Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

The ionization signals in the liquid argon of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter are studied in detail using cosmic muons. In particular, the drift time of the ionization electrons is measured and used to assess the intrinsic uniformity of the calorimeter gaps and estimate its impact on the constant term of the energy resolution. The drift times of electrons in the cells of the second layer of the calorimeter are uniform at the level of 1.3% in the barrel and 2.8% in the endcaps. This leads to an estimated contribution to the constant term of (0.290.040.05)% in the barrel and (0.540.040.06)% in the endcaps. The same data are used to measure the drift velocity of ionization electrons in liquid argon, which is found to be 4.61±0.07 mm/μs at 88.5 K and 1 kV/mm. © 2010 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.

Abstract:

Charm production in deep inelastic scattering has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The hadronic decay channels D+ → KS0π+, Λc+ → pKS0 and Λc+ → Λπ+, and their charge conjugates, were reconstructed. The presence of a neutral strange hadron in the final state reduces the combinatorial background and extends the measured sensitivity into the low transverse momentum region. The kinematic range is 0 < pT (D+,Λc+ ) < 10GeV, |η(D+,Λc+ )| < 1.6, 1.5 < Q2 < 1000GeV2 and 0.02 < y < 0.7. Inclusive and differential cross sections for the production of D+ mesons are compared to next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. The fraction of c quarks hadronising into Λc+ baryons is extracted.

Abstract:

The proton-dissociative diffractive photoproduction of J/ψ mesons has been studied in ep collisions with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 112 pb-1. The cross section is presented as a function of the photon-proton centre-ofmass energy and of the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex. The results are compared to perturbative QCD calculations.

Abstract:

The production of charm and beauty quarks in ep interactions has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA for squared four-momentum exchange Q2>20 GeV2, using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb-1. Charm and beauty quarks were identified through their decays into muons. Differential cross sections were measured for muon transverse momenta pTμ> 1.5 GeV and pseudorapidities -1. 6<ημ>2. 3, as a function of pTμ>, ημ, Q2and Bjorken x. The charm and beauty contributions to the proton structure function F2were also extracted. The results agree with previous measurements based on independent techniques and are well described by QCD predictions. © Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica 2009.