p p -> j j e+/- mu+/- nu nu and j j e+/- mu-/+ nu nu at O(\alpha_{em}^6) and O(\alpha_{em}^4 \alpha_s^2) for the Study of the Quartic Electroweak Gauge Boson Vertex at LHC

We analyze the potential of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to study the structure of quartic vector-boson interactions through the pair production of electroweak gauge bosons via weak boson fusion q q -> q q W W. In order to study these couplings we have performed a partonic level calculation of all processes p p -> j j e+/- mu+/- nu nu and pp -> j j e+/- mu-/+ nu nu at the LHC using the exact matrix elements at O(\alpha_{em}^6) and O(\alpha_{em}^4 \alpha_s^2) as well as a full simulation of the t tbar plus 0 to 2 jets backgrounds. A complete calculation of the scattering amplitudes is necessary not only for a correct description of the process but also to preserve all correlations between the final state particles which can be used to enhance the signal. Our analyses indicate that the LHC can improve by more than one order of magnitude the bounds arising at present from indirect measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, revised version with some typos corrected, and some comments and references adde

Photon Structure and Quantum Fluctuation

Photon structure derives from quantum fluctuation in quantum field theory to fermion and anti-fermion, and has been an experimentally established feature of electrodynamics since the discovery of the positron. In hadronic physics, the observation of factorisable photon structure is similarly a fundamental test of the quantum field theory Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). An overview of measurements of hadronic photon structure in e+e- and ep interactions is presented, and comparison made with theoretical expectation, drawing on the essential features of photon fluctuation into quark and anti-quark in QCD.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures, to appear in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences

Chaotic Phase Synchronization in Bursting-neuron Models Driven by a Weak Periodic Force

We investigate the entrainment of a neuron model exhibiting a chaotic spiking-bursting behavior in response to a weak periodic force. This model exhibits two types of oscillations with different characteristic time scales, namely, long and short time scales. Several types of phase synchronization are observed, such as 1 : 1 phase locking between a single spike and one period of the force and 1 : l phase locking between the period of slow oscillation underlying bursts and l periods of the force. Moreover, spiking-bursting oscillations with chaotic firing patterns can be synchronized with the periodic force. Such a type of phase synchronization is detected from the position of a set of points on a unit circle, which is determined by the phase of the periodic force at each spiking time. We show that this detection method is effective for a system with multiple time scales. Owing to the existence of both the short and the long time scales, two characteristic phenomena are found around the transition point to chaotic phase synchronization. One phenomenon shows that the average time interval between successive phase slips exhibits a power-law scaling against the driving force strength and that the scaling exponent has an unsmooth dependence on the changes in the driving force strength. The other phenomenon shows that Kuramoto's order parameter before the transition exhibits stepwise behavior as a function of the driving force strength, contrary to the smooth transition in a model with a single time scale

Unique Identification of Graviton Exchange Effects in e^+ e^- Collisions

Many types of new physics can lead to contact interaction-like modifications in e^+ e^- processes below direct production threshold. We examine the possibility of uniquely identifying the effects of graviton exchange, which are anticipated in many extra dimensional theories, from amongst this large set of models by using the moments of the angular distribution of the final state particles. In the case of the e^+ e^- --> f bar{f} process we demonstrate that this technique allows for the unique identification of the graviton exchange signature at the 5 sigma level for mass scales as high as 6 sqrt(s). The extension of this method to the e^+ e^- --> W^+ W^- process is also discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figs, LaTe

The performance of thin NaI(Tl) scintillator plate for dark matter search

A thin (0.05cm) and wide area (5cmX5cm) NaI(Tl) scintillator was developed. The performance of the thin NaI(Tl) plate, energy resolution, single photoelectron energy and position sensitivity were tested. An excellent energy resolution of 20% (FWHM) at 60keV was obtained. The single photoelectron energy was calculated to be approximately 0.42 0.02keV. Position information in the 5cmx5cm area of the detector was also obtained by analyzing the ratio of the number of photons collected at opposite ends of the detector. The position resolution was obtained to be 1cm (FWHM) in the 5cmx5cm area.Comment: 10 pages. Accepted to Journal of Physical Society of Japa

