Symbolic power: the future of nuclear energy in Lithuania

EU accession states may have thrown off their Soviet past in political terms, but abandoning some of the Soviet era technologies is proving to be harder. Civil nuclear power is on the way out in most of Europe, but for some ex-Soviet countries this may present serious problems of economic, social and cultural transformation -- especially in countries like Lithuania, where nuclear power supplies the bulk of the electricity. The issue has come to a head given the EU's insistence that several ex-Soviet states must agree to close their nuclear plant as a condition of EU entry. Lithuania is the accession country most wedded to and certainly most reliant on nuclear power. It has a nuclear plant which uses a technology (the RBMK, Chernobyl-type reactor) which the EU has insisted should be closed rapidly on safety grounds. This has proved an unpopular requirement in Lithuania for a variety of reasons. There are problem with ensuring continued energy supplies and replacing the lost employment and earning power. However Lithuania also has a more general commitment to this technology as a symbol of national prowess and independence. During and immediately after the struggle for national independence in 1991, the country had a mass anti-nuclear movement. This has been analysed as a covert expression of nationalist and anti-Soviet feeling, given that most opposition to nuclear power evaporated after independence (Dawson 1996). Subsequently the EU ruled that Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear plant should be closed. Yet now it is widely seen as a national asset, a view reinforced by resentment about the EU apparently imposing an unwarranted closure policy. This article will analyse how public and policy views on nuclear power have changed over time in Lithuania and how its symbolic meaning has changed during different phases of transformation of the Lithuanian society

Winter 1970

A Closer Look at Watering by Holman M. Griffin (page 3) Sulphur in Turfgrass Fertilization by J.D. Beaton (5) Those Extras on a Golf Course by Jack Fairhurst (9) Turf Bulletin\u27s Photo Quiz by Fred Cheney (9) Progress in Research on Live Oak Decline by E.P. Van Arsdel and Robert S. Halliwell (10) Editorial (15) The Perfermance Characteristics of Kentucky Bluegrass Mixtures by F.V. Juska and A.A. Hanson (16) Moss (23

Operational experience with the GEM detector assembly lines for the CMS forward muon upgrade

The CMS Collaboration has been developing large-area triple-gas electron multiplier (GEM) detectors to be installed in the muon Endcap regions of the CMS experiment in 2019 to maintain forward muon trigger and tracking performance at the High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC); 10 preproduction detectors were built at CERN to commission the first assembly line and the quality controls (QCs). These were installed in the CMS detector in early 2017 and participated in the 2017 LHC run. The collaboration has prepared several additional assembly and QC lines for distributed mass production of 160 GEM detectors at various sites worldwide. In 2017, these additional production sites have optimized construction techniques and QC procedures and validated them against common specifications by constructing additional preproduction detectors. Using the specific experience from one production site as an example, we discuss how the QCs make use of independent hardware and trained personnel to ensure fast and reliable production. Preliminary results on the construction status of CMS GEM detectors are presented with details of the assembly sites involvement

Search for dark matter particles produced in association with a Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

A search for dark matter (DM) particles is performed using events with a Higgs boson candidate and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on proton- proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The search is performed in five Higgs boson decay channels: h -> b (b) over bar, gamma gamma, tau(+)tau(-), W+W-, and ZZ. The results from the individual channels are combined to maximize the sensitivity of the analysis. No significant excess over the expected standard model background is observed in any of the five channels or in their combination. Limits are set on DM production in the context of two simplified models. The results are also interpreted in terms of a spin-independent DM-nucleon scattering cross section and compared to those from direct-detection DM experiments. This is the first search for DM particles produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of W or Z bosons, and the first statistical combination based on five Higgs boson decay channels.Peer reviewe

The very forward CASTOR calorimeter of the CMS experiment

The physics motivation, detector design, triggers, calibration, alignment, simulation, and overall performance of the very forward CASTOR calorimeter of the CMS experiment are reviewed. The CASTOR Cherenkov sampling calorimeter is located very close to the LHC beam line, at a radial distance of about 1 cm from the beam pipe, and at 14.4 m from the CMS interaction point, covering the pseudorapidity range of -6.6 < eta < - 5.2. It was designed to withstand high ambient radiation and strong magnetic fields. The performance of the detector in measurements of forward energy density, jets, and processes characterized by rapidity gaps, is reviewed using data collected in proton and nuclear collisions at the LHC.Peer reviewe

Measurements of production cross sections of polarized same-sign W boson pairs in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

The first measurements of production cross sections of polarized same-sign (WW +/-)-W-+/- boson pairs in proton-proton collisions are reported. The measurements are based on a data sample collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1). Events are selected by requiring exactly two same-sign leptons, electrons or muons, moderate missing transverse momentum, and two jets with a large rapidity separation and a large dijet mass to enhance the contribution of same-sign (WW +/-)-W-+/- scattering events. An observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.17 (0.88) fbis set on the production cross section for longitudinally polarized same-sign W-+/- W-+/- boson pairs. The electroweak production of same-sign W-+/- W-+/- boson pairs with at least one of the W bosons longitudinally polarized is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 2.3 (3.1) standard deviations. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Development and validation of HERWIG 7 tunes from CMS underlying-event measurements

This paper presents new sets of parameters ("tunes") for the underlying-event model of the herwig 7 event generator. These parameters control the description of multiple-parton interactions (MPI) and colour reconnection in herwig 7, and are obtained from a fit to minimum-bias data collected by the CMS experiment at v s = 0.9, 7, and 13 TeV. The tunes are based on the NNPDF3.1 next-to-nextto-leading-order parton distribution function (PDF) set for the parton shower, and either a leading-order or next-to-nextto-leading-order PDF set for the simulation of MPI and the beam remnants. Predictions utilizing the tunes are produced for event shape observables in electron-positron collisions, and forminimum-bias, inclusive jet, top quark pair, and Zand Wboson events in proton-proton collisions, and are compared with data. Each of the new tunes describes the data at a reasonable level, and the tunes using a leading-order PDF for the simulation of MPI provide the best description of the data.Peer reviewe