The Optical alignment system of the ZEUS microvertex detector
The laser alignment system of the ZEUS microvertex detector is described. The detector was installed in 2001 as part of an upgrade programme in preparation for the second phase of electron–proton physics at the HERA collider. The alignment system monitors the position of the vertex detector support structure with respect to the central tracking detector using semi-transparent amorphous-silicon sensors and diode lasers. The system is fully integrated into the general environmental monitoring of the ZEUS detector and data has been collected over a period of 5 years. The primary aim of defining periods of stability for track-based alignment has been achieved and the system is able to measure movements of the support structure to a precision around 10 μ m .

title: HERA signature-based searches I: events with isolated leptons and missing transverse momentum at HERA
abstract: Recent results of searches for events containing isolated leptons and missing transverse momentum at HERA are presented. Searches in this final state have yielded notable excesses over Standard Model expectations in the past. Searches for isolated leptons in channels corresponding to all three generations of leptons over the full HERA running period are now available. The combined H1+ZEUS results for searches for electrons and muons are compatible with the Standard Model.

title: Triggering on Long-Lived Neutral Particles in the ATLAS Detector
abstract: Neutral particles with long decay paths that decay to many-particle final states represent, from an experimental point of view, a challenge both for the trigger and for the reconstruction capabilities of the ATLAS apparatus. The Hidden Valley scenario serves as an excellent setting for the purpose of exploring the challenges to the trigger posed by long-lived particles.

title: Exclusive electroproduction of two pions at HERA
abstract: The exclusive electroproduction of two pions in the mass range 0.4<Mππ<2.5 GeV has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 82 pb−1. The analysis was carried out in the kinematic range of 2<Q2<80 GeV2, 32<W<180 GeV and |t|<0.6 GeV2, where Q2 is the photon virtuality, W is the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy and t is the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex. The two-pion invariant-mass distribution is interpreted in terms of the pion electromagnetic form factor, |F(Mππ)|, assuming that the studied mass range includes the contributions of the ρ, ρ′ and ρ′′ vector-meson states. The masses and widths of the resonances were obtained and the Q2 dependence of the cross-section ratios σ(ρ′→ππ)/σ(ρ) and σ(ρ′′→ππ)/σ(ρ) was extracted. The pion form factor obtained in the present analysis is compared to that obtained in e+e−→π+π−.

title: Inclusive-jet photoproduction at HERA and determination of alpha(s)
abstract: Inclusive-jet cross sections have been measured in the reaction e p → e + jet + X for photon virtuality Q 2 1 GeV 2 and γp centre-of-mass energies in the region 142 W γ p 293 GeV with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 300 pb − 1 . Jets were identified using the k T , anti- k T or SIScone jet algorithms in the laboratory frame. Single-differential cross sections are presented as functions of the jet transverse energy, E T jet , and pseudorapidity, η jet , for jets with E T jet > 17 GeV and − 1 η jet 2.5 . In addition, measurements of double-differential inclusive-jet cross sections are presented as functions of E T jet in different regions of η jet . Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations give a good description of the measurements, except for jets with low E T jet and high η jet . The influence of non-perturbative effects not related to hadronisation was studied. Measurements of the ratios of cross sections using different jet algorithms are also presented; the measured ratios are well described by calculations including up to O ( α s 2 ) terms. Values of α s ( M Z ) were extracted from the measurements and the energy-scale dependence of the coupling was determined. The value of α s ( M Z ) extracted from the measurements based on the k T jet algorithm is α s ( M Z ) = 0.1206 − 0.0022 + 0.0023 ( exp . ) − 0.0035 + 0.0042 ( th . ) ; the results from the anti- k T and SIScone algorithms are compatible with this value and have a similar precision.

title: Study of taupair production at HERA
abstract: A study of events containing two tau leptons with high transverse momentum has been performed with the ZEUS detector at HERA, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.33 fb−1. The tau candidates were identified from their decays into electrons, muons or hadronic jets. The number of tau-pair candidates has been compared with the prediction from the Standard Model, where the largest contribution is expected from Bethe-Heitler processes. The total visible cross section was extracted. Standard Model expectations agree well with the measured distributions, also at high invariant mass of the tau pair.

title: Creatable Universes
abstract: We consider the question of properly defining energy and momenta for non asymptotic Minkowskian spaces in general relativity. Only spaces of this type, whose energy, linear 3momentum, and intrinsic angular momentum vanish, would be candidates for creatable universes, that is, for universes which could have arisen from a vacuum quantum fluctuation. Given a universe, we completely characterize the family of coordinate systems for which one could sensibly say that this universe is a creatable universe.  04.20.-q, 98.80.Jk Electronic address: joan.ferrando@uv.es Electronic address: ramon.lapiedra@uv.es Electronic address: antonio.morales@uv.es

title: Ideal Gas Stephani Universes
abstract: The Stephani Universes that can be interpreted as an ideal gas evolving in local thermal equilibrium are determined, and the method to obtain the associated thermodynamic schemes is given

title: SiPMs coated with TPB: coating protocol and characterization for NEXT
abstract: Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are the photon detectors chosen for the tracking readout in NEXT, a neutrinoless \bb decay experiment which uses a high pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The reconstruction of event track and topology in this gaseous detector is a key handle for background rejection. Among the commercially available sensors that can be used for tracking, SiPMs offer important advantages, mainly high gain, ruggedness, cost-effectiveness and radio-purity. Their main drawback, however, is their non sensitivity in the emission spectrum of the xenon scintillation (peak at 175 nm). This is overcome by coating these sensors with the organic wavelength shifter tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). In this paper we describe the protocol developed for coating the SiPMs with TPB and the measurements performed for characterizing the coatings as well as the performance of the coated sensors in the UV-VUV range.

title: Vacuum type I spacetimes and aligned Papapetrou fields: symmetries
abstract: We analyse type I vacuum solutions admitting an isometry whose Killing 2-form is aligned with a principal bivector of the Weyl tensor, and we show that these solutions belong to a family of type I metrics which admit a group G3 of isometries. We give a classification of this family and study the Bianchi type for each class. The classes compatible with an aligned Killing 2-form are also determined. The Szekeres–Brans theorem is extended to non-vacuum spacetimes with vanishing Cotton tensor.

title: Two-dimensional approach to relativistic positioning systems
abstract: A relativistic positioning system is a physical realization of a coordinate system consisting in four clocks in arbitrary motion broadcasting their proper times. The basic elements of the relativistic positioning systems are presented in the two-dimensional case. This simplified approach allows to explain and to analyze the properties and interest of these new systems. The positioning system defined by geodesic emitters in flat metric is developed in detail. The information that the data generated by a relativistic positioning system give on the space-time metric interval is analyzed, and the interest of these results in gravimetry is pointed out.