ATLAS

Abstract:

A measurement of the angular correlations between beauty and anti-beauty hadrons (BB̄) produced in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the CERN LHC is presented, probing for the first time the region of small angular separation. The B hadrons are identified by the presence of displaced secondary vertices from their decays. The B hadron angular separation is reconstructed from the decay vertices and the primaryinteraction vertex. The differential BB̄ production cross section, measured from a data sample collected by CMS and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.1 pb -1, shows that a sizable fraction of the BB̄ pairs are produced with small opening angles. These studies provide a test of QCD and further insight into the dynamics of bb̄ production.

Abstract:

High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) Inner Tracker designs may include the sharing of Timing, Trigger and Control (TTC) signals between several tracker modules. This is possible because the highest frequency signals are common to all modules. Such designs are an attractive option because they reduce the number of optical links required and hence the cost. These designs will require optical signal splitters that are radiation hard up to high doses and capable of operating in cold temperatures. Optical splitters are available as either fused-fibre splitters or Planar Light-wave Circuit (PLC) splitters. PLC splitters are preferable because they are smaller than fused-fibre splitters. A selection of PLC splitters from different manufacturers and of two different technologies (silica and glass based) have been tested for radiation hardness up to a dose of 500 kGy(Si) and for temperature stability. All the tested splitters displayed small increases in insertion losses ( < 0.1 dB) in reducing the operating temperature from 25°C to −25°C. The silica based splitters from all manufacturers did not exhibit significant radiation induced insertion losses, despite the high dose they were exposed to. The glass based sample, however, had a per channel radiation induced insertion loss of up to 1.16 dB. Whilst the silica based splitters can be considered as qualified for HL-LHC use with regards to radiation hardness, the glass technology would require further testing at a lower, more realistic, dose to also be considered as a potential component for HL-LHC upgrade designs.

Abstract:

Different search strategies for supersymmetry have been employed by the LHC general-purpose experiments using early data. As proven by their early results, these strategies are promising, but raise the question of how well they will generalize for the future. We address this question by studying two thousand phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model parameter space points that come from a fit to indirect and cosmological data. We examine the 5σ discoverability of the points employing a typical ATLAS-type search based on missing transverse momentum (MET), a search based on an optimised M T2cut and a combination of the two, taking into account standard model backgrounds. The discovery reach of the strategies can depend strongly on the systematic uncertainty in the background, subject to the stringency of the cuts and the details of the background simulation. By combining the MET and MT2 based strategies, with an integrated luminosity of 1 fb -1 (10 fb-1) at 7TeV, 4-8% (42%) of the points are discoverable, depending on the systematic uncertainty on the background. At 14TeV and with 10 fb-1, 96% of the points are discoverable. While the majority of points can be discovered by both strategies at √s = 14 TeV and with 1 fb-1, there are some that are left undiscovered by a MET search strategy, but which are discovered by the MT2 strategy, and vice versa, therefore it is essential that one performs both in parallel. We discuss some of the factors that can make points more difficult to observe. © SISSA 2011.