Precise measurements of the W mass at the Tevatron and indirect constraints on the Higgs mass

I describe the latest D0 and CDF W boson mass measurements. The D0 measurement is performed with $4.3\, fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity in the electron decay channel with a data set of $1.68\times 10^{6}$ W candidates. The value of the W boson mass measured by D0 is $M_W = 80.375\pm 0.023\, GeV$ when combined with the previously analyzed $1\, fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. The CDF measurement uses $2.2\, fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity in both electron and muon decay channels with a total of $1.1\times 10^{6}$ W candidates. The value of the W boson mass measured by CDF is $M_W = 80.387\pm 0.019\, GeV$. I report the combination of these two measurements with previous Tevatron measurements and with the LEP measurements of the W boson mass. The new world average is $M_W = 80.385\pm 0.015\, GeV$. I discuss the implications of the new measurement to the indirect measurement of the Standard Model Higgs boson mass.Comment: Moriond QCD 2012 (8 pages, 6 figures); v2: added report number; v3: corrected typo in the number of W candidates used in the measuremen

A statistical technique for measuring synchronism between cortical regions in the EEG during rhythmic stimulation

The coherence function has been widely applied in quantifying the degree of synchronism between electroencephalogram (EEG) signals obtained from different brain regions. However, when applied to investigating synchronization resulting from rhythmic stimulation, misleading results can arise from the high correlation of background EEG activity. The authors, thus propose a modified measure, which emphasizes the synchronized stimulus responses and reduces the influence of the spontaneous EEG activity. Critical values for this estimator are derived and tested in Monte Carlo simulations. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated on data recorded from 12 young normal subjects during rhythmic photic stimulation

Superfluid and insulating phases of fermion mixtures in optical lattices

The ground state phase diagram of fermion mixtures in optical lattices is analyzed as a function of interaction strength, fermion filling factor and tunneling parameters. In addition to standard superfluid, phase-separated or coexisting superfluid/excess-fermion phases found in homogeneous or harmonically trapped systems, fermions in optical lattices have several insulating phases, including a molecular Bose-Mott insulator (BMI), a Fermi-Pauli (band) insulator (FPI), a phase-separated BMI/FPI mixture or a Bose-Fermi checkerboard (BFC). The molecular BMI phase is the fermion mixture counterpart of the atomic BMI found in atomic Bose systems, the BFC or BMI/FPI phases exist in Bose-Fermi mixtures, and lastly the FPI phase is particular to the Fermi nature of the constituent atoms of the mixture.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figures (Published version