Gribov copies and gauge fixing in lattice gauge theories
We address the problem of the gauge fixing versus Gribov copies in lattice gauge theories. For the Landau gauge, results show that a suitable combination of evolutionary algorithms with traditional steepest descent methods identifies the global maximum of the optimisation function. We discuss the performance of the combined algorithm on small cubic lattices for SU(2) and SU(3).

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: 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: 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: Spectral densities from the lattice
abstract: We discuss a method to extract the K\"all\'{e}n-Lehmann spectral density of a particle (be it elementary or bound state) propagator by means of 4d lattice data. We employ a linear regularization strategy, commonly known as the Tikhonov method with Morozov discrepancy principle. An important virtue over the popular maximum entropy method is the possibility to also probe unphysical spectral densities, as, for example, of a confined gluon. We apply our proposal to the SU(3) glue sector.

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: CAST search for sub-eV mass solar axions with 3He buffer gas
abstract: S. Aune, K. Barth, A. Belov, S. Borghi, ∗ H. Bräuninger, G. Cantatore, J. M. Carmona, S. A. Cetin, J. I. Collar, T. Dafni, M. Davenport, C. Eleftheriadis, N. Elias, C. Ezer, G. Fanourakis, E. Ferrer-Ribas, P. Friedrich, J. Galán, J. A. Garćıa, A. Gardikiotis, E. N. Gazis, T. Geralis, I. Giomataris, S. Gninenko, H. Gómez, E. Gruber, T. Guthörl, R. Hartmann, † F. Haug, M. D. Hasinoff, D. H. H. Hoffmann, F. J. Iguaz, ‡ I. G. Irastorza,  Jakovčić, M. Karuza, K. Königsmann, R. Kotthaus, M. Krčmar, M. Kuster, 16, § B. Lakić, ¶ J. M. Laurent, A. Liolios, A. Ljubičić, V. Lozza, G. Lutz, † G. Luzón,  T. Niinikoski, †† A. Nordt, 16, ‡‡ T. Papaevangelou, M. J. Pivovaroff, G. Raffelt, T. Rashba, H. Riege, A. Rodŕıguez, M. Rosu, J. Ruz, 2 I. Savvidis, P. S. Silva, S. K. Solanki, L. Stewart, A. Tomás, M. Tsagri, ‡‡ K. van Bibber, §§ T. Vafeiadis, 9, 12 J. Villar, J. K. Vogel, 20, ¶¶ S. C. Yildiz, and K. Zioutas 12

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: Commissioning and performance of the CMS pixel tracker with cosmic ray muons
abstract: The pixel detector of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment consists of three barrel layers and two disks for each endcap. The detector was installed in summer 2008, commissioned with charge injections, and operated in the 3.8 T magnetic field during cosmic ray data taking. This paper reports on the first running experience and presents results on the pixel tracker performance, which are found to be in line with the design specifications of this detector. The transverse impact parameter resolution measured in a sample of high momentum muons is 18 microns.

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: A study on analytic parametrizations for proton–proton cross-sections and asymptotia
abstract: A comparative study on some representative parametrizations for the total and elastic cross-sections as a function of energy is presented. The dataset comprises pp and scattering in the c.m. energy interval 5 GeV–8 TeV. The parametrization for the total cross-section at low and intermediate energies follows the usual reggeonic structure (non-degenerate trajectories). For the leading high-energy pomeron contribution, we consider three distinct analytic parametrizations: either a power (P) law, or a log-squared (L2) law or a log-raised-to-γ (Lγ) law, where the exponent γ is treated as a real free fit parameter. The parametrizations are also extended to fit the elastic (integrated) cross-section data in the same energy interval. Our main conclusions are the following: (1) the data reductions with the logarithmic laws show strong dependence on the unknown energy scale involved, which is treated here either as a free parameter or fixed at the energy threshold; (2) the fit results with the P law, the L2 law (free scale) and the Lγ law (fixed scale and exponent γ above 2) are all consistent within their uncertainties and with the experimental data up to 7 TeV, but they partially underestimate the high-precision TOTEM measurement at 8 TeV; (3) once compared with these results, the L2 law with fixed scale is less consistent with the data and, in the case of a free scale, this pomeron contribution decreases as the energy increases below the scale factor (which lies above the energy cutoff); (4) in all cases investigated, the predictions for the asymptotic ratio between the elastic and total cross-sections, within the uncertainties, do not exceed the value 0.430 (therefore, below the black-disc limit) and the results favor rational limits between 1/3 and 2/5. We are led to conclude that the rise of the hadronic cross-sections at the highest energies still constitutes an open problem, demanding further and detailed investigation.