Bernal, N., Martin-Albo, J., & Palomares-Ruiz, S. (2013). A novel way of constraining WIMPs annihilations in the Sun: MeV neutrinos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 011–19pp.
Abstract: Annihilation of dark matter particles accumulated in the Sun would produce a flux of high-energy neutrinos whose prospects of detection in neutrino telescopes and detectors have been extensively discussed in the literature. However, for annihilations into Standard Model particles, there would also be a flux of neutrinos in the MeV range from the decays at rest of muons and positively charged pions. These low-energy neutrinos have never been considered before and they open the possibility to also constrain dark matter annihilation in the Sun into e(+)e(-), mu(+)mu(-) or light quarks. Here we perform a detailed analysis using the recent Super-Kamiokande data in the few tens of MeV range to set limits on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section for different annihilation channels and computing the evaporation rate of WIMPs from the Sun for all values of the scattering cross section in a consistent way.
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BABAR Collaboration(Aubert, B. et al), Azzolini, V., Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., Milanes, D. A., & Oyanguren, A. (2013). The BABAR detector: Upgrades, operation and performance. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 729, 615–701.
Abstract: The BABAR detector operated successfully at the PEP-Il asymmetric e(+) e(-) collider at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory from 1999 to 2008. This report covers upgrades, operation, and performance of the collider and the detector systems, as well as the trigger, online and offline computing, and aspects of event reconstruction since the beginning of data taking.
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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., Gil, A., et al. (2013). Operation and first results of the NEXT-DEMO prototype using a silicon photomultiplier tracking array. J. Instrum., 8, P09011–20pp.
Abstract: NEXT-DEMO is a high-pressure xenon gas TPC which acts as a technological test-bed and demonstrator for the NEXT-100 neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. In its current configuration the apparatus fully implements the NEXT-100 design concept. This is an asymmetric TPC, with an energy plane made of photomultipliers and a tracking plane made of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) coated with TPB. The detector in this new configuration has been used to reconstruct the characteristic signature of electrons in dense gas, demonstrating the ability to identify the MIP and “blob” regions. Moreover, the SiPM tracking plane allows for the definition of a large fiducial region in which an excellent energy resolution of 1.82% FWHM at 511 keV has been measured (a value which extrapolates to 0.83% at the xenon Q(beta beta)).
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ANTARES Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Bigongiari, C., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Lambard, G., et al. (2013). First results on dark matter annihilation in the Sun using the ANTARES neutrino telescope. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 032–22pp.
Abstract: A search for high-energy neutrinos coming from the direction of the Sun has been performed using the data recorded by the ANTARES neutrino telescope during 2007 and 2008. The neutrino selection criteria have been chosen to maximize the selection of possible signals produced by the self-annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles accumulated in the centre of the Sun with respect to the atmospheric background. After data unblinding, the number of neutrinos observed towards the Sun was found to be compatible with background expectations. The 90% CL upper limits in terms of spin-dependent and spin-independent WIMP-proton cross-sections are derived and compared to predictions of two supersymmetric models, CMSSM and MSSM-7. The ANTARES limits are comparable with those obtained by other neutrino observatories and are more stringent than those obtained by direct search experiments for the spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross-section in the case of hard self-annihilation channels (W+W-, tau(+)tau(-)).
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ATLAS Tile Calorimeter Community(Abdallah, J. et al), Calderon, D., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costelo, J., Ferrer, A., Fullana, E., et al. (2013). Mechanical construction and installation of the ATLAS tile calorimeter. J. Instrum., 8, T11001–26pp.
Abstract: This paper summarises the mechanical construction and installation of the Tile Calorimeter for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN, Switzerland. The Tile Calorimeter is a sampling calorimeter using scintillator as the sensitive detector and steel as the absorber and covers the central region of the ATLAS experiment up to pseudorapidities +/- 1.7. The mechanical construction of the Tile Calorimeter occurred over a period of about 10 years beginning in 1995 with the completion of the Technical Design Report and ending in 2006 with the installation of the final module in the ATLAS cavern. During this period approximately 2600 metric tons of steel were transformed into a laminated structure to form the absorber of the sampling calorimeter. Following instrumentation and testing, which is described elsewhere, the modules were installed in the ATLAS cavern with a remarkable accuracy for a structure of this size and weight.
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