Infrared Finite Gluon Propagator and the Structure of Chiral Symmetry Breaking
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.

title: Scalar Bilepton Dark Matter
abstract: In this work we show that 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos has a natural weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter candidate. It is a complex scalar with mass of order of some hundreds of GeV which carries two units of lepton number, a scalar bilepton. This makes it a very peculiar WIMP, very distinct from supersymmetric or extra-dimension candidates. Besides, although we have to make some reasonable assumptions concerning the several parameters in the model, no fine tuning is required in order to get the correct dark matter abundance. We also analyze the prospects for WIMP direct detection by considering recent and projected sensitivities for WIMP–nucleon elastic cross section from CDMS and XENON collaborations.

title: Relating a gluon mass scale to an infrared fixed point in pure gauge QCD.
abstract: We show that in pure gauge QCD (or any pure non-Abelian gauge theory) the condition for the existence of a global minimum of energy with a gluon (gauge boson) mass scale also implies the existence of a fixed point of the beta function. We argue that the frozen value of the coupling constant found in some solutions of the Schwinger-Dyson equations of QCD can be related to this fixed point. We also discuss how the inclusion of fermions modifies this property.

title: Light composite Higgs boson from the normalized Bethe-Salpeter equation
abstract: Scalar composite boson masses have been computed in QCD and technicolor theories with the help of the homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation, resulting in a scalar mass that is twice the dynamically generated fermion or technifermion mass (m{sub dyn}). We show that in the case of walking (or quasiconformal) technicolor theories, where the m{sub dyn} behavior with the momenta may be quite different from the one predicted by the standard operator product expansion, this result is incomplete and we must consider the effect of the normalization condition of the Bethe-Salpeter equation to determine the scalar masses. We compute the composite Higgs boson mass for several groups with technifermions in the fundamental and higher dimensional representations and comment about the experimental constraints on these theories, which indicate that models based on walking theories with fermions in the fundamental representation may, within the limitations of our approach, have masses quite near the actual direct exclusion limit.

title: Probing 3-3-1 Models in Diphoton Higgs Boson Decay
abstract: We investigate the Higgs boson production through gluon fusion and its decay into two photons at the LHC in the context of the minimal 3-3-1 model and its alternative version with exotic leptons. The diphoton Higgs decay channel presents an enhanced signal in this model compared to the Standard Model due to the presence of an extra singly charged vector boson and a doubly charged one. Prospects for the Higgs boson detection at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy with up to 10 fb −1 are presented. Our results suggest that a Higgs boson from these 3-3-1 models can potentially explain the small excess for mH ≤ 145 GeV observed at the LHC. Otherwise, if this excess reveals to be only a statistical fluctuation of the Standard Model backgrounds severe constraints can be put on these models.

title: Light composite Higgs from an effective action for technicolor
abstract: We compute an effective action for a composite Higgs boson formed by new fermions belonging to a general technicolor non-Abelian gauge theory, using a quite general expression for the fermionic self-energy that depends on a certain parameter ($\ensuremath{\alpha}$), that defines the technicolor theory from the extreme walking behavior up to the one with a standard operator product expansion behavior. We discuss the values of the trilinear and quadrilinear scalar couplings. Our calculation spans all the possible physical possibilities for mass and couplings of the composite system. In the case of extreme walking technicolor theories we verify that it is possible to have a composite Higgs boson with a mass as light as the present experimental limit, contrary to the usual expectation of a heavy mass for the composite Higgs boson. In this case we obtain an upper limit for the Higgs boson mass, (${M}_{H}\ensuremath{\le}\mathcal{O}(700)\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ for $SU(2{)}_{\mathrm{TC}}$), and the experimental data on the Higgs boson mass constrain $SU(N{)}_{\mathrm{TC}}$ technicolor gauge groups to be smaller than $SU(10{)}_{\mathrm{TC}}$.

title: Identification and filtering of uncharacteristic noise in the CMS hadron calorimeter
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.

title: The Landau gauge gluon propagator at zero and finite temperature: accounting for the combined finite lattice spacing and finite volume effects
abstract: In the past years a good comprehension of the infrared gluon propagator has been achieved, with a good qualitative agreement between lattice results and Dyson-Schwinger equations. However, lattice simulations have been performed at physical volumes which are close to 20 fm but using a large lattice spacing. The interplay between volume effects and lattice spacing effects has not been investigated. Here we aim to fill this gap and address how the two effects change the gluon propagator in the infrared region. Furthermore, we provide infinite volume extrapolations which take into account the finite volume and finite lattice spacing . We also report on preliminary results for the gluon propagator at finite temperature.

title: The lattice Landau gauge gluon propagator at zero and finite temperature
abstract: We study the Landau gauge gluon propagator at zero and finite temperature using lattice simulations. Particular attention is given to the finite size effects and to the infrared behaviour.

title: Alignment of the CMS muon system with cosmic-ray and beam-halo muons
abstract: The CMS muon system has been aligned using cosmic-ray muons collected in 2008 and beam-halo muons from the 2008 LHC circulating beam tests. After alignment, the resolution of the most sensitive coordinate is 80 microns for the relative positions of superlayers in the same barrel chamber and 270 microns for the relative positions of endcap chambers in the same ring structure. The resolution on the position of the central barrel chambers relative to the tracker is comprised between two extreme estimates, 200 and 700 microns, provided by two complementary studies. With minor modifications, the alignment procedures can be applied using muons from LHC collisions, leading to additional significant improvements.

title: Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up
abstract: Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated.