The Production and Qualification of Scintillator Tiles for the ATLAS Hadronic Calorimeter

title: Search for First Generation Scalar Leptoquarks in pp Collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV with the ATLAS Detector
abstract: We report a search for first generation scalar leptoquarks using 1.03 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions data produced by the Large Hadron Collider at and recorded by the ATLAS experiment. Leptoquarks are sought via their decay into an electron or neutrino and a quark, producing events with two oppositely charged electrons and at least two jets, or events with an electron, missing transverse momentum and at least two jets. Control data samples are used to validate background predictions from Monte Carlo simulation. In the signal region, the observed event yields are consistent with the background expectations. We exclude at 95% confidence level the production of first generation scalar leptoquark with masses when assuming the branching fraction of a leptoquark to a charged lepton is equal to 1.0 (0.5).

title: Search for strong gravity signatures in same-sign dimuon final states using the ATLAS detector at the LHC
abstract: A search for microscopic black holes has been performed in a same-sign dimuon final state using 1.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The data are found to be consistent with the expectation from the Standard Model and the results are used to derive exclusion contours in the context of a low scale gravity model.

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.

title: A mobile data acquisition system
abstract: A mobile data aquisition (MobiDAQ) was developed for the ATLAS central hadronic calorimeter (TileCal). MobiDAQ has been designed in order to test the functionalities of the TileCal front-end electronics and to acquire calibration data before the final back-end electronics were built and tested. MobiDAQ was also used to record the first cosmic ray events acquired by an ATLAS subdetector in the underground experimental area.

title: Charged-particle multiplicities inppinteractions measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
abstract: (2011) 053033 (68pp) Received 22 December 2010 Published 19 May 2011 Online at http://www.njp.org/ doi:10.1088/1367-2630/13/5/053033 Measurements √ are presented from proton–proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of s = 0.9, 2.36 and 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events were collected using a single-arm minimum- bias trigger. The charged-particle multiplicity, its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity and the relationship between the mean transverse momentum and charged-particle multiplicity are measured. Measurements in different regions of phase space are shown, providing diffraction-reduced measurements as well as more inclusive ones. The observed distributions are corrected to well-defined phase-space regions, using model-independent corrections. The results are compared to each other and to various Monte Carlo (MC) models, including a new AMBT1 pythia6 tune. In all the kinematic regions considered, the particle multiplicities are higher than predicted by the MC models. The central charged-particle multiplicity per event and unit of pseudorapidity, for tracks √ with p T > 100 MeV, is measured to be 3.483 ± 0.009 (stat) (syst) at s = 0.9 TeV and 5.630 ± 0.003 (stat) ± 0.169 (syst) at s = 7 TeV. Abstract. New Journal of Physics 13 (2011) 053033  Content may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation and DOI.

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: The Landau gauge gluon propagator at zero and finite temperature: accounting for the combined finite lattice spacing and finite volume effects
abstract: In the past years a good comprehension of the infrared gluon propagator has been achieved, with a good qualitative agreement between lattice results and Dyson-Schwinger equations. However, lattice simulations have been performed at physical volumes which are close to 20 fm but using a large lattice spacing. The interplay between volume effects and lattice spacing effects has not been investigated. Here we aim to fill this gap and address how the two effects change the gluon propagator in the infrared region. Furthermore, we provide infinite volume extrapolations which take into account the finite volume and finite lattice spacing . We also report on preliminary results for the gluon propagator at finite temperature.

title: Discrete symmetries, invisible axion, and lepton number symmetry in an economic 3-3-1 model
abstract: We show that Peccei-Quinn and lepton number symmetries can be a natural outcome in a 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos after imposing a Z11^ Z2 symmetry. This symmetry is suitably accommodated in this model when we augment its spectrum by including merely one singlet scalar field. We work out the breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, yielding the axion, and study the phenomenological consequences. The main result of this work is that the solution to the strong CP problem can be implemented in a natural way, implying an invisible axion phenomenologically unconstrained, free of domain wall formation, and constituting a good candidate for the cold dark matter.

title: Test beam operation of the CMS calorimeter trigger synchronization boards
abstract: The CMS experiment uses information from its electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters and muon detectors to decide whether to read out the whole detector. For such a task to be successful, all trigger primitives pushed through the trigger decision tree must be flawlessly aligned in time for operation at 40 MHz. Both calorimeters in CMS use the Synchronization Link Board for this purpose. In this article we report on the test results of this board using the bunched beams available in the H4 electron beam line at CERN.

title: Electroweak production of Z bosons with forward-backward jets at CMS