Exclusive processes in pp collisions in CMS

We report the results on the searches of exclusive production of low- and high-mass pairs with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV. The analyses comprise the central exclusive $\gamma\gamma$ production, the exclusive two-photon production of dileptons, $e^{+}e^{-}$ and $\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$, and the exclusive two-photon production of $W$ pairs in the asymmetric $e^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$ decay channel. No diphotons candidates are observed in data and an upper limit on the cross section is set to 1.18 pb with 95% confidence level for $E_{T}(\gamma)>$ 5.5 GeV and $|\eta(\gamma)|<$ 2.5. In the measurement of exclusive dilepton production, seventeen $e^{+}e^{-}$ candidates are observed in data with $E_{T}(e)>$ 5.5 GeV and $|\eta(e)|<$ 2.5, and the cross section for the exclusive dimuon production is set to $\sigma(pp\to p\,\mu^{+}\mu^{-}\,p)=3.38^{+0.58}_{-0.55}$ (stat.) $\pm$ 0.16 (syst.) $\pm$ 0.14 (lumi.) pb for $m(\mu^{+}\mu^{-})>$ 11.5 GeV, $p_{\textrm{T}}(\mu)>$ 4 GeV and $|\eta(\mu)|<$ 2.1, both in agreement with the theoretical predictions. For high-mass systems, two events are observed in data for the exclusive two-photon production of $W$ pairs for $p_{\textrm{T}}(\mu)>$ 4 GeV, $|\eta(\mu)|$ 20 GeV. Moreover, the study of the tail of the dilepton transverse momentum distribution resulted in model-independent upper limits for the anomalous quartic gauge couplings, which are of the order of 10$^{-4}$.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, presented at the XXI International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects, April 2013, Marseille, Franc

The Star Cluster Systems of the Magellanic Clouds

The characteristics of the cluster systems of the Magellanic Clouds, as inferred from integrated properties, are compared with those from individual cluster studies and from the field population. The agreement is generally satisfactory though in the case of the LMC, the lack of clusters older than ~3 Gyr is not reflected in the field population. The possible origin(s) for this cluster ``age-gap'' are discussed. The SMC cluster age-metallicity relation is also presented and discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of IAU Symposium 207, "Extragalactic Star Clusters", eds E. Grebel, D. Geisler and D. Minnit

A Second Shell in the Fornax dSph Galaxy

In the search for tidal structure in Galactic satellite systems, we have conducted a photometric survey over a 10 square degree area centred on the Fornax dSph galaxy. The survey was made in two colours, and the resulting colour-magnitude data were used as a mask to select candidate Fornax RGB stars, thereby increasing the contrast of Fornax stars to background sources in the outer regions. Previously, we reported the presence of a shell (age 2 Gyr) located towards the centre of Fornax. In this contribution we reveal a second shell, significantly larger than the first, located 1.3 degrees NW from the centre of Fornax, outside the nominal tidal radius. Moreover, the distribution of Fornax RGB stars reveals two lobes extending to the spatial limit of our survey, and aligned with the minor axis and with the two shells. These results support the hypothesis of a merger between Fornax and a gas-rich companion approximately 2 Gyr ago.Comment: Four pages,accepted for the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Contribution the annual ASA meeting, Brisbane 200