OGSA/Globus Evaluation for Data Intensive Applications

We present an architecture of Globus Toolkit 3 based testbed intended for evaluation of applicability of the Open Grid Service Architecture (OGSA) for Data Intensive Applications.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the XIX International Symposium on Nuclear Electronics and Computing (NEC'2003), Bulgaria, Varna, 15-20 September, 200

Open and Hidden Charm Production in 920 GeV Proton-Nucleus Collisions

The HERA-B collaboration has studied the production of charmonium and open charm states in collisions of 920 GeV protons with wire targets of different materials. The acceptance of the HERA-B spectrometer covers negative values of xF up to xF=-0.3 and a broad range in transverse momentum from 0.0 to 4.8 GeV/c. The studies presented in this paper include J/psi differential distributions and the suppression of J/psi production in nuclear media. Furthermore, production cross sections and cross section ratios for open charm mesons are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Hyperons, Charm & Beauty Hadrons (BEACH04), Chicago, IL, June 27 - July 3, 200

Aging Studies for the Large Honeycomb Drift Tube System of the Outer Tracker of HERA-B

The HERA-B Outer Tracker consists of drift tubes folded from polycarbonate foil and is operated with Ar/CF4/CO2 as drift gas. The detector has to stand radiation levels which are similar to LHC conditions. The first prototypes exposed to radiation in HERA-B suffered severe radiation damage due to the development of self-sustaining currents (Malter effect). In a subsequent extended R&D program major changes to the original concept for the drift tubes (surface conductivity, drift gas, production materials) have been developed and validated for use in harsh radiation environments. In the test program various aging effects (like Malter currents, gain loss due to anode aging and etching of the anode gold surface) have been observed and cures by tuning of operation parameters have been developed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the International Workshop On Aging Phenomena In Gaseous Detectors, 2-5 Oct 2001, Hamburg, German

Inclusive V0V^0 Production Cross Sections from 920 GeV Fixed Target Proton-Nucleus Collisions

Inclusive differential cross sections $d\sigma_{pA}/dx_F$ and $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ for the production of \kzeros, \lambdazero, and \antilambda particles are measured at HERA in proton-induced reactions on C, Al, Ti, and W targets. The incident beam energy is 920 GeV, corresponding to $\sqrt {s} = 41.6$ GeV in the proton-nucleon system. The ratios of differential cross sections \rklpa and \rllpa are measured to be $6.2\pm 0.5$ and $0.66\pm 0.07$, respectively, for \xf $\approx-0.06$. No significant dependence upon the target material is observed. Within errors, the slopes of the transverse momentum distributions $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ also show no significant dependence upon the target material. The dependence of the extrapolated total cross sections $\sigma_{pA}$ on the atomic mass $A$ of the target material is discussed, and the deduced cross sections per nucleon $\sigma_{pN}$ are compared with results obtained at other energies.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 5 table

The Outer Tracker Detector of the HERA-B Experiment. Part II: Front-End Electronics

The HERA-B Outer Tracker is a large detector with 112674 drift chamber channels. It is exposed to a particle flux of up to 2x10^5/cm^2/s thus coping with conditions similar to those expected for the LHC experiments. The front-end readout system, based on the ASD-8 chip and a customized TDC chip, is designed to fulfil the requirements on low noise, high sensitivity, rate tolerance, and high integration density. The TDC system is based on an ASIC which digitizes the time in bins of about 0.5 ns within a total of 256 bins. The chip also comprises a pipeline to store data from 128 events which is required for a deadtime-free trigger and data acquisition system. We report on the development, installation, and commissioning of the front-end electronics, including the grounding and noise suppression schemes, and discuss its performance in the HERA-B experiment

Search for the Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay D0→μ+μ−D^0 \to \mu^+\mu^- with the HERA-B Detector

We report on a search for the flavor-changing neutral current decay $D^0 \to \mu^+\mu^-$ using $50 \times 10^6$ events recorded with a dimuon trigger in interactions of 920 GeV protons with nuclei by the HERA-B experiment. We find no evidence for such decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on the branching fraction $Br(D^0 \to \mu^+\mu^-) <2.0 \times 10^{-6}$.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures (of which 1 double), paper to be submitted to Physics Letters

