1,359 research outputs found
Four-lepton production at hadron colliders: aMC@NLO predictions with theoretical uncertainties
We use aMC@NLO to study the production of four charged leptons at the LHC,
performing parton showers with both HERWIG and Pythia6. Our underlying matrix
element calculation features the full next-to-leading order
result and the contribution of the channel, and it
includes all off-shell, spin-correlation, virtual-photon-exchange, and
interference effects. We present several key distributions together with the
corresponding theoretical uncertainties. These are obtained through a
process-independent technique that allows aMC@NLO to compute scale and PDF
uncertainties in a fully automated way and at no extra CPU-time costComment: 24 pages, 6 figure
Giant QCD K-factors beyond NLO
Hadronic observables in Z+jet events can be subject to large NLO corrections
at TeV scales, with K-factors that even reach values of order 50 in some cases.
We develop a method, LoopSim, by which approximate NNLO predictions can be
obtained for such observables, supplementing NLO Z+jet and NLO Z+2-jet results
with a unitarity-based approximation for missing higher loop terms. We first
test the method against known NNLO results for Drell-Yan lepton pt spectra. We
then show our approximate NNLO results for the Z+jet observables. Finally we
examine whether the LoopSim method can provide useful information even in cases
without giant K-factors, with results for observables in dijet events that can
be compared to early LHC data.Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures; v2 includes additional reference
Vector boson pair production at the LHC
We present phenomenological results for vector boson pair production at the
LHC, obtained using the parton-level next-to-leading order program MCFM. We
include the implementation of a new process in the code, pp -> \gamma\gamma,
and important updates to existing processes. We incorporate fragmentation
contributions in order to allow for the experimental isolation of photons in
\gamma\gamma, W\gamma, and Z\gamma production and also account for gluon-gluon
initial state contributions for all relevant processes. We present results for
a variety of phenomenological scenarios, at the current operating energy of
\sqrt{s} = 7 TeV and for the ultimate machine goal, \sqrt{s} = 14 TeV. We
investigate the impact of our predictions on several important distributions
that enter into searches for new physics at the LHC.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figure
A framework for optimization of diffusion-weighted MRI protocols for large field-of-view abdominal-pelvic imaging in multicenter studies.
PURPOSE: To develop methods for optimization of diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) in the abdomen and pelvis on 1.5 T MR scanners from three manufacturers and assess repeatability of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) estimates in a temperature-controlled phantom and abdominal and pelvic organs in healthy volunteers. METHODS: Geometric distortion, ghosting, fat suppression, and repeatability and homogeneity of ADC estimates were assessed using phantoms and volunteers. Healthy volunteers (ten per scanner) were each scanned twice on the same scanner. One volunteer traveled to all three institutions in order to provide images for qualitative comparison. The common volunteer was excluded from quantitative analysis of the data from scanners 2 and 3 in order to ensure statistical independence, giving n = 10 on scanner 1 and n = 9 on scanners 2 and 3 for quantitative analysis. Repeatability and interscanner variation of ADC estimates in kidneys, liver, spleen, and uterus were assessed using within-patient coefficient of variation (wCV) and Kruskal-Wallis tests, respectively. RESULTS: The coefficient of variation of ADC estimates in the temperature-controlled phantom was 1%-4% for all scanners. Images of healthy volunteers from all scanners showed homogeneous fat suppression and no marked ghosting or geometric distortion. The wCV of ADC estimates was 2%-4% for kidneys, 3%-7% for liver, 6%-9% for spleen, and 7%-10% for uterus. ADC estimates in kidneys, spleen, and uterus showed no significant difference between scanners but a significant difference was observed in liver (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: DW-MRI protocols can be optimized using simple phantom measurements to produce good quality images in the abdomen and pelvis at 1.5 T with repeatable quantitative measurements in a multicenter study
Truncated and Helix-Constrained Peptides with High Affinity and Specificity for the cFos Coiled-Coil of AP-1
Protein-based therapeutics feature large interacting surfaces. Protein folding endows structural stability to localised surface epitopes, imparting high affinity and target specificity upon interactions with binding partners. However, short synthetic peptides with sequences corresponding to such protein epitopes are unstructured in water and promiscuously bind to proteins with low affinity and specificity. Here we combine structural stability and target specificity of proteins, with low cost and rapid synthesis of small molecules, towards meeting the significant challenge of binding coiled coil proteins in transcriptional regulation. By iteratively truncating a Jun-based peptide from 37 to 22 residues, strategically incorporating i-->i+4 helix-inducing constraints, and positioning unnatural amino acids, we have produced short, water-stable, alpha-helical peptides that bind cFos. A three-dimensional NMR-derived structure for one peptide (24) confirmed a highly stable alpha-helix which was resistant to proteolytic degradation in serum. These short structured peptides are entropically pre-organized for binding with high affinity and specificity to cFos, a key component of the oncogenic transcriptional regulator Activator Protein-1 (AP-1). They competitively antagonized the cJun–cFos coiled-coil interaction. Truncating a Jun-based peptide from 37 to 22 residues decreased the binding enthalpy for cJun by ~9 kcal/mol, but this was compensated by increased conformational entropy (TDS ≤ 7.5 kcal/mol). This study demonstrates that rational design of short peptides constrained by alpha-helical cyclic pentapeptide modules is able to retain parental high helicity, as well as high affinity and specificity for cFos. These are important steps towards small antagonists of the cJun-cFos interaction that mediates gene transcription in cancer and inflammatory diseases
Strong Double Higgs Production at the LHC
The hierarchy problem and the electroweak data, together, provide a plausible
motivation for considering a light Higgs emerging as a pseudo-Goldstone boson
from a strongly-coupled sector. In that scenario, the rates for Higgs
production and decay differ significantly from those in the Standard Model.
