Professor Brian Foster OBE, FRS

Abstract:

Since May 1999 the BABAR detector has been taking data at the PEP-II asymmetric electron-positron collider at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, CA. This experiment requires a very large data sample and the PEP-Il accelerator uses intense beams to deliver the high collision rates needed. This poses a severe challenge to the BABAR trigger system, which must reject the large rate of background signals resulting from the high beam currents whilst accepting the collisions of interest with very high efficiency. One of the systems that performs this task is the Level 1 Calorimeter Trigger, which identifies energy deposits left by particles in the BABAR calorimeter. It is a digital, custom, fixed latency system which makes heavy use of high-speed FPGA devices to allow flexibility in the choice of data filtering algorithms. Results from several intermediate processing stages are read out, allowing the selection algorithm to be fully analyzed and optimized offline. In addition, the trigger is monitored in real time by sampling these data and cross-checking each stage of the trigger calculation against a software model. The design, implementation, construction and performance of the Level 1 Calorimeter Trigger during the first year of BABAR operation are presented.

Abstract:

Dijet production has been studied in neutral current deep inelastic e⁺p scattering for 470 < Q² < 20000 GeV² with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 38.4 pb^-1. Dijet differential cross sections are presented in a kinematic region where both theoretical and experimental uncertainties are small. Next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD calculations describe the measured differential cross sections well. A QCD analysis of the measured dijet fraction as a function of Q² allows both a precise determination of αs(Mz) and a test of the energy-scale dependence of the strong coupling constant. A detailed analysis provides an improved estimate of the uncertainties of the NLO QCD cross sections arising from the paxton distribution functions of the proton. The value of αs(Mz), as determined from the QCD fit, is αs (MZ) = 0.1166 ± 0.0019(stat.)^+0.0024 -0.0044 (exp.) ^+0.0057 0.0044(th.). © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.

Abstract:

Using a data sample of 23 × 106 BB̄ pairs recorded at the Y(4S) resonance, a sample BCP of neutral B mesons decaying to the CP eigenstates was reconstructed. Each of the events in this sample was examined for evidence that the other neutral B meson decayed as B0 or a B̄0. The obtained value is consistent with the range implied by measurements and theoretical estimates of the magnitudes of CKM matrix elements.

Abstract:

Differential cross sections for dijet photoproduction in association with a leading neutron using the reaction e+ + p → e+ + n + jet + jet + Xr have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 6.4 pb-1. The fraction of dijet events with a leading neutron in the final state was studied as a function of the jet kinematic variables. The cross sections were measured for jet transverse energies EjetT > 6 GeV, neutron energy En > 400 GeV, and neutron production angle θn < 0.8 mrad. The data are broadly consistent with factorization of the lepton and hadron vertices and with a simple one-pion-exchange model. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

Low-χ physics is reviewed, with particular emphasis on searches for deviations from Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi (GLAP) evolution of the parton densities. Although there are several intriguing indications, both in HERA and in Tevatron data, as yet there is no unambiguous evidence for other than standard next-to-leading-order GLAP evolution. The framework of dipole models and saturation of parton densities is examined and confronted with the data. Although such models give a good qualitative description of the data, so do other, more conventional, explanations.