338 research outputs found
Mitigation of the LHC Inverse Problem
The LHC inverse problem refers to the difficulties in determining the
parameters of an underlying theory from data (to be) taken by the LHC
experiments: if they find signals of new physics, and an underlying theory is
assumed, could its parameters be determined uniquely, or do different parameter
choices give indistinguishable experimental signatures? This inverse problem
was studied before for a supersymmetric Standard Model with 15 free parameters.
This earlier study found 283 indistinguishable pairs of parameter choices,
called degenerate pairs, even if backgrounds are ignored. We can resolve all
but 23 of those pairs by constructing a true \chi^2 distribution using mostly
counting observables. The elimination of systematic errors would even allow
separating the residual degeneracies. Taking the Standard Model background into
account we still can resolve 237 of the 283 "degenerate" pairs. This indicates
that (some of) our observables should also be useful for the purpose of
determining the values of SUSY parameters.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, typo in (3.6) corrected, version to appear in
Phys. Rev.
Light Stop Searches at the LHC in Events with two b-Jets and Missing Energy
We propose a new method to discover light top squarks (stops) in the
co-annihilation region at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The bino-like
neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and the lighter stop
is the next-to-LSP. Such scenarios can be consistent with electroweak
baryogenesis and also with dark matter constraints. We consider the production
of two stops in association with two b-quarks, including pure QCD as well as
mixed electroweak-QCD contributions. The stops decay into a charm quark and the
LSP. For a higgsino-like light chargino the electroweak contributions can
exceed the pure QCD prediction. We show the size of the electroweak
contributions as a function of the stop mass and present the LHC discovery
reach in the stop-neutralino mass plane.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
Electroweak Contributions to Squark Pair Production at the LHC
In this paper we compute electroweak contributions to the production of
squark pairs at hadron colliders. These include the exchange of electroweak
gauge bosons in the s-channel as well as electroweak gaugino exchange in the t-
and/or u-channel. In many cases these can interfere with the dominant QCD
contributions. As a result, we find sizable contributions to the production of
two SU(2) doublet squarks. At the LHC, they amount to 10 to 20% for typical
mSUGRA (or CMSSM) scenarios, but in more general scenarios they can vary
between -40 and +55%, depending on size and sign of the SU(2) gaugino mass. The
electroweak contribution to the total squark pair production rate at the LHC is
about 3.5 times smaller.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure
Hunting for CDF Multi-Muon "Ghost" Events at Collider and Fixed-Target Experiments
In 2008 the CDF collaboration discovered a large excess of events containing
two or more muons, at least one of which seemed to have been produced outside
the beam pipe. We investigate whether similar "ghost" events could (and should)
have been seen in already completed experiments. The CDF di-muon data can be
reproduced by a simple model where a relatively light X particle undergoes
four-body decay. This model predicts a large number of ghost events in Fermilab
fixed-target experiments E772, E789 and E866, applying the cuts optimized for
analyses of Drell-Yan events. A correct description of events with more than
two muons requires a more complicated model, where two X particles are produced
from a very broad resonance Y. This model can be tested in fixed-target
experiments only if the cut on the angles, or rapidities, of the muons can be
relaxed. Either way, the UA1 experiment at the CERN ppbar collider should have
observed O(100) ghost events.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Rapidity Gap Events in Squark Pair Production at the LHC
The exchange of electroweak gauginos in the or channel allows squark
pair production at hadron colliders without color exchange between the squarks.
