoretical description of the low energy strong interactions. The measurement was carried out between 2004 and 2005 using the KLOE detector at the DAΦNE e+e− collider located in Frascati, Italy. The data was collected at a center of mass energy corresponding to the φ-meson peak (1019.5 MeV) with an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb−1. The source of the η-mesons is the radiative decay of the φ-meson: e+e−→φ→ηγ, resulting in the world’s largest data sample of about 4.7·106 η→π+π−π0 decay events. In this thesis, the KLOE Monte Carlo simulation and reconstruction programs are used to optimize the background rejection cuts and to evaluate the signal efficiency. The background contamination in the final data sample is below 1%. The data sample is used to construct the Dalitz plot distribution in the normalized dimensionless variables X and Y. The distribution is parametrized by determining the coefficients of the third order polynomial in the X and Y variables (so called Dalitz plot parameters). The statistical accuracy of the extracted parameters is two times better than any of the previous measurements. In particular the contribution of the X2Y term is found to be different from zero with a significance of approximately 3σ. The systematic effects are studied and found to be of the same size as the statistical uncertainty. The contribution of the terms related to charge conjugation violation (odd powers of the X variable) and the measured charge asymmetries are consistent with zero. The background subtracted and acceptance corrected bin contents of the Dalitz plot distribution are provided to facilitate direct comparison with other experiments and with theoretical calculations.

Les mésons lourd-légers jouent un rôle majeur dans la recherche de nouvelle physique au delà du modèle standard. En particulier, les propriétés du méson B sont utilisées pour contraindre la matrice Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) qui décrit les changements de saveur d’un quark lors d’une interaction faible.Les interactions entre quarks et gluons sont décrites par la théorie de l'interaction forte (QCD). Cette dernière prédit, qu'à faible énergie, le couplage de la théorie croît rendant tout traitement perturbatif impossible. La QCD sur réseau est une régularisation non-perturbative de la QCD adaptée aux simulations numériques. Néanmoins, l'étude des mésons lourd-légers est particulièrement délicate puisqu'elle nécessite la prise en compte de nombreuses échelles d'énergies. La théorie effective des quarks lourds (HQET) peut alors être utilisée : elle consiste en une expansion systématique du Lagrangien QCD et des fonctions de corrélation en puissance de 1/m où m est la masse du quark lourd.Après avoir présenté les outils de la QCD sur réseaux, un calcul de la masse du quark b avec nf=2 quarks dynamiques est présentée. Toutes les étapes sont réalisées de manière non-perturbative et le résultat est une importante vérification de la valeur actuellement citée par le PDG et qui repose essentiellement sur des calculs perturbatifs.Dans la seconde partie de la thèse, après avoir présenté les Lagrangiens décrivant les mésons lourd-légers dans la limite chirale, je présente le calcul de deux couplages. Le premier couplage est associé à la transition hadronique B* '→Bπ où B* 'est la première excitation radiale du méson B vecteur. Il est obtenue en étudiant le rapport de fonctions de corrélation à trois et deux points et le problème aux valeurs propres généralisées (GEVP) est utilisé pour isoler la contribution de l'état excité. Dans un second temps, le couplage h décrivant la transition entre des mésons B scalaire et pseudoscalaire est calculé. Ce couplage intervient dans les extrapolations chirales de différentes quantités, comme la constante de désintégration du méson B scalaire. Nous verrons que le couplage h est important et qu'il ne peux pas être négligé.Finalement, je présenterai nos résultats concernant le calcul de la masse et de la constant d'annihilation de la première excitation radiale du méson D. Je comparerai la masse obtenue avec celle du nouvel état récemment découvert par la Collaboration BaBar et j'expliquerai comment le calcul de la constante d'annihilation peut aider dans la résolution du problème "1/2 vs. 3/2''. Tout au long de ce travail, le GEVP est utilisé pour réduire la contribution des états excités. De plus les extrapolations chirales et la limite du continue sont étudiées afin de tenir compte des différentes sources d'erreurs statistiques. / Heavy-light mesons play an important role in the search of new physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular B-mesons properties can be used to put constraints on the matrix elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mixing matrix governing flavour-changing weak decays.The dynamics of quarks and gluons are described by Quantum Chromodynamic (QCD). This theory predicts that, at low energies, the associated coupling constant increases, making the use of perturbative methods ineffective. Lattice QCD is a non-perturbative regularization scheme of QCD, suitable for numerical simulations. However, studying heavy-light mesons remains a challenging task due to the many different energy scales that must be considered simultaneously on the lattice. In this work, I use the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET), which consists in a systematic expansion of the QCD Lagrangian and correlation functions in 1/m where m is the mass of the heavy quark.After a presentation of the main techniques used in lattice simulations, a computation of the b-quark mass with nf=2 dynamical quarks is presented. All the steps are performed non-perturbatively, offering an important cross-check of the value cited in the PDG which mainly relies on perturbation theory. A computation of the B-meson decay constant at static and first orders in HQET will be also presented and phenomenological implication are discussed.In the second part of this thesis, after introducing the Heavy Meson Chiral Lagrangians and its different couplings, I present the lattice computation of two such couplings. The first one is associated to the hadronic transitionB* '→Bπ where B* 'is the radial excitation of the vector B meson. The Generalized Eigenvalue Problem (GEVP) will be used to extract information about the excited state from the ratio of three-point to two-point correlation functions and I will discuss the phenomenological implications of our results. Then, I will present the computation of the coupling h between the scalar and the pseudoscalar B mesons using two-point correlation functions. This coupling enters the formulae used to guide the chiral extrapolations when positive parity states are taken into account. We will see that h is large compared to the other couplings and that B meson orbital excitation degrees of freedom cannot be missed in chiral loops.Finally, I will present the lattice computation of the mass and decay constant of the first radial excitation of the D meson. The mass will be compared with the recently observed state by the BaBar Collaboration and I show how the decay constant can help to solve the so-called "1/2 vs. 3/2'' puzzle. In this work, the GEVP is used to control the contribution from higher excited states and continuum and chiral extrapolations are performed to take intro account systematic errors.