Clocking hadronization in relativistic heavy ion collisions with balance functions

A novel state of matter has been hypothesized to exist during the early stage of relativistic heavy ion collisions, with normal hadrons not appearing until several fm/c after the start of the reaction. To test this hypothesis, correlations between charges and their associated anticharges are evaluated with the use of balance functions. It is shown that late-stage hadronization is characterized by tightly correlated charge/anticharge pairs when measured as a function of relative rapidity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

A Two-Year Time Delay for the Lensed Quasar SDSS J1029+2623

We present 279 epochs of optical monitoring data spanning 5.4 years from 2007 January to 2012 June for the largest image separation (22.6 arcsec) gravitationally lensed quasar, SDSS J1029+2623. We find that image A leads the images B and C by dt_AB = (744+-10) days (90% confidence); the uncertainty includes both statistical uncertainties and systematic differences due to the choice of models. With only a ~1% fractional error, the interpretation of the delay is limited primarily by cosmic variance due to fluctuations in the mean line-of-sight density. We cannot separate the fainter image C from image B, but since image C trails image B by only 2-3 days in all models, the estimate of the time delay between image A and B is little affected by combining the fluxes of images B and C. There is weak evidence for a low level of microlensing, perhaps created by the small galaxy responsible for the flux ratio anomaly in this system. Interpreting the delay depends on better constraining the shape of the gravitational potential using the lensed host galaxy, other lensed arcs and the structure of the X-ray emission.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Changes in response to referee's comment

Automated user modeling for personalized digital libraries

Digital libraries (DL) have become one of the most typical ways of accessing any kind of digitalized information. Due to this key role, users welcome any improvements on the services they receive from digital libraries. One trend used to improve digital services is through personalization. Up to now, the most common approach for personalization in digital libraries has been user-driven. Nevertheless, the design of efficient personalized services has to be done, at least in part, in an automatic way. In this context, machine learning techniques automate the process of constructing user models. This paper proposes a new approach to construct digital libraries that satisfy user’s necessity for information: Adaptive Digital Libraries, libraries that automatically learn user preferences and goals and personalize their interaction using this information

Optical photometric GTC/OSIRIS observations of the young massive association Cygnus OB2

In order to fully understand the gravitational collapse of molecular clouds, the star formation process and the evolution of circumstellar disks, these phenomena must be studied in different Galactic environments with a range of stellar contents and positions in the Galaxy. The young massive association Cygnus OB2, in the Cygnus-X region, is an unique target to study how star formation and the evolution of circumstellar disks proceed in the presence of a large number of massive stars. We present a catalog obtained with recent optical observations in r,i,z filters with OSIRIS, mounted on the $10.4\,m$ GTC telescope, which is the deepest optical catalog of Cyg OB2 to date. The catalog consist of 64157 sources down to M=0.15 solar masses at the adopted distance and age of Cyg OB2. A total of 38300 sources have good photometry in all three bands. We combined the optical catalog with existing X-ray data of this region, in order to define the cluster locus in the optical diagrams. The cluster locus in the r-i vs. i-z diagram is compatible with an extinction of the optically selected cluster members in the 2.64<AV<5.57 range. We derive an extinction map of the region, finding a median value of AV=4.33 in the center of the association, decreasing toward the north-west. In the color-magnitude diagrams, the shape of the distribution of main sequence stars is compatible with the presence of an obscuring cloud in the foreground at about 850+/-25 pc from the Sun.Comment: Accepted for publication ApJS 201

Topological charge density renormalization in the presence of dynamical fermions

We study the renormalization group behaviour of the topological charge density in full QCD on the lattice. We propose a way of extracting the necessary renormalization functions from Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 8 pages, Revte