Developing Cross Section Sets for Fluorocarbon Etchants

Successful modeling of plasmas used in materials processing depends on knowledge of a variety of collision cross sections and reaction rates, both within the plasma and at the surface. Electron-molecule collision cross sections are especially important, affecting both electron transport and the generation of reactive fragments by dissociation and ionization. Because the supply of cross section data is small and measurements are difficult, computational approaches may make a valuable contribution, provided they can cope with the significant challenges posed. In particular, a computational method must deal with the full complexity of low-energy electron-molecule interactions, must treat polyatomic molecules, and must be capable of computing cross sections for electronic excitation. These requirements imply that the method will be numerically intensive and thus must exploit high-performance computers to be practical. We have developed an ab initio computational method, the Schwinger multichannel (SMC) method, that possesses the characteristics just described, and we have applied it to compute cross sections for a variety of molecules, with particular emphasis on fluorocarbon and hydrofluorocarbon etchants used in the semiconductor industry. A key aspect of this work has been an awareness that cross section sets, validated when possible against swarm data, are more useful than individual cross sections. To develop such sets, cross section calculations must be integrated within a focused collaborative effort. Here we describe electron cross section calculations carried out within the context of such a focused effort, with emphasis on fluorinated hydrocarbons including CHF3 (trifluoromethane), c-C_(4)F_(8) (octafluorocyclobutane), and C_(2)F_(4) (tetrafluoroethene)

Mining SOM expression portraits: Feature selection and integrating concepts of molecular function

Background: 
Self organizing maps (SOM) enable the straightforward portraying of high-dimensional data of large sample collections in terms of sample-specific images. The analysis of their texture provides so-called spot-clusters of co-expressed genes which require subsequent significance filtering and functional interpretation. We address feature selection in terms of the gene ranking problem and the interpretation of the obtained spot-related lists using concepts of molecular function.

Results: 
Different expression scores based either on simple fold change-measures or on regularized Students t-statistics are applied to spot-related gene lists and compared with special emphasis on the error characteristics of microarray expression data. The spot-clusters are analyzed using different methods of gene set enrichment analysis with the focus on overexpression and/or overrepresentation of predefined sets of genes. Metagene-related overrepresentation of selected gene sets was mapped into the SOM images to assign gene function to different regions. Alternatively we estimated set-related overexpression profiles over all samples studied using a gene set enrichment score. It was also applied to the spot-clusters to generate lists of enriched gene sets. We used the tissue body index data set, a collection of expression data of human tissues, as an illustrative example. We found that tissue related spots typically contain enriched populations of gene sets well corresponding to molecular processes in the respective tissues. In addition, we display special sets of housekeeping and of consistently weak and highly expressed genes using SOM data filtering. 

Conclusions:
The presented methods allow the comprehensive downstream analysis of SOM-transformed expression data in terms of cluster-related gene lists and enriched gene sets for functional interpretation. SOM clustering implies the ability to define either new gene sets using selected SOM spots or to verify and/or to amend existing ones

Longitudinally Polarized Photoproduction of Inclusive Hadrons at Fixed-Target Experiments

We present a detailed phenomenological study of spin-dependent single-inclusive high-p_T hadron photoproduction with particular emphasis on the kinematics relevant for the Compass and Hermes fixed-target experiments. We carefully examine the theoretical uncertainties associated with the only moderate transverse momenta accessible in such measurements and analyze the sensitivity of the relevant spin asymmetries to the gluon polarization in the nucleon as well as to the completely unknown parton content of circularly polarized photons.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures; final version to appear in EPJC; comparison to E155 data and references adde

Investigation of the 6He cluster structures

The 4He+2n and t+t clustering of the 6He ground state were investigated by means of the transfer reaction 6He(p,t)4He at 25 MeV/nucleon. The experiment was performed in inverse kinematics at GANIL with the SPEG spectrometer coupled to the MUST array. Experimental data for the transfer reaction were analyzed by a DWBA calculation including the two neutrons and the triton transfer. The couplings to the 6He --> 4He + 2n breakup channels were taken into account with a polarization potential deduced from a coupled-discretized-continuum channels analysis of the 6He+1H elastic scattering measured at the same time. The influence on the calculations of the 4He+t exit potential and of the triton sequential transfer is discussed. The final calculation gives a spectroscopic factor close to one for the 4He+2n configuration as expected. The spectroscopic factor obtained for the t+t configuration is much smaller than the theoretical predictions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, accepted in PR

