Accelerator Neutrinos

Abstract:

The shadowing of cosmic ray primaries by the moon and sun was observed by the MINOS far detector at a depth of 2070 mwe using 83.54 million cosmic ray muons accumulated over 1857.91 live-days. The shadow of the moon was detected at the 5.6 σ level and the shadow of the sun at the 3.8 σ level using a log-likelihood search in celestial coordinates. The moon shadow was used to quantify the absolute astrophysical pointing of the detector to be 0.17 ± 0.12°. Hints of interplanetary magnetic field effects were observed in both the sun and moon shadow. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

Making use of 36 pb-1 of proton-proton collision data at √s = 7 TeV, the ATLAS Collaboration has performed a search for diphoton events with large missing transverse energy. Observing no excess of events above the Standard Model prediction, a 95% Confidence Level (CL) upper limit is set on the cross section for new physics of σ < 0.38-0.65 pb in the context of a generalised model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GGM) with a bino-like lightest neutralino, and of σ < 0.18-0.23 pb in the context of a specific model with one universal extra dimension (UED). A 95% CL lower limit of 560 GeV, for bino masses above 50 GeV, is set on the GGM gluino mass, while a lower limit of 1/R > 961 GeV is set on the UED compactification radius R. These limits provide the most stringent tests of these models to date.

Abstract:

A search for long-lived charged particles reaching the muon spectrometer is performed using a data sample of 37 pb-1 from pp collisions at √s=7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010. No excess is observed above the estimated background. Stable τ̃ sleptons are excluded at 95% CL up to a mass of 136 GeV, in GMSB models with N5=3, mmessenger=250 TeV, sign(μ)=1 and tanβ=5. Electroweak production of sleptons is excluded up to a mass of 110 GeV. Gluino R-hadrons in a generic interaction model are excluded up to masses of 530 GeV to 544 GeV depending on the fraction of R-hadrons produced as g̃-balls. © 2011 CERN.

Abstract:

A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to pairs of τ leptons with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, recorded in 2010 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-1. After signal selection, 276 events are observed in this data sample. The observed number of events is consistent with the total expected background of 269±36 events. Exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived for the production cross section of a generic Higgs boson φ as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for A/H/h production in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as a function of the parameters mA and tanβ. © 2011 CERN.

Abstract:

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded by the ATLAS experiment in √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation was observed in 35 pb-1 of analysed data. Gluino masses below 500 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level in simplified models containing only squarks of the first two generations, a gluino octet and a massless neutralino. The exclusion increases to 870 GeV for equal mass squarks and gluinos. In MSUGRA/CMSSM models with tanβ=3, A0=0 and μ>0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded below 775 GeV. These are the most stringent limits to date. © 2011 CERN.