Creminelli, P., Norena, J., Pena, M., & Simonovic, M. (2012). Khronon inflation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 032–16pp.
Abstract: We study the possibility that the approximate time shift symmetry during inflation is promoted to the full invariance under time reparametrization t -> (t) over tilde (t), or equivalently under field redefinition of the inflaton phi -> (phi) over tilde(phi). The symmetry allows only two operators at leading order in derivatives, so that all n-point functions of scalar perturbations are fixed in terms of the power spectrum normalization and the speed of sound. During inflation the decaying mode only decays as 1/a and this opens up the possibility to violate some of the consistency relations in the squeezed limit, although this violation is suppressed by the (small) breaking of the field reparametrization symmetry. In particular one can get terms in the 3-point function that are only suppressed by 1/k(L) in the squeezed limit k(L) -> 0 compared to the local shape.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Measurements of the pseudorapidity dependence of the total transverse energy in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV with ATLAS. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 033–54pp.
Abstract: This paper describes measurements of the sum of the transverse energy of particles as a function of particle pseudorapidity, eta, in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy, root s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are performed in the region \eta\ < 4.8 for two event classes: those requiring the presence of particles with a low transverse momentum and those requiring particles with a significant transverse momentum. In the second dataset measurements are made in the region transverse to the hard scatter. The distributions are compared to the predictions of various Monte Carlo event generators, which generally tend to underestimate the amount of transverse energy at high \eta\.
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Goel, N., Domingo-Pardo, C., Habermann, T., Ameil, F., Engert, T., Gerl, J., et al. (2013). Characterisation of a symmetric AGATA detector using the gamma-ray imaging scanning technique. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 700, 10–21.
Abstract: The imaging scanning technique for the characterisation of large volume, highly segmented, HPGe detectors is demonstrated by comparing the measured spatial response of a symmetric AGATA crystal versus the theoretical calculations obtained with the Multi-Geometry Simulation (MGS) code. The signal rise-times measured as a function of the gamma-ray interaction positions, in both coaxial and planar regions of the detection volume, are presented and confronted with the expected behaviour obtained via MGS. The transition in charge carrier transport behaviour as a function of the depth is studied for the region of the complex electric field. In general, a fairly good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained. Only systematic deviations between simulation and measurement are observed in the critical front part of the AGATA detector. They may be ascribed to a non-linear impurity concentration profile of the germanium crystal.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Search for high-mass resonances decaying to dilepton final states in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 138–46pp.
Abstract: The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for high-mass resonances decaying to an electron-positron pair or a muon-antimuon pair. The search is sensitive to heavy neutral Z' gauge bosons, Randall-Sundrum gravitons, Z* bosons, techni-mesons, Z/gamma bosons, and bosons predicted by Torsion models. Results are presented based on an analysis of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb(-1) in the e(+)e(-) channel and 5.0 fb(-1) in the mu(+)mu(-) channel. A Z' boson with Standard Model-like couplings is excluded at 95% confidence level for masses below 2.22 TeV. A Randall-Sundrum graviton with coupling k root M-P1 = 0.1 is excluded at 95% confidence level for masses below 2.16 Tev. Limits on the other models are also presented, including Technicolor and Minimal Z' Models.
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Clinthorne, N., Brzezinski, K., Chesi, E., Cochran, E., Grkovski, M., Grosicar, B., et al. (2013). Silicon as an unconventional detector in positron emission tomography. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 699, 216–220.
Abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) is a widely used technique in medical imaging and in studying small animal models of human disease. In the conventional approach, the 511 keV annihilation photons emitted from a patient or small animal are detected by a ring of scintillators such as LYSO read out by arrays of photodetectors. Although this has been successful in achieving similar to 5 mm FWHM spatial resolution in human studies and similar to 1 mm resolution in dedicated small animal instruments, there is interest in significantly improving these figures. Silicon, although its stopping power is modest for 511 keV photons, offers a number of potential advantages over more conventional approaches including the potential for high intrinsic spatial resolution in 3D. To evaluate silicon in a variety of PET “magnifying glass” configurations, an instrument was constructed that consists of an outer partial-ring of PET scintillation detectors into which various arrangements of silicon detectors are inserted to emulate dual-ring or imaging probe geometries. Measurements using the test instrument demonstrated the capability of clearly resolving point sources of Na-22 having a 1.5 mm center-to-center spacing as well as the 1.2 mm rods of a F-18-filled resolution phantom. Although many challenges remain, silicon has potential to become the PET detector of choice when spatial resolution is the primary consideration. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Jung, M., Li, X. Q., & Pich, A. (2012). Exclusive radiative B-meson decays within the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 063–33pp.
