Deeply virtual Compton scattering and its beam charge asymmetry in e±p collisions at HERA
A measurement of elastic deeply virtual Compton scattering gamma*p --> gamma p using e(+) p and e(-) p collision data recorded with the HI detector at HERA is presented. The analysed data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 306 pb(-1), almost equally shared between both beam charges. The cross section is measured as a function of the virtuality Q(2) of the exchanged photon and the centre-of-mass energy W of the gamma*p system in the kinematic domain 6.5 < Q(2) < 80 GeV2, 30 < W < 140 GeV and |t| < 1 GeV2, where t denotes the squared momentum transfer at the proton vertex. The cross section is determined differentially in t for different Q(2) and W values and exponential t-slope parameters are derived. Using e(+) p and e(-) p data samples, a beam charge asymmetry is extracted for the first time in the low Biorken x kinematic domain. The observed asymmetry is attributed to the interference between Bethe-Heitler and deeply virtual Compton scattering processes. Experimental results are discussed in the context of two different models, one based on generalised parton distributions and one based on the dipole approach.

title: Measurement of the single-top-quark t-channel cross section in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA measurement of the single-top-quark t-channel production cross section in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC is presented. Two different and complementary approaches have been followed. The first approach exploits the distributions of the pseudorapidity of the recoil jet and reconstructed top-quark mass using background estimates determined from control samples in data. The second approach is based on multivariate analysis techniques that probe the compatibility of the candidate events with the signal. Data have been collected for the muon and electron final states, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.17 and 1.56 fb−1, respectively. The single-top-quark production cross section in the t-channel is measured to be 67.2±6.1 pb, in agreement with the approximate next-to-next-to-leading-order standard model prediction. Using the standard model electroweak couplings, the CKM matrix element |Vtb| is measured to be 1.020 ± 0.046 (meas.) ± 0.017 (theor.).

title: Search for Excited Electrons in ep Collisions at HERA
abstract: A search for excited electrons is performed using the full e±p data sample collected by the H1 experiment at HERA, corresponding to a total luminosity of 475 pb−1. The electroweak decays of excited electrons e*→eγ, e*→eZ and e*→νW with subsequent hadronic or leptonic decays of the W and Z bosons are considered. No evidence for excited electron production is found. Mass dependent exclusion limits on e* production cross sections and on the ratio f/Λ of the coupling to the compositeness scale are derived within gauge mediated models. These limits extend the excluded region compared to previous excited electron searches. The e* production via contact interactions is also addressed for the first time in ep collisions.

title: Search for third-generation leptoquarks and scalar bottom quarks in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7\;TeV $
abstract: A bstractResults are presented from a search for third-generation leptoquarks and scalar bottom quarks in a sample of proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7\;TeV $ collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb−1. A scenario where the new particles are pair produced and each decays to a b quark plus a tau neutrino or neutralino is considered. The number of observed events is found to be in agreement with the standard model prediction. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the production cross sections. Leptoquarks with masses below ~450 GeV are excluded. Upper limits in the mass plane of the scalar quark and neutralino are set such that scalar bottom quark masses up to 410 GeV are excluded for neutralino masses of 50 GeV.

title: Search for dark matter and large extra dimensions in monojet events in pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = {7} $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA search has been made for events containing an energetic jet and an imbalance in transverse momentum using a data sample of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. This signature is common to both dark matter and extra dimensions models. The data were collected by the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb−1. The number of observed events is consistent with the standard model expectation. Constraints on the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections are determined for both spin-independent and spin-dependent interaction models. For the spin-independent model, these are the most constraining limits for a dark matter particle with mass below 3.5 GeV/c2, a region unexplored by direct detection experiments. For the spin-dependent model, these are the most stringent constraints over the 0.1–200 GeV/c2 mass range. The constraints on the Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, and Dvali model parameter MD determined as a function of the number of extra dimensions are also an improvement over the previous results.

title: Search for new physics in events with same-sign dileptons and b-tagged jets in pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA search for new physics is performed using isolated same-sign dileptons with at least two b-quark jets in the final state. Results are based on a 4.98 fb−1 sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS detector. No excess above the standard model background is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the number of events from non-standard-model sources. These limits are used to set constraints on a number of new physics models. Information on acceptance and efficiencies are also provided so that the results can be used to confront additional models in an approximate way.

title: The Coyote Universe Extended: Precision Emulation of the Matter Power Spectrum
abstract: Modern sky surveys are returning precision measurements of cosmological statistics such as weak lensing shear correlations, the distribution of galaxies, and cluster abundance. To fully exploit these observations, theorists must provide predictions that are at least as accurate as the measurements, as well as robust estimates of systematic errors that are inherent to the modeling process. In the nonlinear regime of structure formation, this challenge can only be overcome by developing a large-scale, multi-physics simulation capability covering a range of cosmological models and astrophysical processes. As a first step to achieving this goal, we have recently developed a prediction scheme for the matter power spectrum (a so-called emulator), accurate at the 1% level out to k ~ 1 Mpc–1 and z = 1 for wCDM cosmologies based on a set of high-accuracy N-body simulations. It is highly desirable to increase the range in both redshift and wavenumber and to extend the reach in cosmological parameter space. To make progress in this direction, while minimizing computational cost, we present a strategy that maximally reuses the original simulations. We demonstrate improvement over the original spatial dynamic range by an order of magnitude, reaching k ~ 10 h Mpc–1, a four-fold increase in redshift coverage, to z = 4, and now include the Hubble parameter as a new independent variable. To further the range in k and z, a new set of nested simulations run at modest cost is added to the original set. The extension in h is performed by including perturbation theory results within a multi-scale procedure for building the emulator. This economical methodology still gives excellent error control, ~5% near the edges of the domain of applicability of the emulator. A public domain code for the new emulator is released as part of the work presented in this paper.

