Volitional action as perceptual detection: Predictors of conscious intention in adolescents with tic disorders

AbstractVoluntary actions are accompanied by a distinctive subjective experience, so that they feel quite different from physically similar involuntary movements. However, the nature and origin of this experience of volition remain unclear. Voluntary actions emerge during early childhood, in parallel with reduction of involuntary movements. However, the available markers of the experience of volition, notably Libet's mental chronometry of intention, cannot readily be used in young children. In Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS), however, involuntary tic movements may coexist with voluntary control into adulthood. Therefore, adolescents with GTS could potentially confuse the two classes of movement. We have measured the temporal experience of voluntary action in a well-characterised group of adolescents with GTS, and age-matched controls. We replicated previous reports of a conscious intention occurring a few hundred milliseconds prior to voluntary keypress actions. Multiple regression across 25 patients' results showed that age and trait tic severity did not influence the experience of conscious intention. However, patients with stronger premonitory urges prior to tics showed significantly later conscious intentions, suggesting that the anticipatory experience of one's own volition involves a perceptual discrimination between potentially competing pre-movement signals. Patients who were more able to voluntarily suppress their tics showed significantly earlier conscious intention, suggesting that the perceptual discrimination between different action classes may also contribute to voluntary control of tics. We suggest that the brain learns voluntary control by perceptually discriminating a special class of internal ‘intentional’ signals, allowing them to emerge from motor noise

Search for Physics beyond the Standard Model in Events with Overlapping Photons and Jets

Results are reported from a search for new particles that decay into a photon and two gluons, in events with jets. Novel jet substructure techniques are developed that allow photons to be identified in an environment densely populated with hadrons. The analyzed proton-proton collision data were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in 2016 at root s = 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The spectra of total transverse hadronic energy of candidate events are examined for deviations from the standard model predictions. No statistically significant excess is observed over the expected background. The first cross section limits on new physics processes resulting in such events are set. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the rate of gluino pair production, utilizing a simplified stealth supersymmetry model. The excluded gluino masses extend up to 1.7 TeV, for a neutralino mass of 200 GeV and exceed previous mass constraints set by analyses targeting events with isolated photons.Peer reviewe

Calibration of the CMS hadron calorimeters using proton-proton collision data at root s=13 TeV

Methods are presented for calibrating the hadron calorimeter system of theCMSetector at the LHC. The hadron calorimeters of the CMS experiment are sampling calorimeters of brass and scintillator, and are in the form of one central detector and two endcaps. These calorimeters cover pseudorapidities vertical bar eta vertical bar ee data. The energy scale of the outer calorimeters has been determined with test beam data and is confirmed through data with high transverse momentum jets. In this paper, we present the details of the calibration methods and accuracy.Peer reviewe

Search for a Light Charged Higgs Boson Decaying to a W Boson and a CP-Odd Higgs Boson in Final States with eμμ or μμμ in Proton-Proton Collisions at √s=13 TeV

A search for a light charged Higgs boson (H+) decaying to a W boson and a CP-odd Higgs boson (A) in final states with eμμ or μμμ is performed using data from pp collisions at √s=13  TeV, recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9  fb−1. In this search, it is assumed that the H+ boson is produced in decays of top quarks, and the A boson decays to two oppositely charged muons. The presence of signals for H+ boson masses between 100 and 160 GeV and A boson masses between 15 and 75 GeV is investigated. No evidence for the production of the H+ boson is found. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are obtained on the combined branching fraction for the decay chain, t→bH+→bW+A→bW+μ+μ−, of 1.9×10−6 to 8.6×10−6, depending on the masses of the H+ and A bosons. These are the first limits for these decay modes of the H+ and A bosons.Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter particles produced in association with a Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

© 2020, The Author(s). A search for dark matter (DM) particles is performed using events with a Higgs boson candidate and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on proton- proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The search is performed in five Higgs boson decay channels: h → b b ¯ , γγ, τ+τ−, W+W−, and ZZ. The results from the individual channels are combined to maximize the sensitivity of the analysis. No significant excess over the expected standard model background is observed in any of the five channels or in their combination. Limits are set on DM production in the context of two simplified models. The results are also interpreted in terms of a spin-independent DM-nucleon scattering cross section and compared to those from direct-detection DM experiments. This is the first search for DM particles produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of W or Z bosons, and the first statistical combination based on five Higgs boson decay channels. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].SCOAP

Search for pair production of vectorlike quarks in the fully hadronic final state

The results of two searches for pair production of vectorlike T or B quarks in fully hadronic final states are presented, using data from the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were collected at the LHC during 2016 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). A cut-based analysis specifically targets the bW decay mode of the T quark and allows for the reconstruction of the T quark candidates. In a second analysis, a multiclassification algorithm, the "boosted event shape tagger," is deployed to label candidate jets as originating from top quarks, and W, Z, and H. Candidate events are categorized according to the multiplicities of identified jets, and the scalar sum of all observed jet momenta is used to discriminate signal events from the quantum chromodynamics multijet background. Both analyses probe all possible branching fraction combinations of the T and B quarks and set limits at 95% confidence level on their masses, ranging from 740 to 1370 GeV. These results represent a significant improvement relative to existing searches in the fully hadronic final state.Peer reviewe

Measurement of differential cross sections and charge ratios for t-channel single top quark production in proton–proton collisions at s√=13 TeV

A measurement is presented of differential cross sections for t-channel single top quark and antiquark production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 mml:mspace> by the CMS experiment at the LHC. From a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 mml:mspacefb-1, events containing one muon or electron and two or three jets are analysed. The cross section is measured as a function of the top quark transverse momentum (pT), rapidity, and polarisation angle, the charged lepton pT and rapidity, and the pT of the W boson from the top quark decay. In addition, the charge ratio is measured differentially as a function of the top quark, charged lepton, and W boson kinematic observables. The results are found to be in agreement with standard model predictions using various next-to-leading-order event generators and sets of parton distribution functions. Additionally, the spin asymmetry, sensitive to the top quark polarisation, is determined from the differential distribution of the polarisation angle at parton level to be 0.440 +/- 0.070, in agreement with the standard model prediction.Peer reviewe

Search for MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to μ+μ−\mu^+\mu^- in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s}= 13 TeV

A search is performed for neutral non-standard-model Higgs bosons decaying to two muons in the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). Proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV were used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The search is sensitive to neutral Higgs bosons produced via the gluon fusion process or in association with a $\mathrm{b\overline{b}}$ quark pair. No significant deviations from the standard model expectation are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in the context of the $m_\mathrm{h}^{\text{mod+}}$ and phenomenological MSSM scenarios on the parameter $\tan\beta$ as a function of the mass of the pseudoscalar A boson, in the range from 130 to 600 GeV. The results are also used to set a model-independent limit on the product of the branching fraction for the decay into a muon pair and the cross section for the production of a scalar neutral boson, either via gluon fusion, or in association with b quarks, in the mass range from 130 to 1000 GeV