Search for a light Higgs boson decaying to long-lived weakly interacting particles in proton-proton collisions at √s=7TeV with the atlas detector

Physical Review Letters 108:25 (2012)

Authors:

G Aad, B Abbott, J Abdallah, AA Abdelalim, A Abdesselam, O Abdinov, B Abi, M Abolins, OS Abouzeid, H Abramowicz, H Abreu, E Acerbi, BS Acharya, L Adamczyk, DL Adams, TN Addy, J Adelman, M Aderholz, S Adomeit, P Adragna, T Adye, S Aefsky, JA Aguilar-Saavedra, M Aharrouche, SP Ahlen, F Ahles, A Ahmad, M Ahsan, G Aielli, T Akdogan, TPA Åkesson, G Akimoto, AV Akimov, A Akiyama, MS Alam, MA Alam, J Albert, S Albrand, M Aleksa, IN Aleksandrov, F Alessandria, C Alexa, G Alexander, G Alexandre, T Alexopoulos, M Alhroob, M Aliev, G Alimonti, J Alison, M Aliyev, PP Allport, SE Allwood-Spiers, J Almond, A Aloisio, R Alon, A Alonso, B Alvarez Gonzalez, MG Alviggi, K Amako, P Amaral, C Amelung, VV Ammosov, A Amorim, G Amorós, N Amram, C Anastopoulos, LS Ancu, N Andari, T Andeen, CF Anders, G Anders, KJ Anderson, A Andreazza, V Andrei, ML Andrieux, XS Anduaga, A Angerami, F Anghinolfi, A Anisenkov, N Anjos, A Annovi, A Antonaki, M Antonelli, A Antonov, J Antos, F Anulli, S Aoun, L Aperio Bella, R Apolle, G Arabidze, I Aracena, Y Arai, ATH Arce, JP Archambault, S Arfaoui, JF Arguin, E Arik, M Arik, AJ Armbruster, O Arnaez

Abstract:

A search for the decay of a light Higgs boson (120-140 GeV) to a pair of weakly interacting, long-lived particles in 1.94fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at √s=7TeV recorded in 2011 by the ATLAS detector is presented. The search strategy requires that both long-lived particles decay inside the muon spectrometer. No excess of events is observed above the expected background and limits on the Higgs boson production times branching ratio to weakly interacting, long-lived particles are derived as a function of the particle proper decay length. © 2012 CERN.

The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): survey definition and goals

ArXiv 1206.406 (2012)

Authors:

J-C Mauduit, M Lacy, D Farrah, JA Surace, M Jarvis, S Oliver, C Maraston, M Vaccari, L Marchetti, G Zeimann, EA Gonzalez-Solares, J Pforr, AO Petric, B Henriques, PA Thomas, J Afonso, A Rettura, G Wilson, JT Falder, JE Geach, M Huynh, RP Norris, N Seymour, GT Richards, SA Stanford, DM Alexander, RH Becker, PN Best, L Bizzocchi, D Bonfield, N Castro, A Cava, S Chapman, N Christopher, DL Clements, G Covone, N Dubois, JS Dunlop, E Dyke, A Edge, HC Ferguson, S Foucaud, A Franceschini, RR Gal, JK Grant, M Grossi, E Hatziminaoglou, S Hickey, JA Hodge, J-S Huang, RJ Ivison, M Kim, O LeFevre, M Lehnert, CJ Lonsdale, LM Lubin, RJ McLure, H Messias, A Martinez-Sansigre, AMJ Mortier, DM Nielsen, M Ouchi, G Parish, I Perez-Fournon, M Pierre, S Rawlings, A Readhead, SE Ridgway, D Rigopoulou, AK Romer, IG Rosebloom, HJA Rottgering, M Rowan-Robinson, A Sajina, CJ Simpson, I Smail, GK Squires, JA Stevens, R Taylor, M Trichas, T Urrutia, E van Kampen, A Verma, CK Xu

Abstract:

We present the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS), an 18 square degrees medium-deep survey at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with the post-cryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope to ~2 microJy (AB=23.1) depth of five highly observed astronomical fields (ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-S1, Lockman Hole, Chandra Deep Field South and XMM-LSS). SERVS is designed to enable the study of galaxy evolution as a function of environment from z~5 to the present day, and is the first extragalactic survey both large enough and deep enough to put rare objects such as luminous quasars and galaxy clusters at z>1 into their cosmological context. SERVS is designed to overlap with several key surveys at optical, near- through far-infrared, submillimeter and radio wavelengths to provide an unprecedented view of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies. In this paper, we discuss the SERVS survey design, the data processing flow from image reduction and mosaicing to catalogs, as well as coverage of ancillary data from other surveys in the SERVS fields. We also highlight a variety of early science results from the survey.

