Properties of HERA Events from DIS on Pions in the Proton

Recently the concept of the pion cloud in the nucleon turned out to be successful in understanding the Gottfried sum rule violation observed by the New Muon Collaboration and the Drell--Yan asymmetry measured in NA51 at CERN. We propose a further possibility to test this concept at HERA through the analysis of the structure of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) events induced by pion--exchange. Momentum and energy distributions of outgoing nucleons as well as rapidity and multiplicity distributions are investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. Most observables cannot distinguish this process from ordinary DIS, but in the energy distribution of final neutrons we find a significantly different prediction from the pion cloud model. Forward neutron calorimeters will be essential to test the concept of pions in the nucleon.Comment: LaTeX file and gziped tar file with eps figures, 14 page

Stimuli associated with the presence or absence of amphetamine regulate cytoskeletal signaling and behavior

Drug-paired stimuli rapidly enlarge dendritic spines in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). While increases in spine size and shape are supported by rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton and facilitate the synaptic expression of AMPA-type glutamate receptors, it remains unclear whether drug-related stimuli can influence signaling pathways known to regulate these changes in spine morphology. These pathways were studied in rats trained on a discrimination learning paradigm using subcellular fractionation and protein immunoblotting to isolate proteins within dendritic spine compartments in the NAcc shell. An open field chamber was repeatedly associated with amphetamine in one group (Paired) and explicitly unpaired with amphetamine in another (Unpaired). Rats in a third group were exposed to the open field but never administered amphetamine (Control). When administered saline and returned to the open field one week later, Paired rats as expected displayed a conditioned locomotor response relative to rats in the other two groups. NAcc shell tissues were harvested immediately after this 30-minute test. Re-exposing Paired rats to the drug-paired excitatory context significantly decreased p-GluA2(S880), an effect consistent with reduced internalization of this subunit and increased spine proliferation in these rats. In contrast, re-exposing Unpaired rats to the drug-unpaired context, capable of inhibiting conditioned responding in these animals, significantly decreased levels of both actin binding protein Arp2/3 and p-cofilin, consistent with spine volatility, shrinkage, and inhibition of spine proliferation in these rats. These findings show that contextual stimuli previously associated with either the presence or absence of amphetamine differentially regulate cytoskeletal signaling pathways in the NAcc

Testing the Meson Cloud Model in Inclusive Meson Production

We have applied the Meson Cloud Model to calculate inclusive momentum spectra of pions and kaons produced in high energy proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions. For the first time these data are used to constrain the cloud cut-off parameters. We show that it is possible to obtain a reasonable description of data, especially the large $x_F$ ($x_F \geq 0.2$) part of the spectrum and at the same time describe (partially) the E866 data on $\bar d - \bar u$ and $\bar d / \bar u$. We also discuss the relative strength of the $\pi N$ and $\pi \Delta$ vertices. We find out that the corresponding cut-off parameters should be both soft and should not differ by more than 200 MeV from each other. An additional source (other than the meson cloud) of sea antiquark asymmetry, seems to be necessary to completely explain the data. A first extension of the MCM to proton nucleus collisions is discussed.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, 6 ps figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Colour reconnection in e+e- -> W+W- at sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV

The effects of the final state interaction phenomenon known as colour reconnection are investigated at centre-of-mass energies in the range sqrt(s) ~ 189-209 GeV using the OPAL detector at LEP. Colour reconnection is expected to affect observables based on charged particles in hadronic decays of W+W-. Measurements of inclusive charged particle multiplicities, and of their angular distribution with respect to the four jet axes of the events, are used to test models of colour reconnection. The data are found to exclude extreme scenarios of the Sjostrand-Khoze Type I (SK-I) model and are compatible with other models, both with and without colour reconnection effects. In the context of the SK-I model, the best agreement with data is obtained for a reconnection probability of 37%. Assuming no colour reconnection, the charged particle multiplicity in hadronically decaying W bosons is measured to be (nqqch) = 19.38+-0.05(stat.)+-0.08 (syst.).Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.

Combined QCD and electroweak analysis of HERA data

A simultaneous fit of parton distribution functions (PDFs) and electroweak parameters to HERA data on deep inelastic scattering is presented. The input data are the neutral current and charged current inclusive cross sections which were previously used in the QCD analysis leading to the HERAPDF2.0 PDFs. In addition, the polarisation of the electron beam was taken into account for the ZEUS data recorded between 2004 and 2007. Results on the vector and axial-vector couplings of the Z boson to u- and d-type quarks, on the value of the electroweak mixing angle and the mass of the W boson are presented. The values obtained for the electroweak parameters are in agreement with Standard Model predictions.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. D. Small corrections from proofing process and small change to Fig. 12 and Table

Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charm quark in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96+0.26−0.30 at Q 2 = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio σ(W + +c¯¯)/σ(W − + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s−s¯¯¯ quark asymmetry

The dependence of dijet production on photon virtuality in ep collisions at HERA

The dependence of dijet production on the virtuality of the exchanged photon, Q^2, has been studied by measuring dijet cross sections in the range 0 < Q^2 < 2000 GeV^2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb^-1. Dijet cross sections were measured for jets with transverse energy E_T^jet > 7.5 and 6.5 GeV and pseudorapidities in the photon-proton centre-of-mass frame in the range -3 < eta^jet <0. The variable xg^obs, a measure of the photon momentum entering the hard process, was used to enhance the sensitivity of the measurement to the photon structure. The Q^2 dependence of the ratio of low- to high-xg^obs events was measured. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions were found to generally underestimate the low-xg^obs contribution relative to that at high xg^obs. Monte Carlo models based on leading-logarithmic parton-showers, using a partonic structure for the photon which falls smoothly with increasing Q^2, provide a qualitative description of the data.Comment: 35 pages, 6 eps figures, submitted to Eur.Phys.J.

Measurement of the Luminosity in the ZEUS Experiment at HERA II

The luminosity in the ZEUS detector was measured using photons from electron bremsstrahlung. In 2001 the HERA collider was upgraded for operation at higher luminosity. At the same time the luminosity-measuring system of the ZEUS experiment was modified to tackle the expected higher photon rate and synchrotron radiation. The existing lead-scintillator calorimeter was equipped with radiation hard scintillator tiles and shielded against synchrotron radiation. In addition, a magnetic spectrometer was installed to measure the luminosity independently using photons converted in the beam-pipe exit window. The redundancy provided a reliable and robust luminosity determination with a systematic uncertainty of 1.7%. The experimental setup, the techniques used for luminosity determination and the estimate of the systematic uncertainty are reported.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure

Determination of alpha_s using Jet Rates at LEP with the OPAL detector

Hadronic events produced in e+e- collisions by the LEP collider and recorded by the OPAL detector were used to form distributions based on the number of reconstructed jets. The data were collected between 1995 and 2000 and correspond to energies of 91 GeV, 130-136 GeV and 161-209 GeV. The jet rates were determined using four different jet-finding algorithms (Cone, JADE, Durham and Cambridge). The differential two-jet rate and the average jet rate with the Durham and Cambridge algorithms were used to measure alpha(s) in the LEP energy range by fitting an expression in which order alpah_2s calculations were matched to a NLLA prediction and fitted to the data. Combining the measurements at different centre-of-mass energies, the value of alpha_s (Mz) was determined to be alpha(s)(Mz)=0.1177+-0.0006(stat.)+-0.0012$(expt.)+-0.0010(had.)+-0.0032(theo.) \.Comment: 40 pages, 17 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.