This can give rise to events where little or no energy is deposited in the
detector between the squark decay products. We discuss the potential for
detection of such rapidity gap events at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Our
numerical analysis is divided into two parts. First, we evaluate in a
simplified framework the rapidity gap signal at the parton level. The second
part covers an analysis with full event simulation using PYTHIA as well as
Herwig++, but without detector simulation. We analyze the transverse energy
deposited between the jets from squark decay, as well as the probability of
finding a third jet in between the two hardest jets. For the mSUGRA benchmark
point SPS1a we find statistically significant evidence for a color singlet
exchange contribution. The systematical differences between current versions of
PYTHIA and HERWIG++ are larger than the physical effect from color singlet
exchange; however, these systematic differences could be reduced by tuning both
Monte Carlo generators on normal QCD di--jet data.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Second-line high-dose chemotherapy in patients with mediastinal and retroperitoneal primary non-seminomatous germ cell tumors: the EBMT experience
Background: Results of second-line chemotherapy in patients with extragonadal non-seminomatous germ cell tumor (NSGCT) appear inferior to results in testicular NSGCT. Patients with retroperitoneal NSGCT achieve a comparable long-term survival rate of 30%, but the salvage rates of patients with mediastinal primary are less than 10%. We conducted a retrospective analysis on patients with mediastinal and retroperitoneal NSGCT treated with second-line high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) registered with the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT). Patients and methods: Between 1987 and 1999, 59 registered patients with retroperitoneal (n=37) and mediastinal (n=22) primary NSGCT, median age 28 years (range 18-60), were treated with second-line HDCT. All had received cisplatin-containing chemotherapy as first-line treatment. Results: Toxic death occurred in three cases (5%). With a median follow-up of 58 months (range 14-114), 18/59 patients (30%) continue to be disease-free. Of three patients who had a disease recurrence after HDCT, one patient achieved a disease-free status with further chemotherapy and surgery. In total, 19 patients (32%) are currently disease-free. Sixteen of 37 patients (43%) with retroperitoneal NSGCT, and three of 22 patients (14%) with mediastinal NSGCT are currently alive and disease-free. Conclusions: Second-line HDCT might represent a possible option for patients with retroperitoneal primary NSGCT. New salvage strategies are needed for patients with mediastinal NSGC
Hadronic production of bottom-squark pairs with electroweak contributions
We present the complete computation of the tree-level and the next-to-leading
order electroweak contributions to bottom-squark pair production at the LHC.
The computation is performed within the minimal supersymmetric extension of the
Standard Model. We discuss the numerical impact of these contributions in
several supersymmetric scenarios.Comment: 33 pages, v2: preprint numbers correcte
Constraints on supersymmetry with light third family from LHC data
We present a re-interpretation of the recent ATLAS limits on supersymmetry in
channels with jets (with and without b-tags) and missing energy, in the context
of light third family squarks, while the first two squark families are
inaccessible at the 7 TeV run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In contrast
to interpretations in terms of the high-scale based constrained minimal
supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM), we primarily use the low-scale
parametrisation of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM), and translate the limits
in terms of physical masses of the third family squarks. Side by side, we also
investigate the limits in terms of high-scale scalar non-universality, both
with and without low-mass sleptons. Our conclusion is that the limits based on
0-lepton channels are not altered by the mass-scale of sleptons, and can be
considered more or less model-independent.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Version published in JHE
NLL soft and Coulomb resummation for squark and gluino production at the LHC
We present predictions of the total cross sections for pair production of
squarks and gluinos at the LHC, including the stop-antistop production process.
Our calculation supplements full fixed-order NLO predictions with resummation
of threshold logarithms and Coulomb singularities at next-to-leading
logarithmic (NLL) accuracy, including bound-state effects. The numerical effect
of higher-order Coulomb terms can be as big or larger than that of soft-gluon
corrections. For a selection of benchmark points accessible with data from the
2010-2012 LHC runs, resummation leads to an enhancement of the total inclusive
squark and gluino production cross section in the 15-30 % range. For individual
production processes of gluinos, the corrections can be much larger. The
theoretical uncertainty in the prediction of the hard-scattering cross sections
is typically reduced to the 10 % level.Comment: 45 pages, 16 Figures, LaTex. v2: published version. Grids with
numerical results for the NLL cross sections for squark and gluino production
at the 7/8 TeV LHC are included in the submission and are also available at
http://omnibus.uni-freiburg.de/~cs1010/susy.htm
γ-Catenin-Dependent Signals Maintain BCR-ABL1<sup>+</sup> B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
The BCR-ABL1 fusion protein is the cause of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and of a significant fraction of adult-onset B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) cases. Using mouse models and patient-derived samples, we identified an essential role for γ-catenin in the initiation and maintenance of BCR-ABL1 <sup>+</sup> B-ALL but not CML. The selectivity was explained by a partial γ-catenin dependence of MYC expression together with the susceptibility of B-ALL, but not CML, to reduced MYC levels. MYC and γ-catenin enabled B-ALL maintenance by augmenting BIRC5 and enforced BIRC5 expression overcame γ-catenin loss. Since γ-catenin was dispensable for normal hematopoiesis, these lineage- and disease-specific features of canonical Wnt signaling identified a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of BCR-ABL1 <sup>+</sup> B-ALL
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