The Structure of the Proton in the LHC Precision Era

We review recent progress in the determination of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, with emphasis on the applications for precision phenomenology at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First of all, we introduce the general theoretical framework underlying the global QCD analysis of the quark and gluon internal structure of protons. We then present a detailed overview of the hard-scattering measurements, and the corresponding theory predictions, that are used in state-of-the-art PDF fits. We emphasize here the role that higher-order QCD and electroweak corrections play in the description of recent high-precision collider data. We present the methodology used to extract PDFs in global analyses, including the PDF parametrization strategy and the definition and propagation of PDF uncertainties. Then we review and compare the most recent releases from the various PDF fitting collaborations, highlighting their differences and similarities. We discuss the role that QED corrections and photon-initiated contributions play in modern PDF analysis. We provide representative examples of the implications of PDF fits for high-precision LHC phenomenological applications, such as Higgs coupling measurements and searches for high-mass New Physics resonances. We conclude this report by discussing some selected topics relevant for the future of PDF determinations, including the treatment of theoretical uncertainties, the connection with lattice QCD calculations, and the role of PDFs at future high-energy colliders beyond the LHC.Comment: 170 pages, 85 figures, version to be published in Physics Report

The PDF4LHC report on PDFs and LHC data: Results from Run I and preparation for Run II

The accurate determination of the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the proton is an essential ingredient of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) program. PDF uncertainties impact a wide range of processes, from Higgs boson characterisation and precision Standard Model measurements to New Physics searches. A major recent development in modern PDF analyses has been to exploit the wealth of new information contained in precision measurements from the LHC Run I, as well as progress in tools and methods to include these data in PDF fits. In this report we summarise the information that PDF-sensitive measurements at the LHC have provided so far, and review the prospects for further constraining PDFs with data from the recently started Run II. This document aims to provide useful input to the LHC collaborations to prioritise their PDF-sensitive measurements at Run II, as well as a comprehensive reference for the PDF-fitting collaborations.Comment: 55 pages, 13 figure

Evidence of Odderon-exchange from scaling properties of elastic scattering at TeV energies

We study the scaling properties of the differential cross section of elastic proton-proton ($pp$) and proton-antiproton ($p\bar p$) collisions at high energies. We introduce a new scaling function, that scales -- within the experimental errors -- all the ISR data on elastic $pp$ scattering from $\sqrt{s} = 23.5$ to $62.5$ GeV to the same universal curve. We explore the scaling properties of the differential cross-sections of the elastic $pp$ and $p\bar p$ collisions in a limited TeV energy range. Rescaling the TOTEM $pp$ data from $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV to $2.76$ and $1.96$ TeV, and comparing it to D0 $p\bar p$ data at $1.96$ TeV, our results provide an evidence for a $t$-channel Odderon exchange at TeV energies, with a significance of at least 6.26$\sigma$. We complete this work with a model-dependent evaluation of the domain of validity of the new scaling and its violations. We find that the $H(x)$ scaling is valid, model dependently, within $200$ GeV $\leq \sqrt{s} \leq$ $8$ TeV, with a $-t$ range gradually narrowing with decreasing colliding energies.Comment: Accepted in EPJ C, with typos fixed, reorganized institutions updated, Appendix A, B, C, D, E added, 60 pages, 29 figures, 13 tables, Odderon significance: 6.26 sigma, conclusions unchange

Are PDFs still consistent with Tevatron data?

As active data taking has moved to the LHC at CERN, more and more LHC data have been included into fits of parton distribution functions. An anomaly has arisen where formerly excellent agreement between theoretical predictions and experiment in single-top-quark production at the Tevatron is no longer quite as good. Is this indicative of a deeper issue?Comment: 7 p., to appear in "XLVIIth International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD 2017)," EPJ Web of Conference

Lessons to be learned from the coherent photoproduction of pseudoscalar mesons

We study the coherent photoproduction of pseudoscalar mesons---particularly of neutral pions---placing special emphasis on the various sources that put into question earlier nonrelativistic-impulse-approximation calculations. These include: final-state interactions, relativistic effects, off-shell ambiguities, and violations to the impulse approximation. We establish that, while distortions play an essential role in the modification of the coherent cross section, the uncertainty in our results due to the various choices of optical-potential models is relatively small (of at most 30%). By far the largest uncertainty emerges from the ambiguity in extending the many on-shell-equivalent representations of the elementary amplitude off the mass shell. Indeed, relativistic impulse-approximation calculations that include the same pionic distortions, the same nuclear-structure model, and two sets of elementary amplitudes that are identical on-shell, lead to variations in the magnitude of the coherent cross section by up to factors of five. Finally, we address qualitatively the assumption of locality implicit in most impulse-approximation treatments, and suggest that the coherent reaction probes---in addition to the nuclear density---the polarization structure of the nucleus.Comment: Manuscript is 27 pages long and includes 11 eps figure