Abstract: The production of D*(+/-), D-+/- and D-S(+/-) charmed mesons has been measured with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at,/7s = 7 TeV at the LHC, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 280 nb(-)1(.) The charmed mesons have been reconstructed in the range of transverse momentum 3.5 < p(T)(D) < 100 GeV and pseudorapidity vertical bar eta(D)vertical bar < 2.1. The differential cross sections as a function of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity were measured for D*(+/-) and D-+/- production. The next-to-leading-order QCD predictions are consistent with the data in the visible kinematic region within the large theoretical uncertainties. Using the visible D cross sections and an extrapolation to the full kinematic phase space, the strangeness -suppression factor in charm fragmentation, the fraction of charged non -strange D mesons produced in a vector state, and the total cross section of charm production at root s = 7 TeV were derived.

Abstract: Within the framework of xenon-based double beta decay experiments, we propose the possibility to improve the background rejection of an electroluminescent Time Projection Chamber (EL TPC) by reducing the diffusion of the drifting electrons while keeping nearly intact the energy resolution of a pure xenon EL TPC. Based on state-of-the-art microscopic simulations, a substantial addition of helium, around 10 or 15 %, may reduce drastically the transverse diffusion down to 2.5 mm/root m from the 10.5 mm/root m of pure xenon. The longitudinal diffusion remains around 4 mm/root m. Light production studies have been performed as well. They show that the relative variation in energy resolution introduced by such a change does not exceed a few percent, which leaves the energy resolution practically unchanged. The technical caveats of using photomultipliers close to an helium atmosphere are also discussed in detail.

Abstract: The issue of pulse pile-up is frequently encountered in nuclear experiments involving high counting rates, which will distort the pulse shapes and the energy spectra. A digital method of off-line processing of pile-up pulses is presented. The pile-up pulses were firstly identified by detecting the downward-going zero-crossings in the first-order derivative of the original signal, and then the constituent pulses were reconstructed based on comparing the pile-up pulse with four models that are generated by combining pairs of neutron and.. standard pulses together with a controllable time interval. The accuracy of this method in resolving the pile-up events was investigated as a function of the time interval between two pulses constituting a pile-up event. The obtained results show that the method is capable of disentangling two pulses with a time interval among them down to 20 ns, as well as classifying them as neutrons or gamma rays. Furthermore, the error of reconstructing pile-up pulses could be kept below 6% when successive peaks were separated by more than 50 ns. By applying the method in a high counting rate of pile-up events measurement of the NEutron Detector Array (NEDA), it was empirically found that this method can reconstruct the pile-up pulses and perform neutron-gamma discrimination quite accurately. It can also significantly correct the distorted pulse height spectrum due to pile-up events.

Abstract: The level structures of the N = 50 As-83, Ge-82, and Ga-81 isotones have been investigated by means of multi-nucleon transfer reactions. A first experiment was performed with the CLARA PRISMA setup to identify these nuclei. A second experiment was carried out with the GASP array in order to deduce the gamma-ray coincidence information. The results obtained on the high-spin states of such nuclei are used to test the stability of the N = 50 shell closure in the region of Ni-78 (Z = 28). The comparison of the experimental level schemes with the shell-model calculations yields an N = 50 energy gap value of 4.7(3) MeV at Z = 28. This value, in a good agreement with the prediction of the finite-range liquid-drop model as well as with the recent large-scale shell model calculations, does not support a weakening of the N = 50 shell gap down to Z = 28.

Abstract: A measurement of the total pp cross section at the LHC at root s = 7 TeV is presented. In a special run with high-beta* beam optics, an integrated luminosity of 80 μb(-1) was accumulated in order to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable t. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the vertical bar t vertical bar range from 0.01 GeV2 to 0.1 GeV2 to extrapolate to vertical bar t vertical bar --> 0, the total cross section, sigma(tot)(pp --> X), is measured via the optical theorem to be: sigma(tot)(pp --> X) = 95.35 +/- 0.38 (stat.) +/- 1.25 (exp.) +/- 0.37 (extr.) mb, where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation to vertical bar t vertical bar --> 0. In addition, the slope of the elastic cross section at small vertical bar t vertical bar is determined to be B = 19.73 +/- 0.14 (stat.) +/- 0.26 (syst.) GeV-2.