Measurement of the W→τντ cross section in pp collisions at s=7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics 706:4-5 (2012) 276-294

Authors:

G Aad, B Abbott, J Abdallah, AA Abdelalim, A Abdesselam, O Abdinov, B Abi, M Abolins, H Abramowicz, H Abreu, E Acerbi, BS Acharya, 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, 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, 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, C Arnault, A Artamonov, G Artoni, D Arutinov

Abstract:

The cross section for the production of W bosons with subsequent decay W→τντ is measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on a data sample that was recorded in 2010 at a proton-proton center-of-mass energy of s=7 TeV and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb-1. The cross section is measured in a region of high detector acceptance and then extrapolated to the full phase space. The product of the total W production cross section and the W→τντ branching ratio is measured to be σW→τντtot=11.1±0.3(stat)±1.7(syst)±0.4(lumi) nb. © 2011 CERN.

Search for a Higgs Boson in the diphoton final state in pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV

Physical Review Letters 108:1 (2012)

Authors:

T Aaltonen, B Álvarez González, S Amerio, D Amidei, A Anastassov, A Annovi, J Antos, G Apollinari, JA Appel, A Apresyan, T Arisawa, A Artikov, J Asaadi, W Ashmanskas, B Auerbach, A Aurisano, F Azfar, W Badgett, A Barbaro-Galtieri, VE Barnes, BA Barnett, P Barria, P Bartos, M Bauce, G Bauer, F Bedeschi, D Beecher, S Behari, G Bellettini, J Bellinger, D Benjamin, A Beretvas, A Bhatti, M Binkley, D Bisello, I Bizjak, KR Bland, B Blumenfeld, A Bocci, A Bodek, D Bortoletto, J Boudreau, A Boveia, L Brigliadori, A Brisuda, C Bromberg, E Brucken, M Bucciantonio, J Budagov, HS Budd, S Budd, K Burkett, G Busetto, P Bussey, A Buzatu, C Calancha, S Camarda, M Campanelli, M Campbell, F Canelli, B Carls, D Carlsmith, R Carosi, S Carrillo, S Carron, B Casal, M Casarsa, A Castro, P Catastini, D Cauz, V Cavaliere, M Cavalli-Sforza, A Cerri, L Cerrito, YC Chen, M Chertok, G Chiarelli, G Chlachidze, F Chlebana, K Cho, D Chokheli, JP Chou, WH Chung, YS Chung, CI Ciobanu, MA Ciocci, A Clark, C Clarke, G Compostella, ME Convery, J Conway, M Corbo, M Cordelli, CA Cox, DJ Cox, F Crescioli, C Cuenca Almenar, J Cuevas, R Culbertson, D Dagenhart

Abstract:

A search for a narrow Higgs boson resonance in the diphoton mass spectrum is presented based on data corresponding to 7.0fb-1 of integrated luminosity from pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV collected by the CDF experiment. No evidence of such a resonance is observed, and upper limits are set on the cross section times branching ratio of the resonant state as a function of Higgs boson mass. The limits are interpreted in the context of the standard model and one fermiophobic benchmark model where the data exclude fermiophobic Higgs bosons with masses below 114GeV/c2 at a 95% Bayesian credibility level. © 2012 American Physical Society.

A comparison between SFR diagnostics and CC SN rate within 11 Mpc.

Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana - Journal of the Italian Astronomical Society 19 (2012) 158-165

Authors:

MT Botticella, SJ Smartt, RC Kennicutt, E Cappellaro, M Sereno, JC Lee

Abstract:

The core collapse supernova (CC SN) rate provides a strong lower limit for the star formation rate (SFR). Progress in using it as a cosmic SFR tracer requires some confidence that it is consistent with more conventional SFR diagnostics. We compare standard SFR measurements based on Hα, Far Ultraviolet (FUV) and Total Infrared (TIR) galaxy luminosities with the observed CC SN rate in the same galaxy sample. The comparison can be viewed from two perspectives. Firstly, by adopting an estimate of the minimum stellar mass to produce a CC SN one can determine a SFR from SN numbers. Secondly, the radiative SFRs can be assumed to be robust and then the SN statistics provides a constraint on the minimum stellar mass for CC SN progenitors. We exploit the multi-wavelength data set from 11HUGS, a volume-limited survey designed to provide a census of SFR in the local Volume. There are 14 SNe discovered in this sample of galaxies within the last 13 years. Assuming a lower limit for CC SN progenitor of 8 M, the CC SN rate matches the SFR from the FUV luminosity. However, the SFR based on Hα luminosity is lower than these two estimates by a factor of about 2. If we assume that the FUV or Hα based luminosities are a true reflection of the SFR, we find that the minimum mass for CC SN progenitors is 8 ± 1 M and 6 ± 1 M, respectively.

