Investigation of thin n-in-p planar pixel modules for the ATLAS upgrade

In view of the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), planned to start around 2023-2025, the ATLAS experiment will undergo a replacement of the Inner Detector. A higher luminosity will imply higher irradiation levels and hence will demand more ra- diation hardness especially in the inner layers of the pixel system. The n-in-p silicon technology is a promising candidate to instrument this region, also thanks to its cost-effectiveness because it only requires a single sided processing in contrast to the n-in-n pixel technology presently employed in the LHC experiments. In addition, thin sensors were found to ensure radiation hardness at high fluences. An overview is given of recent results obtained with not irradiated and irradiated n-in-p planar pixel modules. The focus will be on n-in-p planar pixel sensors with an active thickness of 100 and 150 um recently produced at ADVACAM. To maximize the active area of the sensors, slim and active edges are implemented. The performance of these modules is investigated at beam tests and the results on edge efficiency will be shown

Effective T-odd P-even hadronic interactions from quark models

Tests of time reversal symmetry at low and medium energies may be analyzed in the framework of effective hadronic interactions. Here, we consider the quark structure of hadrons to make a connection to the more fundamental degrees of freedom. It turns out that for P-even T-odd interactions hadronic matrix elements evaluated in terms of quark models give rise to factors of 2 to 5. Also, it is possible to relate the strength of the anomalous part of the effective rho-type T-odd P-even tensor coupling to quark structure effects.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, RevTe

Investigating the Physical Origin of Unconventional Low-Energy Excitations and Pseudogap Phenomena in Cuprate Superconductors

We investigate the physical origin of unconventional low-energy excitations in cuprate superconductors by considering the effect of coexisting competing orders (CO) and superconductivity (SC) and of quantum fluctuations and other bosonic modes on the low-energy charge excitation spectra. By incorporating both SC and CO in the bare Green's function and quantum phase fluctuations in the self-energy, we can consistently account for various empirical findings in both the hole- and electron-type cuprates, including the excess subgap quasiparticle density of states, ``dichotomy'' in the fluctuation-renormalized quasiparticle spectral density in momentum space, and the occurrence and magnitude of a low-energy pseudogap being dependent on the relative gap strength of CO and SC. Comparing these calculated results with experiments of ours and others, we suggest that there are two energy scales associated with the pseudogap phenomena, with the high-energy pseudogap probably of magnetic origin and the low-energy pseudogap associated with competing orders.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Invited paper for the 2006 Taiwan International Conference on Superconductivity. Correspondence author: Nai-Chang Yeh (e-mail: [email protected]

Spin-polarized tunneling spectroscopic studies of the intrinsic heterogeneity and pseudogap phenomena in colossal magnetoresistive manganite La_{0.7}Ca_{0.3}MnO_{3}

Spatially resolved tunneling spectroscopic studies of colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) manganite $\rm La_{0.7}Ca_{0.3}MnO_3$ (LCMO) epitaxial films on $\rm (LaAlO_3)_{0.3}(Sr_2AlTaO_6)_{0.7}$ substrate are investigated as functions of temperature, magnetic field and spin polarization by means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Systematic surveys of the tunneling spectra taken with Pt/Ir tips reveal spatial variations on the length scale of a few hundred nanometers in the ferromagnetic state, which may be attributed to the intrinsic heterogeneity of the manganites due to their tendency towards phase separation. The electronic heterogeneity is found to decrease either with increasing field at low temperatures or at temperatures above all magnetic ordering temperatures. On the other hand, spectra taken with Cr-coated tips are consistent with convoluted electronic properties of both LCMO and Cr. In particular, for temperatures below the magnetic ordering temperatures of both Cr and LCMO, the magnetic-field dependent tunneling spectra may be quantitatively explained by the scenario of spin-polarized tunneling in a spin-valve configuration. Moreover, a low-energy insulating energy gap $\sim 0.6$ eV commonly found in the tunneling conductance spectra of bulk metallic LCMO at $T \to 0$ may be attributed to a surface ferromagnetic insulating (FI) phase, as evidenced by its spin filtering effect at low temperatures and vanishing gap value above the Curie temperature. Additionally, temperature independent pseudogap (PG) phenomena existing primarily along the boundaries of magnetic domains are observed in the zero-field tunneling spectra. The PG becomes strongly suppressed by applied magnetic fields at low temperatures when the tunneling spectra of LCMO become highly homogeneous. These findings suggest that the occurrence PG is associated with the electronic heterogeneity of the manganites.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures. Published in Physical Review B. Corresponding author: Nai-Chang Yeh (E-mail: [email protected]

An Integral Spectral Representation of the Propagator for the Wave Equation in the Kerr Geometry

We consider the scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for Cauchy data which is smooth and compactly supported outside the event horizon. We derive an integral representation which expresses the solution as a superposition of solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of variables. In particular, we prove completeness of the solutions of the separated ODEs. This integral representation is a suitable starting point for a detailed analysis of the long-time dynamics of scalar waves in the Kerr geometry.Comment: 41 pages, 4 figures, minor correction

Observation of vortices and hidden pseudogap from scanning tunneling spectroscopic studies of electron-doped cuprate superconductor Sr0.9La0.1CuO2Sr_{0.9}La_{0.1}CuO_2

We present the first demonstration of vortices in an electron-type cuprate superconductor, the highest $T_c$ (= 43 K) electron-type cuprate $Sr_{0.9}La_{0.1}CuO_2$. Our spatially resolved quasiparticle tunneling spectra reveal a hidden low-energy pseudogap inside the vortex core and unconventional spectral evolution with temperature and magnetic field. These results cannot be easily explained by the scenario of pure superconductivity in the ground state of high-$T_c$ superconductivity.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Two new graphs have been added into Figure 2. Accepted for publication in Europhysics Letters. Corresponding author: Nai-Chang Yeh (E-mail: [email protected]

Investigations of solutions of Einstein's field equations close to lambda-Taub-NUT

We present investigations of a class of solutions of Einstein's field equations close to the family of lambda-Taub-NUT spacetimes. The studies are done using a numerical code introduced by the author elsewhere. One of the main technical complication is due to the S3-topology of the Cauchy surfaces. Complementing these numerical results with heuristic arguments, we are able to yield some first insights into the strong cosmic censorship issue and the conjectures by Belinskii, Khalatnikov, and Lifschitz in this class of spacetimes. In particular, the current investigations suggest that strong cosmic censorship holds in this class. We further identify open issues in our current approach and point to future research projects.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures, uses psfrag and hyperref; replaced with published version, only minor corrections of typos and reference