559 research outputs found
Towards a Precise Parton Luminosity Determination at the CERN LHC
A new approach to determine the LHC luminosity is investigated. Instead of
employing the proton-proton luminosity measurement, we suggest to measure
directly the parton-parton luminosity. It is shown that the electron and muon
pseudorapidity distributions, originating from the decay of W+, W- and Z0
bosons produced at 14 TeV pp collisions (LHC), constrain the x distributions of
sea and valence quarks and antiquarks in the range from about 3 x 10**-4 to
about 10**-1 at a Q**2 of about 10**4 GeV**2. Furthermore, it is demonstrated
that, once the quark and antiquark structure functions are constrained from the
W+,W- and Z0 production dynamics, other quark-antiquark related scattering
processes at the LHC like q-qbar --> W+W- can be predicted accurately. Thus,
the lepton pseudorapidity distributions provide the key to a precise parton
luminosity monitor at the LHC, with accuracies of about +-1% compared to the so
far considered goal of +-5%.Comment: plain tex, 14 pages, 5 figure
Selection and reconstruction of the top quarks in the all-hadronic decays at a Linear Collider
A method of reconstruction of the top quarks produced in the process E+E- ->
t\bar{t} -> 6 jets at a Linear Collider (LC) is proposed. The approach does not
involve a kinematic fit, as well as assumptions on the invariant masses of the
dijets originating from the decays of W bosons and, therefore, the method is
expected to be less sensitive to theoretical and experimental uncertainties on
the top-mass measurement than traditional reconstruction methods. For the first
time, the reconstruction of the top quarks was investigated using the full LC
detector simulation after taking into account the background arising from QCD
multi-jet production.Comment: 22 pages, including 13 figures and 3 table
Colour reconnection and Bose-Einstein effects
Final-state interactions and interference phenomena that could affect the
value of the W mass reconstructed from hadronic WW decays at LEP2 are reviewed,
and possible areas for future investigation are identified.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, uses epsfig. Talk at Phenomenology
Workshop on LEP2 Physics, Oxford, April 199
One-dimensional Model of a Gamma Klystron
A new scheme for amplification of coherent gamma rays is proposed. The key
elements are crystalline undulators - single crystals with periodically bent
crystallographic planes exposed to a high energy beam of charged particles
undergoing channeling inside the crystals. The scheme consists of two such
crystals separated by a vacuum gap. The beam passes the crystals successively.
The particles perform undulator motion inside the crystals following the
periodic shape of the crystallographic planes. Gamma rays passing the crystals
parallel to the beam get amplified due to interaction with the particles inside
the crystals. The term `gamma klystron' is proposed for the scheme because its
operational principles are similar to those of the optical klystron. A more
simple one-crystal scheme is considered as well for the sake of comparison. It
is shown that the gamma ray amplification in the klystron scheme can be reached
at considerably lower particle densities than in the one-crystal scheme,
provided that the gap between the crystals is sufficiently large.Comment: RevTeX4, 22 pages, 4 figure
Heavy Higgs production and decay via and irreducible backgrounds at Next Linear Colliders
The complete matrix element for e^+e^-\ar b\bar bZ^0Z^0 has been computed
at tree--level and applied to --production followed by Z^0\ar b\bar b
and H^0\ar Z^0Z^0, including all the irreducible background, at Next Linear
Colliders. We find that, assuming flavour identification of the --decay
products, this channel, together with e^+e^-\ar b\bar bW^+W^- in which
Z^0H^0\ar (b\bar b)(W^+W^-), can be important for the study of the parameters
of the Standard Model Higgs boson over the heavy mass range 2M_{Z^0}\Ord
M_{H^0}\Ord 2{m_t}.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX (uses Feynman), 7 figures (.ps files or hardcopies of
figs.2-7 available upon request
Near-threshold boson pair production in the model of smeared-mass unstable particles
Near-threshold production of boson pairs is considered within the framework
of the model of unstable particles with smeared mass. We describe the principal
aspects of the model and consider the strategy of calculations including the
radiative corrections. The results of calculations are in good agreement with
LEP II data and Monte-Carlo simulations. Suggested approach significantly
simplifies calculations with respect to the standard perturbative one.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, minor corrections, references adde
Coherent Pair Production by Photons in the 20-170 GeV Energy Range Incident on Crystals and Birefringence
The cross section for coherent pair production by linearly polarised photons
in the 20-170 GeV energy range was measured for photon aligned incidence on
ultra-high quality diamond and germanium crystals. The theoretical description
of coherent bremsstrahlung and coherent pair production phenomena is an area of
active theoretical debate and development. However, under our experimental
conditions, the theory predicted the combined cross section and polarisation
experimental observables very well indeed. In macroscopic terms, our experiment
measured a birefringence effect in pair production in a crystal. This study of
this effect also constituted a measurement of the energy dependent linear
polarisation of photons produced by coherent bremsstrahlung in aligned
crystals. New technologies for manipulating high energy photon beams can be
realised based on an improved understanding of QED phenomena at these energies.
In particular, this experiment demonstrates an efficient new polarimetry
technique. The pair production measurements were done using two independent
methods simultaneously. The more complex method using a magnet spectrometer
showed that the simpler method using a multiplicity detector was also viable.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, REVTeX4 two column, Version for
publicatio
Linear to Circular Polarisation Conversion using Birefringent Properties of Aligned Crystals for Multi-GeV Photons
We present the first experimental results on the use of a thick aligned Si
crystal acting as a quarter wave plate to induce a degree of circular
polarisation in a high energy linearly polarised photon beam. The linearly
polarised photon beam is produced from coherent bremsstrahlung radiation by 178
GeV unpolarised electrons incident on an aligned Si crystal, acting as a
radiator. The linear polarisation of the photon beam is characterised by
measuring the asymmetry in electron-positron pair production in a Ge crystal,
for different crystal orientations. The Ge crystal therefore acts as an
analyser. The birefringence phenomenon, which converts the linear polarisation
to circular polarisation, is observed by letting the linearly polarised photons
beam pass through a thick Si quarter wave plate crystal, and then measuring the
asymmetry in electron-positron pair production again for a selection of
relative angles between the crystallographic planes of the radiator, analyser
and quarter wave plate. The systematics of the difference between the measured
asymmetries with and without the quarter wave plate are predicted by theory to
reveal an evolution in the Stokes parameters from which the appearance of a
circularly polarised component in the photon beam can be demonstrated. The
measured magnitude of the circularly polarised component was consistent with
the theoretical predictions, and therefore is in indication of the existence of
the birefringence effect.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, REVTeX4 two column, Version for
publicatio
Plasma Cell-Free DNA Integrity Assessed by Automated Electrophoresis Predicts the Achievement of Pathologic Complete Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Breast Cancer
PURPOSE The study of plasma cell-free DNA integrity (cfDI) has shown potential for providing useful information in neoplastic patients. The aim of this study is to estimate the accuracy of an electrophoresis-based method for cfDI evaluation in the assessment of pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients with breast cancer (BC) undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifty-one patients with BC undergoing anthracycline-/taxane-based NACT were recruited. Plasma samples were collected from each patient at diagnosis (t0), after anthracycline administration (t1), and after NACT completion (t2). The concentration of differently sized cell-free DNA fragments was assessed by automated electrophoresis. cfDI, expressed as cfDI index, was calculated as the ratio of 321-1,000 bp sized fragment concentration to 150-220 bp sized fragment concentration assessed at t2. cfDI index was then used to build an exploratory classifier for BC response to NACT, directly comparing its sensitivity and specificity with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), through bootstrapped logistic regression. RESULTS cfDI index was assessed on 38 plasma samples collected from as many patients at t2, maintaining a 30/70 ratio between pCR and non-pCR patients. cfDI index showed an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve in predicting the achievement of pCR of 81.6, with a cutoff above 2.71 showing sensitivity = 81.8 and specificity = 81.5. The combination of cfDI index and MRI showed, in case of concordance, an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 92.6 with a predictive value of complete response of 87.5 and a predictive value of absence of complete response of 94.7. CONCLUSION cfDI index measured after NACT completion shows great potential in the assessment of pCR in patients with BC. The evaluation of its use in combination with MRI is strongly warranted in prospective studies
Results on the Coherent Interaction of High Energy Electrons and Photons in Oriented Single Crystals
The CERN-NA-59 experiment examined a wide range of electromagnetic processes
for multi-GeV electrons and photons interacting with oriented single crystals.
The various types of crystals and their orientations were used for producing
photon beams and for converting and measuring their polarisation.
The radiation emitted by 178 GeV unpolarised electrons incident on a 1.5 cm
thick Si crystal oriented in the Coherent Bremsstrahlung (CB) and the
String-of-Strings (SOS) modes was used to obtain multi-GeV linearly polarised
photon beams.
A new crystal polarimetry technique was established for measuring the linear
polarisation of the photon beam. The polarimeter is based on the dependence of
the Coherent Pair Production (CPP) cross section in oriented single crystals on
the direction of the photon polarisation with respect to the crystal plane.
Both a 1 mm thick single crystal of Germanium and a 4 mm thick multi-tile set
of synthetic Diamond crystals were used as analyzers of the linear
polarisation.
A birefringence phenomenon, the conversion of the linear polarisation of the
photon beam into circular polarisation, was observed. This was achieved by
letting the linearly polarised photon beam pass through a 10 cm thick Silicon
single crystal that acted as a "quarter wave plate" (QWP) as suggested by N.
Cabibbo et al.Comment: Presented at International workshop "Relativistic Channeling and
Related Coherent Phenomena", Frascati (Rome) 23-26 March 200
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