Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe

Inclusive search for supersymmetry using razor variables in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

This article is the pre-print version of the final published paper that is available from the link below.An inclusive search is presented for new heavy particle pairs produced in root s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC using 4,7 ± 0.1 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. The selected events are analyzed in the 2D razor space of MR, an event-by-event indicator of the heavy particle mass scale, and R, a dimensionless variable related to the missing transverse energy. The third-generation sector is probed using the event heavy-flavor content. The search is sensitive to generic supersymmetry models with minimal assumptions about the superpartner decay chains. No excess is observed in the number of events beyond that predicted by the standard model. Exclusion limits are derived in the CMSSM framework as well as for simplified models. Within the CMSSM parameter space considered, gluino masses up to 800 GeVand squark masses up to 1.35 TeVare excluded at 95% confidence level depending on the model parameters. The direct production of pairs of top or bottom squarks is excluded for masses as high as 400 GeV

Particle identification in ALICE : a Bayesian approach

Peer reviewe

EphB3 receptors function as dependence receptors to mediate oligodendrocyte cell death following contusive spinal cord injury

We demonstrate that EphB3 receptors mediate oligodendrocyte (OL) cell death in the injured spinal cord through dependence receptor mechanism. OLs in the adult spinal cord express EphB3 as well as other members of the Eph receptor family. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with tissue damage, cellular loss and disturbances in EphB3-ephrinB3 protein balance acutely (days) after the initial impact creating an environment for a dependence receptor-mediated cell death to occur. Genetic ablation of EphB3 promotes OL survival associated with increased expression of myelin basic protein and improved locomotor function in mice after SCI. Moreover, administration of its ephrinB3 ligand to the spinal cord after injury also promotes OL survival. Our in vivo findings are supported by in vitro studies showing that ephrinB3 administration promotes the survival of both oligodendroglial progenitor cells and mature OLs cultured under pro-apoptotic conditions. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates a novel dependence receptor role of EphB3 in OL cell death after SCI, and supports further development of ephrinB3-based therapies to promote recovery

清涼飮料税論

The production of J/\).psi\) and $\psi(2S)$ was measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. The measurement was performed at forward rapidity 2.5 < y < 4 \() down to zero transverse momentum \(p_{\rm T} in the dimuon decay channel. Inclusive J/\).psi\) yields were extracted in different centrality classes and the centrality dependence of the average $p_{\rm T}$ is presented. The J/\).psi\) suppression, quantified with the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$ , was studied as a function of centrality, transverse momentum and rapidity. Comparisons with similar measurements at lower collision energy and theoretical models indicate that the J/\).psi\) production is the result of an interplay between color screening and recombination mechanisms in a deconfined partonic medium, or at its hadronization. Results on the $\psi(2S)$ suppression are provided via the ratio of $\psi(2S)$ over J/\).psi\) measured in pp and Pb-Pb collisions