Abstract: In the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model, the alignment of Yukawa matrices in flavour space guarantees the absence of tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents, while allowing at the same time for new sources of CP violation, implying potentially large effects in many low-energy processes. In this work we study the constraints from exclusive radiative B -> V gamma decays, where V denotes a light vector meson. The current experimental data on the CP-averaged branching ratios and the direct CP and isospin asymmetries are analyzed. It is found that, while the branching ratios and direct CP asymmetries do not constrain the parameter space much further compared to the inclusive B -> X-s,X-d gamma decays, complementary constraints can be obtained from the isospin asymmetries Delta(K*gamma) and Delta(rho gamma). In addition, correlations between the various observables in exclusive B -> V gamma and inclusive B -> X-s,X-d gamma decays are investigated in detail, and predictions are made for several so far unmeasured observables.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., Fiorini, L., et al. (2012). Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying to a b-quark pair with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 718(2), 369–390.
Abstract: This Letter presents the results of a direct search with the ATLAS detector at the LHC for a Standard Model Higgs boson of mass 110 <= m(H) <= 130 GeV produced in association with a W or Z boson and decaying to b (b) over bar. Three decay channels are considered: ZH -> l(+)l(-)b (b) over bar, WH -> lvbb (b) over bar and ZH -> v (v) over bar(b) over bar where l corresponds to an electron or a muon. No evidence for Higgs boson production is observed in a dataset of 7 TeV pp collisions corresponding to 4.7 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected by ATLAS in 2011. Exclusion limits on Higgs boson production, at the 95% confidence level, of 2.5 to 5.5 times the Standard Model cross section are obtained in the mass range 110-130 GeV. The expected exclusion limits range between 2.5 and 4.9 for the same mass interval.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., Fiorini, L., et al. (2012). Search for the Higgs boson in the H -> WW -> lvjj decay channel at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 718(2), 391–410.
Abstract: A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson has been performed in the H -> WW -> lvjj channel using 4.7 fb(-1) of pp collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Higgs boson candidates produced in association with zero, one or two jets are included in the analysis to maximize the acceptance for both gluon fusion and weak boson fusion Higgs boson production processes. No significant excess of events is observed over the expected background and limits on the Higgs boson production cross section are derived for a Higgs boson mass in the range 300 GeV < m(H) < 600 GeV. The best sensitivity is reached for m(H) = 400 GeV, where the observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper bound on the cross section for H -> WW produced in association with zero or one jet is 2.2 pb (1.9 pb), corresponding to 1.9 (1.6) times the Standard Model prediction. In the Higgs boson plus two jets channel, which is more sensitive to the weak boson fusion process, the observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper bound on the cross section for H -> WW production with m(H) = 400 GeV is 0.7 pb (0.6 pb), corresponding to 7.9 (6.5) times the Standard Model prediction.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Search for diphoton events with large missing transverse momentum in 7 TeV proton-proton collision data with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 718(2), 411–430.
Abstract: A search for diphoton events with large missing transverse momentum has been performed using proton-proton collision data at is root s = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb(-1). No excess of events was observed above the Standard Model prediction and model-dependent 95% confidence level exclusion limits are set. In the context of a generalised model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking with a bino-like lightest neutralino of mass above 50 GeV, gluinos (squarks) below 1.07 TeV (0.87 TeV) are excluded, while a breaking scale Lambda below 196 TeV is excluded for a minimal model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. For a specific model with one universal extra dimension, compactification scales 1/R < 1.40 TeV are excluded. These limits provide the most stringent tests of these models to date.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Search for a heavy top-quark partner in final states with two leptons with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 094–35pp.
Abstract: The results of a search for direct pair production of heavy top-quark partners in 4.7 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. Heavy top-quark partners decaying into a top quark and a neutral non-interacting particle are searched for in events with two leptons in the final state. No excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are placed on the mass of a supersymmetric scalar top and of a spin-1/2 top-quark partner. A spin-1/2 top-quark partner with a mass between 300 GeV and 480 GeV, decaying to a top quark and a neutral non-interacting particle lighter than 100 GeV, is excluded at 95% confidence level.
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