Optical Readout of a Two Phase Liquid Argon TPC using CCD Camera and THGEMs

This paper presents a preliminary study into the use of CCDs to image secondary scintillation light generated by THick Gas Electron Multipliers (THGEMs) in a two phase LAr TPC. A Sony ICX285AL CCD chip was mounted above a double THGEM in the gas phase of a 40 litre two-phase LAr TPC with the majority of the camera electronics positioned externally via a feedthrough. An Am-241 source was mounted on a rotatable motion feedthrough allowing the positioning of the alpha source either inside or outside of the field cage. Developed for and incorporated into the TPC design was a novel high voltage feedthrough featuring LAr insulation. Furthermore, a range of webcams were tested for operation in cryogenics as an internal detector monitoring tool. Of the range of webcams tested the Microsoft HD-3000 (model no:1456) webcam was found to be superior in terms of noise and lowest operating temperature. In ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure 1 ppm pure argon gas, the THGEM gain was approximately 1000 and using a 1 msec exposure the CCD captured single alpha tracks. Successful operation of the CCD camera in two-phase cryogenic mode was also achieved. Using a 10 sec exposure a photograph of secondary scintillation light induced by the Am-241 source in LAr has been captured for the first time.Comment: The acronym TGEM was changed to THGEM. Typos in text and figures were corrected. References were adde

Towards a liquid Argon TPC without evacuation: filling of a 6 m^3 vessel with argon gas from air to ppm impurities concentration through flushing

In this paper we present a successful experimental test of filling a volume of 6 m$^3$ with argon gas, starting from normal ambient air and reducing the impurities content down to few parts per million (ppm) oxygen equivalent. This level of contamination was directly monitored measuring the slow component of the scintillation light of the Ar gas, which is sensitive to {\it all} sources of impurities affecting directly the argon scintillation.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proc. 1st International Workshop towards the Giant Liquid Argon Charge Imaging Experiment (GLA2010), Tsukuba, March 201

Test of CPT Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics with Experimental data from CPLEAR

We use fits to recent published CPLEAR data on neutral kaon decays to $\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\pi e\nu$ to constrain the CPT--violation parameters appearing in a formulation of the neutral kaon system as an open quantum-mechanical system. The obtained upper limits of the CPT--violation parameters are approaching the range suggested by certain ideas concerning quantum gravity.Comment: 9 pages of uuencoded postscript (includes 3 figures

Measurement of Branching Fractions and Rate Asymmetries in the Rare Decays B -> K(*) l+ l-

In a sample of 471 million BB events collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider we study the rare decays B -> K(*) l+ l-, where l+ l- is either e+e- or mu+mu-. We report results on partial branching fractions and isospin asymmetries in seven bins of di-lepton mass-squared. We further present CP and lepton-flavor asymmetries for di-lepton masses below and above the J/psi resonance. We find no evidence for CP or lepton-flavor violation. The partial branching fractions and isospin asymmetries are consistent with the Standard Model predictions and with results from other experiments.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Precise Measurement of the e+ e- --> pi+ pi- (gamma) Cross Section with the Initial-State Radiation Method at BABAR

A precise measurement of the cross section of the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-(\gamma)$ from threshold to an energy of 3GeV is obtained with the initial-state radiation (ISR) method using 232fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the BaBar detector at $e^+e^-$ center-of-mass energies near 10.6GeV. The ISR luminosity is determined from a study of the leptonic process $e^+e^-\to\mu^+\mu^-(\gamma)\gamma_{\rm ISR}$, which is found to agree with the next-to-leading-order QED prediction to within 1.1%. The cross section for the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-(\gamma)$ is obtained with a systematic uncertainty of 0.5% in the dominant $\rho$ resonance region. The leading-order hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic anomaly calculated using the measured $\pi\pi$ cross section from threshold to 1.8GeV is $(514.1 \pm 2.2({\rm stat}) \pm 3.1({\rm syst}))\times 10^{-10}$.Comment: 58 pages, 56 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.

Improved Limits on B0B^{0} decays to invisible (+γ)(+\gamma) final states

We establish improved upper limits on branching fractions for B0 decays to final States 10 where the decay products are purely invisible (i.e., no observable final state particles) and for final states where the only visible product is a photon. Within the Standard Model, these decays have branching fractions that are below the current experimental sensitivity, but various models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict significant contributions for these channels. Using 471 million BB pairs collected at the Y(4S) resonance by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II e+e- storage ring at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, we establish upper limits at the 90% confidence level of 2.4x10^-5 for the branching fraction of B0-->Invisible and 1.7x10^-5 for the branching fraction of B0-->Invisible+gammaComment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Evidence for the η_b(1S) Meson in Radiative Υ(2S) Decay

We have performed a search for the η_b(1S) meson in the radiative decay of the Υ(2S) resonance using a sample of 91.6 × 10^6 Υ(2S) events recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B factory at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We observe a peak in the photon energy spectrum at E_γ = 609.3^(+4.6)_(-4.5)(stat)±1.9(syst) MeV, corresponding to an η_b(1S) mass of 9394.2^(+4.8)_(-4.9)(stat) ± 2.0(syst) MeV/c^2. The branching fraction for the decay Υ(2S) → γη_b(1S) is determined to be [3.9 ± 1.1(stat)^(+1.1)_(-0.9)(syst)] × 10^(-4). We find the ratio of branching fractions B[Υ(2S) → γη_b(1S)]/B[Υ(3S) → γη_b(1S)]= 0.82 ± 0.24(stat)^(+0.20)_(-0.19)(syst)