Mapping the dominant regions of the phase space associated with ccˉc \bar c production relevant for the Prompt Atmospheric Neutrino Flux

We present a detailed mapping of the dominant kinematical domains contributing to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at high neutrino energies by studying its sensitivity to the cuts on several kinematical variables crucial for charm production in cosmic ray scattering in the atmosphere. This includes the maximal center-of-mass energy for proton-proton scattering, the longitudinal momentum fractions of partons in the projectile (cosmic ray) and target (nucleus of the atmosphere), the Feynman $x_F$ variable and the transverse momentum of charm quark/antiquark. We find that the production of neutrinos with energies larger than $E_{\nu} >$ 10$^7$ GeV is particularly sensitive to the center-of-mass energies larger than the ones at the LHC and to the longitudinal momentum fractions in the projectile 10$^{-8}$ $< x <$ 10$^{-5}$. Clearly, these are regions where we do not control the parton, in particular gluon, densities. We also analyse the characteristic theoretical uncertainties in the charm production cross section coming from its QCD modelling. The precision data on the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux can efficiently constrain the mechanism of heavy quark production and underlying QCD dynamics in kinematical ranges beyond the reach of the current collider measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Exclusive π+π−\pi^+\pi^- Production at the LHC with Forward Proton Tagging

A process of Central Exclusive $\pi^+\pi^-$ production in proton-proton collisions and its theoretical description is presented. A possibility of its measurement, during the special low luminosity LHC runs, with the help of the ATLAS central detector for measuring pions and the ALFA stations for tagging the scattered protons is studied. A visible cross section is estimated to be 21 $\mu$b for $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV, which gives over 2000 events for 100 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. Differential distributions in pion pseudorapidities, pion and proton transverse momenta as well as $\pi^+\pi^-$ invariant mass are shown and discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Dijet correlations at RHIC, leading-order ktk_t-factorization approach versus next-to-leading order collinear approach

We compare results of $k_t$-factorization approach and next-to-leading order collinear-factorization approach for dijet correlations in proton-proton collisions at RHIC energies. We discuss correlations in azimuthal angle as well as correlations in two-dimensional space of transverse momenta of two jets. Some $k_t$-factorization subprocesses are included for the first time in the literature. Different unintegrated gluon/parton distributions are used in the $k_t$-factorization approach. The results depend on UGDF/UPDF used. For collinear NLO case the situation depends significantly on whether we consider correlations of any two jets or correlations of leading jets only. In the first case the $2 \to 2$ contributions associated with soft radiations summed up in the $k_t$-factorization approach dominate at $\phi \sim \pi$ and at equal moduli of jet transverse momenta. The collinear NLO $2 \to 3$ contributions dominate over $k_t$-factorization cross section at small relative azimuthal angles as well as for asymmetric transverse momentum configurations. In the second case the NLO contributions vanish at small relative azimuthal angles and/or large jet transverse-momentum disbalance due to simple kinematical constraints. There are no such limitations for the $k_t$-factorization approach. All this makes the two approaches rather complementary. The role of several cuts is discussed and quantified.Comment: 26 pages, 17 figure

Measurement of exclusive production of scalar χc0\chi_{c0} meson in proton-(anti)proton collisions via χc0→π+π−\chi_{c0} \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-} decay

We consider a measurement of exclusive production of scalar $\chi_{c}(0^{++})$ meson in the proton-proton collisions at LHC and RHIC and in the proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron via $\chi_{c0} \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ decay. The corresponding amplitude for exclusive double-diffractive $\chi_{c0}$ meson production was obtained within the $k_{t}$-factorization approach including virtualities of active gluons and the corresponding cross section is calculated with unintegrated gluon distribution functions (UGDFs) known from the literature. The four-body $p p \to p p \pi^+ \pi^-$ reaction constitutes an irreducible background to the exclusive $\chi_{c0}$ meson production. We calculate several differential distributions for $pp(\bar{p}) \to pp(\bar{p})\chi_{c0}$ process including absorptive corrections. The influence of kinematical cuts on the signal-to-background ratio is investigated. Corresponding experimental consequences are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

π+−π−\pi^+ - \pi^- Asymmetry and the Neutron Skin in Heavy Nuclei

In heavy nuclei the spatial distribution of protons and neutrons is different. At CERN SPS energies production of $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ differs for $pp$, $pn$, $np$ and $nn$ scattering. These two facts lead to an impact parameter dependence of the $\pi^+$ to $\pi^-$ ratio in $^{208}Pb + ^{208}Pb$ collisions. A recent experiment at CERN seems to confirm qualitatively these predictions. It may open a possibility for determination of neutron density distribution in nuclei.Comment: 6 pages and 2 figures, a talk by A.Szczurek at the international conference MESON2004, June 4-8, Cracow, Polan

