The study of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles via microfluidically generated droplets

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) play a significant role in the climate and hydrological cycle by triggering ice formation in supercooled clouds, thereby causing precipitation and affecting cloud lifetimes and their radiative properties. However, despite their importance, INP often comprise only 1 in 10³–10⁶ ambient particles, making it difficult to ascertain and predict their type, source, and concentration. The typical techniques for quantifying INP concentrations tend to be highly labour-intensive, suffer from poor time resolution, or are limited in sensitivity to low concentrations. Here, we present the application of microfluidic devices to the study of atmospheric INPs via the simple and rapid production of monodisperse droplets and their subsequent freezing on a cold stage. This device offers the potential for the testing of INP concentrations in aqueous samples with high sensitivity and high counting statistics. Various INPs were tested for validation of the platform, including mineral dust and biological species, with results compared to literature values. We also describe a methodology for sampling atmospheric aerosol in a manner that minimises sampling biases and which is compatible with the microfluidic device. We present results for INP concentrations in air sampled during two field campaigns: (1) from a rural location in the UK and (2) during the UK’s annual Bonfire Night festival. These initial results will provide a route for deployment of the microfluidic platform for the study and quantification of INPs in upcoming field campaigns around the globe, while providing a benchmark for future lab-on-a-chip-based INP studies

Study of double parton scattering using W+2-jet events in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of Higgs boson production and properties in the WW decay channel with leptonic final states

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 ¯

Measurement of higher-order harmonic azimuthal anisotropy in PbPb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV

Measurements are presented by the CMS Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the higher-order harmonic coefficients that describe the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles emitted in root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV PbPb collisions. Expressed in terms of the Fourier components of the azimuthal distribution, the n = 3-6 harmonic coefficients are presented for charged particles as a function of their transverse momentum (0.3 < p(T) < 8.0 GeV/c), collision centrality (0%-70%), and pseudorapidity (|eta| < 2.0). The data are analyzed using the event plane, multiparticle cumulant, and Lee-Yang zeros methods, which provide different sensitivities to initial-state fluctuations. Taken together with earlier LHC measurements of elliptic flow (n = 2), the results on higher-order harmonic coefficients develop a more complete picture of the collective motion in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and shed light on the properties of the produced medium

Measurement of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV and first determination of the strong coupling constant in the TeV range

A measurement is presented of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section as a function of the average transverse momentum, , of the two leading jets in the event. The data sample was collected during 2011 at a proton-proton centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb(-1). The strong coupling constant at the scale of the Z boson mass is determined to be alpha(S)(M-Z) = 0.1148 +/- 0.0014 (exp.) +/- 0.0018 (PDF) +/- 0.0050 (theory), by comparing the ratio in the range 0.42 < 1.39 TeV to the predictions of perturbative QCD at next-to-leading order. This is the first determination of alpha(S)(M-Z) from measurements at momentum scales beyond 0.6 TeV. The predicted ratio depends only indirectly on the evolution of the parton distribution functions of the proton such that this measurement also serves as a test of the evolution of the strong coupling constant. No deviation from the expected behaviour is observed

Evidence for the 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying to a pair of tau leptons

A search for a standard model Higgs boson decaying into a pair of tau leptons is performed using events recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011 and 2012. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb(-1) at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 19.7 fb(-1) at 8 TeV. Each tau lepton decays hadronically or leptonically to an electron or a muon, leading to six different final states for the tau-lepton pair, all considered in this analysis. An excess of events is observed over the expected background contributions, with a local significance larger than 3 standard deviations for m (H) values between 115 and 130 GeV. The best fit of the observed H -> tau tau signal cross section times branching fraction for m(H) = 125 GeV is 0.78 +/- 0.27 times the standard model expectation. These observations constitute evidence for the 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying to a pair of tau leptons

Measurements of pp → ZZ production cross sections and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings at √ = 13 TeV

© 2021 The CMS Collaboration. The production of Z boson pairs in proton–proton (pp) collisions, pp → (Z/∗)(Z/∗) → 2ℓ2ℓ′, where ℓ,ℓ′ = e or μ, is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137fb−1, collected during 2016–2018. The ZZ production cross section, tot(pp → ZZ) = 17.4 ± 0.3 (stat) ± 0.5 (syst) ± 0.4 (Theo) ± 0.3 (lumi) pb, measured for events with two pairs of opposite-sign, same-flavor leptons produced in the mass region 60 < ℓ+ℓ− < 120 GeV is consistent with standard model predictions. Differential cross sections are also measured and agree with theoretical predictions. The invariant mass distribution of the four-lepton system is used to set limits on anomalous ZZZ and ZZ couplings.SCOAP