The Plasma Environment of Comets

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138863/1/rog199129s2976.pd

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Boson Production at HERA

A search for the single production of doubly-charged Higgs bosons H^{\pm \pm} in ep collisions is presented. The signal is searched for via the Higgs decays into a high mass pair of same charge leptons, one of them being an electron. The analysis uses up to 118 pb^{-1} of ep data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA. No evidence for doubly-charged Higgs production is observed and mass dependent upper limits are derived on the Yukawa couplings h_{el} of the Higgs boson to an electron-lepton pair. Assuming that the doubly-charged Higgs only decays into an electron and a muon via a coupling of electromagnetic strength h_{e \mu} = \sqrt{4 \pi \alpha_{em}} = 0.3, a lower limit of 141 GeV on the H^{\pm\pm} mass is obtained at the 95% confidence level. For a doubly-charged Higgs decaying only into an electron and a tau and a coupling h_{e\tau} = 0.3, masses below 112 GeV are ruled out.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions

We review the most important experimental results from the first three years of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory. The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes, invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC.Comment: 101 pages, 37 figures; revised version to Nucl. Phys.

Charged-particle distributions at low transverse momentum in √<i>s</i>=13 TeV <i>pp</i> interactions measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of distributions of charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are presented. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 151 [Formula: see text]. The particles are required to have a transverse momentum greater than 100 MeV and an absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.5. The charged-particle multiplicity, its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity and the dependence of the mean transverse momentum on multiplicity are measured in events containing at least two charged particles satisfying the above kinematic criteria. The results are corrected for detector effects and compared to the predictions from several Monte Carlo event generators

Inclusive D∗±D^{*\pm} Cross Sections and D∗±D^{*\pm}-Jet Correlations in Photoproduction at HERA

Differential photoproduction cross sections are measured for events containing D*± mesons. The data were taken with the H1 detector at the ep collider HERA and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 51.1 pb-1. The kinematic region covers small photon virtualities Q2 < 0.01 GeV2 and photon–proton centre-of-mass energies of 171 < Wγ p < 256 GeV. The details of the heavy quark production process are further investigated in events with one or two jets in addition to the D*± meson. Differential cross sections for D*+jet production are determined and the correlations between the D*± meson and the jet(s) are studied. The results are compared with perturbative QCD predictions applying collinear- or kt-factorisation

Measurement and QCD Analysis of the Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering Cross Section at HERA

A detailed analysis is presented of the diffractive deep-inelastic scattering process $ep\to eXY$, where $Y$ is a proton or a low mass proton excitation carrying a fraction 1 - \xpom > 0.95 of the incident proton longitudinal momentum and the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex satisfies $|t|<1 {\rm GeV^2}$. Using data taken by the H1 experiment, the cross section is measured for photon virtualities in the range $3.5 \leq Q^2 \leq 1600 \rm GeV^2$, triple differentially in \xpom, $Q^2$ and \beta = x / \xpom, where $x$ is the Bjorken scaling variable. At low \xpom, the data are consistent with a factorisable \xpom dependence, which can be described by the exchange of an effective pomeron trajectory with intercept \alphapom(0)= 1.118 \pm 0.008 {\rm (exp.)} ^{+0.029}_{-0.010} {\rm (model)}. Diffractive parton distribution functions and their uncertainties are determined from a next-to-leading order DGLAP QCD analysis of the $Q^2$ and $\beta$ dependences of the cross section. The resulting gluon distribution carries an integrated fraction of around 70% of the exchanged momentum in the $Q^2$ range studied. Total and differential cross sections are also measured for the diffractive charged current process $e^+ p \to \bar{\nu}_e XY$ and are found to be well described by predictions based on the diffractive parton distributions. The ratio of the diffractive to the inclusive neutral current $ep$ cross sections is studied. Over most of the kinematic range, this ratio shows no significant dependence on $Q^2$ at fixed \xpom and $x$ or on $x$ at fixed $Q^2$ and $\beta$.Comment: 59 pages, 19 figures, 6 table

A Determination of Electroweak Parameters at HERA

Using the deep inelastic e^+p and e^-p charged and neutral current scattering cross sections previously published, a combined electroweak and QCD analysis is performed to determine electroweak parameters accounting for their correlation with parton distributions. The data used have been collected by the H1 experiment in 1994-2000 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 117.2 pb^{-1}. A measurement is obtained of the W propagator mass in charged current ep scattering. The weak mixing angle sin^2 theta_W is determined in the on-mass-shell renormalisation scheme. A first measurement at HERA is made of the light quark weak couplings to the Z^0 boson and a possible contribution of right-handed isospin components to the weak couplings is investigated.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Diffractive photoproduction of J/ψ mesons with large momentum transfer at HERA.

The diffractive photoproduction of J/ψ mesons is measured with the H1 detector at the ep collider HERA using an integrated luminosity of 78 pb−1. The differential cross section dσ(γp→J/ψY)/dt is studied in the range 2<|t|<30 GeV2, where t is the square of the four-momentum transferred at the proton vertex. The cross section is also presented as a function of the photon–proton centre-of-mass energy Wγp in three t intervals, spanning the range 50<Wγp<200 GeV. A fast rise of the cross section with Wγp is observed for each t range and the slope for the effective linear Pomeron trajectory is measured to be ′=−0.0135±0.0074(stat.)±0.0051(syst.) GeV−2. The measurements are compared with perturbative QCD models based on BFKL and DGLAP evolution. The data are found to be compatible with s-channel helicity conservation