Analytical and numerical tools for vacuum systems

Modern particle accelerators have reached a level of sophistication which require a thorough analysis of all their sub-systems. Among the latter, the vacuum system is often a major contributor to the operating performance of a particle accelerator. The vacuum engineer has nowadays a large choice of computational schemes and tools for the correct analysis, design, and engineering of the vacuum system. This paper is a review of the different type of algorithms and methodologies which have been developed and employed in the field since the birth of vacuum technology. The different level of detail between simple back-of-the-envelope calculations and more complex numerical analysis is discussed by means of comparisons. The domain of applicability of each method is discussed, together with its pros and cons

Les Houches Guidebook to Monte Carlo Generators for Hadron Collider Physics

Recently the collider physics community has seen significant advances in the formalisms and implementations of event generators. This review is a primer of the methods commonly used for the simulation of high energy physics events at particle colliders. We provide brief descriptions, references, and links to the specific computer codes which implement the methods. The aim is to provide an overview of the available tools, allowing the reader to ascertain which tool is best for a particular application, but also making clear the limitations of each tool.Comment: 49 pages Latex. Compiled by the Working Group on Quantum ChromoDynamics and the Standard Model for the Workshop ``Physics at TeV Colliders'', Les Houches, France, May 2003. To appear in the proceeding

Next-to-leading order jet distributions for Higgs boson production via weak-boson fusion

The weak-boson fusion process is expected to provide crucial information on Higgs boson couplings at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The achievable statistical accuracy demands comparison with next-to-leading order QCD calculations, which are presented here in the form of a fully flexible parton Monte Carlo program. QCD corrections are determined for jet distributions and are shown to be modest, of order 5 to 10% in most cases, but reaching 30% occasionally. Remaining scale uncertainties range from order 5% or less for distributions to below +-2% for the Higgs boson cross section in typical weak-boson fusion search regions.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

Probing for Invisible Higgs Decays with Global Fits

We demonstrate by performing a global fit on Higgs signal strength data that large invisible branching ratios Br_{inv} for a Standard Model (SM) Higgs particle are currently consistent with the experimental hints of a scalar resonance at the mass scale m_h ~ 124 GeV. For this mass scale, we find Br_{inv} < 0.64 (95 % CL) from a global fit to individual channel signal strengths supplied by ATLAS, CMS and the Tevatron collaborations. Novel tests that can be used to improve the prospects of experimentally discovering the existence of a Br_{inv} with future data are proposed. These tests are based on the combination of all visible channel Higgs signal strengths, and allow us to examine the required reduction in experimental and theoretical errors in this data that would allow a more significantly bounded invisible branching ratio to be experimentally supported. We examine in some detail how our conclusions and method are affected when a scalar resonance at this mass scale has couplings deviating from the SM ones.Comment: 32pp, 15 figures v2: JHEP version, ref added & comment added after Eq.

Photostimulated desorption performance of the future circular hadron collider beam screen

Synchrotron radiation (SR) originated at superconducting bending magnets is known to be at the origin of several beam detrimental effects related to vacuum instabilities. One of the major challenges in the design of the vacuum beam pipes of high-energy hadron colliders is the SR coping strategy. In the case of the future circular hadron collider (FCC-hh), a Cu-coated beam screen (BS) operating in the range of 40–60 K has been designed with the aim of protecting the superconducting magnet cold bores from direct synchrotron irradiation. In order to experimentally study the FCC-hh BS vacuum and cryogenic performance, two sample prototypes were manufactured and installed in the beam screen test-bench experiment (BESTEX) at the Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The emitted SR has a critical energy of 6.2 keV, very similar to the 4.6 keV of FCC-hh. Irradiation at both room (RT) and cryogenic (77 K) temperatures showed a significant reduction of the molecular photostimulated desorption yields (η) of the FCC-hh beam screen compared to those of Cu samples. A first approximation of η and its evolution with the photon dose accumulated on the FCC-hh BS prototype at 77 K allows to estimate that a machine conditioning period of ∼1.2 months would be needed to reduce the photostimulated molecular density at the necessary levels to ensure a 100 h beam lifetime at nominal FCC-hh operation

Robust LHC Higgs Search in Weak Boson Fusion

We demonstrate that an LHC Higgs search in weak boson fusion production with subsequent decay to weak boson pairs is robust against extensions of the Standard Model or MSSM involving a large number of Higgs doublets. We also show that the transverse mass distribution provides unambiguous discrimination of a continuum Higgs signal from the Standard Model.Comment: 12p, 2 figs., additional comments on backgrounds, version to appear in PR

MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS OF SYNCHROTON RADIATION AND VACUUM PERFORMANCE OF THE MAX IV LIGHT SOURCE

Abstract In the 3 GeV ring of MAX IV light source in Lund, Sweden, the intense synchrotron radiation (SR) distributed along the ring generates important thermal and vacuum effects. By means of a Monte Carlo simulation package, which is currently developed at CERN, both thermal and vacuum effects are quantitatively analysed, in particular near the crotch absorbers and the surrounding NEG-coated vacuum chambers. Using SynRad+, the beam trajectory of the upstream bending magnet is calculated; SR photons are generated and traced through the geometry until their absorption. This allows an analysis of the incident power density on the absorber, and to calculate the photon induced outgassing. The results are imported to Molflow+, a Monte Carlo vacuum simulator that works in the molecular flow regime, and the pressure in the vacuum system and the saturation length of the NEG coating are determined using iterations