What does low energy physics tell us about the zero momentum gluon propagator
The connection between QCD, a nonlocal Nambu–Jona-Lasinio type model and the Landau gauge gluon propagator is explored. This two point function is parameterized by a functional form which is compatible with Dyson–Schwinger and lattice QCD results. Demanding the nonlocal model to reproduce the experimental values for the pion mass, the pion decay constant, Γ π → γ γ and the light quark condensate we conclude that low energy physics does not distinguish between the so-called decoupling and scaling solutions of the Dyson–Schwinger equations. This result means that, provided that the model parameters are chosen appropriately, one is free to choose any of the above scenarios. Furthermore, the nonlocal Nambu–Jona-Lasinio quark model considered here is chiral invariant and satisfies the GMOR relation at the 1% level of precision.

title: Gauge fixing methods and Gribov copies effects in lattice QCD
abstract: We compare two Landau gauge fixing methods, aiming to find the global maximum of the gauge fixing functional. Moreover, a systematic effect of Gribov copies in the gluon and ghost propagators computed in Landau gauge is presented and discussed.

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: 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: 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: 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: Infrared finite solutions for the gluon propagator and the QCD vacuum energy
abstract: Nonperturbative infrared finite solutions for the gluon polarization tensor have been found, and the possibility that gluons may have a dynamically generated mass is supported by recent Monte Carlo simulation on the lattice. These solutions differ among themselves, due to different approximations performed when solving the Schwinger-Dyson equations for the gluon polarization tensor. Only approximations that minimize energy are meaningful, and, according to this, we compute an effective potential for composite operators as a function of these solutions in order to distinguish which one is selected by the vacuum.

title: Search for quark contact interactions in dijet angular distributions in pp collisions at s=7 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector
abstract: Dijet angular distributions from the first LHC pp collisions at center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV have been measured with the ATLAS detector. The dataset used for this analysis represents an integrated luminosity of 3.1 pb-1. Dijet $\chi$ distributions and centrality ratios have been measured up to dijet masses of 2.8 TeV, and found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions. Analysis of the $\chi$ distributions excludes quark contact interactions with a compositeness scale $\Lambda$ below 3.4 TeV, at 95% confidence level, significantly exceeding previous limits.

title: Measurement of the Muon Stopping Power in Lead Tungstate
abstract: A large sample of cosmic ray events collected by the CMS detector is exploited to measure the specific energy loss of muons in the lead tungstate of the electromagnetic calorimeter. The measurement spans a momentum range from 5 GeV/c to 1 TeV/c. The results are consistent with the expectations over the entire range. The calorimeter energy scale, set with 120 GeV/c electrons, is validated down to the sub-GeV region using energy deposits, of order 100 MeV, associated with low-momentum muons. The muon critical energy in lead tungstate is measured to be 160+5/-6 plus or minus 8 GeV, in agreement with expectations. This is the first experimental determination of muon critical energy.

title: Critical coupling for dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking with an infrared finite gluon propagator
abstract: We compute the critical coupling constant for the dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking in a model of quantum chromodynamics, solving numerically the quark self-energy using infrared finite gluon propagators found as solutions of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the gluon, and one gluon propagator determined in numerical lattice simulations. The gluon mass scale screens the force responsible for the chiral breaking, and the transition occurs only for a larger critical coupling constant than the one obtained with the perturbative propagator. The critical coupling shows a great sensibility to the gluon mass scale variation, as well as to the functional form of the gluon propagator.

title: A hybrid training method for neural energy estimation in calorimetry
abstract: A neural mapping is developed to improve the overall performance of Tilecal, which is the hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS detector. Feeding the input nodes of a multilayer feedforward neural network with the energy values sampled by the calorimeter cells in beam tests, it is shown that the original energy scale of pion beams is reconstructed over a wide energy range and linearity is significantly improved. As it happens for classical methods, a compromise between nonlinearity correction and the optimization of the energy resolution of the detector has to be accomplished. A hybrid training method for the neural mapping is proposed to achieve this design goal. Using the back-propagation algorithm, the method intercalates an epoch of training steps, for which the neural mapping mainly focus on linearity correction, with another block of training steps, in which the original energy resolution obtained by linearly combining the calorimeter cells becomes the main target.