Diboson Physics at the Tevatron

At the Fermilab Tevatron, the CDF and D0 detectors are being used to study diboson production in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV. We summarize recent measurements of the W$\gamma$, Z$\gamma$, and WW cross-sections and limits on WZ and ZZ production. Limits on anomalous trilinear gauge couplings are also presented.Comment: 4 pages, Talk presented at the XLIrst Rencontres de Moriond - QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions, La Thuile, Italy, 18-25 March 200

Variability in Saturn's bow shock and magnetopause from pioneer and voyager: Probabilistic predictions and initial observations by Cassini

Probability distributions for the location of the Saturnian bow shock and magnetopause have been derived by extrapolating observations of dynamic solar wind pressures to the position of Saturn's orbit. These observations are those made by the Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft near Saturn's orbit and by the Ulysses spacecraft near its aphelion. The magnetopause subsolar distance (measured from Saturn's center) is obtained using pressure equilibrium. The bow shock standoff distance is determined using empirical relations between bow shock size and solar wind dynamic pressure. Simple 2-D geometric models of the magnetopause and bow shock surfaces have been used to determine their morphologies over a large range in local time. Three cases have been studied: (1) An Earth-type magnetosphere with low internal plasma pressure; (2) An intermediate case calibrated with Voyager 1 observations; and (3) A Jupiter-like inflated magnetosphere. The comparison of these models with initial observations from the initial sunward orbits of the Cassini spacecraft indicates a more inflated magnetosphere than postulated by the previous modelling of the Pioneer-Voyager encounters

The multifocal pattern electroretinogram in chloroquine retinopathy

Purpose: Optimal screening for ocular toxicity caused by chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine is still controversial. With the multifocal pattern electroretinogram (mfPERG), a new electrophysiological technique has recently become available to detect early changes of ganglion cells. In this study this new technique is applied to a series of 10 patients seen consecutively receiving long-term chloroquine medication. Methods: In 10 patients receiving chloroquine medication, clinical examination, Amsler visual field testing and computerized color vision testing were performed. If toxicity was suspected, automated perimetry was carried out. In addition, in all patients conventional pattern electroretinogram (PERG) and mfPERG testing were performed. Results: On clinical examination 8 patients showed no chloroquine-associated maculopathy, while 2 patients did. Of these 2, only 1 reported abnormalities when viewing the Amsler chart, while automated perimetry showed typical, ring-like paracentral scotomas in both affected patients and color vision was significantly abnormal. In the normal patients, 4 of 8 had a mild color vision disturbance, which correlated to age-related macular changes. The amplitudes of the PERG and the central (approximately 10degrees) responses of the mfPERG were markedly reduced in chloroquine maculopathy, while the latencies were unchanged. The peripheral rings of mfPERG (ranging to 48degrees) were not affected by chloroquine toxicity. Both PERG and mfPERG were less affected by age-related macular changes. Conclusions: The reduction of PERG and central mfPERG responses in chloroquine maculopathy may help with the early detection of toxicity. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Fluorescein angiography compared to three-dimensional measurements by the retinal thickness analyzer in classic choroidal neovascularization

Purpose: To compare and correlate imaging of classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) with noninvasive 3-dimensional imaging by the retinal thickness analyzer (RTA) to conventional fluorescein angiography (FA). Methods: A total of 29 eyes of 29 consecutive patients with predominantly classic CNV eligible for photodynamic therapy underwent FA and RTA imaging. The FA dimensions of the CNV were measured independently by two graders. With the RTA, masked to FA the size of the CNV itself as imaged in 3-dimensional reconstruction, the size of significantly thickened retina overlying the CNV and the maximum retinal thickness were measured. Results: The mean diameter of the CNV determined from 3-dimensional RTA reconstructions showed an excellent correlation with measurements from FA (r = 0.91, p < 0.001). The area of retinal thickening was by a mean of 0.7 mm in diameter larger and correlated moderately well with the size of the CNV on FA (r = 0.65, p < 0.001). In contrast, there was no correlation between the absolute retinal thickness and the CNV size on FA. Conclusions: Noninvasive quantitative mapping of predominantly classic CNV by RTA is feasible and also allows 3-dimensional measurement of the lesion itself. The results correlate well with FA assessment but visualize different properties of the disease. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the Lepton + Missing Transverse Energy + Jets Final State in ATLAS

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson has been performed in the H \rightarrow WW \rightarrow l{\nu}jj channel in 1.04 fb-1 of pp collisions at \surds = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess of events is observed over the expected background and limits on the Higgs boson production cross section are derived for a Higgs boson mass in the range 240 GeV < mH < 600 GeV. The best sensitivity is reached for mH = 400 GeV, where the 95% confidence level upper bound on the cross-section for Higgs boson production times the branching ratio for H \rightarrow W W is 3.1 pb, or 2.7 times the Standard Model prediction.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the DPF-2011 Conference, Providence, RI, August 8-13, 201

A Fast Hardware Tracker for the ATLAS Trigger System

In hadron collider experiments, triggering the detector to store interesting events for offline analysis is a challenge due to the high rates and multiplicities of particles produced. Maintaining high trigger efficiency for the physics we are most interested in while at the same time suppressing high rate physics from inclusive QCD processes is a difficult but important problem. It is essential that the trigger system be flexible and robust, with sufficient redundancy and operating margin. Providing high quality track reconstruction over the full ATLAS detector by the start of processing at LVL2 is an important element to achieve these needs. As the instantaneous luminosity increases, the computational load on the LVL2 system will significantly increase due to the need for more sophisticated algorithms to suppress backgrounds. The Fast Tracker (FTK) is a proposed upgrade to the ATLAS trigger system. It is designed to enable early rejection of background events and thus leave more LVL2 execution time by moving track reconstruction into a hardware system that takes massively parallel processing to the extreme. The FTK system completes global track reconstruction with near offline resolution shortly after the start of LVL2 processing by rapidly finding and fitting tracks in the inner detector for events passing LVL1 using pattern recognition from a large, pre-computed bank of possible hit patterns. We describe the FTK system design and expected performance in the areas of b-tagging, {\tau}-tagging, and lepton isolation which play and important role in the ATLAS physics program