7,177 research outputs found
LHC Coverage of RPV MSSM with Light Stops
We examine the sensitivity of recent LHC searches to signatures of
supersymmetry with R-parity violation (RPV). Motivated by naturalness of the
Higgs potential, which would favor light third-generation squarks, and the
stringent LHC bounds on spectra in which the gluino or first and second
generation squarks are light, we focus on scenarios dominated by the pair
production of light stops. We consider the various possible direct and cascade
decays of the stop that involve the trilinear RPV operators. We find that in
many cases, the existing searches exclude stops in the natural mass range and
beyond. However, typically there is little or no sensitivity to cases dominated
by UDD operators or LQD operators involving taus. We propose several ideas for
searches which could address the existing gaps in experimental coverage of
these signals.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures; v2: included new searches (see footnote 10),
minor corrections and improvement
ATLAS silicon module assembly and qualification tests at IFIC Valencia
ATLAS experiment, designed to probe the interactions of particles emerging
out of proton proton collisions at energies of up to 14 TeV, will assume
operation at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in 2007. This paper
discusses the assembly and the quality control tests of forward detector
modules for the ATLAS silicon microstrip detector assembled at the Instituto de
Fisica Corpuscular (IFIC) in Valencia. The construction and testing procedures
are outlined and the laboratory equipment is briefly described. Emphasis is
given on the module quality achieved in terms of mechanical and electrical
stability.Comment: 23 pages, 38 EPS figures, uses JINST LaTeX clas
Multiple Parton Interactions, top--antitop and W+4j production at the LHC
The expected rate for Multiple Parton Interactions (MPI) at the LHC is large.
This requires an estimate of their impact on all measurement foreseen at the
LHC while opening unprecendented opportunities for a detailed study of these
phenomena. In this paper we examine the MPI background to top-antitop
production, in the semileptonic channel, in the early phase of data taking when
the full power of --tagging will not be available. The MPI background turns
out to be small but non negligible, of the order of 20% of the background
provided by W+4j production through a Single Parton Interaction. We then
analyze the possibility of studying Multiple Parton Interactions in the W+4j
channel, a far more complicated setting than the reactions examined at lower
energies. The MPI contribution turns out to be dominated by final states with
two energetic jets which balance in transverse momentum, and it appears
possible, thanks to the good angular resolution of ATLAS and CMS, to separate
the Multiple Parton Interactions contribution from Single Parton Interaction
processes. The large cross section for two jet production suggests that also
Triple Parton Interactions (TPI) could provide a non negligible contribution.
Our preliminary analysis suggests that it might be indeed possible to
investigate TPI at the LHC.Comment: Typos fixed. Published in JHE
Energy dependence on fractional charge for strongly interacting subsystems
The energies of a pair of strongly-interacting subsystems with arbitrary
noninteger charges are examined from closed and open system perspectives. An
ensemble representation of the charge dependence is derived, valid at all
interaction strengths. Transforming from resonance-state ionicity to ensemble
charge dependence imposes physical constraints on the occupation numbers in the
strong-interaction limit. For open systems, the chemical potential is evaluated
using microscopic and thermodynamic models, leading to a novel correlation
between ground-state charge and an electronic temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs.; as accepted (Phys. Rev. Lett.
Oil biodegradation and bioremediation: A tale of the two worst spills in U.S. history
The devastating environmental impacts of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and its media notoriety made it a frequent comparison to the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the popular press in 2010, even though the nature of the two spills and the environments impacted were vastly different. Fortunately, unlike higher organisms that are adversely impacted by oil spills, microorganisms are able to consume petroleum hydrocarbons. These oil degrading indigenous microorganisms played a significant role in reducing the overall environmental impact of both the Exxon Valdez and BP Deepwater Horizon oil spills
Macroscopic Strings and "Quirks" at Colliders
We consider extensions of the standard model containing additional heavy
particles ("quirks") charged under a new unbroken non-abelian gauge group as
well as the standard model. We assume that the quirk mass m is in the
phenomenologically interesting range 100 GeV--TeV, and that the new gauge group
gets strong at a scale Lambda < m. In this case breaking of strings is
exponentially suppressed, and quirk production results in strings that are long
compared to 1/Lambda. The existence of these long stable strings leads to
highly exotic events at colliders. For 100 eV < Lambda < keV the strings are
macroscopic, giving rise to events with two separated quirk tracks with
measurable curvature toward each other due to the string interaction. For keV <
Lambda < MeV the typical strings are mesoscopic: too small to resolve in the
detector, but large compared to atomic scales. In this case, the bound state
appears as a single particle, but its mass is the invariant mass of a quirk
pair, which has an event-by-event distribution. For MeV < Lambda < m the
strings are microscopic, and the quirks annihilate promptly within the
detector. For colored quirks, this can lead to hadronic fireball events with
10^3 hadrons with energy of order GeV emitted in conjunction with hard decay
products from the final annihilation.Comment: Added discussion of photon-jet decay, fixed minor typo
Effects of mixing on evolution of hydrocarbon ratios in the troposphere
Nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC) concentration ratios provide useful indicators of tropospheric oxidation and transport processes. However, the influences of both photochemical and mixing processes are inextricably linked in the evolution of these ratios. We present a model for investigating these influences by combining the transport treatment of the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART with an ultrasimple (i.e., constant OH concentration) chemical treatment. Required model input includes NMHC emission ratios, but not ad hoc assumed background NMHC concentrations. The model results give NMHC relationships that can be directly compared, in a statistical manner, with measurements. The measured concentration ratios of the longest-lived alkanes show strong deviations from purely kinetic behavior, which the model nicely reproduces. In contrast, some measured aromatic ratio relationships show even stronger deviations that are not well reproduced by the model for reasons that are not understood. The model-measurement comparisons indicate that the interaction of mixing and photochemical processing prevent a simple interpretation of "photochemical age," but that the average age of any particular NMHC can be well defined and can be approximated by a properly chosen and interpreted NMHC ratio. In summary, the relationships of NMHC concentration ratios not only yield useful measures of photochemical processing in the troposphere, but also provide useful test of the treatment of mixing and chemical processing in chemical transport models. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union
What hormonal contraception is most effective for obese women?
Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA; Depo-Provera) and the combination contraceptive vaginal ring (NuvaRing) are most effective for obese women because they don't appear to be affected by body weight (strength of recommendation [SOR]: B, consistent cohort studies)
Cosmological Perturbations from the Standard Model Higgs
We propose that the Standard Model (SM) Higgs is responsible for generating
the cosmological perturbations of the universe by acting as an isocurvature
mode during a de Sitter inflationary stage. In view of the recent ATLAS and CMS
results for the Higgs mass, this can happen if the Hubble rate during inflation
is in the range GeV (depending on the SM parameters).
Implications for the detection of primordial tensor perturbations through the
-mode of CMB polarization via the PLANCK satellite are discussed. For
example, if the Higgs mass value is confirmed to be GeV and are at their central values, our mechanism predicts tensor
perturbations too small to be detected in the near future. On the other hand,
if tensor perturbations will be detected by PLANCK through the -mode of CMB,
then there is a definite relation between the Higgs and top masses, making the
mechanism predictive and falsifiable.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Minor corrections and references added to match
published versio
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