Abstract: A new method for calibrating the hadron response of a segmented calorimeter is developed and successfully applied to beam test data. It is based on a principal component analysis of energy deposits in the calorimeter layers, exploiting longitudinal shower development information to improve the measured energy resolution. Corrections for invisible hadronic energy and energy lost in dead material in front of and between the calorimeters of the ATLAS experiment were calculated with simulated Geant4 Monte Carlo events and used to reconstruct the energy of pions impinging on the calorimeters during the 2004 Barrel Combined Beam Test at the CERN H8 area. For pion beams with energies between 20 GeV and 180 GeV, the particle energy is reconstructed within 3% and the energy resolution is improved by between 11% and 25% compared to the resolution at the electromagnetic scale.

Abstract: Multinucleon transfer cross sections in the (96)Zr+(40)Ca system have been measured, in inverse kinematics, at bombarding energies ranging from the Coulomb barrier to similar to 25% below. Targetlike recoils have been identified in A, Z and velocity with the large solid angle magnetic spectrometer PRISMA. The experimental data for one- and two-neutron transfer channels have been compared with semiclassical microscopic calculations. For the two-neutron transfer channels the relevance of the transitions to the ground state and to the 0(+) excited states of (42)Ca are discussed by employing, for the reaction mechanism, the successive approximation. It is found that the transition to the 0(+) state at similar to 6 MeV, whose wave function is dominated by the two neutrons in the 2p(3/2) shell, is much larger than the ground state one. The comparison with the inclusive data reveals that transitions to states with high multipolarity and non-natural parity are important. This suggests that more complex two-particle correlations have to be incorporated in the treatment of the transfer process.

Abstract: Recently T2K experiment gives hint in favor of large reactor angle theta(13). Most of the models, with tribimaximal mixing at the leading order, can not reproduce such a large mixing angle since they predict typically corrections for the reactor angle of the order theta(13) similar to lambda(2)(C), where lambda(C) similar to 0.2. In this paper, we discuss the possibility to achieve large theta(13) within the T2K region with maximal atmosphericmixing angle, sin(2)theta(23) = 1/2, and trimaximal solar mixing angle, sin(2)theta(12) = 1/3, through the deviation from the exact tribimaximal mixing. We derive the structure of neutrino mass matrix that leads to the large theta(13) leaving maximal theta(23) and trimaximal theta(12). It is shown that such a structure of neutrino mass matrix can arise in a model with S(4) flavor symmetry.

Abstract: Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS Data Release 8 (DR8), which was made public in 2011 January and includes SDSS-I and SDSS-II images and spectra reprocessed with the latest pipelines and calibrations produced for the SDSS-III investigations. This paper presents an overview of the four surveys that comprise SDSS-III. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Ly alpha forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the baryon acoustic oscillation feature of large-scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z < 0.7 and at z approximate to 2.5. SEGUE-2, an already completed SDSS-III survey that is the continuation of the SDSS-II Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE), measured medium-resolution (R = lambda/lambda Delta approximate to 1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE, the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment, will obtain high-resolution (R approximate to 30,000), high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N >= 100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51 μm < lambda < 1.70 μm) spectra of 105 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for similar to 15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. The Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS) will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 ms(-1), similar to 24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. As of 2011 January, SDSS-III has obtained spectra of more than 240,000 galaxies, 29,000 z >= 2.2 quasars, and 140,000 stars, including 74,000 velocity measurements of 2580 stars for MARVELS.

Abstract: The top-quark FCNC processes will be searched for at the CERN LHC, which are correlated with the B-meson decays. In this paper, we study the e ff ects of top-quark anomalous interactions tq gamma in the exclusive radiative B --> K*gamma and B --> rho gamma decays. With the current experimental data of the branching ratios, the direct CP and the isospin asymmetries, bounds on the coupling kappa(gamma)(tcR) from B --> K*gamma and kappa(gamma)(tuR) from B --> rho gamma decays are derived, respectively. The bound on vertical bar kappa(gamma)(tcR)vertical bar from B (B --> K*gamma) is generally compatible with that from B (B --> X(s)gamma). However, the isospin asymmetry Delta (K*gamma) further restrict the phase of kappa(gamma)(tuR), and the combined bound results in the upper limit, B (t --> c gamma) < 0 : 21%, which is lower than the CDF result. For real kappa(gamma)(tuR), the upper bound on B (t --> c gamma) is about of the same order as the 5 sigma discovery potential of ATLAS with an integrated luminosity of 10 fb(-1). For B --> rho gamma decays, the NP contribution is enhanced by a large CKM factor vertical bar V(ud)/V(td)vertical bar, and the constraint on tu gamma coupling is rather restrictive, B (t --> u gamma) < 1 : 44 x 10(-5). With re fi ned measurements to be available at the LHCb and the future super-B factories, we can get close correlations between B --> V gamma and the rare t --> q gamma decays, which will be studied directly at the LHC ATLAS and CMS.