AION/Magis

Abstract:

A measurement of the underlying activity in scattering processes with pT scale in the GeV region is performed in proton-proton collisions at √ = 0.9 TeV, using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Charged particle production is studied with reference to the direction of a leading object, either a charged particle or a set of charged particles forming a jet. Predictions of several QCD-inspired models as implemented in PYTHIA are compared, after full detector simulation, to the data. The models generally predict too little production of charged particles with pseudorapidity {pipe}η{pipe} < 2, pT > 0.5 GeV/c, and azimuthal direction transverse to that of the leading object. © 2010 CERN for benefit of the CMS collaboration.

Abstract:

In the past decade, one of the major challenges of particle physics has been to gain an in-depth understanding of the role of quark flavor. In this time frame, measurements and the theoretical interpretation of their results have advanced tremendously. A much broader understanding of flavor particles has been achieved; apart from their masses and quantum numbers, there now exist detailed measurements of the characteristics of their interactions allowing stringent tests of Standard Model predictions. Among the most interesting phenomena of flavor physics is the violation of the CP symmetry that has been subtle and difficult to explore. In the past, observations of CP violation were confined to neutral . K mesons, but since the early 1990s, a large number of CP-violating processes have been studied in detail in neutral . B mesons. In parallel, measurements of the couplings of the heavy quarks and the dynamics for their decays in large samples of . K,D, and . B mesons have been greatly improved in accuracy and the results are being used as probes in the search for deviations from the Standard Model.In the near future, there will be a transition from the current to a new generation of experiments; thus a review of the status of quark flavor physics is timely. This report is the result of the work of physicists attending the 5th CKM workshop, hosted by the University of Rome "La Sapienza", September 9-13, 2008. It summarizes the results of the current generation of experiments that are about to be completed and it confronts these results with the theoretical understanding of the field which has greatly improved in the past decade. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract:

We propose an alternate, calculable mechanism of dark matter genesis, "thermal freeze-in", involving a Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) interacting so feebly with the thermal bath that it never attains thermal equilibrium. As with the conventional "thermal freeze-out" production mechanism, the relic abundance reflects a combination of initial thermal distributions together with particle masses and couplings that can be measured in the laboratory or astrophysically. The freeze-in yield is IR dominated by low temperatures near the FIMP mass and is independent of unknown UV physics, such as the reheat temperature after inflation. Moduli and modulinos of string theory compactifications that receive mass from weak-scale supersymmetry breaking provide implementations of the freeze-in mechanism, as do models that employ Dirac neutrino masses or GUT-scale- suppressed interactions. Experimental signals of freeze-in and FIMPs can be spectacular, including the production of new metastable coloured or charged particles at the LHC as well as the alteration of big bang nucleosynthesis.

Abstract:

Commissioning studies of the CMS hadron calorimeter have identified sporadic uncharacteristic noise and a small number of malfunctioning calorimeter channels. Algorithms have been developed to identify and address these problems in the data. The methods have been tested on cosmic ray muon data, calorimeter noise data, and single beam data collected with CMS in 2008. The noise rejection algorithms can be applied to LHC collision data at the trigger level or in the offline analysis. The application of the algorithms at the trigger level is shown to remove 90% of noise events with fake missing transverse energy above 100 GeV, which is sufficient for the CMS physics trigger operation. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA.

Abstract:

We present a measurement of the ratio of positive to negative muon fluxes from cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere, using data collected by the CMS detector both at ground level and in the underground experimental cavern at the CERN LHC. Muons were detected in the momentum range from 5 GeV/. c to 1 TeV/. c. The surface flux ratio is measured to be 1.2766±0.0032(stat.)±0.0032(syst.), independent of the muon momentum, below 100 GeV/. c. This is the most precise measurement to date. At higher momenta the data are consistent with an increase of the charge ratio, in agreement with cosmic ray shower models and compatible with previous measurements by deep-underground experiments. © 2010.