Radiation Hardness Studies in a CCD with High-Speed Column Parallel Readout

Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several high energy physics experiments over the past two decades. Their high spatial resolution and thin sensitive layers make them an excellent tool for studying short-lived particles. The Linear Collider Flavour Identification (LCFI) collaboration is developing Column-Parallel CCDs (CPCCDs) for the vertex detector of the International Linear Collider (ILC). The CPCCDs can be read out many times faster than standard CCDs, significantly increasing their operating speed. The results of detailed simulations of the charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) of a prototype CPCCD are reported and studies of the influence of gate voltage on the CTI described. The effects of bulk radiation damage on the CTI of a CPCCD are studied by simulating the effects of two electron trap levels, 0.17 and 0.44 eV, at different concentrations and operating temperatures. The dependence of the CTI on different occupancy levels (percentage of hit pixels) and readout frequencies is also studied. The optimal operating temperature for the CPCCD, where the effects of the charge trapping are at a minimum, is found to be about 230 K for the range of readout speeds proposed for the ILC. The results of the full simulation have been compared with a simple analytic model.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figures; presented at IEEE'07, ALCPG'07, ICATPP'0

Search for the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) in gamma gamma collisions

Data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 have been used to search for gamma gamma production of the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) via their decay to pi+pi-. No signal is observed and upper limits to the product of gamma gamma width and pi+pi- branching ratio of the f0(1500) and the fJ(1710) have been measured to be Gamma_(gamma gamma -> f0(1500)). BR(f0(1500)->pi+pi-) < 0.31 keV and Gamma_(gamma gamma -> fJ(1710)). BR(fJ(1710)->pi+pi-) < 0.55 keV at 95% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Search for CP Violation in the Decay Z -> b (b bar) g

About three million hadronic decays of the Z collected by ALEPH in the years 1991-1994 are used to search for anomalous CP violation beyond the Standard Model in the decay Z -> b \bar{b} g. The study is performed by analyzing angular correlations between the two quarks and the gluon in three-jet events and by measuring the differential two-jet rate. No signal of CP violation is found. For the combinations of anomalous CP violating couplings, ${\hat{h}}_b = {\hat{h}}_{Ab}g_{Vb}-{\hat{h}}_{Vb}g_{Ab}$ and $h^{\ast}_b = \sqrt{\hat{h}_{Vb}^{2}+\hat{h}_{Ab}^{2}}$, limits of \hat{h}_b < 0.59$and$h^{\ast}_{b} < 3.02$ are given at 95\% CL.Comment: 8 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses here.sty, epsfig.st

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure

Absolute mass lower limit for the lightest neutralino of the MSSM from e+e−e^{+}e^{-} data at s\sqrt{s} up to 209 GeV

Charginos and neutralinos are searched for in the data collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP for centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. The negative result of these searches is combined with those from searches for sleptons and Higgs bosons to derive an absolute lower limit of 43.1 GeV/c(2) on the mass of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), assumed to be the,lightest neutralino. This limit is obtained in the framework of the MSSM with R-parity conservation and with gaugino and sfermion mass unification at the GUT scale and assuming no mixing in the stau sector. The LSP limit degrades only slightly to 42.4 GeV/c(2) if stau mixing is considered. Within the more constrained framework of minimal supergravity, the limit is 50 GeV/c(2)

Constraints on anomalous QGC's in e+e−e^{+}e^{-} interactions from 183 to 209 GeV

The acoplanar photon pairs produced in the reaction e(+) e(-) - → vvyy are analysed in the 700 pb(-1) of data collected by the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies between 183 and 209 GeV. No deviation from the Standard Model predictions is seen in any of the distributions examined. The resulting 95% C.L. limits set on anomalous QGCs, a(0)(Z), a(c)(Z), a(0)(W) and a(c)(W), are -0.012 lt a(0)(Z)/Lambda(2) lt +0.019 GeV-2, -0.041 lt a(c)(Z)/Lambda(2) lt +0.044 GeV-2, -0.060 lt a(0)(W)/Lambda(2) lt +0.055 GeV-2, -0.099 lt a(c)(W)/Lambda(2) lt +0.093 GeV-2, where Lambda is the energy scale of the new physics responsible for the anomalous couplings

Measurement of the W-pair cross section in e+e−e^+ e^- collisions at 172 GeV

The e+e- --> W+W- cross section is measured in a data sample collected by ALEPH at a mean centre--of--mass energy of 172.09 GEV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.65 pb-1. Cross sections are given for the three topologies, fully leptonic, semi-leptonic and hadronic of a W-pair decay. Under the assumption that no other decay modes are present, the W-pair cross section is measured to be 11.7 +- 1.2 (stat.) +- 0.3 (syst.) pb. The existence of the triple gauge boson vertex of the Standard Model is clearly preferred by the data. The decay branching ratio of the W boson into hadrons is measured to be B(W --> hadrons) = 67.7 +- 3.1 (stat.) +- 0.7 (syst.)%, allowing a determination of the CKM matrix element |Vcs|= 0.98 +- 0.14 (stat.) +- 0.03 (syst.)

Search for R-Parity Violating Decays of Supersymmetric Particles in e+e−e^{+}e^{-} Collisions at Centre-of-Mass Energies near 183 GeV

Searches for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a single dominant $LL{\bar E}$, $LQ{\bar D}$ or ${\bar U} {\bar D} {\bar D}$ coupling are performed using the data collected by the \ALEPH\ collaboration at centre-of-mass energies of 181--184~\gev. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. Upper limits on the production cross-sections and lower limits on the masses of charginos, sleptons, squarks and sneutrinos are de rived