Effects of Inhomogeneities on Heat and Mass Transport Phenomena in Thermal Bridges

The interest of calculating the effects of thermal bridges in buildings energy consumption is growing, due to recent energy saving regulations applied in different countries. The widespread use of insulating materials to reduce energy requirements of buildings, often employed for intermediate insulation of the building envelope, makes thermal bridges a crucial point in the energy analysis of building envelopes. Furthermore, heat losses through thermal bridges often lead to building pathologies due to moisture condensation. Therefore, thermal bridges need to be correctly characterized in the building design stage in order to reduce heat losses and avoid materials degradation. The authors numerically simulate, by using finite elements, the steady-state and dynamic three-dimensional (3D) heat and vapor transport in inhomogeneous thermal bridges and building envelopes. The aim of the present work is to show the importance of taking into account the presence of inhomogeneities (i.e., metal stud) in building materials for the calculation of actual heat losses and water condensation in 3D thermal bridges. The obtained heat transfer results are verified against the reference data of the technical standard UNI EN ISO 10211. The proposed microscopic approach is essential to calculate the actual heat losses of three-dimensional thermal bridges and building envelopes and to overcome condensation problems

Transmission through graphene of electrons in the 30 – 900 eV range

Here, we report on accurate transmission measurements of electrons below 1 keV through suspended monolayer graphene. Monolayer graphene was grown via chemical vapor deposition and transferred onto transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids. A monochromatic electron gun has been employed to perform the measurements in the 30 – 900 eV range in ultra-high vacuum. The graphene transparency is obtained from the absolute measurement of the direct beam current and the transmitted one, by means of a Faraday cup. We observed a transmission going from 20 to 80% for monolayer graphene within the experimental electron energy range. The high quality and the grid coverage of the suspended graphene has been proved via micro-Raman, X-ray photoemission, electron energy loss spectroscopies and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. After a 550 °C in-vacuum annealing of the samples, the main contribution to the C 1s spectrum is due to the component and the evidence of suspended monolayer graphene has been observed through the -plasmon excitation

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of s√=7TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV

Measurement of inclusive two-particle angular correlations in pp collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

We present a measurement of two-particle angular correlations in proton- proton collisions at s√=900 GeV and 7 TeV. The collision events were collected during 2009 and 2010 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using a single-arm minimum bias trigger. Correlations are measured for charged particles produced in the kinematic range of transverse momentum p T  > 100 MeV and pseudorapidity |η| < 2.5. A complex structure in pseudorapidity and azimuth is observed at both collision energies. Results are compared to pythia 8 and herwig++ as well as to the AMBT2B, DW and Perugia 2011 tunes of pythia 6. The data are not satisfactorily described by any of these models

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Inclusive search for same-sign dilepton signatures in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An inclusive search is presented for new physics in events with two isolated leptons (e or mu) having the same electric charge. The data are selected from events collected from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The spectra in dilepton invariant mass, missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity are presented and compared to Standard Model predictions. In this event sample, no evidence is found for contributions beyond those of the Standard Model. Limits are set on the cross-section in a fiducial region for new sources of same-sign high-mass dilepton events in the ee, e mu and mu mu channels. Four models predicting same-sign dilepton signals are constrained: two descriptions of Majorana neutrinos, a cascade topology similar to supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, and fourth generation d-type quarks. Assuming a new physics scale of 1 TeV, Majorana neutrinos produced by an effective operator V with masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. A lower limit of 290 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of fourth generation d-type quarks

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde