Inclusion of W^+- single-spin asymmetry data in a polarised PDF determination via Bayesian reweighting

We discuss how the experimental information from longitudinal single-spin asymmetries for $W^{\pm}$ boson production in polarised proton-proton collisions can be included in a polarised parton determination by Bayesian reweighting of a Monte Carlo set of polarised PDF replicas. We explicitly construct a prior ensemble of polarised parton distributions using available fits to inclusive and semi-inclusive DIS data and we discuss the potential impact of existing and future RHIC measurements on it.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on the QCD Structure of the Nucleon (QCD-N'12), Bilbao October 201

Fragmentation functions of charged hadrons

I present a preliminary determination of the Fragmentation Functions (FFs) of unidentified charged hadrons at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics. The analysis is based on hadron production cross section data in single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation. It extends a recent determination of the FFs of identified charged pions, charged kaons and protons/antiprotons performed by the NNPDF Collaboration. I illustrate the quality of the FFs determined in this analysis and show how they describe the charged hadron spectra measured in proton-(anti)proton collisions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, contribution to the proceedings of the XXV Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and related Subjects (DIS2017

The timelike half-supersymmetric backgrounds of N=2, D=4 supergravity with Fayet-Iliopoulos gauging

Subject to some relatively mild assumptions, we derive the complete form of all timelike half-supersymmetric solutions to N=2, D=4 gauged supergravity coupled to an arbitrary number of abelian vector multiplets. This is done using spinorial geometry techniques. Explicit examples are given for a simple prepotential. Among the solutions, there are near-horizon geometries of extremal rotating BPS black holes still to be discovered, with a nontrivial dependence of the scalar fields on one of the horizon coordinates.Comment: 38 pages, uses JHEP3.cl

A Mathematica interface to NNPDFs

We present a Mathematica interface for handling the parton distribution functions of the NNDPF Collaboration, available from the NNPDF hepforge website http://nnpdf.hepforge.org/. As a case study we briefly summarise the first PDF set which includes all relevant LHC data, NNPDF2.3, and demonstrate the use of our new Mathematica interface.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 16th International Conference in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD2012), Montpellier July 201

The development of a tool to promote sustainability in casting processes

The drive of the manufacturing industry towards productivity, quality and profitability has been supported in the last century by the availability of relatively cheap and abundant energy sources with limited focus on the minimisation of energy and material waste. However, in the last decades, more and more stringent regulations aimed at reducing pollution and consumption of resources have been introduced worldwide and in particular in Europe. Consequently, a highly mature and competitive industry like foundry is expecting challenges that an endeavour towards sustainability can turn into significant opportunities for the future. A tool to undertake a systematic analysis of energy and material flows in the casting process is being developed. An overview of the computer program architecture is presented and its output has been validated against real-world data collected from foundries