Simulation of a Cross Section and Mass Measurement of a SM Higgs Boson in the H->WW->lvlv Channel at the LHC

The potential to discover a Standard-Model-like Higgs boson at the LHC in the mass range from 150-180 GeV, decaying into a pair of W bosons with subsequent leptonic decays, has been established during the last 10 years. Assuming that such a signal will eventually be observed, the analysis described in this paper investigates how accurate the signal cross section can be measured and how the observable lepton pt spectra can be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs boson. Combining the signal cross section with the analysis of the lepton pt spectra and assuming the SM Higgs cross section is known with an accuracy of +-5%, our study indicates that an integrated luminosity of about 10 fb-1 allows to measure the mass of a SM Higgs boson with an accuracy between 2 and 2.5 GeV.Comment: 19 pages, 11 Figure

NNLO QCD predictions for the H -> WW -> l l nu nu signal at the LHC

We present a first computation of the NNLO QCD cross section at the LHC for the production of four leptons from a Higgs boson decaying into W bosons. We study the cross section for a Higgs boson mass Mh = 165 GeV; around this value a Standard Model Higgs boson decays almost exclusively into W-pairs. We apply all nominal experimental cuts on the final state leptons and the associated jet activity and study the magnitude of higher-order effects up to NNLO on all kinematic variables which are constrained by experimental cuts. We find that the magnitude of the higher-order corrections varies significantly with the signal selection cuts. As a main result we give the value of the cross section at NNLO with all selection cuts envisaged for the search for the Higgs boson.Comment: typos corrected, version accepted in JHE

Das ZEWO-Gütesiegel für gemeinnützige NRO als Beitrag zu erhöhter Transparenz auf dem Schweizer Spendenmarkt

Geschichte der ZEWO Bereits im Jahr 1934 wünschten Spenderinnen und Spender in der Schweiz über die Vertrauenswürdigkeit gemeinnütziger Organisationen Bescheid zu wissen, damit sie ihr Geld gut einsetzen konnten. Aufgrund dieses Bedürfnisses gründeten die Landeskonferenz für soziale Arbeit (LAKO) und die Schweizerische Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft 1934 die „Zentralauskunftsstelle“ und 1936 den Verein ZEWO (Zentralstelle für Wohlfahrtsunternehmen). 1942 wurde das Gütesiegel für gemeinnützige, Sp..

Le label ZEWO attribué aux organisations d’utilité publique : une contribution pour une meilleure transparence sur le marché du don en Suisse

Histoire de la ZEWO Dès 1934, les donateurs suisses ont voulu savoir dans quelle mesure certaines organisations d’utilité publique étaient dignes de confiance, avant de leur donner de l’argent. Un besoin auquel la Conférence nationale suisse de l’action sociale (LAKO) et la Société suisse d’utilité publique ont répondu en créant le Bureau central d’information en 1934 et l’association ZEWO (Bureau central des œuvres de bienfaisance) en 1936. Le label de qualité, destiné aux organisations d’ut..

Systematic uncertainties of the top background in the H->WW channel

The ttbar process is one of the main backgrounds for the H->WW->lnulnu signal search. The simulation of this background as well as an estimation of its contribution to the total systematic error for this Higgs search will be studied in detail. For this, the predictions of the PYTHIA, HERWIG, TopREX and MC@NLO Monte Carlos are compared in order to estimate the effect of different showering programs and of the spin correlations. Furthermore, the question of how to include NLO corrections will be addressed and the simulation of single top background at NLO discussed. In order to extrapolate the ttbar background to the Higgs signal region, once data is available, different normalization methods will be proposed and compared. The experimental uncertainties coming from different normalization processes will be estimated using a full CMS simulation

Combining Monte Carlo generators with next-to-next-to-leading order calculations: event reweighting for Higgs boson production at the LHC

We study a phenomenological ansatz for merging next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) calculations with Monte Carlo event generators. We reweight them to match bin-integrated NNLO differential distributions. To test this procedure, we study the Higgs boson production cross-section at the LHC, for which a fully differential partonic NNLO calculation is available. We normalize PYTHIA and MC@NLO Monte Carlo events for Higgs production in the gluon fusion channel to reproduce the bin integrated NNLO double differential distribution in the transverse momentum and rapidity of the Higgs boson. These events are used to compute differential distributions for the photons in the pp \to H \to \gamma \gamma decay channel, and are compared to predictions from fixed-order perturbation theory at NNLO. We find agreement between the reweighted generators and the NNLO result in kinematic regions where we expect a good description using fixed-order perturbation theory. Kinematic boundaries where resummation is required are also modeled correctly using this procedure. We then use these events to compute distributions in the pp \to H \to W^+W^- \to l^+l^- \nu\bar{\nu} channel, for which an accurate description is needed for measurements at the LHC. We find that the final state lepton distributions obtained from PYTHIA are not significantly changed by the reweighting procedure.Comment: 18 pages, 14 fig

Suitability of high-pressure xenon as scintillator for gamma ray spectroscopy

In this paper we report the experimental study of high-pressure xenon used as a scintillator, in the context of developing a gamma ray detector. We measure a light yield near 2 photoelectrons per keV for xenon at 40 bar. Together with the light yield, we also measured an energy resolution of ~9% (FWHM) at 662 keV, dominated by the statistical fluctuations in the number of photoelectrons.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure