195 research outputs found
Scintillation-only Based Pulse Shape Discrimination for Nuclear and Electron Recoils in Liquid Xenon
In a dedicated test setup at the Kamioka Observatory we studied pulse shape
discrimination (PSD) in liquid xenon (LXe) for dark matter searches. PSD in LXe
was based on the observation that scintillation light from electron events was
emitted over a longer period of time than that of nuclear recoil events, and
our method used a simple ratio of early to total scintillation light emission
in a single scintillation event. Requiring an efficiency of 50% for nuclear
recoil retention we reduced the electron background to 7.7\pm1.1(stat)\pm1.2
0.6(sys)\times10-2 at energies between 4.8 and 7.2 keVee and to
7.7\pm2.8(stat)\pm2.5 2.8(sys)\times10-3 at energies between 9.6 and 12 keVee
for a scintillation light yield of 20.9 p.e./keV. Further study was done by
masking some of that light to reduce this yield to 4.6 p.e./keV, the same
method results in an electron event reduction of 2.4\pm0.2(stat)\pm0.3
0.2(sys)\times10-1 for the lower of the energy regions above. We also observe
that in contrast to nuclear recoils the fluctuations in our early to total
ratio for electron events are larger than expected from statistical
fluctuations.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figure
Search for solar axions in XMASS, a large liquid-xenon detector
XMASS, a low-background, large liquid-xenon detector, was used to search for
solar axions that would be produced by bremsstrahlung and Compton effects in
the Sun. With an exposure of 5.6ton days of liquid xenon, the model-independent
limit on the coupling for mass 1keV is
(90% C.L.), which is a factor of two stronger than the existing experimental
limit. The bounds on the axion masses for the DFSZ and KSVZ axion models are
1.9 and 250eV, respectively. In the mass range of 10-40keV, this study produced
the most stringent limit, which is better than that previously derived from
astrophysical arguments regarding the Sun to date
Search for Global Dipole Enhancements in the HiRes-I Monocular Data above 10^{18.5} eV
Several proposed source models for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs)
consist of dipole distributions oriented towards major astrophysical landmarks
such as the galactic center, M87, or Centaurus A. We use a comparison between
real data and simulated data to show that the HiRes-I monocular data for
energies above 10^{18.5} eV is, in fact, consistent with an isotropic source
model. We then explore methods to quantify our sensitivity to dipole source
models oriented towards the Galactic Center, M87, and Centaurus A.Comment: 17 pages, 31 figure
Calibration of Super-Kamiokande Using an Electron Linac
In order to calibrate the Super-Kamiokande experiment for solar neutrino
measurements, a linear accelerator (LINAC) for electrons was installed at the
detector. LINAC data were taken at various positions in the detector volume,
tracking the detector response in the variables relevant to solar neutrino
analysis. In particular, the absolute energy scale is now known with less than
1 percent uncertainty.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, Submitted to NIM
Measurement of radon concentrations at Super-Kamiokande
Radioactivity from radon is a major background for observing solar neutrinos
at Super-Kamiokande. In this paper, we describe the measurement of radon
concentrations at Super-Kamiokande, the method of radon reduction, and the
radon monitoring system. The measurement shows that the current low-energy
event rate between 5.0 MeV and 6.5 MeV implies a radon concentration in the
Super-Kamiokande water of less than 1.4 mBq/m.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in âs = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fbâ1 of protonâproton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results
Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC
provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of
lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with
a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the
transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the
anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the
nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of
the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp.
Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in
the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies
smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating
nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and
transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of
inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous
measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables,
submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02
PHIP - a novel candidate breast cancer susceptibility locus on 6q14.1
Most non-BRCA1/2 breast cancer families have no identified genetic cause. We used linkage and haplotype analyses in familial and sporadic breast cancer cases to identify a susceptibility locus on chromosome 6q. Two independent genome-wide linkage analysis studies suggested a 3 Mb locus on chromosome 6q and two unrelated Swedish families with a LOD > 2 together seemed to share a haplotype in 6q14.1. We hypothesized that this region harbored a rare high-risk founder allele contributing to breast cancer in these two families. Sequencing of DNA and RNA from the two families did not detect any pathogenic mutations. Finally, 29 SNPs in the region were analyzed in 44,214 cases and 43,532 controls from BCAC, and the original haplotypes in the two families were suggested as low-risk alleles for European and Swedish women specifically. There was also some support for one additional independent moderate-risk allele in Swedish familial samples. The results were consistent with our previous findings in familial breast cancer and supported a breast cancer susceptibility locus at 6q14.1 around the PHIP gene.Peer reviewe
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