The Outer Tracker Detector of the HERA-B Experiment Part I: Detector

The HERA-B Outer Tracker is a large system of planar drift chambers with about 113000 read-out channels. Its inner part has been designed to be exposed to a particle flux of up to 2.10^5 cm^-2 s^-1, thus coping with conditions similar to those expected for future hadron collider experiments. 13 superlayers, each consisting of two individual chambers, have been assembled and installed in the experiment. The stereo layers inside each chamber are composed of honeycomb drift tube modules with 5 and 10 mm diameter cells. Chamber aging is prevented by coating the cathode foils with thin layers of copper and gold, together with a proper drift gas choice. Longitudinal wire segmentation is used to limit the occupancy in the most irradiated detector regions to about 20 %. The production of 978 modules was distributed among six different laboratories and took 15 months. For all materials in the fiducial region of the detector good compromises of stability versus thickness were found. A closed-loop gas system supplies the Ar/CF4/CO2 gas mixture to all chambers. The successful operation of the HERA-B Outer Tracker shows that a large tracker can be efficiently built and safely operated under huge radiation load at a hadron collider.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figure

Measurement of the J/Psi Production Cross Section in 920 GeV/c Fixed-Target Proton-Nucleus Interactions

The mid-rapidity (dsigma_(pN)/dy at y=0) and total sigma_(pN) production cross sections of J/Psi mesons are measured in proton-nucleus interactions. Data collected by the HERA-B experiment in interactions of 920 GeV/c protons with carbon, titanium and tungsten targets are used for this analysis. The J/Psi mesons are reconstructed by their decay into lepton pairs. The total production cross section obtained is sigma_(pN)(J/Psi) = 663 +- 74 +- 46 nb/nucleon. In addition, our result is compared with previous measurements

Polarised Quark Distributions in the Nucleon from Semi-Inclusive Spin Asymmetries

We present a measurement of semi-inclusive spin asymmetries for positively and negatively charged hadrons from deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons on polarised protons and deuterons in the range $0.003$1 GeV$^2$. Compared to our previous publication on this subject, with the new data the statistical errors have been reduced by nearly a factor of two. From these asymmetries and our inclusive spin asymmetries we determine the polarised quark distributions of valence quarks and non-strange sea quarks at $Q^2$=10 GeV$^2$. The polarised $u$ valence quark distribution, $\Delta u_v(x)$, is positive and the polarisation increases with $x$. The polarised $d$ valence quark distribution, $\Delta d_v(x)$, is negative and the non-strange sea distribution, $\Delta \bar q(x)$, is consistent with zero over the measured range of $x$. We find for the first moments $\int_0^1 \Delta u_v(x) dx = 0.77 \pm 0.10 \pm 0.08$, $\int_0^1 \Delta d_v(x) dx = -0.52 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.09$ and $\int_0^1 \Delta \bar q(x) dx= 0.01 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$, where we assumed $\Delta \bar u(x) = \Delta \bar d(x)$. We also determine for the first time the second moments of the valence distributions $\int_0^1 x \Delta q_v(x) dx$.Comment: 17 page

Spin Structure of the Proton from Polarized Inclusive Deep-Inelastic Muon-Proton Scattering

We have measured the spin-dependent structure function $g_1^p$ in inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of polarized muons off polarized protons, in the kinematic range $0.003 < x < 0.7$ and $1 GeV^2 < Q^2 < 60 GeV^2$. A next-to-leading order QCD analysis is used to evolve the measured $g_1^p(x,Q^2)$ to a fixed $Q^2_0$. The first moment of $g_1^p$ at $Q^2_0 = 10 GeV^2$ is $\Gamma^p = 0.136\pm 0.013(stat.) \pm 0.009(syst.)\pm 0.005(evol.)$. This result is below the prediction of the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule by more than two standard deviations. The singlet axial charge $a_0$ is found to be $0.28 \pm 0.16$. In the Adler-Bardeen factorization scheme, $\Delta g \simeq 2$ is required to bring $\Delta \Sigma$ in agreement with the Quark-Parton Model. A combined analysis of all available proton and deuteron data confirms the Bjorken sum rule.Comment: 33 pages, 22 figures, uses ReVTex and smc.sty. submitted to Physical Review