Achievements of the ATLAS Upgrade Planar Pixel Sensors R&D Project

To extend the physics reach of the LHC, accelerator upgrades are planned which will increase the integrated luminosity to beyond 3000 fb^-1 and the pile-up per bunch-crossing by a factor 5 to 10. To cope with the increased occupancy and radiation damage, the ATLAS experiment plans to introduce an all-silicon inner tracker with the HL-LHC upgrade. To investigate the suitability of pixel sensors using the proven planar technology for the upgraded tracker, the ATLAS Upgrade Planar Pixel Sensor R&D Project (PPS) was established comprising 19 institutes and more than 80 scientists. Main areas of research are the performance assessment of planar pixel sensors with different designs and substrate thicknesses up to the HL-LHC fluence, the achievement of slim or active edges to provide low geometric inefficiencies without the need for shingling of modules and the exploration of possibilities for cost reduction to enable the instrumentation of large areas. This paper gives an overview of recent accomplishments and ongoing work of the R&D project

Studies of B decays to Charmonium at BABAR

Using 22.7 million BBbar events recorded with the BABAR detector, the inclusive branching fractions for the production of J/psi, psi(2S) and Chi_c in B decays are presented. Combining the charmonium state with a K+-, K0, K*+-, K*0 or neutral pion, B decays are reconstructed exlusively and branching fractions are determined. A preliminary study is also presented fot the B --> eta_c K decay mode.Comment: 6 pages, 7 postscript figues, submitted to ICHEP200

Search for Physics Beyond the Standard Model at BaBar and Belle

Recent results on the search for new physics at BaBar and Belle B-factories are presented. The search for a light Higgs boson produced in the decay of different Y resonances is shown. In addition, recent measurements aimed to discover invisible final states produced by new physics mechanisms beyond the standard model are presented.Comment: On behalf of BaBar and Belle Collaborations - Presented at the 2011 Hadron Collider Physics symposium (HCP-2011), Paris, France, November 14-18 2011, 4 pages, 6 figur

Electrical Characterization of a Thin Edgeless N-on-p Planar Pixel Sensors For ATLAS Upgrades

In view of the LHC upgrade phases towards the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the ATLAS experiment plans to upgrade the Inner Detector with an all-silicon system. Because of its radiation hardness and cost effectiveness, the n-on-p silicon technology is a promising candidate for a large area pixel detector. The paper reports on the joint development, by LPNHE and FBK of novel n-on-p edgeless planar pixel sensors, making use of the active trench concept for the reduction of the dead area at the periphery of the device. After discussing the sensor technology, and presenting some sensors' simulation results, a complete overview of the electrical characterization of the produced devices will be given.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 15th International Workshops on Radiation Imaging Detector

Development of Edgeless n-on-p Planar Pixel Sensors for future ATLAS Upgrades

The development of n-on-p "edgeless" planar pixel sensors being fabricated at FBK (Trento, Italy), aimed at the upgrade of the ATLAS Inner Detector for the High Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), is reported. A characterizing feature of the devices is the reduced dead area at the edge, achieved by adopting the "active edge" technology, based on a deep etched trench, suitably doped to make an ohmic contact to the substrate. The project is presented, along with the active edge process, the sensor design for this first n-on-p production and a selection of simulation results, including the expected charge collection efficiency after radiation fluence of $1 \times 10^{15} {\rm n_{eq}}/{\rm cm}^2$ comparable to those expected at HL-LHC (about ten years of running, with an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$) for the outer pixel layers. We show that, after irradiation and at a bias voltage of 500 V, more than 50% of the signal should be collected in the edge region; this confirms the validity of the active edge approach.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Novel Silicon n-on-p Edgeless Planar Pixel Sensors for the ATLAS upgrade

In view of the LHC upgrade phases towards HL-LHC, the ATLAS experiment plans to upgrade the Inner Detector with an all-silicon system. The n-on-p silicon technology is a promising candidate for the pixel upgrade thanks to its radiation hardness and cost effectiveness, that allow for enlarging the area instrumented with pixel detectors. We report on the development of novel n-in-p edgeless planar pixel sensors fabricated at FBK (Trento, Italy), making use of the "active edge" concept for the reduction of the dead area at the periphery of the device. After discussing the sensor technology and fabrication process, we present device simulations (pre- and post-irradiation) performed for different sensor configurations. First preliminary results obtained with the test-structures of the production are shown.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Radiation Effects on Semiconductor Materials Detectors and Device

Performance of Irradiated Thin Edgeless N-on-P Planar Pixel Sensors for ATLAS Upgrades

In view of the LHC upgrade phases towards the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the ATLAS experiment plans to upgrade the Inner Detector with an all-silicon system. Because of its radiation hardness and cost effectiveness, the n-on-p silicon technology is a promising candidate for a large area pixel detector. The paper reports on the joint development, by LPNHE and FBK of novel n-on-p edgeless planar pixel sensors, making use of the active trench concept for the reduction of the dead area at the periphery of the device. After discussing the sensor technology, a complete overview of the electrical characterization of several irradiated samples will be discussed. Some comments about detector modules being assembled will be made and eventually some plans will be outlined.Comment: 6 pages, 13 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 2013 Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1311.162

Is our knowledge of the charm sector correct?

A lot of techniques are used to measure $R_b = \Gamma(Z \to b\overline{b})$/$\Gamma(Z \to q\overline{q})$ and they involve different sources of systematic errors. Nevertheless, charm sector knowledge is one of the largest limitations to R b accuracy apart from the particular method used. Some of the most important techniques to extract R b are examined, and for each of them the largest sources of uncertainties coming from the charm sector are reviewed. New recent results from the charm physics are reported, and their incidence on R b systematics is discussed

A Study of Charged P-wave D Meson Production in Semileptonic B Decays

A Study of Charged P-wave D Meson Production in Semileptonic B Decays. A search for the semileptonic decay of B mesons into final states involving charged D** as well as non resonant D0-pi is performed in a sample of approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP. Topological vertex criteria are used to separate the B -> D**+ l nu X signal from background as well as to search for the non-resonant component B -> D0 pi l nu X. Preliminary results for the branching fraction into resonant and non-resonant components are presented