LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2014). Precision luminosity measurements at LHCb. J. Instrum., 9, P12005–91pp.
Abstract: Measuring cross-sections at the LHC requires the luminosity to be determined accurately at each centre-of-mass energy root s. In this paper results are reported from the luminosity calibrations carried out at the LHC interaction point 8 with the LHCb detector for root s = 2.76, 7 and 8TeV (proton-proton collisions) and for root s(NN) = 5TeV (proton-lead collisions). Both the “van der Meer scan” and “beam-gas imaging” luminosity calibration methods were employed. It is observed that the beam density profile cannot always be described by a function that is factorizable in the two transverse coordinates. The introduction of a two-dimensional description of the beams improves significantly the consistency of the results. For proton-proton interactions at root s = 8TeV a relative precision of the luminosity calibration of 1.47% is obtained using van der Meer scans and 1.43% using beam-gas imaging, resulting in a combined precision of 1.12%. Applying the calibration to the full data set determines the luminosity with a precision of 1.16%. This represents the most precise luminosity measurement achieved so far at a bunched-beam hadron collider.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2014). Precision Measurement of the Mass and Lifetime of the Xi(-)(b) Baryon. Phys. Rev. Lett., 113(24), 242002–9pp.
Abstract: We report on measurements of the mass and lifetime of the Xi(-)(b) baryon using about 1800 Xi(-)(b) decays reconstructed in a proton-proton collision data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment. The decays are reconstructed in the Xi(-)(b) -> Xi(0)(c)pi(-), Xi(0)(c) -> pK(-)K(-)pi(+) channel and the mass and lifetime are measured using the Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda(+)(c)pi(-) mode as a reference. We measure M(Xi(-)(b)) – M(Lambda(0)(b)) = 178.36 +/- 0.46 +/- 0.16 MeV/c(2), (tau Xi(-)(b)/tau Lambda(0)(b)) = 1.089 +/- 0.026 +/- 0.011, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. These results lead to a factor of 2 better precision on the Xi(-)(b) mass and lifetime compared to previous best measurements, and are consistent with theoretical expectations.
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Agullo, I., Landete, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2014). Electric-magnetic duality and renormalization in curved spacetimes. Phys. Rev. D, 90(12), 124067–7pp.
Abstract: We point out that the duality symmetry of free electromagnetism does not hold in the quantum theory if an arbitrary classical gravitational background is present. The symmetry breaks in the process of renormalization, as also happens with conformal invariance. We show that a similar duality anomaly appears for a massless scalar field in 1 + 1 dimensions.
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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. (2014). Search for neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 056–47pp.
Abstract: A search for the neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is performed on data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The samples used for this search were collected in 2012 and correspond to integrated luminosities in the range 19.5-20.3 fb(-1). The MSSM Higgs bosons are searched for in the tau tau final state. No significant excess over the expected background is observed, and exclusion limits are derived for the production cross section times branching fraction of a scalar particle as a function of its mass. The results are also interpreted in the MSSM parameter space for various benchmark scenarios.
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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. (2014). Search for nonpointing and delayed photons in the diphoton and missing transverse momentum final state in 8 TeV pp collisions at the LHC using the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 90(11), 112005–29pp.
Abstract: A search has been performed, using the full 20.3 fb(-1) data sample of 8 TeV proton-proton collisions collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, for photons originating from a displaced vertex due to the decay of a neutral long-lived particle into a photon and an invisible particle. The analysis investigates the diphoton plus missing transverse momentum final state, and is therefore most sensitive to pair production of long-lived particles. The analysis technique exploits the capabilities of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter to make precise measurements of the flight direction, as well as the time of flight, of photons. No excess is observed over the Standard Model predictions for background. Exclusion limits are set within the context of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models, with the lightest neutralino being the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and decaying into a photon and gravitino with a lifetime in the range from 250 ps to about 100 ns.
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