The CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter Data Acquisition System at the 2006 Test Beam.
The electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN is an homogeneous calorimeter made of about 80000 Lead Tungstate crystals, that will start to operate at the LHC at the end of 2007. From June to November 2006, ten barrel Supermodules (1700 crystals each) were exposed to beam at CERN SPS, both in standalone and in association with portions of the Hadron Calorimeter. We present the description of the system used to configure and readout the calorimeter during the campaign. The full set of final readout electronics boards was employed, together with the pre-series version of the data acquisition software. During the campaign, the hardware and software concepts for the final system were validated. The system allowed the intercalibration of the ten Supermodules and allowed to perform several important studies of the detector performances, such as energy resolution, response linearity and radiation-hardness.

title: Data filtering in the readout of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter
abstract: For an efficient data taking, the Electromagnetic Calorimeter data of the CMS experiment must be limited to 10% of the full event size (1MB). Other requirements limit the average data size to 2kB per data acquisition link. These conditions imply a reduction factor of close to twenty on the data collected. The data filtering in the readout of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter detector is discussed. Test beam data are used to study the digital filtering applied in the readout channels and a full detector simulation allows to estimate the energy thresholds to achieve the desired data suppression factor.

title: Search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair in pp collisions at the LHC
abstract: A bstractA search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair is presented using data samples corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb−1 (5.1 fb−1) collected in pp collisions at the center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV (8 TeV). Events are considered where the top-quark pair decays to either one lepton+jets $ \left( {\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\to \ell \nu \mathrm{q}\overline{\mathrm{q}}\prime \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}} \right) $ or dileptons $ \left( {\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\to {\ell^{+}}\nu {\ell^{-}}\overline{\nu}\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}} \right) $, ℓ being an electron or a muon. The search is optimized for the decay mode $ \mathrm{H}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}} $. The largest background to the $ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{H} $ signal is top-quark pair production with additional jets. Artificial neural networks are used to discriminate between signal and background events. Combining the results from the 7 TeV and 8 TeV samples, the observed (expected) limit on the cross section for Higgs boson production in association with top-quark pairs for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV is 5.8 (5.2) times the standard model expectation.

title: Measurement of the cross section and angular correlations for associated production of a Z boson with b hadrons in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 7 TeV
abstract: A bstractA study of proton-proton collisions in which two b hadrons are produced in association with a Z boson is reported. The collisions were recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeVwith the CMS detector at the LHC, for an integrated luminosity of 5.2 fb−1. The b hadrons are identified by means of displaced secondary vertices, without the use of reconstructed jets, permitting the study of b-hadron pair production at small angular separation. Differential cross sections are presented as a function of the angular separation of the b hadrons and the Z boson. In addition, inclusive measurements are presented. For both the inclusive and differential studies, different ranges of Z boson momentum are considered, and each measurement is compared to the predictions from different event generators at leading-order and next-to-leading-order accuracy.

title: Search for new physics with long-lived particles decaying to photons and missing energy in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA search is performed for long-lived neutral particles decaying into a photon and invisible particles. An example of such a signature is the decay of the lightest neutralino with nonzero lifetime into a gravitino and a photon in gauge-mediated supersymmetry, with the neutralino as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and the gravitino as the lightest. The search uses events containing photons, missing transverse energy, and jets. The impact parameter of the photon relative to the beam-beam collision point can be reconstructed using converted photons. The method is sensitive to lifetimes of the order of 0.1 to 1 ns. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.23 fb−1 in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV, recorded in the first part of 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Cross-section limits are presented on pair production for such particles, each of which decays into a photon and invisible particles. The observed 95% confidence level limits vary between 0.11 and 0.21 pb, depending on the neutral particle lifetime.

title: Search for microscopic black holes in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=8 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA search for microscopic black holes and string balls is presented, based on a data sample of pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=8 $ TeV recorded by the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 12 fb−1. No excess of events with energetic multiparticle final states, typical of black hole production or of similar new physics processes, is observed. Given the agreement of the observations with the expected standard model background, which is dominated by QCD multijet production, 95% confidence level limits are set on the production of semiclassical or quantum black holes, or of string balls, corresponding to the exclusions of masses below 4.3 to 6.2 TeV, depending on model assumptions. In addition, model-independent limits are set on new physics processes resulting in energetic multiparticle final states.

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: Testbeam studies of production modules of the ATLAS tile calorimeter
abstract: We report test beam studies of 11% of the production ATLAS Tile Calorimeter modules. The modules were equipped with production front-end electronics and all the calibration systems planned for the final detector. The studies used muon, electron and hadron beams ranging in energy from 3 to 350 GeV. Two independent studies showed that the light yield of the calorimeter was ∼ 70 pe / GeV , exceeding the design goal by 40%. Electron beams provided a calibration of the modules at the electromagnetic energy scale. Over 200 calorimeter cells the variation of the response was 2.4%. The linearity with energy was also measured. Muon beams provided an intercalibration of the response of all calorimeter cells. The response to muons entering in the ATLAS projective geometry showed an RMS variation of 2.5% for 91 measurements over a range of rapidities and modules. The mean response to hadrons of fixed energy had an RMS variation of 1.4% for the modules and projective angles studied. The response to hadrons normalized to incident beam energy showed an 8% increase between 10 and 350 GeV, fully consistent with expectations for a noncompensating calorimeter. The measured energy resolution for hadrons of σ / E = 52.9 % / E ⊕ 5.7 % was also consistent with expectations. Other auxiliary studies were made of saturation recovery of the readout system, the time resolution of the calorimeter and the performance of the trigger signals from the calorimeter.

title: Bounds on the simplest little Higgs model mass spectrum through Z leptonic decay
abstract: We derive the leptonic neutral current in the simplest little Higgs model and compute the contribution of the model to the decay width $Z\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$. Using the precision electroweak data we obtain a strong lower bound $f\ensuremath{\ge}5.6\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ at 95% C.L. on the characteristic energy scale of the model. It results in a lower bound for the new gauge bosons ${W}^{\ensuremath{'}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ and ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ as being ${M}_{{W}^{\ensuremath{'}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}}\ensuremath{\ge}2.6\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ and ${M}_{{Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}}\ensuremath{\ge}3.1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$, respectively. We also present the allowed values of the $k={f}_{1}/{f}_{2}$ which is the parameter relating the two vacuum expectation values of the scalar triplets in the model, and the $\ensuremath{\mu}$ parameter of a quadratic term, involving the triplets, necessary to provide an acceptable mass range for the standard Higgs boson.

title: Total Hadronic Cross-Section Data and the Froissart–Martin Bound
abstract: The energy dependence of the total hadronic cross section at high energies is investigated with focus on the recent experimental result by the Total Elastic and Diffractive Cross-section Measurement Collaboration at 7 TeV and the Froissart–Martin bound. On the basis of a class of analytical parametrization with the exponent γ in the leading logarithm contribution as a free parameter, different variants of fits to pp and $\bar{\textrm{p}}$p total cross-section data above 5 GeV are developed. Two ensembles are considered, the first comprising data up to 1.8 TeV and the second also including the data collected at 7 TeV. We show that in all fit variants applied to the first ensemble, the exponent is statistically consistent with γ = 2. Applied to the second ensemble, however, the same variants yield γ values above 2, a result already obtained in two other analysis, by Amaldi et al. and by the UA4/2 Collaboration. As recently discussed by Azimov, this faster-than-squared-logarithm rise does not necessarily violate unitarity. Our results suggest that the energy dependence of the hadronic total cross section at high energies still constitutes an open problem.

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.