Low-noise monolithic bipolar front-end for silicon drift detectors

Abstract A very low noise, 32-channel preamplifier/shaper chip has been designed for the analogue readout of silicon detectors. The circuit has been optimized in view of the operation of silicon drift detectors, which have very low capacitance and produce gaussian signals of σ of few tens of ns. The chip (OLA) has been designed and manufactured using the SHPi full-custom bipolar process by Tektronix. Each channel is composed by a preamplifier, a shaper and a symmetrical line driver, which allows to drive either a positive and a negative single ended output separately on 50 Ω impedance or a differential twisted pair. The intrinsic peaking time of the circuit is ∼60 ns , and the noise is below 250 electrons at zero input load capacitance. The power consumption is 2 mW/channel, mostly due to the output driver

QCD sum rule analysis for light vector and axial-vector mesons in vacuum and nuclear matter

Extending previous work we study the constraints of QCD sum rules on mass and width of light vector and axial-vector mesons in vacuum and in a medium with finite nuclear density. For the latter case especially the effect of nuclear pions leading to vector-axial-vector mixing is included in the analysis.Comment: RevTeX, 32 pages, 10 eps figure

J/psi azimuthal anisotropy relative to the reaction plane in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

The J/$\psi$ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane has been measured by the NA50 experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon. Various physical mechanisms related to charmonium dissociation in the medium created in the heavy ion collision are expected to introduce an anisotropy in the azimuthal distribution of the observed J/$\psi$ mesons at SPS energies. Hence, the measurement of J/$\psi$ elliptic anisotropy, quantified by the Fourier coefficient v$_2$ of the J/$\psi$ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane, is an important tool to constrain theoretical models aimed at explaining the anomalous J/$\psi$ suppression observed in Pb-Pb collisions. We present the measured J/$\psi$ yields in different bins of azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, as well as the resulting values of the Fourier coefficient v$_{2}$ as a function of the collision centrality and of the J/$\psi$ transverse momentum. The reaction plane has been estimated from the azimuthal distribution of the neutral transverse energy detected in an electromagnetic calorimeter. The analysis has been performed on a data sample of about 100 000 events, distributed in five centrality or p$_{\rm T}$ sub-samples. The extracted v$_{2}$ values are significantly larger than zero for non-central collisions and are seen to increase with p$_{\rm T}$.Comment: proceedings of HP08 conference corrected a typo in one equatio

The dependence of the anomalous J/psi suppression on the number of participant nucleons

The observation of an anomalous J/psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions by the NA50 Collaboration can be considered as the most striking indication for the deconfinement of quarks and gluons at SPS energies. In this Letter, we determine the J/psi suppression pattern as a function of the forward hadronic energy E-ZDC measured in a Zero Degree Calorimeter (ZDC). The direct connection between EZDC and the geometry of the collision allows us to calculate, within a Glauber approach, the precise relation between the number of participant nucleons N-part and E-ZDC. Then, we check if the experimental data can be better explained by a sudden or a smooth onset of the anomalous J/psi suppression as a function of the number of participants. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A new measurement of J/psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

We present a new measurement of J/psi production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon, from the data sample collected in year 2000 by the NA50 Collaboration, under improved experimental conditions with respect to previous years. With the target system placed in vacuum, the setup was better adapted to study, in particular, the most peripheral nuclear collisions with unprecedented accuracy. The analysis of this data sample shows that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections ratio measured in the most peripheral Pb-Pb interactions is in good agreement with the nuclear absorption pattern extrapolated from the studies of proton-nucleus collisions. Furthermore, this new measurement confirms our previous observation that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections ratio departs from the normal nuclear absorption pattern for semi-central Pb-Pb collisions and that this ratio persistently decreases up to the most central collisions.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Centrality Behaviour of J/ψ\psi Production in Na50

The J/$\psi$ production in 158 A GeV Pb-Pb interactions is studied, in the dimuon decay channel, as a function of centrality, as measured with the electromagnetic or with the very forward calorimeters. After a first sharp variation at mid centrality, both patterns continue to fall down and exhibit a curvature change at high centrality values. This trend excludes any conventional hadronic model and is in agreement with a deconfined quark-gluon phase scenario. We report also preliminary results on the measured charged multiplicity, as given by a dedicated detector.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures (in eps) talk given at XXXI International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Sep. 1-7, 2001, Datong China URL http://ismd31.ccnu.edu.cn

Bottomonium and Drell-Yan production in p-A collisions at 450 GeV

The NA50 Collaboration has measured heavy-quarkonium production in p-A collisions at 450 GeV incident energy (sqrt(s) = 29.1 GeV). We report here results on the production of the Upsilon states and of high-mass Drell-Yan muon pairs (m > 6 GeV). The cross-section at midrapidity and the A-dependence of the measured yields are determined and compared with the results of other fixed-target experiments and with the available theoretical estimates. Finally, we also address some issues concerning the transverse momentum distributions of the measured dimuons.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Phys. Lett.

Charge separation relative to the reaction plane in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}= 2.76 TeV

Measurements of charge dependent azimuthal correlations with the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV. Two- and three-particle charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta| < 0.8$ are presented as a function of the collision centrality, particle separation in pseudo-rapidity, and transverse momentum. A clear signal compatible with a charge-dependent separation relative to the reaction plane is observed, which shows little or no collision energy dependence when compared to measurements at RHIC energies. This provides a new insight for understanding the nature of the charge dependent azimuthal correlations observed at RHIC and LHC energies.Comment: 12 pages, 3 captioned figures, authors from page 2 to 6, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/286

Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388

A note on comonotonicity and positivity of the control components of decoupled quadratic FBSDE

In this small note we are concerned with the solution of Forward-Backward Stochastic Differential Equations (FBSDE) with drivers that grow quadratically in the control component (quadratic growth FBSDE or qgFBSDE). The main theorem is a comparison result that allows comparing componentwise the signs of the control processes of two different qgFBSDE. As a byproduct one obtains conditions that allow establishing the positivity of the control process.Comment: accepted for publicatio