The stransverse mass, MT2, in special cases

This document describes some special cases in which the stransverse mass, MT2, may be calculated by non-iterative algorithms. The most notable special case is that in which the visible particles and the hypothesised invisible particles are massless -- a situation relevant to its current usage in the Large Hadron Collider as a discovery variable, and a situation for which no analytic answer was previously known. We also derive an expression for MT2 in another set of new (though arguably less interesting) special cases in which the missing transverse momentum must point parallel or anti parallel to the visible momentum sum. In addition, we find new derivations for already known MT2 solutions in a manner that maintains manifest contralinear boost invariance throughout, providing new insights into old results. Along the way, we stumble across some unexpected results and make conjectures relating to geometric forms of M_eff and H_T and their relationship to MT2.Comment: 11 pages, no figures. v2 corrects minor typos. v3 corrects an incorrect statement in footnote 8 and inserts a missing term in eq (3.9). v4 and v5 correct minor typos spotted by reader

Weighing wimps with kinks at colliders: invisible particle mass measurements from endpoints

We consider the application of endpoint techniques to the problem of mass determination for new particles produced at a hadron collider, where these particles decay to an invisible particle of unknown mass and one or more visible particles of known mass. We also consider decays of these types for pair-produced particles and in each case consider situations both with and without initial state radiation. We prove that, in most (but not all) cases, the endpoint of an appropriate transverse mass observable, considered as a function of the unknown mass of the invisible particle, has a kink at the true value of the invisible particle mass. The co-ordinates of the kink yield the masses of the decaying particle and the invisible particle. We discuss the prospects for implementing this method at the LHC

Transverse masses and kinematic constraints: from the boundary to the crease

We re-examine the kinematic variable m_T2 and its relatives in the light of recent work by Cheng and Han. Their proof that m_T2 admits an equivalent, but implicit, definition as the `boundary of the region of parent and daughter masses that is kinematically consistent with the event hypothesis' is far-reaching in its consequences. We generalize their result both to simpler cases (m_T, the transverse mass) and to more complex cases (m_TGen). We further note that it is possible to re-cast many existing and unpleasant proofs (e.g. those relating to the existence or properties of "kink" and "crease" structures in m_T2) into almost trivial forms by using the alternative definition. Not only does this allow us to gain better understanding of those existing results, but it also allows us to write down new (and more or less explicit) definitions of (a) the variable that naturally generalizes m_T2 to the case in which the parent or daughter particles are not identical, and (b) the inverses of m_T and m_T2 -- which may be useful if daughter masses are known and bounds on parent masses are required. We note the implications that these results may have for future matrix-element likelihood techniques

Change in viral bronchiolitis management in hospitals in the UK after the publication of NICE guideline.

BACKGROUND: Viral bronchiolitis is one of the most common causes of hospitalisation in young infants. It has previously been shown that many United Kingdom (UK) hospital Trusts were not compliant with many aspects of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) bronchiolitis guideline prior to its publication. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate changes in the management of bronchiolitis by hospital Trusts between 2015 (before NICE guideline publication) and 2017, after publication. STUDY DESIGN: We prospectively surveyed paediatricians at UK hospital Trusts on the management of bronchiolitis before (March to May 2015) and after (January to May 2017) the NICE bronchiolitis guideline publication in June 2015, using an electronic, structured questionnaire. RESULTS: In 2015 111 Trusts were represented and in 2017 100 Trusts. Significant improvements were seen in the use of nebulised bronchodilators and hypertonic saline and provision of parental written guidance. However, full compliance with the guideline did not change with 18% of Trusts compliant before publication of the guideline in 2015 and 19% fully compliant with the guideline in 2017. CONCLUSIONS: Overall there were modest but important improvements in the reported management of bronchiolitis after the publication of the NICE guideline

Transverse mass and invariant mass observables for measuring the mass of a semi-invisibly decaying heavy particle

