245 research outputs found
Solar and volcanic forcing of North Atlantic climate inferred from a process-based reconstruction
The effect of external forcings on atmospheric circulation is debated. Due to the short observational period, the analysis of the role of external forcings is hampered, making it difficult to assess the sensitivity of atmospheric circulation to external forcings, as well as persistence of the effects. In observations, the average response to tropical volcanic eruptions is a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during the following winter. However, past major tropical eruptions exceeding the magnitude of eruptions during the instrumental era could have had more lasting effects. Decadal NAO variability has been suggested to follow the 11-year solar cycle, and linkages have been made between grand solar minima and negative NAO. However, the solar link to NAO found by modeling studies is not unequivocally supported by reconstructions, and is not consistently present in observations for the 20th century. Here we present a reconstruction of atmospheric winter circulation for the North Atlantic region covering the period 1241â1970 CE. Based on seasonally resolved Greenland ice core records and a 1200-year-long simulation with an isotope-enabled climate model, we reconstruct sea level pressure and temperature by matching the spatiotemporal variability in the modeled isotopic composition to that of the ice cores. This method allows us to capture the primary (NAO) and secondary mode (Eastern Atlantic Pattern) of atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic region, while, contrary to previous reconstructions, preserving the amplitude of observed year-to-year atmospheric variability. Our results show five winters of positive NAO on average following major tropical volcanic eruptions, which is more persistent than previously suggested. In response to decadal minima of solar activity we find a high-pressure anomaly over northern Europe, while a reinforced opposite response in pressure emerges with a 5-year time lag. On centennial timescales we observe a similar response of circulation as for the 5-year time-lagged response, with a high-pressure anomaly across North America and south of Greenland. This response to solar forcing is correlated to the second mode of atmospheric circulation, the Eastern Atlantic Pattern. The response could be due to an increase in blocking frequency, possibly linked to a weakening of the subpolar gyre. The long-term anomalies of temperature during solar minima shows cooling across Greenland, Iceland and western Europe, resembling the cooling pattern during the Little Ice Age (1450â1850 CE). While our results show significant correlation between solar forcing and the secondary circulation pattern on decadal (r = 0.29, p < 0.01) and centennial timescales (r = 0.6, p < 0.01), we find no consistent relationship between solar forcing and NAO. We conclude that solar and volcanic forcing impacts different modes of our reconstructed atmospheric circulation, which can aid in separating the regional effects of forcings and understanding the underlying mechanisms
Validation of Kalman Filter alignment algorithm with cosmic-ray data using a CMS silicon strip tracker endcap
A Kalman Filter alignment algorithm has been applied to cosmic-ray data. We
discuss the alignment algorithm and an experiment-independent implementation
including outlier rejection and treatment of weakly determined parameters.
Using this implementation, the algorithm has been applied to data recorded with
one CMS silicon tracker endcap. Results are compared to both photogrammetry
measurements and data obtained from a dedicated hardware alignment system, and
good agreement is observed.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. CMS NOTE-2010/00
Bulk matter physics and its future at the Large Hadron Collider
Measurements at low transverse momentum will be performed at the LHC for
studying particle production mechanisms in and heavy-ion collisions. Some
of the experimental capabilities for bulk matter physics are presented,
focusing on tracking elements and particle identification. In order to
anticipate the study of baryon production for both colliding systems at
multi-TeV energies, measurements for identified species and recent model
extrapolations are discussed. Several mechanisms are expected to compete for
hadro-production in the low momentum region. For this reason, experimental
observables that could be used for investigating multi-parton interactions and
help understanding the "underlying event" content in the first collisions
at the LHC are also mentioned.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2008,
Estes Park, Colorado, 18-23 August 200
Looking for magnetic monopoles at LHC with diphoton events
Magnetic monopoles have been a subject of interest since Dirac established
the relation between the existence of monopoles and charge quantization. The
intense experimental search carried thus far has not met with success. The
Large Hadron Collider is reaching energies never achieved before allowing the
search for exotic particles in the TeV mass range. In a continuing effort to
discover these rare particles we propose here other ways to detect them. We
study the observability of monopoles and monopolium, a monopole-antimonopole
bound state, at the Large Hadron Collider in the channel for
monopole masses in the range 500-1000 GeV. We conclude that LHC is an ideal
machine to discover monopoles with masses below 1 TeV at present running
energies and with 5 fb of integrated luminosity.Comment: This manuscript contains information appeared in Looking for magnetic
monopoles at LHC, arXiv:1104.0218 [hep-ph] and Monopolium detection at the
LHC.,arXiv:1107.3684 [hep-ph] by the same authors, rewritten for joint
publication in The European Physica Journal Plus. 26 pages, 22 figure
Jet Dipolarity: Top Tagging with Color Flow
A new jet observable, dipolarity, is introduced that can distinguish whether
a pair of subjets arises from a color singlet source. This observable is
incorporated into the HEPTopTagger and is shown to improve discrimination
between top jets and QCD jets for moderate to high pT.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures (updated to JHEP version
Top Quark Physics at the LHC: A Review of the First Two Years
This review summarizes the highlights in the area of top quark physics
obtained with the two general purpose detectors ATLAS and CMS during the first
two years of operation of the Large Hadron Collider LHC. It covers the 2010 and
2011 data taking periods, where the LHC provided pp collisions at a
center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=7 TeV. Measurements are presented of the total
and differential top quark pair production cross section in many different
channels, the top quark mass and various other properties of the top quark and
its interactions, for instance the charge asymmetry. Measurements of single top
quark production and various searches for new physics involving top quarks are
also discussed. The already very precise experimental data are in good
agreement with the standard model.Comment: 107 pages, invited review for Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, v2 is identical
to v1 except for the addition of the table of content
Heavy Ions: Results from the Large Hadron Collider
On November 8, 2010 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN collided first
stable beams of heavy ions (Pb on Pb) at center-of-mass energy of 2.76
TeV/nucleon. The LHC worked exceedingly well during its one month of operation
with heavy ions, delivering about 10 microbarn-inverse of data, with peak
luminosity reaching to
towards the end of the run. Three experiments, ALICE, ATLAS and CMS, recorded
their first heavy ion data, which were analyzed in a record time. The results
of the multiplicity, flow, fluctuations, and Bose-Einstein correlations
indicate that the fireball formed in nuclear collisions at the LHC is hotter,
lives longer, and expands to a larger size at freeze-out as compared to lower
energies. We give an overview of these as well as new results on quarkonia and
heavy flavour suppression, and jet energy loss.Comment: Proceedings of Lepton-Photon 2011 Conference, to be published in
Pramana, Journal of Physics. 15 page
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