title: Nonparametric reconstruction of the dark energy equation of state from diverse data sets
abstract: The cause of the accelerated expansion of the Universe poses one of the most fundamental questions in physics today. In the absence of a compelling theory to explain the observations, a first task is to develop a robust phenomenological approach: If the acceleration is driven by some form of dark energy, then the phenomenology is determined by the form of the dark energy equation of state w(z) as a function of redshift. A major aim of ongoing and upcoming cosmological surveys is to measure w and its evolution at high accuracy. Since w(z) is not directly accessible to measurement, powerful reconstruction methods are needed to extract it reliably from observations. We have recently introduced a new reconstruction method for w(z) based on Gaussian process modeling. This method can capture nontrivial w(z) dependences and, most importantly, it yields controlled and unbiased error estimates. In this paper we extend the method to include a diverse set of measurements: baryon acoustic oscillations, cosmic microwave background measurements, and supernova data. We analyze currently available data sets and present the resulting constraints on w(z), finding that current observations are in very good agreement with a cosmological constant. In addition, we explore how well our methodmore » captures nontrivial behavior of w(z) by analyzing simulated data assuming high-quality observations from future surveys. We find that the baryon acoustic oscillation measurements by themselves already lead to remarkably good reconstruction results and that the combination of different high-quality probes allows us to reconstruct w(z) very reliably with small error bounds.« less

title: The cosmic code comparison project
abstract: Current and upcoming cosmological observations allow us to probe structures on smaller and smaller scales, entering highly nonlinear regimes. In order to obtain theoretical predictions in these regimes, large cosmological simulations have to be carried out. The promised high accuracy from observations makes the simulation task very demanding: the simulations have to be at least as accurate as the observations. This requirement can only be fulfilled by carrying out an extensive code verification program. The first step of such a program is the comparison of different cosmology codes including gravitational interactions only. In this paper, we extend a recently carried out code comparison project to include five more simulation codes. We restrict our analysis to a small cosmological volume which allows us to investigate properties of halos. For the matter power spectrum and the mass function, the previous results hold, with the codes agreeing at the 10% level over wide dynamic ranges. We extend our analysis to the comparison of halo profiles and investigate the halo count as a function of local density. We introduce and discuss ParaView as a flexible analysis tool for cosmological simulations, the use of which immensely simplifies the code comparison task.

title: Independent measurement of the total active 8B solar neutrino flux using an array of 3He proportional counters at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.
abstract: The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) used an array of 3He proportional counters to measure the rate of neutral-current interactions in heavy water and precisely determined the total active (nu_x) 8B solar neutrino flux. This technique is independent of previous methods employed by SNO. The total flux is found to be 5.54_-0.31;+0.33(stat)-0.34+0.36(syst)x10(6) cm(-2) s(-1), in agreement with previous measurements and standard solar models. A global analysis of solar and reactor neutrino results yields Deltam2=7.59_-0.21;+0.19x10(-5) eV2 and theta=34.4_-1.2;+1.3 degrees. The uncertainty on the mixing angle has been reduced from SNO's previous results.

title: A Combined Three-Phase Signal Extraction of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Data Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Technique
abstract: Neutrino physics has entered an era of precision, after proving that the Standard Solar Model is a viable theory and going beyond the current Standard Model of particle physics by proving that neutrinos possess nonzero masses. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) experiment, along with other experiments, has restricted neutrino mixing angle (θ12) and the mass square difference (∆m21) to lie within the large mixing solution area. SNO, located 2 km underground in Sudbury, Canada, was an ultraclean heavy-water (D2O) imaging detector for observing neutrinos produced by fusion reactions in the Sun. Neutrino interactions with heavy water resulted in flashes of light called C̆erenkov radiation which was detected by an array of photomultiplier tubes. SNO took data from November 1999 to November 2006, totalling 1082 days of data taking. This work describes an improved measurement of the mixing parameters from a combined fit of all the data. For the signal extraction fit on the data consisting of 4 observable of an event – radial position, recoil electron energy, direction relative to the Sun and event isotropy – Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method based on Metropolis algorithm was employed. The nuisance parameters (systematics), weighted by external constraints, were allowed to vary in the fit. The goal of the thesis was to extract the survival probabilities of electron neutrinos and determine the total flux of active-flavour neutrinos from B decay in the Sun measured through the neutral current interactions of neutrinos on deuterium. The B flux from the fit is (5.24 ± 0.02) × 10 cm−2 s−1; uncertainty from statistics and systematics is 3.56%. Along with B flux, the fit extracted energy spectra of charged current interactions of neutrinos on deuterium and elastic scattering interactions of neutrinos on electrons. The fit described the energy-dependent day survival probability of solar neutrinos as a quadratic equation and asymmetry on the day survival probability as a linear equation. Four polynomial coefficients of the survival probability were extracted from the fit: constant coefficient as 0.3206± 0.0197, linear coefficient as 0.005± 0.008 and quadratic coefficient as −0.0014± 0.0033. There are two coefficients on the day-night asymmetry: constant coefficient as 0.0496 ± 0.0347 and the linear coefficient as −0.018 ± 0.028. The day-night asymmetry (0.0496) observed is 1.4σ away from zero. Using these findings, the oscillation space in terms of ∆m21 and θ12 will be further constrained. Compared to the previous published SNO results, the uncertainty on B went down from 3.83% to 3.56% and average B νe survival probability (p0) went down from 6.57% to 6.14%. If the data were analysed with the same assumptions, the decrease in uncertainties would have been approximately twice as big; however, more conservative systematic uncertainties were assigned in some cases.