A method to evaluate the temperature profile in a superconducting magnet during a quench

A simple method to derive the temperature profile in a superconducting magnet during a quench from measured voltage signals is described. The method was applied to several Large Hadron Collider single aperture dipole models. These measurements show the strong correlation between parameters of the magnet protection system and powering on the one hand and the resulting temperature gradient in the magnet coil on the other. The method allows the localisation of critical points in the magnet design, in particular, the efficiency of the magnet protection system can be evaluated

Temperature Profiles During Quenches in LHC Superconducting Dipole Magnets Protected by Quench Heaters

The efficiency of the magnet protection by quench heaters was studied using a novel method which derives the temperature profile in a superconducting magnet during a quench from measured voltage signals. In several Large Hadron Collider single aperture dipole models, temperature profiles and temperature gradients in the magnet coil have been evaluated in the case of protection by different sets of quench heaters and different powering and protection parameters. The influence of the insulation thickness between the quench heaters and the coil has also been considered. The results show clear correlation between the positions of quench heaters, magnet protection parameters and temperature profiles. This study allowed a better understanding of the quench process mechanisms and the efficiency assessment of the different protection schemes

Efficiency determination of resistive plate chambers for fast quasi-monoenergetic neutrons

Composite detectors made of stainless steel converters and multigap resistive plate chambers have been irradiated with quasi-monoenergetic neutrons with a peak energy of 175MeV. The neutron detection efficiency has been determined using two different methods. The data are in agreement with the output of Monte Carlo simulations. The simulations are then extended to study the response of a hypothetical array made of these detectors to energetic neutrons from a radioactive ion beam experiment.Comment: Submitted to Eur.Phys.J. A; upgraded version correcting some typos and updating ref.

Status of the Superconducting Magnets for FAIR

Silicon microdosimetry measurements in Fast Neutron Therapy were simulated using the GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit. The possibility of using silicon microdosimeters for verification of Monte Carlo based treatment planning systems in hadron therapy is suggested

A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons

Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots for b/w printin

Measurement of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry in the B -> K(*) mu+ mu- Decay and First Observation of the Bs -> phi mu+ mu- Decay

We reconstruct the rare decays $B^+ \to K^+\mu^+\mu^-$, $B^0 \to K^{*}(892)^0\mu^+\mu^-$, and $B^0_s \to \phi(1020)\mu^+\mu^-$ in a data sample corresponding to $4.4 {\rm fb^{-1}}$ collected in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96 {\rm TeV}$ by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Using $121 \pm 16$ $B^+ \to K^+\mu^+\mu^-$ and $101 \pm 12$ $B^0 \to K^{*0}\mu^+\mu^-$ decays we report the branching ratios. In addition, we report the measurement of the differential branching ratio and the muon forward-backward asymmetry in the $B^+$ and $B^0$ decay modes, and the $K^{*0}$ longitudinal polarization in the $B^0$ decay mode with respect to the squared dimuon mass. These are consistent with the theoretical prediction from the standard model, and most recent determinations from other experiments and of comparable accuracy. We also report the first observation of the $B^0_s \to \phi\mu^+\mu^- decay and measure its branching ratio${\mathcal{B}}(B^0_s \to \phi\mu^+\mu^-) = [1.44 \pm 0.33 \pm 0.46] \times 10^{-6}$using$27 \pm 6$signal events. This is currently the most rare$B^0_s$ decay observed.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO