Summary Talk: First Workshop on Forward Physics and Luminosity Determination at the LHC

An attempt is made to summarize the discussion at the Workshop, except for the panel discussion on the ability of the LHC detectors to accommodate forward reactions. The Workshop focused on two main topics. The first topic was forward physics at the LHC. Predictions were made for forward reactions, including elastic scattering and soft diffractive processes, intopic was forward physics at the LHC. Predictions were made for forward reactions, including elastic scattering and soft diffractive processes, in terms of (multi) Pomeron exchange, using knowledge gained at lower energies. The survival probability of rapidity gaps accompanying hard subprocesses was studied. The nature of the Pomeron, before and after QCD, was exposed, and some aspects of small x physics at the LHC were considered. The second topic of the Workshop concerned the accuracy of the luminosity measuring processes at the LHC. Attention concentrated on three methods. The classic approach based on the optical theorem, secondly, the observation of the pure QED process of lepton-pair (l^+l^-) production by photon-photon fusion and, finally, the measurement of inclusive W and Z production.Comment: 21 pages,10 figures, LaTeX, Workshop at Helsinki, 31 October - 3 November, 200

Status of Structure Functions and Partons

We briefly review some of the developments in the study of parton distributions which have occurred since DIS2000, including discussion of uncertainties, shadowing, unintegrated and generalized distributions.Comment: 12 pages including 4 figures, summary of talk at DIS200

Automated weighing by sequential inference in dynamic environments

We demonstrate sequential mass inference of a suspended bag of milk powder from simulated measurements of the vertical force component at the pivot while the bag is being filled. We compare the predictions of various sequential inference methods both with and without a physics model to capture the system dynamics. We find that non-augmented and augmented-state unscented Kalman filters (UKFs) in conjunction with a physics model of a pendulum of varying mass and length provide rapid and accurate predictions of the milk powder mass as a function of time. The UKFs outperform the other method tested - a particle filter. Moreover, inference methods which incorporate a physics model outperform equivalent algorithms which do not.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures. Copyright IEEE (2015