Sensor Simulation and position calibration for the CMS pixel detector

In this paper a detailed simulation of irradiated pixel sensors was used to investigate the effects of radiation damage on charge sharing and position determination. The simulation implements a model of radiation damage by including two defect levels with opposite charge states and trapping of charge carriers. We show that charge sharing functions extracted from the simulation can be parameterized as a function of the inter-pixel position and used to improve the position determination. For sensors irradiated to Phi=5.9x10^14 n/cm^2 a position resolution below 15 um can be achieved after calibration.Comment: Presented at the 14th Int. Workshop on Vertex Detectors (Vertex 2005), November 7-11 2005, Chuzenji Lake, Nikko, Japan. 4 pages, 1 figur

A Complete Order-alpha**3 Calculation of the Cross Section for Polarized Compton Scattering

The construction of a computer code to calculate the cross sections for the spin-polarized processes e-gamma=>e-gamma,e-gamma-gamma,e-e+e- to order-alpha**3 is described. The code calculates cross sections for circularly-polarized initial-state photons and arbitrarily polarized initial-state electrons. The application of the code to the SLD Compton polarimeter indicates that the order-alpha**3 corrections produce a fractional shift in the SLC polarization scale of -0.1% which is too small and of the wrong sign to account for the discrepancy in the Z-pole asymmetries measured by the SLD Collaboration and the LEP Collaborations.Comment: 37 pages, RevTeX document, 7 figures. The FORTRAN code comrad.f is available in gzip-compressed form at ftp://ftp.slac.stanford.edu/users/morris/comrad.f.gz and /afs/slac.stanford.edu/public/users/morris/comrad.f.gz. Cosmetically updated draft (moves some detail into an appendix

A theory driven analysis of the effective QED coupling at MZM_Z

An evaluation of the effective QED coupling at the scale M_Z is presented. It employs the predictions of perturbative QCD for the cross section of electron positron annihilation into hadrons up to order \alpha_s^2, including the full quark mass dependence, and of order \alpha_s^3 in the high energy region. This allows to predict the input for the dispersion relations over a large part of the integration region. The perturbative piece is combined with data for the lower energies and the heavy quark thresholds. The result for the hadronic contribution to the running of the coupling \Delta\alpha^{(5)}_{\rm had}(M_Z^2)= (277.5 \pm 1.7)\times 10^{-4} leads to (\alpha(M_Z^2))^{-1}=128.927 \pm 0.023. Compared to previous analyses the uncertainty is thus significantly reduced.Comment: 9 pages (Latex); minor error in result for charm threshold region fixed; final result unchange

UHF and VHF radar observations of thunderstorms

A study of thunderstorms was made in the Summer of 1985 with the 430-MHz and 50-MHz radars at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Both radars use the 300-meter dish, which gives a beam width of less than 2 degrees even at these long wavelengths. Though the radars are steerable, only vertical beams were used in this experiment. The height resolution was 300 and 150 meters for the UHF and VHF, respectively. Lightning echoes, as well as returns from precipitation and clear-air turbulence were detected with both wavelengths. Large increases in the returned power were found to be coincident with increasing downward vertical velocities at UHF, whereas at VHF the total power returned was relatively constant during the life of a storm. This was attributed to the fact that the VHF is more sensitive to scattering from the turbulence-induced inhomogeneities in the refractive index and less sensitive to scatter from precipitation particles. On occasion, the shape of the Doppler spectra was observed to change with the occurrence of a lightning discharge in the pulse volume. Though the total power and mean reflectivity weighted Doppler velocity changed little during these events, the power is Doppler frequency bins near that corresponding to the updraft did increase substantially within a fraction of a second after a discharge was detected in the beam. This suggests some interaction between precipitation and lightning

Mesenteric Vascular Dysregulation and Intestinal Inflammation Accompanies Experimental Spinal Cord Injury

Cervical and high thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) drastically impairs autonomic nervous system function. Individuals with SCI at thoracic spinal-level 5 (T5) or higher often present cardiovascular disorders that include resting systemic arterial hypotension. Gastrointestinal (GI) tissues are critically dependent upon adequate blood flow and even brief periods of visceral hypoxia triggers GI dysmotility. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that T3-SCI induces visceral hypoperfusion, diminished postprandial vascular reflexes and concomitant visceral inflammation. We measured in vivo systemic arterial blood pressure and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and duodenal blood flow in anesthetized T3-SCI rats at 3 days and 3 weeks post-injury either fasted or following enteral feeding of a liquid mixed-nutrient meal (Ensure™). In separate cohorts of fasted T3-SCI rats, markers of intestinal inflammation were assayed by qRT-PCR. Our results show that T3-SCI rats displayed significantly reduced SMA blood flow under all experimental conditions (p\u3c0.05). Specifically, the anticipated elevation of SMA blood flow in response to duodenal nutrient infusion (postprandial hyperemia) was either delayed or absent after T3-SCI. The dysregulated SMA blood flow in acutely-injured T3-SCI rats coincides with abnormal intestinal morphology and elevation of inflammatory markers, all of which resolve after 3 weeks. Specifically, Icam1, Ccl2 (MCP-1) and Ccl3 (MIP-1α) were acutely elevated following T3-SCI. Our data suggest that arterial hypotension diminishes mesenteric blood flow necessary to meet mucosal demands at rest and during digestion. The resulting GI ischemia and low-grade inflammation may be an underlying pathology leading to GI dysfunction seen following acute T3-SCI

A double junction model of irradiated silicon pixel sensors for LHC

In this paper we discuss the measurement of charge collection in irradiated silicon pixel sensors and the comparison with a detailed simulation. The simulation implements a model of radiation damage by including two defect levels with opposite charge states and trapping of charge carriers. The modeling proves that a doubly peaked electric field generated by the two defect levels is necessary to describe the data and excludes a description based on acceptor defects uniformly distributed across the sensor bulk. In addition, the dependence of trap concentrations upon fluence is established by comparing the measured and simulated profiles at several fluences and bias voltages.Comment: Talk presented at the 10th European Symposium on Semiconductor Detectors, June 12-16 2005, Wildbad Kreuth, Germany. 9 pages, 4 figure

Magnetic Moment Formation in Graphene Detected by Scattering of Pure Spin Currents

Hydrogen adatoms are shown to generate magnetic moments inside single layer graphene. Spin transport measurements on graphene spin valves exhibit a dip in the non-local spin signal as a function of applied magnetic field, which is due to scattering (relaxation) of pure spin currents by exchange coupling to the magnetic moments. Furthermore, Hanle spin precession measurements indicate the presence of an exchange field generated by the magnetic moments. The entire experiment including spin transport is performed in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber, and the characteristic signatures of magnetic moment formation appear only after hydrogen adatoms are introduced. Lattice vacancies also demonstrate similar behavior indicating that the magnetic moment formation originates from pz-orbital defects.Comment: accepted to Phys. Rev. Let