Evidence for πK\pi K -atoms with DIRAC-II

DIRAC-II is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN Proton Synchroton (PS) which has been designed to search for piK atoms, a bound state of a pi±K± pair, and measure their lifetime. These atoms are observed through an excess of low energetic piK pairs over the background, detected in the two spectrometer arms. This excess comes from the ionization of piK atoms in the target and can be related to their mean life. The piK S-wave scattering length combination |a1/2 - a3/2| (for isospin 1/2 and 3/2) can be related to the latter. The aim of the upgraded DIRAC-II experiment is a measurement of the scattering length combination |a1/2 - a3/2| with a precision of 5%. piK atoms have not been observed so far. The original DIRAC experiment was designed to measure the scattering lengths of pipi atoms. So far, close to 15 000 atoms have been detected, leading to a precision on |a0 - a2| which is better than 10%. In chiral perturbation theories (ChPT) the pipi scattering lengths have been calculated with 2% precision and are in good agreement with the DIRAC-II measurements. Predictions for the piK ones, which involve the s-quarks are obtained. DIRAC-II data will be very important to check ChPT extended to the s-quark. Previous measurements of a1/2 and a3/2 suffer from very large errors as they are extrapolated from high energy piK scattering. My first contribution was the development and construction of a Cherenkov threshold count er for the separation of kaons from pions, which is crucial for the detection of piK atoms. The momentum range (4-8 GeV/c) requires aerogel with refractive index n = 1.008 and n = 1.015 as Cerenkov radiator. Because of the strong light absorption in aerogel, the low indices and the very large size of the active area needed in the DIRAC-II experiment, new designs had to be invented and investigated. In this work new concepts of aerogel counters are presented e.g. introducing wavelength shifters in order to avoid the strong light absorption in aerogel. The second contribution was the analysis of the first run in 2007 and the search for piK atoms. A new tracking had to be developed to optimize the reconstruction of tracks using only detectors downstream of the spectrometer magnet, since no upstream detectors were operational at that time. This new method was carefully tested on the already published pipi 2001 data sample. From the 1137 ± 257 observed piK Coulomb pairs in the signal region where atoms are expected, one predicts that piK atoms must have been produced. Despite the low statistic collected during the first data run in 2007, we have already evidence for 173 ± 54 piK atoms with a significance of 3.2 sigma, which is in good agreement with expectation from the number of observed Coulomb pairs. A lower limit of 1.5 fs could be given for their mean life at 84.1% confidence level

The flux of secondary anti-deuterons and antihelium produced in the interstellar medium

Several measurements were performed to find antiprotons in the primary cosmic radiation. Because it is difficult to get completely separated secondarily produced antiprotons from primary ones, calculations based on accelerator results were performed for the flux of secondarily produced anti-deuterons and antihelium

A new CMS pixel detector for the LHC luminosity upgrade

The CMS inner pixel detector system is planned to be replaced during the first phase of the LHC luminosity upgrade. The plans foresee an ultra low mass system with four barrel layers and three disks on either end. With the expected increase in particle rates, the electronic readout chain will be changed for fast digital signals. An overview of the envisaged design options for the upgraded CMS pixel detector is given, as well as estimates of the tracking and vertexing performance.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, proceedings of 8th International Conference on Radiation Effects on Semiconductor Materials Detectors and Device

Observation of πK -atoms with DIRAC-II

We present evidence for the first observation of electromagnetically bound π ± K  ∓ -pairs (πK-atoms) with the DIRAC-II experiment at the CERN-PS. The πK-atoms are produced by the 24 GeV/c proton beam in a thin Pt-target and the dissociated π ± and K  ∓ -mesons analyzed in a two-arm magnetic spectrometer. The observed enhancement at low relative momentum corresponds to the production of 173±54 πK-atoms. The mean life of πK-atoms is related to the s-wave πK-scattering lengths. From these first data we derive a lower limit for the mean life of 1.5fs at 84% confidence leve

A Compilation of High Energy Atmospheric Muon Data at Sea Level

We collect and combine all published data on the vertical atmospheric muon flux and the muon charge ratio for muon momenta above 10 GeV. At sea level the world average of the momentum spectra agrees with the flux calculated by E.V. Bugaev et al. within 15%. The observed shape of the differential flux versus momentum is slightly flatter than predicted in this calculation. The experimental accuracy varies from 7% at 10 GeV to 17% at 1 TeV. The ratio of fluxes of positive to negative muons is found to be constant, at a value of 1.268, with relative uncertainties increasing from approximately 1% at low momenta to about 6% at 300 GeV