Formulae are derived for the positions of end-points in the invariant mass and transverse mass distributions obtained from the products of heavy states decaying to pairs of semi-invisibly decaying lighter states. Formulae are derived both for the special case where the two decay chains are identical and the more general case where they are different. The formulae are tested with a simple case study of heavy SUSY higgs particles decaying to gauginos at the LHC.Comment: 13 pages, 8 eps figure

mTGen: mass scale measurements in pair-production at colliders

We introduce a new kinematic event variable MTGEN which can provide information relating to the mass scales of particles pair-produced at hadronic and leptonic colliders. The variable is of particular use in events with a large number of particles in the final state when some of those particles are massive and not detected, such as may arise in R-parity-conserving supersymmetry

Supersymmetric particle mass measurement with the boost-corrected contransverse mass

A modification to the contransverse mass (MCT) technique for measuring the masses of pair-produced semi-invisibly decaying heavy particles is proposed in which MCT is corrected for non-zero boosts of the centre-of-momentum (CoM) frame of the heavy states in the laboratory transverse plane. Lack of knowledge of the mass of the CoM frame prevents exact correction for this boost, however it is shown that a conservative correction can nevertheless be derived which always generates an MCT value which is less than or equal to the true value of MCT in the CoM frame. The new technique is demonstrated with case studies of mass measurement with fully leptonic ttbar events and with SUSY events possessing a similar final state.Comment: 33 pages, 33 .eps figures, JHEP3 styl

Measuring the Higgs boson mass in dileptonic W-boson decays at hadron colliders

It is expected that hadron collider measurements of the Higgs boson mass using the decay h -> W^+W^-, followed by the leptonic decay of each W-boson, will be performed by fitting the shape of a distribution which is sensitive to the Higgs mass. We demonstrate that the variable most commonly used to measure the Higgs mass in this channel is not optimal as it contains an unnecessary and even counter-productive approximation. We remove that approximation, without introducing any cost in complexity, and demonstrate that the new variable is a clear improvement over the old: its performance is never worse, and in some cases (particularly the high Higgs mass region) it might reduce the fit uncertainty on the Higgs mass in that channel by a factor approaching two

Measuring Invisible Particle Masses Using a Single Short Decay Chain

We consider the mass measurement at hadron colliders for a decay chain of two steps, which ends with a missing particle. Such a topology appears as a subprocess of signal events of many new physics models which contain a dark matter candidate. From the two visible particles coming from the decay chain, only one invariant mass combination can be formed and hence it is na\"ively expected that the masses of the three invisible particles in the decay chain cannot be determined from a single end point of the invariant mass distribution. We show that the event distribution in the $\log(E_{1T}/E_{2T})$ vs. invariant mass-squared plane, where $E_{1T}$, $E_{2T}$ are the transverse energies of the two visible particles, contains the information of all three invisible particle masses and allows them to be extracted individually. The experimental smearing and combinatorial issues pose challenges to the mass measurements. However, in many cases the three invisible particle masses in the decay chain can be determined with reasonable accuracies.Comment: 45 pages, 32 figure

Reducing combinatorial uncertainties: A new technique based on MT2 variables

We propose a new method to resolve combinatorial ambiguities in hadron collider events involving two invisible particles in the final state. This method is based on the kinematic variable MT2 and on the MT2-assisted-on-shell reconstruction of invisible momenta, that are reformulated as `test' variables Ti of the correct combination against the incorrect ones. We show how the efficiency of the single Ti in providing the correct answer can be systematically improved by combining the different Ti and/or by introducing cuts on suitable, combination-insensitive kinematic variables. We illustrate our whole approach in the specific example of top anti-top production, followed by a leptonic decay of the W on both sides. However, by construction, our method is also directly applicable to many topologies of interest for new physics, in particular events producing a pair of undetected particles, that are potential dark-matter candidates. We finally emphasize that our method is apt to several generalizations, that we outline in the last sections of the paper.Comment: 1+23 pages, 8 figures. Main changes in v3: (1) discussion at the end of sec. 2 improved; (2) added sec. 4.2 about the method's dependence on mass information. Matches journal versio