Buchta, S., Chachamis, G., Draggiotis, P., Malamos, I., & Rodrigo, G. (2014). On the singular behaviour of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 014–13pp.
Abstract: We analyse the singular behaviour of one-loop integrals and scattering amplitudes in the framework of the loop-tree duality approach. We show that there is a partial cancellation of singularities at the loop integrand level among the different components of the corresponding dual representation that can be interpreted in terms of causality. The remaining threshold and infrared singularities are restricted to a finite region of the loop momentum space, which is of the size of the external momenta and can be mapped to the phase-space of real corrections to cancel the soft and collinear divergences.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Bernabeu Verdu, J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., et al. (2014). Operation and performance of the ATLAS semiconductor tracker. J. Instrum., 9, P08009–73pp.
Abstract: The semiconductor tracker is a silicon microstrip detector forming part of the inner tracking system of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The operation and performance of the semiconductor tracker during the first years of LHC running are described. More than 99% of the detector modules were operational during this period, with an average intrinsic hit efficiency of (99.74 +/- 0.04)%. The evolution of the noise occupancy is discussed, and measurements of the Lorentz angle, delta-ray production and energy loss presented. The alignment of the detector is found to be stable at the few-micron level over long periods of time. Radiation damage measurements, which include the evolution of detector leakage currents, are found to be consistent with predictions and are used in the verification of radiation background simulations.
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Pierre Auger Collaboration(Aab, A. et al), & Pastor, S. (2014). Origin of atmospheric aerosols at the Pierre Auger Observatory using studies of air mass trajectories in South America. Atmos. Res., 149, 120–135.
Abstract: The Pierre Auger Observatory is making significant contributions towards understanding the nature and origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. One of its main challenges is the monitoring of the atmosphere, both in terms of its state variables and its optical properties. The aim of this work is to analyse aerosol optical depth tau(a)(z) values measured from 2004 to 2012 at the observatory, which is located in a remote and relatively unstudied area of Pampa Amarilla, Argentina. The aerosol optical depth is in average quite low – annual mean tau(a)(3.5 km) similar to 0.04 – and shows a seasonal trend with a winter minimum – tau(a)(3.5 km) – 0.03 -, and a summer maximum – tau(a)(3.5 km) similar to 0.06 -, and an unexpected increase from August to September tau(a)(35 km) similar to 0.055. We computed backward trajectories for the years 2005 to 2012 to interpret the air mass origin. Winter nights with low aerosol concentrations show air masses originating from the Pacific Ocean. Average concentrations are affected by continental sources (wind-blown dust and urban pollution), whilst the peak observed in September and October could be linked to biomass burning in the northern part of Argentina or air pollution coming from surrounding urban areas.
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Wang, E., Alvarez-Ruso, L., & Nieves, J. (2014). Photon emission in neutral-current interactions at intermediate energies. Phys. Rev. C, 89(1), 015503–21pp.
Abstract: Neutral-current photon emission reactions with nucleons and nuclei are studied. These processes are important backgrounds for nu(mu) -> nu(e) ((nu) over bar (mu) -> (nu) over bar (e)) appearance oscillation experiments where electromagnetic showers instigated by electrons (positrons) and photons are not distinguishable. At intermediate energies, these reactions are dominated by the weak excitation of the Delta(1232) resonance and its subsequent decay into N gamma. There are also nonresonant contributions that, close to threshold, are fully determined by the effective chiral Lagrangian of strong interactions. In addition, we have also included mechanisms mediated by nucleon excitations (N*) from the second resonance region above the Delta(1232). From these states, the contribution of the D-13 N*(1520) turns out to be sizable for (anti) neutrino energies above 1.5 GeV. We have extended the model to nuclear targets taking into account Pauli blocking, Fermi motion, and the in-medium Delta resonance broadening. We present our predictions for both the incoherent and coherent channels, showing the relevance of the nuclear corrections. We also discuss the target mass dependence of the cross sections. This study is important to reduce systematic effects in neutrino oscillation experiments.
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Botella, F. J., Branco, G. C., Carmona, A., Nebot, M., Pedro, L., & Rebelo, M. N. (2014). Physical constraints on a class of two-Higgs doublet models with FCNC at tree level. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 078–33pp.
Abstract: We analyse the constraints and some of the phenomenological implications of a class of two Higgs doublet models where there are flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNC) at tree level but the potentially dangerous FCNC couplings are suppressed by small entries of the CKM matrix V. This class of models have the remarkable feature that, as a result of a discrete symmetry of the Lagrangian, the FCNC couplings are entirely fixed in the quark sector by V and the ratio v(2)/v(1) of the vevs of the neutral Higgs. The discrete symmetry is extended to the leptonic sector, so that there are FCNC in the leptonic sector with their flavour structure fixed by the leptonic mixing matrix. We analyse a large number of processes, including decays mediated by charged Higgs at tree level, processes involving FCNC at tree level, as well as loop induced processes. We show that in this class of models one has new physical scalars beyond the standard Higgs boson, with masses reachable at the next round of experiments.
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