Scintillation efficiency of liquid argon in low energy neutron-argon scattering

Experiments searching for weak interacting massive particles with noble gases such as liquid argon require very low detection thresholds for nuclear recoils. A determination of the scintillation efficiency is crucial to quantify the response of the detector at low energy. We report the results obtained with a small liquid argon cell using a monoenergetic neutron beam produced by a deuterium-deuterium fusion source. The light yield relative to electrons was measured for six argon recoil energies between 11 and 120 keV at zero electric drift field.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, 4 table

Radiation hardness of CMS pixel barrel modules

Pixel detectors are used in the innermost part of the multi purpose experiments at LHC and are therefore exposed to the highest fluences of ionising radiation, which in this part of the detectors consists mainly of charged pions. The radiation hardness of all detector components has thoroughly been tested up to the fluences expected at the LHC. In case of an LHC upgrade, the fluence will be much higher and it is not yet clear how long the present pixel modules will stay operative in such a harsh environment. The aim of this study was to establish such a limit as a benchmark for other possible detector concepts considered for the upgrade. As the sensors and the readout chip are the parts most sensitive to radiation damage, samples consisting of a small pixel sensor bump-bonded to a CMS-readout chip (PSI46V2.1) have been irradiated with positive 200 MeV pions at PSI up to 6E14 Neq and with 21 GeV protons at CERN up to 5E15 Neq. After irradiation the response of the system to beta particles from a Sr-90 source was measured to characterise the charge collection efficiency of the sensor. Radiation induced changes in the readout chip were also measured. The results show that the present pixel modules can be expected to be still operational after a fluence of 2.8E15 Neq. Samples irradiated up to 5E15 Neq still see the beta particles. However, further tests are needed to confirm whether a stable operation with high particle detection efficiency is possible after such a high fluence.Comment: Contribution to the 11th European Symposium on Semiconductor Detectors June 7-11, 2009 Wildbad Kreuth, German

Measurements of integral muon intensity at large zenith angles

High-statistics data on near-horizontal muons collected with Russian-Italian coordinate detector DECOR are analyzed. Precise measurements of muon angular distributions in zenith angle interval from 60 to 90 degrees have been performed. In total, more than 20 million muons are selected. Dependences of the absolute integral muon intensity on zenith angle for several threshold energies ranging from 1.7 GeV to 7.2 GeV are derived. Results for this region of zenith angles and threshold energies have been obtained for the first time. The dependence of integral intensity on zenith angle and threshold energy is well fitted by a simple analytical formula.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Extraction of electric field in heavily irradiated silicon pixel sensors

A new method for the extraction of the electric field in the bulk of heavily irradiated silicon pixel sensors is presented. It is based on the measurement of the Lorentz deflection and mobility of electrons as a function of depth. The measurements were made at the CERN H2 beam line, with the beam at a shallow angle with respect to the pixel sensor surface. The extracted electric field is used to simulate the charge collection and the Lorentz deflection in the pixel sensor. The simulated charge collection and the Lorentz deflection is in good agreement with the measurements both for non-irradiated and irradiated up to 1E15 neq/cm2 sensors.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures, presented at the 13th International Workshop on Vertex Detectors for High Energy Physics, September 13-18, 2004, Menaggio-Como, Italy. Submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Simulation of Heavily Irradiated Silicon Pixel Detectors

We show that doubly peaked electric fields are necessary to describe grazing-angle charge collection measurements of irradiated silicon pixel sensors. A model of irradiated silicon based upon two defect levels with opposite charge states and the trapping of charge carriers can be tuned to produce a good description of the measured charge collection profiles in the fluence range from 0.5x10^{14} Neq/cm^2 to 5.9x10^{14} Neq/cm^2. The model correctly predicts the variation in the profiles as the temperature is changed from -10C to -25C. The measured charge collection profiles are inconsistent with the linearly-varying electric fields predicted by the usual description based upon a uniform effective doping density. This observation calls into question the practice of using effective doping densities to characterize irradiated silicon. The model is now being used to calibrate pixel hit reconstruction algorithms for CMS.Comment: Invited talk at International Symposium on the Development of Detectors for Particle, AstroParticle and Synchrtron Radiation Experiments, Stanford Ca (SNIC06) 8 pages, LaTeX, 11 eps figure