However, one genuine strong coupling signature is the growth with energy of the
scattering amplitudes among the Goldstone bosons, the longitudinally polarized
vector bosons as well as the Higgs boson itself. The rate for double Higgs
production in vector boson fusion is thus enhanced with respect to its
negligible rate in the SM. We study that reaction in pp collisions, where the
production of two Higgs bosons at high pT is associated with the emission of
two forward jets. We concentrate on the decay mode hh -> WW^(*)WW^(*) and study
the semi-leptonic decay chains of the W's with 2, 3 or 4 leptons in the final
states. While the 3 lepton final states are the most relevant and can lead to a
3 sigma signal significance with 300 fb^{-1} collected at a 14 TeV LHC, the two
same-sign lepton final states provide complementary information. We also
comment on the prospects for improving the detectability of double Higgs
production at the foreseen LHC energy and luminosity upgrades.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures. v2: typos corrected, a few comments and one
table added. Version published in JHE
Heavy Higgs signal-background interference in gg → VV in the Standard Model plus real singlet
For the Standard Model extended with a real scalar singlet field, the
modification of the heavy Higgs signal due to interference with the continuum
background and the off-shell light Higgs contribution is studied for gg --> ZZ,
WW --> 4 lepton processes at the Large Hadron Collider. Interference effects
can range from O(10%) to O(1) effects for integrated cross sections. Despite a
strong cancellation between the heavy Higgs-continuum and the heavy Higgs-light
Higgs interference, the full interference is clearly non-negligible and
modifies the heavy Higgs line shape. A |M_VV - M_h2| < Gamma_h2 cut mitigates
interference effects to O(10%) or less. A public program that allows to
simulate the full interference is presented.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 9 tables; added results and references,
improved discussion, corrected v2 results (heavy top approximation was
inadvertently active, results deviate by less than 5%), conclusions
unchanged, updated gg2VV code, version to appear in EPJ
NLO Higgs boson production plus one and two jets using the POWHEG BOX, MadGraph4 and MCFM
We present a next-to-leading order calculation of Higgs boson production plus
one and two jets via gluon fusion interfaced to shower Monte Carlo programs,
implemented according to the POWHEG method. For this implementation we have
used a new interface of the POWHEG BOX with MadGraph4, that generates the codes
for generic Born and real processes automatically. The virtual corrections have
been taken from the MCFM code. We carry out a simple phenomenological study of
our generators, comparing them among each other and with fixed next-to-leading
order results.Comment: 27 pages, 21 figure
Quantum control of proximal spins using nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging
Quantum control of individual spins in condensed matter systems is an
emerging field with wide-ranging applications in spintronics, quantum
computation, and sensitive magnetometry. Recent experiments have demonstrated
the ability to address and manipulate single electron spins through either
optical or electrical techniques. However, it is a challenge to extend
individual spin control to nanoscale multi-electron systems, as individual
spins are often irresolvable with existing methods. Here we demonstrate that
coherent individual spin control can be achieved with few-nm resolution for
proximal electron spins by performing single-spin magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), which is realized via a scanning magnetic field gradient that is both
strong enough to achieve nanometric spatial resolution and sufficiently stable
for coherent spin manipulations. We apply this scanning field-gradient MRI
technique to electronic spins in nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and
achieve nanometric resolution in imaging, characterization, and manipulation of
individual spins. For NV centers, our results in individual spin control
demonstrate an improvement of nearly two orders of magnitude in spatial
resolution compared to conventional optical diffraction-limited techniques.
This scanning-field-gradient microscope enables a wide range of applications
including materials characterization, spin entanglement, and nanoscale
magnetometry.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
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