Diffractive photoproduction of opposite-charge pseudoscalar meson pairs at high energies

We calculate the cross section for diffractive photoproduction of opposite-charge pseudoscalar meson pairs $M^+M^- = \pi^+ \pi^-$, $K^+ K^-$, $D^+ D^-$ and $B^+ B^-$ in a broad range of center-of-mass energies relevant for GlueX/Hall D, FOCUS, COMPASS and HERA experiments. In the case of $\pi^+\pi^-$ production we find that the interference of the $\rho^0$ resonance and the two-pion continuum leads to a considerable deformation of the shape of $\rho^0$ in agreement with the data from the ZEUS collaboration. We also discuss the spectral shape of the $\rho^0$ as a function of the momentum transfer and the contribution of higher partial waves to the $\pi^+\pi^-$ mass spectrum. We predict a sizeable energy-dependent forward-backward asymmetry in the Gottfried-Jackson frame. For the heavy meson production we find that the cross section for diffractive production increases much slower than the one for open charm or bottom production. We discuss lower and upper limits for the cross sections for diffractive production of $D^+ D^-$ and $B^+ B^-$ pairs, which we find can be as large as 10% of the open flavor production.Comment: 14 pages, 19 figure

J Comput Biol

Gene expression measurements allow determining sets of up- or down-regulated, or unchanged genes in a particular experimental condition. Additional biological knowledge can suggest examples of genes from one of these sets. For instance, known target genes of a transcriptional activator are expected, but are not certain to go down after this activator is knocked out. Available differential expression analysis tools do not take such imprecise examples into account. Here we put forward a novel partially supervised mixture modeling methodology for differential expression analysis. Our approach, guided by imprecise examples, clusters expression data into differentially expressed and unchanged genes. The partially supervised methodology is implemented by two methods: a newly introduced belief-based mixture modeling, and soft-label mixture modeling, a method proved efficient in other applications. We investigate on synthetic data the input example settings favorable for each method. In our tests, both belief-based and soft-label methods prove their advantage over semi-supervised mixture modeling in correcting for erroneous examples. We also compare them to alternative differential expression analysis approaches, showing that incorporation of knowledge yields better performance. We present a broad range of knowledge sources and data to which our partially supervised methodology can be applied. First, we determine targets of Ste12 based on yeast knockout data, guided by a Ste12 DNA-binding experiment. Second, we distinguish miR-1 from miR-124 targets in human by clustering expression data under transfection experiments of both microRNAs, using their computationally predicted targets as examples. Finally, we utilize literature knowledge to improve clustering of time-course expression profiles

Light-by-light scattering in ultraperipheral collisions of heavy ions with future FoCal and ALICE 3 detectors

We discuss possible future studies of photon-photon (light-by-light) scattering using a planned FoCal and ALICE 3 detectors. We include different mechanisms of $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$ scattering, such as double-hadronic photon fluctuations, $t/u$-channel neutral pion exchange or resonance excitations ($\gamma \gamma \to R$) and deexcitation ($R \to \gamma \gamma$). The broad range of (pseudo)rapidities and lower cuts on transverse momenta open a necessity to consider not only dominant box contributions but also other subleading contributions. Here we include low mass resonant $R = \pi^0$, $\eta$, $\eta'$ contributions. The resonance contributions give intermediate photon transverse momenta. However, these contributions can be eliminated by imposing windows on di-photon invariant mass. We study and quantify individual box contributions (leptonic, quarkish). The electron/positron boxes dominate at low $M_{\gamma \gamma}<1$ GeV di-photon invariant masses. The PbPb$\to$PbPb$\gamma \gamma$ cross section is calculated within equivalent photon approximation in the impact parameter space. Several differential distributions are presented and discussed. We consider four different kinematic regions. We predict cross section in the (mb-b) range for typical ALICE 3 cuts, a few orders of magnitude larger than for the current ATLAS or CMS experiments. We also consider the two-$\pi^0$ background which can, in principle, be eliminated at the new kinematical range for the ALICE 3 measurements by imposing dedicated cuts on di-photon transverse momentum and\or so-called vector asymmetry.Comment: 20 pages, 19 Figures, 3 Tables; misprint corrected, 1 figure adde