Top quark physics at the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will provide a huge amount of top-antitop events, making the LHC a top quark factory, producing 1 tt pair per second at a luminosity of 10^33cm-2s-1. A large top quark sample will be available from the start of LHC and will play an important role in commissioning the CMS and ATLAS detectors. An overview of the top quark measurements during the first data-taking period is given

High energy photon interactions at the LHC

Experimental prospects for studying high-energy photon-photon and photon-proton interactions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are discussed. Cross sections are calculated for many electroweak and beyond the Standard Model processes. Selection strategies based on photon interaction tagging techniques are studied. Assuming a typical LHC multipurpose detector, various signals and their irreducible backgrounds are presented after applying acceptance cuts. Prospects are discussed for the Higgs boson search, detection of supersymmetric particles and of anomalous quartic gauge couplings, as well as for the top quark physics.Comment: 17 pages, 16 tables and 14 figure

Large outburst of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3

We report about a large outburst of the Jupiter family-comet 73P/SW-3 that happened between September 30 and October 5 UT 2022, about 40 days after its perihelion

TRAPPIST comet production rates: 19P/Borrelly, 67P/C-G, 104P/Kowal 2, C/2019 L3 (ATLAS), and C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

E. Jehin, Y. Moulane, J. Manfroid, M. Vander Donckt, F. Pozuelos, M. Ferrais, and D. Hutsemekers (STAR Institute, University of Liege) report that they obtained from TRAPPIST-North (code=Z53, Morocco) and TRAPPIST-South (code=I40, Chile) robotic telescopes (Jehin el al. 2011) recent observations using cometary HB narrowband filters (Farnham et al. 2000) for the following comets and computed preliminary production rates at 10.000 km using a Haser Model (Vp=Vd=1km/s) (Haser 1957)

Outburst of comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) on January 7, 2021

We report about an outburst of comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) that happened between January 6 and 8, 00:00 UT 2021. Observations were carried on with TRAPPIST-South (code=I40, Chile) robotic telescopes about every night since Dec 20 until Jan 25, using broad band and cometary HB narrowband filters (Jehin el al. 2011)

Performance of Glass Resistive Plate Chambers for a high granularity semi-digital calorimeter

A new design of highly granular hadronic calorimeter using Glass Resistive Plate Chambers (GRPCs) with embedded electronics has been proposed for the future International Linear Collider (ILC) experiments. It features a 2-bit threshold semi-digital read-out. Several GRPC prototypes with their electronics have been successfully built and tested in pion beams. The design of these detectors is presented along with the test results on efficiency, pad multiplicity, stability and reproducibility.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure

Integrated luminometer for the determination of trace metals in seawater using fluorescence, phosphorescence and chemiluminescence detection

The paper describes an integrated luminometer able to perform fluorescence (FL), room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and chemiluminescence (CL) measurements on seawater samples. The technical details of the instrumentation are presented together with flow injection (FI) manifolds for the determination of cadmium and zinc (by FL), lead (RTP) and cobalt (CL). The analytical figures of merit are given for each manifold and results are presented for the determination of the four trace metals in seawater reference materials (NASS-5, SLEW-2) and Scheldt estuarine water samples

Construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a high-granularity semi-digital hadronic calorimeter

A large prototype of 1.3m3 was designed and built as a demonstrator of the semi-digital hadronic calorimeter (SDHCAL) concept proposed for the future ILC experiments. The prototype is a sampling hadronic calorimeter of 48 units. Each unit is built of an active layer made of 1m2 Glass Resistive Plate Chamber(GRPC) detector placed inside a cassette whose walls are made of stainless steel. The cassette contains also the electronics used to read out the GRPC detector. The lateral granularity of the active layer is provided by the electronics pick-up pads of 1cm2 each. The cassettes are inserted into a self-supporting mechanical structure built also of stainless steel plates which, with the cassettes walls, play the role of the absorber. The prototype was designed to be very compact and important efforts were made to minimize the number of services cables to optimize the efficiency of the Particle Flow Algorithm techniques to be used in the future ILC experiments. The different components of the SDHCAL prototype were studied individually and strict criteria were applied for the final selection of these components. Basic calibration procedures were performed after the prototype assembling. The prototype is the first of a series of new-generation detectors equipped with a power-pulsing mode intended to reduce the power consumption of this highly granular detector. A dedicated acquisition system was developed to deal with the output of more than 440000 electronics channels in both trigger and triggerless modes. After its completion in 2011, the prototype was commissioned using cosmic rays and particles beams at CERN.Comment: 49 pages, 41 figure