One year of FBG-based thermo-hygrometers in operation in the CMS experiment at CERN

K

Design development and implementation of an irradiation station at the neutron time-of-flight facility at CERN

A new parasitic, mixed-field, neutron-dominated irradiation station has been recently commissioned at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The station is installed within the neutron time-of-flight (n_TOF) facility, taking advantage of the secondary radiation produced by the neutron spallation target, with neutrons ranging from 0.025 eV to several hundreds of MeV. The new station allows radiation damage studies to be performed in irradiation conditions that are closer to the ones encountered during the operation of particle accelerators; the irradiation tests carried out in the station will be complementary to the standard tests on materials, usually performed with gamma sources. Samples will be exposed to neutron-dominated doses in the MGy range per year, with minimal impact on the n_TOF facility operation. The station has 24 irradiation positions, each hosting up to 100 cm3 of sample material. In view of its proximity to the n_TOF target, inside protective shielding, the irradiation station and its operating procedures have been carefully developed taking into account the safety of personnel and to avoid any unwanted impact on the operation of the n_TOF facility and experiments. Due to the residual radioactivity of the whole area around the n_TOF target and of the irradiated samples, access to the irradiation station is forbidden to human operators even when the n_TOF facility is not in operation. Robots are used for the remote installation and retrieval of the samples, and other optimizations of the handling procedures were developed in compliance with radiation protection regulations and the aim of minimizing doses to personnel. The sample containers were designed to be radiation tolerant, compatible with remote handling, and subject to detailed risk analysis and testing during their development. The whole life cycle of the irradiated materials, including their post-irradiation examinations and final disposal, was considered and optimized

Radiation hard polyimide-coated FBG optical sensors for relative humidity monitoring in the CMS experiment at CERN

This work investigates the performance and the radiation hardness capability of optical thermo-hygrometers based on Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) for humidity monitoring in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the four experiments running at CERN in Geneva. A thorough campaign of characterization was performed on 80 specially produced Polyimide-coated RH FBG sensors and 80 commercial temperature FBG sensors. Sensitivity, repeatability and accuracy were studied on the whole batch, putting in evidence the limits of the sensors, but also showing that they can be used in very dry conditions. In order to extract the humidity measurements from the sensor readings, commercial temperature FBG sensors were characterized in the range of interest. Irradiation campaigns with ionizing radiation (gamma-rays from a Co-60 source) at incremental absorbed doses (up to 210 kGy for the T sensors and up to 90 kGy for the RH sensors) were performed on sample of T and RH-Sensors. The results show that the sensitivity of the sensors is unchanged up to the level attained of the absorbed dose, while the natural wavelength peak of each sensor exhibits a radiation-induced shift (signal offset). The saturation properties of this shift are discussed

Search for supersymmetry in events with a τ lepton pair and missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV

A search for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented in final states with a $\tau$ lepton pair. Both hadronic and leptonic decay modes are considered for the $\tau$ leptons. Scenarios involving the direct pair production of $\tau$ sleptons, or their indirect production via the decays of charginos and neutralinos, are investigated. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the CMS detector in 2016. The observed number of events is consistent with the standard model background expectation. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the cross section for $\tau$ slepton pair production in different scenarios. The strongest limits are observed in the scenario of a purely left-handed $\tau$ slepton with a mass of 90 GeV decaying to a nearly massless neutralino, and correspond to 1.26 times the expected production cross section in the simplified model considered. Exclusion limits are also set in the context of simplified models of chargino-neutralino and chargino pair production with decays to $\tau$ leptons, and range up to 710 and 630 GeV, respectively

Search for physics beyond the standard model in high-mass diphoton events from proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search for physics beyond the standard model is performed using a sample of high-mass diphoton events produced in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The data sample was collected in 2016 with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed for both resonant and nonresonant new physics signatures. At 95% confidence level, lower limits on the mass of the first Kaluza-Klein excitation of the graviton in the Randall-Sundrum warped extra-dimensional model are determined to be in the range of 2.3 to 4.6 TeV, for values of the associated coupling parameter between 0.01 and 0.2. Lower limits on the production of scalar resonances and model-independent cross section upper limits are also provided. For the large extra-dimensional model of Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, and Dvali, lower limits are set on the string mass scale $M_S$ ranging from 5.6 to 9.7 TeV, depending on the model parameters. The first exclusion limits are set in the two-dimensional parameter space of a continuum clockwork model

Measurement of differential cross sections for Z boson production in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at √s=13TeV

The production of a Z boson, decaying to two charged leptons, in association with jets in proton- proton collisions at a centre- of- mass energy of 13 TeV is measured. Data recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC are used that correspond to an integrated luminosity of 2.19 fb - 1. The cross section is measured as a function of the jet multiplicity and its dependence on the transverse momentum of the Z boson, the jet kinematic variables ( transverse momentum and rapidity), the scalar sum of the jet momenta, which quantifies the hadronic activity, and the balance in transverse momentum between the reconstructed jet recoil and the Z boson. The measurements are compared with predictions from four different calculations. The first two merge matrix elements with different parton multiplicities in the final state and parton showering, one of which includes oneloop corrections. The third is a fixed- order calculation with next- to- next- to- leading order accuracy for the process with a Z boson and one parton in the final state. The fourth combines the fully differential next- to- next- to- leading order calculation of the process with no parton in the final state with next- to- next- to- leading logarithm resummation and parton showering