Les désintégrations semileptoniques du méson $B$ participent à la détermination de certains paramètres fondamentaux du Modèle Standard. Ce travail décrit essentiellement l'étude des deux canaux de désintégrations $B_s \to D_s \ell \bar\nu_\ell$ et $B\to D^{**} \ell\bar\nu_\ell$ (où les $D^{**}$ sont les premières excitations orbitales des mésons $D$ ayant une parité positive). Le cadre théorique est celui de la QCD sur réseau qui, en discrétisant l'espace-temps, permet de calculer non perturbativement les fonctions de Green de la théorie. En utilisant l'action à masse twistée avec deux saveurs dégénérées de quarks dynamiques ($N_f=2$), nous avons commencé par étudier la spectroscopie des états charmés scalaires $D_0^*$ et tenseurs $D_2^*$. Ensuite, nous avons réalisé la détermination du facteur de forme $G_s(1)$ décrivant le processus $B_s\to D_s \ell \bar\nu_\ell$ dans le Modèle Standard. Ce paramètre offre un moyen d'extraire l'élément de la matrice CKM $V_{cb}$. Par ailleurs, et pour la première fois en QCD sur réseau, nous avons déterminé les rapports $F_0(q^2)/F_+(q^2)$ et $F_T(q^2)/F_+(q^2)$ dans la région proche du recul nul: ces contributions sont en effet nécessaires afin de discuter ce canal de désintégration dans certains modèles au-delà du Modèle Standard. Enfin, une étude préliminaire du canal de désintégration $B\to D^{**}$ a été abordée où nous avons trouvé une valeur non nulle de l'élément de matrice décrivant la désintégration $B\to D_0^*$ à recul nul contrairement de ce qui est connu à la limite des quarks lourds. Dans le cas du $B \to D_2^*$, nos résultats ont montré un signal indiquant une différence par rapport aux prédictions de masse infinie. Ces calculs sont indispensables afin de tirer une conclusion plus solide concernant le ``puzzle 1/2 vs 3/2''. / Semileptonic decays of $B$ mesons provide a rich source of knowledge for determining fundamental parameters of the Standard Model. This work reports mainly on the study of two semileptonic decay channels: the $B_s \to D_s \ell\bar\nu_\ell$ and $B\to D^{**} \ell\bar\nu_\ell$ (where the $D^{**}$ are the first orbitally excited states of the $D$ mesons having a positive parity). The theoretical framework is Lattice QCD which is considered as the only satisfying approach which calculates in a non perturbative way the transition amplitudes from first principles. By using the twisted mass QCD on the lattice with $N_f = 2$ dynamical flavors we studied, first, the spectroscopy of the scalar $D_0^*$ and the tensor $D_2^*$ states. Then, we determined the normalization $G_s(1)$ of the form factor dominating $B_s \to D_s \ell \bar\nu_\ell$ in the Standard Model which provides a means of extracting the CKM matrix element $V_{cb}$. Next, we make the first lattice determination of $F_0(q^2)/F_+(q^2)$ and $F_T(q^2)/F_+(q^2)$ near the zero recoil. The obtained results are important for the discussion of this decay in various scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model. Finally, we did a preliminary study of $B\to D^{**}$ where we have obtained a non vanishing matrix element corresponding to the decay of $B$ into the $D_0^*$ at zero recoil contrary to what was known in the heavy quark limit. Moreover, the computations corresponding to $B\to D_2^*$ show a signal indicating a difference with respect to the infinite mass limit prediction. These results are important to draw a firm conclusion on the ``1/2 vs 3/2 puzzle''.

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