ATLAS search for a heavy gauge boson decaying to a charged lepton and a neutrino in pp collisions at √s =7 TeV

European Physical Journal C 72:12 (2012)

Authors:

G Aad, T Abajyan, B Abbott, J Abdallah, S Abdel Khalek, AA Abdelalim, O Abdinov, R Aben, B Abi, M Abolins, OS Abouzeid, H Abramowicz, H Abreu, BS Acharya, L Adamczyk, DL Adams, TN Addy, J Adelman, S Adomeit, P Adragna, T Adye, S Aefsky, JA Aguilar-Saavedra, M Agustoni, M Aharrouche, SP Ahlen, F Ahles, A Ahmad, M Ahsan, G Aielli, T Akdogan, TPA Åkesson, G Akimoto, AV Akimov, 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, BMM Allbrooke, PP Allport, SE Allwood-Spiers, J Almond, A Aloisio, R Alon, A Alonso, F Alonso, A Altheimer, B Alvarez Gonzalez, MG Alviggi, K Amako, C Amelung, VV Ammosov, SP Amor Dos Santos, A Amorim, N Amram, C Anastopoulos, LS Ancu, N Andari, T Andeen, CF Anders, G Anders, KJ Anderson, A Andreazza, V Andrei, ML Andrieux, XS Anduaga, P Anger, A Angerami, F Anghinolfi, A Anisenkov, N Anjos, A Annovi, A Antonaki, M Antonelli, A Antonov, J Antos, F Anulli, M Aoki, S Aoun, L Aperio Bella, R Apolle, G Arabidze, I Aracena, Y Arai, ATH Arce, S Arfaoui, JF Arguin, E Arik, M Arik

Abstract:

The ATLAS detector at the LHC is used to search for high-mass states, such as heavy charged gauge bosons (Wʹ), decaying to a charged lepton (electron or muon) and a neutrino. Results are presented based on the analysis of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb−1. No excess beyond Standard Model expectations is observed. AWʹ with Sequential Standard Model couplings is excluded at the 95% credibility level for masses up to 2.55 TeV. Excited chiral bosons (W*) with equivalent coupling strength are excluded for masses up to 2.42 TeV.

Assessing luminosity correlations via cluster analysis: Evidence for dual tracks in the radio/X-ray domain of black hole X-ray binaries

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 423:1 (2012) 590-599

Authors:

E Gallo, BP Miller, R Fender

Abstract:

The radio/X-ray correlation for hard and quiescent state black hole X-ray binaries is critically investigated in this paper. New observations of known sources, along with newly discovered ones (since 2003), have resulted in an increasingly large number of outliers lying well outside the scatter about the quoted best-fitting relation. Most of these outliers tend to cluster below the best-fitting line, possibly indicative of two distinct tracks which might reflect different accretion regimes within the hard state. Here, we employ and compare state of the art data clustering techniques in order to identify and characterize different data groupings within the radio/X-ray luminosity plane for 18 hard and quiescent state black hole X-ray binaries with nearly simultaneous multiwavelength coverage. Linear regression is then carried out on the clustered data to infer the parameters of a relationship of the form ℓr=α+βℓx through a Bayesian approach (where ℓ denotes logarithmic luminosities). We conclude that the two-cluster model, with independent linear fits, is a significant improvement over fitting all points as a single cluster. While the upper track slope (0.63 ± 0.03) is consistent, within the errors, with the fitted slope for the 2003 relation (0.7 ± 0.1), the lower track slope (0.98 ± 0.08) is not consistent with the upper track or with the widely adopted value of ≃1.4 for the neutron stars. The two luminosity tracks do not reflect systematic differences in black hole spins as estimated either from reflection- or continuum-fitting method. Additionally, there is evidence for at least two sources (H1743-322 and GRO J1655-500) jumping from the lower to the upper track as they fade towards quiescence, further indicating that black hole spin does not play any major role in defining the radio loudness of compact jets from hard black hole X-ray binaries. The results of the clustering and regression analysis are fairly insensitive to the selection of subsamples, accuracy in the distances and the treatment of upper limits. Besides introducing a further level of complexity in understanding the interplay between synchrotron and Comptonized emission from black hole X-ray binaries, the existence of two tracks in the radio/X-ray domain underscores that a high level of caution must be exercised when employing black hole luminosity-luminosity relations for the purpose of estimating a third parameter, such as distance or mass. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.