SU(2) meets SU(3) in lattice-Landau-gauge gluon and ghost propagators
A comparative study of the lattice Landau gauge gluon and ghost propagators for SU(2) and SU(3) pure Yang-Mills theories is carried out. The data were specially produced with equivalent lattice parameters to allow for a careful comparison of the two cases. We find very good agreement between the two theories. Our results seem to confirm the predicton of Schwinger-Dyson equations that the infrared exponents are independent of the gauge group SU(N).

title: Force Gradient Integrators
abstract: We present initial results of the use of Force Gradient integ rators for lattice field theories. These promise to give significant performance improvements, espe cially for light fermions and large lattices. Our results show that this is indeed the case, indi cating a speed-up of more than a factor of two, which is expected to increase as the integration step size becomes smaller for larger lattices and smaller fermion masses.

title: Gluon screening mass at finite temperature from the Landau gauge gluon propagator in lattice QCD
abstract: We address the interpretation of the Landau gauge gluon propagator at finite temperature as a massive-type bosonic propagator. Using pure gauge SU(3) lattice simulations at a fixed lattice volume $\ensuremath{\sim}(6.5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fm}{)}^{3}$, we compute the electric and magnetic form factors, extract a gluon mass from Yukawa-like fits, and study its temperature dependence. This is relevant both for the Debye screening at high temperature $T$ and for confinement at low $T$.

title: Exploring the infrared Landau gauge propagators using large asymmetric lattices
abstract: We report on the infrared limit of the quenched lattice Landau gauge gluon and ghost propagators computed from large asymmetric lattices. In particular, the compatibility of the pure power law infrared solutions of the Dyson-Schwinger equations with the lattice data is investigated and the exponent $\kappa$ is measured. The gluon lattice data favour $\kappa \sim 0.52$, which would imply a vanishing zero momentum gluon propagator. For the subset of lattices where the ghost propagator was computed, the data is not compatible with a pure power law. Our data also show a decreasing running coupling in the infrared region. Furthermore, positivity violation for the gluon propagator is also verified.

title: Some properties of two Nambu-Jona-Lasinio -type models with inputs from lattice QCD
abstract: IPNL, Universit´e de Lyon/Universit´e Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, 4 rue E.Fermi,F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, FranceWe investigate the phase diagram of the so-called Polyakov–Nambu–Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model at ﬁnite temperature and nonzero chemicalpotential. The calculations are performed in the light and strange quarksectors (u, d, s), which includes the ’t Hooft instanton induced interactionterm that breaks the axial symmetry, and the quarks are coupled to the(spatially constant) temporal background gauge ﬁeld. On one hand, a spe-cial attention is payed to the critical end point (CEP). The strength of theﬂavor-mixing interaction alters the CEP location, since when it becomesweaker the CEP moves to low temperatures and can even disappear. Onthe other hand, we also explore the connection between QCD, a nonlocalNambu–Jona-Lasinio type model and the Landau gauge gluon propaga-tor. Possible links between the quenched gluon propagator and low energyhadronic phenomenology are investigated.PACS numbers: 11.10.Wx, 11.30.Rd, 12.40.-y

title: Infrared exponents of gluon and ghost propagators from Lattice QCD
abstract: The compatibility of the pure power law infrared solution of QCD Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSE) and lattice data for the gluon and ghost propagators in Landau gauge is discussed. For the gluon propagator, the lattice data is compatible with the DSE infrared solution with an exponent $\kappa\sim0.53$, measured using a technique that suppresses finite volume effects and allows to model these corrections to the lattice data. For the ghost propagator, the lattice data does not seem to follow the infrared DSE power law solution.

title: Precise Mapping of the Magnetic Field in the CMS Barrel Yoke using Cosmic Rays
abstract: The CMS detector is designed around a large 4 T superconducting solenoid, enclosed in a 12000-tonne steel return yoke. A detailed map of the magnetic field is required for the accurate simulation and reconstruction of physics events in the CMS detector, not only in the inner tracking region inside the solenoid but also in the large and complex structure of the steel yoke, which is instrumented with muon chambers. Using a large sample of cosmic muon events collected by CMS in 2008, the field in the steel of the barrel yoke has been determined with a precision of 3 to 8% depending on the location.

title: Calibration of the CMS drift tube chambers and measurement of the drift velocity with cosmic rays
abstract: This paper describes the calibration procedure for the drift tubes of the CMS barrel muon system and reports the main results obtained with data collected during a high statistics cosmic ray data-taking period. The main goal of the calibration is to determine, for each drift cell, the minimum time delay for signals relative to the trigger, accounting for the drift velocity within the cell. The accuracy of the calibration procedure is influenced by the random arrival time of the cosmic muons relative to the LHC clock cycle. A more refined analysis of the drift velocity was performed during the offline reconstruction phase, which takes into account this feature of cosmic ray events.

title: Compatibility of a model for the QCD-Pomeron and chiral-symmetry breaking phenomenologies
abstract: The phenomenology of a QCD-Pomeron model based on the exchange of a pair of non-perturbative gluons, i.e. gluon fields with a finite correlation length in the vacuum, is studied in comparison with the phenomenology of QCD chiral symmetry breaking, based on non-perturbative solutions of Schwinger-Dyson equations for the quark propagator including these non-perturbative gluon effects. We show that these models are incompatible, and point out some possibles origins of this problem.

title: Probing the flavor of the top quark decay
abstract: The top quark sector is almost decoupled from lighter quark generations due to the fact that $V_{tb}\approx$~1. The current experimental measurements of $V_{tb}$ are compatible with the Standard Model expectations but are still dominated by experimental uncertainties. In this manuscript, a revision of the experimental methods used to measure $V_{tb}$ is given, and a simple method to probe heavy flavor content fraction of top quark events, $R=B(t\rightarrow Wb)/B(t\rightarrow Wq)$, is presented and discussed. Prospects for the measurements at the Large Hadron Collider based on generator level simulations are outlined.

title: Infrared Finite Gluon Propagator and the Structure of Chiral Symmetry Breaking
abstract: We study the chiral symmetry breaking in QeD, using an effective potential for composite operators, with infrared finite gluon propagators that have been found by numerical calculation of the Schwinger· Dyson equations as well. as in lattice simulations. The existence of a gluon propagator that is finite at k 2 =O modifies substantially the transition between the phases with and without chiral symmetry.