Precise measurement of the W-boson mass with the CDF II detector

We have measured the W-boson mass MW using data corresponding to 2.2/fb of integrated luminosity collected in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Samples consisting of 470126 W->enu candidates and 624708 W->munu candidates yield the measurement MW = 80387 +- 12 (stat) +- 15 (syst) = 80387 +- 19 MeV. This is the most precise measurement of the W-boson mass to date and significantly exceeds the precision of all previous measurements combined

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Measurement of sin2 θlept eff using eþe− pairs from γ=Z bosons produced in pp collisions at a center-of-momentum energy of 1.96 TeV

At the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton (pp¯) collider, Drell-Yan lepton pairs are produced in the process pp¯→e+e−+X through an intermediate γ∗/Z boson. The forward-backward asymmetry in the polar-angle distribution of the e− as a function of the e+e−-pair mass is used to obtain sin2θlepteff, the effective leptonic determination of the electroweak-mixing parameter sin2θW. The measurement sample, recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), corresponds to 9.4  fb−1 of integrated luminosity from pp¯ collisions at a center-of-momentum energy of 1.96 TeV, and is the full CDF Run II data set. The value of sin2θlepteff is found to be 0.23248±0.00053. The combination with the previous CDF measurement based on μ+μ− pairs yields sin2θlepteff=0.23221±0.00046. This result, when interpreted within the specified context of the standard model assuming sin2θW=1−M2W/M2Z and that the W- and Z-boson masses are on-shell, yields sin2θW=0.22400±0.00045, or equivalently a W-boson mass of 80.328±0.024  GeV/c2

Nonlinear beam self-cleaning in a coupled cavity composite laser based on multimode fiber

We study a coupled cavity laser configuration where a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG microchip laser is combined with an extended cavity, including a doped multimode fiber. For appropriate coupling levels with the extended cavity, we observed that beam selfcleaning was induced in the multimode fiber thanks to nonlinear modal coupling, leading to a quasi-single mode laser output. In the regime of beam self-cleaning, laser pulse duration was reduced from 525 to 225 ps. We also observed a Q-switched mode-locked operation, where spatial self-cleaning was accompanied by far-detuned nonlinear frequency conversion in the active multimode fiber

Study of top quark production and decays involving a tau lepton at CDF and limits on a charged Higgs boson contribution

We present an analysis of top-antitop quark production and decay into a tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark using data from 9??fb-1 of integrated luminosity at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Dilepton events, where one lepton is an energetic electron or muon and the other a hadronically decaying tau lepton, originating from proton-antiproton collisions at vs=1.96??TeV, are used. A top-antitop quark production cross section of 8.1±2.1??pb is measured, assuming standard-model top quark decays. By separately identifying for the first time the single-tau and the ditau components, we measure the branching fraction of the top quark into the tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark to be (9.6±2.8)%. The branching fraction of top quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark, which would imply violation of lepton universality, is limited to be less than 5.9% at a 95% confidence level [for B(H-?t¯?)=1]

Aligning the CMS Muon Chambers with the Muon Alignment System during an Extended Cosmic Ray Run

Peer reviewe

Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018.

Over the past decade, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) has formulated guidelines for the definition and interpretation of cell death from morphological, biochemical, and functional perspectives. Since the field continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate multiple cell death pathways are unveiled, we propose an updated classification of cell death subroutines focusing on mechanistic and essential (as opposed to correlative and dispensable) aspects of the process. As we provide molecularly oriented definitions of terms including intrinsic apoptosis, extrinsic apoptosis, mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT)-driven necrosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, pyroptosis, parthanatos, entotic cell death, NETotic cell death, lysosome-dependent cell death, autophagy-dependent cell death, immunogenic cell death, cellular senescence, and mitotic catastrophe, we discuss the utility of neologisms that refer to highly specialized instances of these processes. The mission of the NCCD is to provide a widely accepted nomenclature on cell death in support of the continued development of the field

Search for dark matter produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

A search for dark matter produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of bottom quarks is performed in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The analyzed data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The signal is characterized by a large missing transverse momentum recoiling against a bottom quark-antiquark system that has a large Lorentz boost. The number of events observed in the data is consistent with the standard model background prediction. Results are interpreted in terms of limits both on parameters of the type-2 two-Higgs doublet model extended by an additional light pseudoscalar boson a (2HDM+a) and on parameters of a baryonic Z simplified model. The 2HDM+a model is tested experimentally for the first time. For the baryonic Z model, the presented results constitute the most stringent constraints to date.Peer reviewe

A Deep Neural Network for Simultaneous Estimation of b Jet Energy and Resolution

We describe a method to obtain point and dispersion estimates for the energies of jets arising from b quarks produced in proton-proton collisions at an energy of s = 13 TeV at the CERN LHC. The algorithm is trained on a large sample of simulated b jets and validated on data recorded by the CMS detector in 2017 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41 fb - 1 . A multivariate regression algorithm based on a deep feed-forward neural network employs jet composition and shape information, and the properties of reconstructed secondary vertices associated with the jet. The results of the algorithm are used to improve the sensitivity of analyses that make use of b jets in the final state, such as the observation of Higgs boson decay to b b ¯