SM Higgs boson searches in the early ATLAS data

ATLAS exclusion and discovery potentials of Standard Model Higgs boson searches at the LHC at 14 TeV, 10 TeV and 7 TeV center-of-mass energy are reviewed. For a LHC center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and integrated luminosity of 1 fb$^{-1}$, contributions from the important decay channels \Hboson \rightarrow \Wboson\Wboson^{(*)} \rightarrow \ell\nu\ell\nu, \Hboson \rightarrow \Zboson\Zboson^{(*)} \rightarrow \ell\ell\ell\ell and \Hboson \rightarrow \gamma\gamma are considered, based on recent full Monte Carlo simulations at 14 and 10 TeV and the cross-section rescaling for the 7 TeV center-of-mass energy. First measurements of backgrounds to Standard Model Higgs boson search are also presented.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of IHEPLHC10 Conference (Protvino, Russia, October 2010

Quasi-Homogeneous Backward-Wave Plasmonic Structures: Theory and Accurate Simulation

Backward waves and negative refraction are shown to exist in plasmonic crystals whose lattice cell size is a very small fraction of the vacuum wavelength (less than 1/40th in an illustrative example). Such ``quasi-homogeneity'' is important, in particular, for high-resolution imaging. Real and complex Bloch bands are computed using the recently developed finite-difference calculus of ``Flexible Local Approximation MEthods'' (FLAME) that produces linear eigenproblems, as opposed to quadratic or nonlinear ones typical for other techniques. FLAME dramatically improves the accuracy by incorporating local analytical approximations of the solution into the numerical scheme.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Do neutrino oscillations allow an extra phenomenological parameter?

The quantity $\xi$ introduced recently in the phenomenological description of neutrino oscillations is in fact not a free parameter, but a fixed number.Comment: 2 pages, LaTeX 2e style articl

Surface waves in three-dimensional electromagnetic composites and their effect on homogenization

Reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves at the boundaries of periodic composites (electromagnetic/optical metamaterials) depends in general on both bulk and surface waves. We investigate the interplay of these two contributions using three-dimensional full-wave numerical simulations and a recently developed non-asymptotic homoge-nization theory. © 2013 Optical Society of America.postprin