ATLAS physics performance and commissioning

ATLAS, one of the two multi-purpose detectors at the proton-proton collider LHC, is scheduled to start taking data in 2007. This paper presents the physics performance of this experiment in studying one of the main topics of the LHC physics : the Higgs search. The use of the first data for the detector commissioning and the physics measurements that can be done in the early phase of the LHC operation are also reviewed

Uniformity Of The 2000 Test Beam Module With The New Optimal Filtering Coefficients

An original method to reconstruct electron and pion signals in the Liquid ARGon barrel calorimeter (LARG) is applied to test beam data collected at the H8 line of the CERN North Area in July and August 2000. The method is based on the use of optimal filtering coefficients and takes into account the electrical description of the read-out electronics in the reconstruction of the physics pulses. Results on improvements in the LARG response and in particular on the energy uniformity of the calorimeter are shown

Uniformity of the 2000 test beam module with the new optimal filtering coefficients

An original method to reconstruct electron and pion signals in the Liquid ARGon barrel calorimeter (LARG) is applied to test beam data collected at the H8 line of the CERN North Area in July and August 2000. The method is based on the use of optimal filtering coefficients and takes into account the electrical description of the read-out electronics in the reconstruction of the physics pulses. Results on improvements in the LARG response and in particular on the energy uniformity of the calorimeter are shown

Averaging lifetimes for B hadron species

The measurement of the lifetimes of the individual B species are of great interest. Many of these measurements are well below the 10 $\%$ level of precision. However, in order to reach the precision necessary to test the current theoretical predictions, the results from different experiments need to be averaged. Therefore, the relevant systematic uncertainties of each measurement need to be well defined in order to understand the correlations between the results from different experiments. \par In this paper we discuss the dominant sources of systematic errors which lead to correlations between the different measurements. We point out problems connected with the conventional approach of combining lifetime data and discuss methods which overcome these problems

Ageing test of the ATLAS RPCs at X5-GIF

An ageing test of three ATLAS production RPC stations is in course at X5-GIF, the CERN irradiation facility. The chamber efficiencies are monitored using cosmic rays triggered by a scintillator hodoscope. Higher statistics measurements are made when the X5 muon beam is available. We report here the measurements of the efficiency versus operating voltage at different source intensities, up to a maximum counting rate of about 700Hz/cm^2. We describe the performance of the chambers during the test up to an overall ageing of 4 ATLAS equivalent years corresponding to an integrated charge of 0.12C/cm^2, including a safety factor of 5.Comment: 4 pages. Presented at the VII Workshop on Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detectors; Clermont-Ferrand October 20th-22nd, 200

Using earthquakes to uncover the Earth's inner secrets: interactive exhibits for geophysical education

International audienceThe Educational & Outreach Group (E&O Group) of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) designed a portable museum to bring on the road educational activities focused on seismology, seismic hazard and Earth science. This project was developed for the first edition of the Science Festival organized in Genoa, Italy, in 2003. The museum has been mainly focused to school students of all ages and explains the main topics of geophysics through posters, movie and slide presentations, and exciting interactive experiments. This new INGV museum has been remarkably successful, being visited by more than 8000 children and adults during the 10 days of the Science Festival. It is now installed at the INGV headquarters in Rome and represents the main attraction during the visits of the schools all year round

Using earthquakes to uncover the Earth's inner secrets: interactive exhibits for geophysical education

The Educational &amp; Outreach Group (E&amp;O Group) of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) designed a portable museum to bring on the road educational activities focused on seismology, seismic hazard and Earth science. This project was developed for the first edition of the Science Festival organized in Genoa, Italy, in 2003. <P style=&quot;line-height: 20px;&quot;> The museum has been mainly focused to school students of all ages and explains the main topics of geophysics through posters, movie and slide presentations, and exciting interactive experiments. This new INGV museum has been remarkably successful, being visited by more than 8000 children and adults during the 10 days of the Science Festival. It is now installed at the INGV headquarters in Rome and represents the main attraction during the visits of the schools all year round

Energy Linearity and Resolution of the ATLAS Electromagnetic Barrel Calorimeter in an Electron Test-Beam

A module of the ATLAS electromagnetic barrel liquid argon calorimeter was exposed to the CERN electron test-beam at the H8 beam line upgraded for precision momentum measurement. The available energies of the electron beam ranged from 10 to 245 GeV. The electron beam impinged at one point corresponding to a pseudo-rapidity of eta=0.687 and an azimuthal angle of phi=0.28 in the ATLAS coordinate system. A detailed study of several effects biasing the electron energy measurement allowed an energy reconstruction procedure to be developed that ensures a good linearity and a good resolution. Use is made of detailed Monte Carlo simulations based on Geant which describe the longitudinal and transverse shower profiles as well as the energy distributions. For electron energies between 15 GeV and 180 GeV the deviation of the measured incident electron energy over the beam energy is within 0.1%. The systematic uncertainty of the measurement is about 0.1% at low energies and negligible at high energies. The energy resolution is found to be about 10% sqrt(E) for the sampling term and about 0.2% for the local constant term