Abstract: Detailed measurements of the electron performance of the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported, using decays of the Z, W and J/psi particles. Data collected in 2010 at root s = 7 TeV are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of almost 40 pb(-1). The inter-alignment of the inner detector and the electromagnetic calorimeter, the determination of the electron energy scale and resolution, and the performance in terms of response uniformity and linearity are discussed. The electron identification, reconstruction and trigger efficiencies, as well as the charge misidentification probability, are also presented.

Abstract: Within the context of supersymmetric space-time (D-particle) foam in string/brane-theory, we discuss a Finsler-induced cosmology and its implications for (thermal) dark matter abundances. This constitutes a truly microscopic model of dynamical space-time, where Finsler geometries arise naturally. The D-particle foam model involves point-like brane defects (D-particles), which provide the topologically non-trivial foamy structures of space-time. The D-particles can capture and emit stringy matter and this leads to a recoil of D-particles. It is indicated how one effect of such a recoil of D-particles is a back-reaction on the space-time metric of Finsler type which is stochastic. We show that such a type of stochastic space-time foam can lead to acceptable cosmologies at late epochs of the Universe, due to the non-trivial properties of the supersymmetric (BPS like) D-particle defects, which are such so as not to affect significantly the Hubble expansion. The restrictions placed on the free parameters of the Finsler type metric are obtained from solving the Boltzmann equation in this background for relic abundances of a Lightest Supersymmetric Particle (LSP) dark matter candidate. It is demonstrated that the D-foam acts as a source for particle production in the Boltzmann equation, thereby leading to enhanced thermal LSP relic abundances relative to those in the Standard Lambda CDM cosmology. For D-particle masses of order TeV, such effects may be relevant for dark matter searches at colliders. The latter constraints complement those coming from high-energy gamma-ray astronomy on the induced vacuum refractive index that D-foam models entail. We also comment briefly on the production mechanisms of such TeV-mass stringy defects at colliders, which, in view of the current LHC experimental searches, will impose further constraints on their couplings.

Abstract: We search for the Z(1)(4050)(+) and Z(2)(4250)(+) states, reported by the Belle Collaboration, decaying to chi(c1)pi(+) in the decays (B) over bar (0) -> chi K-c1(-)pi(+) and B+ -> chi K-c1(S)0 pi(+) where chi(c1) -> J/psi gamma. The data were collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider operating at center-of-mass energy 10.58 GeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 429 fb(-1). In this analysis, we model the background-subtracted, efficiency-corrected chi(c1)pi(+) mass distribution using the K pi mass distribution and the corresponding normalized K pi Legendre-polynomial moments, and then test the need for the inclusion of resonant structures in the description of the chi(c1)pi(+) mass distribution. No evidence is found for the Z(1)(4050)(+) and Z(2)(4250)(+) resonances, and 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions are reported for the corresponding B-meson decay modes.