Operational experience, improvements, and performance of the CDF Run II silicon vertex detector
The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) pursues a broad physics program at Fermilab's Tevatron collider. Between Run II commissioning in early 2001 and the end of operations in September 2011, the Tevatron delivered 12 fb-1 of integrated luminosity of pp collisions at s=1.96TeV. The physics at CDF includes precise measurements of the masses of the top quark and W boson, measurement of CP violation and Bs mixing, and searches for Higgs bosons and new physics signatures, all of which require heavy flavor tagging with large charged particle tracking acceptance. To realize these goals, in 2001 CDF installed eight layers of silicon microstrip detectors around its interaction region. These detectors were designed for 2-5 years of operation, radiation doses up to 2 Mrad (0.02 Gy), and were expected to be replaced in 2004. The sensors were not replaced, and the Tevatron run was extended for several years beyond its design, exposing the sensors and electronics to much higher radiation doses than anticipated. In this paper we describe the operational challenges encountered over the past 10 years of running the CDF silicon detectors, the preventive measures undertaken, and the improvements made along the way to ensure their optimal performance for collecting high quality physics data. In addition, we describe the quantities and methods used to monitor radiation damage in the sensors for optimal performance and summarize the detector performance quantities important to CDF's physics program, including vertex resolution, heavy flavor tagging, and silicon vertex trigger performance.

title: Measurement of the WW + WZ production cross section using the lepton + jets final state at CDF II.
abstract: We report two complementary measurements of the WW + WZ cross section in the final state consisting of an electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and jets, performed using pp collision data at square root of s = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector. The first method uses the dijet invariant mass distribution while the second more sensitive method uses matrix-element calculations. The result from the second method has a signal significance of 5.4sigma and is the first observation of WW + WZ production using this signature. Combining the results gives sigma(WW + WZ) = 16.0 +/- 3.3 pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction.

title: Search for anomalous production of multiple leptons in association with $W$ and $Z$ bosons at CDF
abstract: This paper presents a search for anomalous production of multiple low-energy leptons in association with a W or Z boson using events collected at the CDF experiment corresponding to 5.1 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. This search is sensitive to a wide range of topologies with low-momentum leptons, including those with the leptons near one another. The observed rates of production of additional electrons and muons are compared with the standard model predictions. No indications of phenomena beyond the standard model are found. A 95% confidence level limit is presented on the production cross section for a benchmark model of supersymmetric hidden-valley Higgs production. Particle identification efficiencies are also provided to enable the calculation of limits on additional models.

title: Inclusive search for standard model Higgs boson production in the WW decay channel using the CDF II detector.
abstract: We present a search for standard model (SM) Higgs boson production using pp collision data at square root(s) = 1.96 TeV, collected with the CDF II detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb(-1). We search for Higgs bosons produced in all processes with a significant production rate and decaying to two W bosons. We find no evidence for SM Higgs boson production and place upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the SM production cross section (sigma(H)) for values of the Higgs boson mass (sigma(H)) in the range from 110 to 200 GeV. These limits are the most stringent for m(H) > 130 GeV and are 1.29 above the predicted value of sigma(H) for c = 165 GeV.

title: Search for Higgs bosons predicted in two-Higgs-doublet models via decays to tau lepton pairs in 1.96 TeV pp collisions.
abstract: We present the results of a search for Higgs bosons predicted in two-Higgs-doublet models, in the case where the Higgs bosons decay to tau lepton pairs, using 1.8 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity of pp collisions recorded by the CDF II experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron. Studying the mass distribution in events where one or both tau leptons decay leptonically, no evidence for a Higgs boson signal is observed. The result is used to infer exclusion limits in the two-dimensional space of tanbeta versus m(A) (the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs doublets and the mass of the pseudoscalar boson, respectively).

title: Studying the Underlying Event in Drell-Yan and High Transverse Momentum Jet Production at the Tevatron
abstract: 21 paginas, 15 figuras, 3 tablas.-- PACS numbers: 13.87.Ce, 14.60.Cd, 14.60.-- CDF Collaboration: et al.

title: Finite Unified Theories confronted with low-energy phenomenology
abstract: Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are N=1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories that can be made all-loop finite. The requirement of all-loop finiteness leads to a severe reduction of the free parameters of the theory and, in turn, to a large number of predictions. Here SU(5) FUTs are investigated in the context of low-energy phenomenology observables. We present a detailed scanning of these FUTs, including theoretical uncertainties at the unification scale and applying all phenomenological constraints. Taking into account the restrictions from the top and bottom quark masses, we can discriminate between different models. Including further low-energy constraints such as $B$ physics observables, the bound on the lightest Higgs boson mass and the cold dark matter density, we determine the predictions of the allowed parameter space for the Higgs boson sector and the supersymmetric particle spectrum of the model.

title: New prospects in unified theories: From finiteness to fuzzy extra dimensions

title: Confronting finite unified theories with low-energy phenomenology
abstract: Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are N = 1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories that can be made all-loop finite. The requirement of all-loop finiteness leads to a severe reduction of the free parameters of the theory and, in turn, to a large number of predictions. FUTs are investigated in the context of low-energy phenomenology observables. We present a detailed scanning of the all-loop finite SU(5) FUTs, where we include the theoretical uncertainties at the unification scale and we apply several phenomenological constraints. Taking into account the restrictions from the top and bottom quark masses, we can discriminate between different models. Including further low-energy constraints such as B physics observables, the bound on the lightest Higgs boson mass and the cold dark matter density, we determine the predictions of the allowed parameter space for the Higgs boson sector and the supersymmetric particle spectrum of the selected model.

title: Finite Unified Theories and the Higgs boson

title: Gauge-Yukawa Unification: Going Beyond GUTs
abstract: We discuss the basic idea of the Gauge-Yukawa Unification that is based on the principle of the reduction of couplings. This method of unification relies on the search of successful renormalization group invariant relations among couplings, which do not originate from symmetry principles. The predictive power of Grand Unified Theories can be increased by this method, predicting for instance values of the top quark mass consistent with the recent experimental data. The hope is that this unification attempt might shed further light on the origin of the Yukawa sector of the standard model.