Nuclear parton distributions and the Drell-Yan process
We study the nuclear parton distribution functions on the basis of our recently developed semi-microscopic model, which takes into account a number of nuclear effects including nuclear shadowing, Fermi motion and nuclear binding, nuclear meson-exchange currents, and off-shell corrections to bound nucleon distributions. We discuss in detail the dependencies of nuclear effects on the type of parton distribution (nuclear sea vs valence), as well as on the parton flavor (isospin). We apply the resulting nuclear parton distributions to calculate ratios of cross sections for proton-induced Drell-Yan production off different nuclear targets. We obtain a good agreement on the magnitude, target and projectile $x$, and the dimuon mass dependence of proton-nucleus Drell-Yan process data from the E772 and E866 experiments at Fermilab. We also provide nuclear corrections for the Drell-Yan data from the E605 experiment.

title: Status of design and construction of the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) for the ATLAS experiment at the LHC
abstract: The ATLAS Inner Detector consists of three sub-systems, the Pixel Detector at the innermost radius, the Semi-Conductor Tracker at intermediate radii, and the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) at the outermost radius in front of the electromagnetic calorimeter. The TRT provides a combination of continuous tracking with many projective measurements based on individual drift-tubes (or straws) and of electron identification based on radiator fibres or foils interleaved between the straws themselves. This paper describes the current status of design and construction of the various components of the TRT: the assembly of the barrel modules has recently been completed, that of the end-cap wheels is well underway, and the on-detector front-end electronics is in production. The detector modules and front-end electronics boards will be integrated together over the next year, the barrel and end-cap TRT parts will be assembled and tested with their SCT counterparts during 2005 and installation and commissioning in the ATLAS pit will take place at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006.

title: PRECISION MEASUREMENTS FROM THE NOMAD EXPERIMENT

title: Design and prototype tests of the RPC system for the OPERA spectrometers
abstract: The Inner Tracker system of the spectrometers of the OPERA experiment makes use of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) in a large-scale application. We present here the definition of the project and the full design of the Inner Tracker. Specific performances for the OPERA-RPC in the spectrometer are also reported. Particle detection, muon identification and trigger capability are discussed, in particular. Some results from test beam (T9 and T7 lines at the CERN PS) and measurements from laboratory test (CERN, Frascati, Padova, Gran Sasso) with prototype detectors are discussed, as well as specific solutions developed for the final set-up in OPERA. Full Monte Carlo simulations of the experimental set-up have been also developed. r 2003

title: Study of energy response and resolution of the ATLAS barrel calorimeter to hadrons of energies from 20 to 350 GeV
abstract: A fully instrumented slice of the ATLAS detector was exposed to test beams from the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) at CERN in 2004. In this paper, the results of the measurements of the response of the barrel calorimeter to hadrons with energies in the range 20 to 350 GeV and beam impact points and angles corresponding to pseudorapidity values in the range 0.2-0.65 are reported. The results are compared to the predictions of a simulation program using the Geant 4 toolkit.

title: Determination of Strange Sea Quark Distributions from Fixed-target and Collider Data
abstract: We present an improved determination of the strange sea distribution in the nucleon with constraints coming from the recent charm production data in neutrino-nucleon deep-inelastic scattering by the NOMAD and CHORUS experiments and from charged current inclusive deep-inelastic scattering at HERA. We demonstrate that the results are consistent with the data from the ATLAS and the CMS experiments on the associated production of W ± -bosons with c-quarks. We also discuss issues related to the recent strange sea determination by the ATLAS experiment using LHC collider data.

title: Centrality categorization for Rp(d)+A in high-energy collisions
abstract: High-energy proton- and deuteron-nucleus collisions provide an excellent tool for studying a wide array of physics effects, including modifications of parton distribution functions in nuclei, gluon saturation, and color neutralization and hadronization in a nuclear environment, among others. All of these effects are expected to have a significant dependence on the size of the nuclear target and the impact parameter of the collision, also known as the collision centrality. In this article, we detail a method for determining centrality classes in p(d) + A collisions via cuts on the multiplicity at backward rapidity (i.e., the nucleus-going direction) and for determining systematic uncertainties in this procedure. For d + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV we find that the connection to geometry is confirmed by measuring the fraction of events in which a neutron from the deuteron does not interact with the nucleus. As an application, we consider the nuclear modification factors Rp(d)+A, for which there is a bias in the measured centrality-dependent yields owing to auto correlations between the process of interest and the backward-rapidity multiplicity. We determine the bias-correction factors within this framework. This method is further tested using the HIJING Monte Carlo generator. We find that for d + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV, these bias corrections are small and vary by less than 5% (10%) up to p(T) = 10 (20) GeV/c. In contrast, for p + Pb collisions at v root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV we find that these bias factors are an order of magnitude larger and strongly pT dependent, likely attributable to the larger effect of multiparton interactions.

title: Cross section for $b\bar{b}$ production via dielectrons in d$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV
abstract: We report a measurement of $e^+e^-$ pairs from semileptonic heavy-flavor decays in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. Exploring the mass and transverse-momentum dependence of the yield, the bottom decay contribution can be isolated from charm, and quantified by comparison to {\sc pythia} and {\sc mc@nlo} simulations. The resulting $b\bar{b}$-production cross section is $\sigma^{d{\rm Au}}_{b\bar{b}}=1.37{\pm}0.28({\rm stat}){\pm}0.46({\rm syst})$~mb, which is equivalent to a nucleon-nucleon cross section of $\sigma^{NN}_{bb}=3.4\pm0.8({\rm stat}){\pm}1.1({\rm syst})\ \mu$b.

title: sPHENIX: An Upgrade Concept from the PHENIX Collaboration
abstract: The PHENIX collaboration presents a concept for a major upgrade to the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This upgrade, referred to as sPHENIX, brings exciting new capability to the RHIC program by opening new and important channels for experimental investigation and utilizing fully the luminosity of the recently upgraded RHIC facility. sPHENIX enables a compelling jet physics program that will address fundamental questions about the nature of the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma discovered experimentally at RHIC to be a perfect fluid. The upgrade concept addresses specific questions whose answers are necessary to advance our understanding of the quark-gluon plasma: (1) How to reconcile the observed strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma with the asymptotically free theory of quarks and gluons? (2) What are the dynamical changes to the quark-gluon plasma in terms of quasiparticles and excitations as a function of temperature? (3) How sharp is the transition of the quark-gluon plasma from the most strongly coupled regime near Tc to a weakly coupled system of partons known to emerge at asymptotically high temperatures? In three Appendices, we detail the additional physics capabilities gained through further upgrades: (A) two midrapidity detector additions, (B) a forward rapidity upgrade, and (C) an evolution to an ePHENIX detector suitable for a future Electron Ion Collider at RHIC.

title: Low-mass vector-meson production at forward rapidity in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV
abstract: The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured low mass vector meson, $\omega$, $\rho$, and $\phi$, production through the dimuon decay channel at forward rapidity ($1.2<|y|<2.2$) in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV. The differential cross sections for these mesons are measured as a function of both $p_T$ and rapidity. We also report the integrated differential cross sections over $1<p_T<7$ GeV/$c$ and $1.2<|y|<2.2$: $d\sigma/dy(\omega+\rho\rightarrow\mu\mu) = 80 \pm 6 \mbox{(stat)} \pm 12 \mbox{(syst)}$ nb and $d\sigma/dy(\phi\rightarrow\mu\mu) = 27 \pm 3 \mbox{(stat)} \pm 4 \mbox{(syst)}$ nb. These results are compared with midrapidity measurements and calculations.

title: Low Momentum Direct Photons as a Probe of Heavy Ion Collisions
abstract: of the Dissertation Low Momentum Direct Photons as a Probe of Heavy Ion Collisions