LHC Coverage of RPV MSSM with Light Stops

We examine the sensitivity of recent LHC searches to signatures of supersymmetry with R-parity violation (RPV). Motivated by naturalness of the Higgs potential, which would favor light third-generation squarks, and the stringent LHC bounds on spectra in which the gluino or first and second generation squarks are light, we focus on scenarios dominated by the pair production of light stops. We consider the various possible direct and cascade decays of the stop that involve the trilinear RPV operators. We find that in many cases, the existing searches exclude stops in the natural mass range and beyond. However, typically there is little or no sensitivity to cases dominated by UDD operators or LQD operators involving taus. We propose several ideas for searches which could address the existing gaps in experimental coverage of these signals.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures; v2: included new searches (see footnote 10), minor corrections and improvement

Searches for phenomena beyond the Standard Model at the LHC with the ATLAS and CMS detectors

The LHC has delivered several fb-1 of data in spring and summer 2011, opening new windows of opportunity for discovering phenomena beyond the Standard Model. A summary of the searches conducted by the ATLAS and CMS experiments based on about 1 fb-1 of data is presented.Comment: Presented at Lepton-Photon 2011, Mumbai, India; 10 pages, 11 figure

Multiple Parton Interactions, top--antitop and W+4j production at the LHC

The expected rate for Multiple Parton Interactions (MPI) at the LHC is large. This requires an estimate of their impact on all measurement foreseen at the LHC while opening unprecendented opportunities for a detailed study of these phenomena. In this paper we examine the MPI background to top-antitop production, in the semileptonic channel, in the early phase of data taking when the full power of $b$--tagging will not be available. The MPI background turns out to be small but non negligible, of the order of 20% of the background provided by W+4j production through a Single Parton Interaction. We then analyze the possibility of studying Multiple Parton Interactions in the W+4j channel, a far more complicated setting than the reactions examined at lower energies. The MPI contribution turns out to be dominated by final states with two energetic jets which balance in transverse momentum, and it appears possible, thanks to the good angular resolution of ATLAS and CMS, to separate the Multiple Parton Interactions contribution from Single Parton Interaction processes. The large cross section for two jet production suggests that also Triple Parton Interactions (TPI) could provide a non negligible contribution. Our preliminary analysis suggests that it might be indeed possible to investigate TPI at the LHC.Comment: Typos fixed. Published in JHE

Heavy Ion Physics Prospects with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC

The next great energy frontier in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions is quickly approaching with the completion of the Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS experiment is poised to make important contributions in understanding QCD matter at extreme conditions. While designed for high-pT measurements in high-energy p+p collisions, the detector is well suited to study many aspects of heavy ion collisions from bulk phenomena to high-pT and heavy flavor physics. With its large and finely segmented electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters, the ATLAS detector excels in measurements of photons and jets, observables of great interest at the LHC. In this talk, we highlight the performance of the ATLAS detector for Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC with special emphasis on a key feature of the ATLAS physics program: jet and direct photon measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, talk presented at the 20th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collisions, Jaipur, India, Feb 4-10, 2008 Updated with Referee Comment

Characterization of new hybrid pixel module concepts for the ATLAS Insertable B-Layer upgrade

