Abstract: We present a search for core-collapse supernovae in the Milky Way galaxy, using the MiniBooNE neutrino detector. No evidence is found for core-collapse supernovae occurring in our Galaxy in the period from December 14, 2004 to July 31, 2008, corresponding to 98% live time for collection. We set a limit on the core-collapse supernova rate out to a distance of 13.4 kpc to be less than 0.69 supernovae per year at 90% C. L.

Abstract: The running charm-quark mass in the scheme is determined from weighted finite energy QCD sum rules involving the vector current correlator. Only the short distance expansion of this correlator is used, together with integration kernels (weights) involving positive powers of s, the squared energy. The optimal kernels are found to be a simple pinched kernel and polynomials of the Legendre type. The former kernel reduces potential duality violations near the real axis in the complex s plane, and the latter allows us to extend the analysis to energy regions beyond the end point of the data. These kernels, together with the high energy expansion of the correlator, weigh the experimental and theoretical information differently from e. g. inverse moments finite energy sum rules. Current, state of the art results for the vector correlator up to four-loop order in perturbative QCD are used in the finite energy sum rules, together with the latest experimental data. The integration in the complex s plane is performed using three different methods: fixed order perturbation theory, contour improved perturbation theory, and a fixed renormalization scale mu. The final result is (m) over bar (c)(3 GeV) = 1008 +/- 26 MeV, in a wide region of stability against changes in the integration radius s(0) in the complex s plane.

Abstract: Jet shapes have been measured in inclusive jet production in proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV using 3 pb(-1) of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-k(t) algorithm with transverse momentum 30 GeV < p(T) < 600 GeV and rapidity in the region vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.8. The data are corrected for detector effects and compared to several leading-order QCD matrix elements plus parton shower Monte Carlo predictions, including different sets of parameters tuned to model fragmentation processes and underlying event contributions in the final state. The measured jets become narrower with increasing jet transverse momentum and the jet shapes present a moderate jet rapidity dependence. Within QCD, the data test a variety of perturbative and nonperturbative effects. In particular, the data show sensitivity to the details of the parton shower, fragmentation, and underlying event models in the Monte Carlo generators. For an appropriate choice of the parameters used in these models, the data are well described.

Abstract: We present an unquenched N-f = 2 lattice computation of the B-K parameter which controls K-0 – (K) over bar (0) oscillations. A partially quenched setup is employed with two maximally twisted dynamical (sea) light Wilson quarks, and valence quarks of both the maximally twisted and the Osterwalder-Seiler variety. Suitable combinations of these two kinds of valence quarks lead to a lattice definition of the B-K parameter which is both multiplicatively renormalizable and O(a) improved. Employing the nonperturbative RI-MOM scheme, in the continuum limit and at the physical value of the pion mass we get B-K(RGI) = 0.729 +/- 0.030, a number well in line with the existing quenched and unquenched determinations.

Abstract: We report on a measurement of the fraction of events with a W or Z boson which are produced diffractively in (p) over barp collisions at root s = 1.96 TeV, using data from 0.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector equipped with a Roman- pot spectrometer that detects the (p) over bar from (p) over bar + p -> (p) over bar + [X + W/Z]. We find that (1.00 +/- 0.11)% of Ws and (0.88 +/- 0.22)% of Zs are produced diffractively in a region of antiproton or proton fractional momentum loss xi of 0.03 < xi < 0.10 and 4-momentum transferred squared t of -1 < t < 0 (GeV/c)(2), where we account for the events in which the proton scatters diffractively while the antiproton dissociates, (p) over bar + p -> [X + W/Z] + p, by doubling the measured proton dissociation fraction. We also report on searches for W and Z production in double Pomeron exchange, (p) over bar + p -> [X + W/Z] + p, and on exclusive Z production, (p) over bar + p -> (p) over bar + Z + p. No signal is seen above background for these processes, and comparisons are made with expectations.