Abstract: Quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force, describes interactions of coloured quarks and gluons and the formation of hadronic matter. Conventional hadronic matter consists of baryons and mesons made of three quarks and quark-antiquark pairs, respectively. Particles with an alternative quark content are known as exotic states. Here a study is reported of an exotic narrow state in the (DD0)-D-0 pi(+) mass spectrum just below the D*+D-0 mass threshold produced in proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The state is consistent with the ground isoscalar T-cc(+), tetraquark with a quark content of cc (u) over bar(d) over bar and spin-parity quantum numbers J(P) =1(+). Study of the DD mass spectra disfavours interpretation of the resonance as the isovector state. The decay structure via intermediate off-shell D*(+) mesons is consistent with the observed D-0 pi(+) mass distribution. To analyse the mass of the resonance and its coupling to the DID system, a dedicated model is developed under the assumption of an isoscalar axial-vector T-cc(+), state decaying to the D*D channel. Using this model, resonance parameters including the pole position, scattering length, effective range and compositeness are determined to reveal important information about the nature of the T-cc(+), state. In addition, an unexpected dependence of the production rate on track multiplicity is observed.

Abstract: An amplitude analysis of B-0 ((+-))(K+-) decays is performed in the two-body invariant mass regions 300 < m((+-)) < 1100 MeV/c(2), accounting for the (0), , f(0)(500), f(0)(980) and f(0)(1370) resonances, and 750 < m(K+-) < 1200 MeV/c(2), which is dominated by the K-*(892)(0) meson. The analysis uses 3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The CP averages and asymmetries are measured for the magnitudes and phase differences of the con- tributing amplitudes. The CP-averaged longitudinal polarisation fractions of the vector-vector modes are found to be fK*0 = 0.164 +/- 0.015 +/- 0.022 and fK*0 = 0.68 +/- 0.17 +/- 0.16, and their CP asymmetries, AK*0 = -0.62 +/- 0.09 +/- 0.09 and AK*0 = -0.13 +/- 0.27 +/- 0.13, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.

Abstract: Sensitivity and spatial resolution are the main parameters to maximize in the performance of a PET scanner. For this purpose, detectors consisting of a combination of continuous crystals optically coupled to segmented photodetectors have been employed. With the use of continuous crystals the sensitivity is increased with respect to the pixelated crystals. In addition, spatial resolution is no longer limited to the crystal size. The main drawback is the difficulty in determining the interaction position. In this work, we present the characterization of the performance of a full ring based on cuboid continuous crystals coupled to SiPMs. To this end, we have employed the simulations developed in a previous work for our experimental detector head. Sensitivity could be further enhanced by using tapered crystals. This enhancement is obtained by increasing the solid angle coverage, reducing the wedge-shaped gaps between contiguous detectors. The performance of the scanners based on both crystal geometries was characterized following NEMA NU 4-2008 standardized protocol in order to compare them. An average sensitivity gain over the entire axial field of view of 13.63% has been obtained with tapered geometry while similar performance of the spatial resolution has been proven with both scanners. The activity at which NECR and true peak occur is smaller and the peak value is greater for tapered crystals than for cuboid crystals. Moreover, a higher degree of homogeneity was obtained in the sensitivity map due to the tighter packing of the crystals, which reduces the gaps and results in a better recovery of homogeneous regions than for the cuboid configuration. Some of the results obtained, such as spatial resolution, depend on the interaction position estimation and may vary if other method is employed.

Abstract: In this paper the results of Edge-TCT and I-V measurements with passive test structures made in LFoundry 150 nm HV-CMOS process on p-type substrates with different initial resistivities ranging from 0.5 to 3 k Omega cm are presented. Samples were irradiated with reactor neutrons up to a fluence of 2.10(15) n(eq)/cm(2). The depletion depth was measured with Edge-TCT. The effective space charge concentration N-eff was estimated from the dependence of the depletion depth on bias voltage and studied as a function of neutron fluence. The dependence of N-eff on fluence changes with initial acceptor concentration in agreement with other measurements with p-type silicon. A long term accelerated annealing study of N-eff and detector current up to 1280 minutes at 60 degrees C was made. It was found that N-eff and current in reverse biased detector behave as expected for irradiated silicon.

Abstract: This Letter presents the first study of Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson (V = W or Z) in the fully hadronic qqbb final state using data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in ffiffiproton-proton collisions at root root s= 13 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137fb(-1). The vector bosons and Higgs bosons are each reconstructed as large-radius jets and tagged using jet substructure techniques. Dedicated tagging algorithms exploiting b-tagging properties are used to identify jets consistent with Higgs bosons decaying into b (b) over bar. Dominant backgrounds from multijet production are determined directly from the data, and a likelihood fit to the jet mass distribution of Higgs boson candidates is used to extract the number of signal events. The VH production cross section is measured inclusively and differentially in several ranges of Higgs boson transverse momentum: 250-450, 450-650, and greater than 650 GeV. The inclusive signal yield relative to the standard model expectation is observed to be μ= 1.4(-0.9)(+1.0) and the corresponding cross section is 3.1 +/- 1.3(stat)(-1.4)(+1.8) (syst) pb.