The ATLAS Insertable B-Layer (IBL) collaboration plans to insert a fourth pixel layer inside the present Pixel Detector to recover from eventual failures in the current pixel system, especially the b-layer. Additionally the IBL will ensure excellent tracking, vertexing and b-tagging performance during the LHC phase I and add robustness in tracking with high luminosity pile-up. The expected peak luminosity for IBL is 2 to 3centerdot1034 cm-2s-1 and IBL is designed for an integrated luminosity of 700 fb-1. This corresponds to an expected fluence of 5centerdot1015 1 MeV neqcm-2 and a total ionizing dose of 250 MRad. In order to cope with these requirements, two new module concepts are under investigation, both based on a new front end IC, called FE-I4. This IC was designed as readout chip for future ATLAS Pixel Detectors and its first application will be the IBL. The planar pixel sensor (PPS) based module concept benefits from its well understood design, which is kept as similar as possible to the design of the current ATLAS Pixel Detector sensor. The second approach of the new three dimensional (3D) silicon sensor technology benefits from the shorter charge carrier drift distance to the electrodes, which completely penetrate the sensor bulk. Prototype modules of both sensor concepts have been build and tested in laboratory and test beam environment before and after irradiation. Both concepts show very high performance even after irradiation to 5centerdot1015 1 MeV neqcm-2 and meet the IBL specifications in terms of hit efficiency being larger than 97%. Lowest operational threshold studies have been effected and prove independent of the used sensor concept the excellent performance of FE-I4 based module concepts in terms of noise hit occupancy at low thresholds.Comment: Part of 9th International Conference on Position Sensitive Detectors (PSD9

Reply to "Comment on 'Long-term atmospheric measurements of C1-C5 alkyl nitrates in the Pearl River Delta region of southeast China'"

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineerin

Leptoquark Single and Pair production at LHC with CalcHEP/CompHEP in the complete model

We study combined leptoquark (LQ) single and pair production at LHC at the level of detector simulation. A set of kinematical cuts has been worked out to maximize significance for combined signal events. It was shown that combination of signatures from LQ single and pair production not only significantly increases the LHC reach, but also allows us to give the correct signal interpretation. In particular, it was found that the LHC has potential to discover LQ with a mass up to 1.2 TeV and 1.5 TeV for the case of scalar and vector LQ, respectively, and LQ single production contributes 30-50% to the total signal rate for LQ-l-q coupling, taken equal to the electromagnetic coupling. This work is based on implementation of the most general form of scalar and vector LQ interactions with quarks and gluons into CalcHEP/CompHEP packages. This implementation, which authors made publicly available, was one the most important aspects of the study.Comment: LaTeX, 27 pages, 15 figure

Signals from R-parity violating top quark decays at LHC

We evaluate the potential of the CERN LHC collider to observe rare decays of the top quark in channels involving R-parity violating (RPV) interactions. We stress the importance of calculating top quark production and decay simultaneously as a true 2->4 process. The process of tt-bar pair production followed by RPV decay of one of the top quarks is analyzed with fast detector simulation. We show that intermediate supersymmetric particles can be observed as resonances even if they are heavier than the top quark due to the significant off-shell top-quark mass effects. The approach where the top quark is produced on-mass-shell and then decays into 2- or 3-body final state would in general lead to incorrect kinematical distributions and rates. The rates of the 2 -> 4 process with top quark production and RPV 3-body decay depend on the total width of the heavy intermediate sfermion which could,therefore, be measured indirectly. We find that the LHC collider offers a unique potential to study rare top quark decays in the framework of supersymmetry with broken R-parity for branching fractions of RPV top decays as low as 10^{-6}Comment: 23 pages, 22 figure

An Empirical Charge Transfer Potential with Correct Dissociation Limits

The empirical valence bond (EVB) method [J. Chem. Phys. 52, 1262 (1970)] has always embodied charge transfer processes. The mechanism of that behavior is examined here and recast for use as a new empirical potential energy surface for large-scale simulations. A two-state model is explored. The main features of the model are: (1) Explicit decomposition of the total system electron density is invoked; (2) The charge is defined through the density decomposition into constituent contributions; (3) The charge transfer behavior is controlled through the resonance energy matrix elements which cannot be ignored; and (4) A reference-state approach, similar in spirit to the EVB method, is used to define the resonance state energy contributions in terms of "knowable" quantities. With equal validity, the new potential energy can be expressed as a nonthermal ensemble average with a nonlinear but analytical charge dependence in the occupation number. Dissociation to neutral species for a gas-phase process is preserved. A variant of constrained search density functional theory is advocated as the preferred way to define an energy for a given charge.Comment: Submitted to J. Chem. Phys. 11/12/03. 14 pages, 8 figure