Ultra-Luminous Supernovae as a New Probe of the Interstellar Medium in Distant Galaxies

(2012)

Authors:

E Berger, R Chornock, R Lunnan, R Foley, I Czekala, A Rest, C Leibler, AM Soderberg, K Roth, G Narayan, ME Huber, D Milisavljevic, NE Sanders, M Drout, R Margutti, RP Kirshner, GH Marion, PJ Challis, AG Riess, SJ Smartt, WS Burgett, JN Heasley, N Kaiser, R-P Kudritzki, EA Magnier, M McCrum, PA Price, K Smith, JL Tonry, RJ Wainscoat

The History and Environment of a Faded Quasar: Hubble Space Telescope observations of Hanny's Voorwerp and IC 2497

ArXiv 1206.3797 (2012)

Authors:

William C Keel, Chris J Lintott, Kevin Schawinski, Vardha N Bennert, Daniel Thomas, Anna Manning, S Drew Chojnowski, Hanny van Arkel, Stuart Lynn

Abstract:

We present Hubble Space Telescope imaging and spectroscopy for the extended high-ionization cloud known as Hanny's Voorwerp, near the spiral galaxy IC 2497. WFC3 images show complex dust absorption near the nucleus of IC 2497. STIS spectra show a type 2 Seyfert AGN of rather low luminosity. The ionization parameter log U = -3.5 is in accord with its weak X-ray emission. We find no high-ionization gas near the nucleus, adding to evidence that the AGN is currently at low radiative output (perhaps now dominated by kinetic energy). The nucleus is accompanied by an expanding ring of ionized gas 500 pc in projected diameter on the side opposite Hanny's Voorwerp, with Doppler offset 300 km/s from the nucleus (kinematic age < 7 x10^5 years). [O III] and H-alpha + [N II] images show fine structure in Hanny's Voorwerp, with limb-brightened sections and small areas where H-alpha is strong. We identify these as regions ionized by recent star formation, in contrast to the AGN ionization of the entire cloud. These candidate "normal" H II regions contain blue continuum objects, whose colors are consistent with young stellar populations; they appear only in a 2-kpc region toward IC 2497 in projection. The ionization-sensitive ratio [O III]/H-alpha shows no discernible pattern near the prominent "hole" in the ionized gas. The independence of ionization and surface brightness suggests that substantial spatial structure remains unresolved, to such an extent that the surface brightness sample the number of denser filaments rather than the characteristic density in emission regions. These results fit with our picture of an ionization echo from an AGN whose ionizing luminosity has dropped by a factor > 100 (and possibly much more) within the last 1-2 x 10^5 years; we suggest a sequence of events and discuss implications of such rapid fluctuations for AGN demographics. (Abridged)

Measurement of the charge asymmetry in top quark pair production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector

European Physical Journal C 72:6 (2012)

Authors:

G Aad, B Abbott, J Abdallah, AA Abdelalim, A Abdesselam, O Abdinov, B Abi, M Abolins, OSA Zeid, H Abramowicz, H Abreu, E Acerbi, BS Acharya, L Adamczyk, DL Adams, TN Addy, J Adelman, M Aderholz, S Adomeit, P Adragna, T Adye, S Aefsky, JA Aguilar-Saavedra, M Aharrouche, SP Ahlen, F Ahles, A Ahmad, M Ahsan, G Aielli, T Akdogan, TPA Åkesson, G Akimoto, AV Akimov, A Akiyama, MS Alam, MA Alam, J Albert, S Albrand, M Aleksa, IN Aleksandrov, F Alessandria, C Alexa, G Alexander, G Alexandre, T Alexopoulos, M Alhroob, M Aliev, G Alimonti, J Alison, M Aliyev, PP Allport, SE Allwood-Spiers, J Almond, A Aloisio, R Alon, A Alonso, BA Gonzalez, MG Alviggi, K Amako, P Amaral, C Amelung, VV Ammosov, A Amorim, G Amorós, N Amram, C Anastopoulos, LS Ancu, N Andari, T Andeen, CF Anders, G Anders, KJ Anderson, A Andreazza, V Andrei, ML Andrieux, XS Anduaga, A Angerami, F Anghinolfi, A Anisenkov, N Anjos, A Annovi, A Antonaki, M Antonelli, A Antonov, J Antos, F Anulli, S Aoun, LA Bella, R Apolle, G Arabidze, I Aracena, Y Arai, ATH Arce, JP Archambault, S Arfaoui, JF Arguin, E Arik, M Arik, AJ Armbruster, O Arnaez

Abstract:

A measurement of the top-antitop production charge asymmetry AC is presented using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.04 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are selected with a single lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse momentum and at least four jets of which at least one jet is identified as coming from a b-quark. A kinematic fit is used to reconstruct the tt event topology. After background subtraction, a Bayesian unfolding procedure is performed to correct for acceptance and detector effects. The measured value of AC is AC =−0.019±0.028 (stat.)±0.024 (syst.), consistent with the prediction from the MC@NLO Monte Carlo generator of AC = 0.006±0.002. Measurements of AC in two ranges of invariant mass of the top-antitop pair are also shown.