Track reconstruction using a 3-D map of the target magnetic field
Magnetic fields are often applied to the target zone of a particle beam to maintain the polarization of gaseous targets, as with the HERMES experiment. The same field bends the trajectories of charged particles, however, introducing errors in vertex reconstruction. This paper describes a method for accurately describing relativistic charged particle transport within a 3-dimensional (3-D), non-uniform magnetic field. The algorithm is tested on HERMES experimental data, and is shown to substantially improve the K s 0 resonance in the π + π - invariant mass spectrum. Indeed, corrected data taken with target magnet switched on are as good as data taken with magnet switched off. The method can easily be applied to other experiments given a 3-D magnetic field map of the target region. The relevant code is provided in an Appendix.

title: Measurement of Change of 7Be Decay Rate in Be and Au
abstract: We have measured the possible change of the decay rate of 7Be implanted into hosts of natural beryllium and natural gold. No difference between the 7Be decay rates in the two hosts is observed within the experimental precision of 0.12%. This result implies that change of the decay rate of 7Be implanted in different materials cannot be simply expected from the electron affinity difference consideration lonely and the lattice structure of the host materials should be taken into account.

title: Calculation of Nuclear Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering in HERMES Experiment
abstract: We investigate the possibility to acquire information of nuclear generalized parton distribution (GPD) H by studying the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) of several nuclear targets at the HERMES group (Hadron–Electron Ring Accelerator Measurement of Spin). Two different models are used and developed to demonstrate the leading asymmetry amplitude ALUsinO for coherent-enriched and incoherent-enriched parts with both statistical and systematic uncertainties estimated. It is found that a clear enhancement of ratio of nuclear asymmetry ALUA,sino to free proton asymmetry ALUH,sino in the coherent-enriched region is expected by both models, and a decrease of the ratio in incoherent-enriched region; both give the information about nuclear modifications. It is also possible to distinguish between those two models even under the limited statistics.

title: A new analytical method for testing quantum entanglement in P→VV decay
abstract: As the basic criterion of the validity of quantum mechanics, Bell's inequality has aroused wide theoretical and experimental interest. With the accumulation of an increasing number of events in high-energy physics, it is tempting to test Bell's inequality directly in particle physics. In this paper, we choose the P → VV decay to reveal entanglement between daughter particles. On the basis of quantum mechanics predictions in the literature, we present a statistical method that can fully utilize the data available. A Monte Carlo simulation was carried to study the effects of detector geometry, detector efficiency and momentum resolution.

title: An artificial neural network for proton identification in HERMES data
abstract: The HERMES time-of-flight (TOF) system is used for proton identification, but must be carefully calibrated for systematic biases in the equipment. This paper presents an artificial neural network (ANN) trained to recognize protons from Λ° decay using only raw event data such as time delay, momentum, and trajectory. To avoid the systematic errors associated with Monte Carlo models, we collect a sample of raw experimental data from the year 2000. We presume that when for a positive hadron (assigned one proton mass) and a negative hadron (assigned one π− mass) the reconstructed invariant mass lies within the Λ° resonance, the positive hadron is more likely to be a proton. Such events are assigned an output value of one during the training process; all others were assigned the output value zero. The trained ANN is capable of identifying protons in independent experimental data, with an efficiency equivalent to the traditional TOF calibration. By modifying the threshold for proton identification, a researcher can trade off between selection efficiency and background rejection power. This simple and convenient method is applicable to similar detection problems in other experiments.

title: Is there a maximum magnetic field in QED
abstract: It was recently conjectured by Shabad and Usov that there exists in QED a maximum magnetic field of 10 42 G , above which the magnetized vacuum becomes unstable. Using a nonperturbative analysis that consistently incorporates the effective electron mass and the screening effect in a strong magnetic field, we show that the conjectured phenomenon of positronium collapse never takes place. Thus, there does not exist a maximum magnetic field in QED and the magnetized vacuum is stable for all values of the magnetic field.

title: Vorticity and magnetic field production in relativistic ideal fluids
abstract: In the framework of relativistic ideal hydrodynamics, we study the production mechanism for vorticity and magnetic field in relativistic ideal fluids. It is demonstrated that in the uncharged fluids the thermal vorticity will always satisfy the Kelvin's theorem and the circulation must be conserved. However, in the charged fluids, the vorticity and magnetic field can be produced by the interaction between the entropy gradients and the fluid velocity gradients. Especially, in the multiple charged fluids, the vorticity and magnetic field can be produced by the interaction between the inhomogeneous charge density ratio and the fluid velocity gradients even if the entropy distribution is homogeneous, which provides another mechanism for the production of vorticity and magnetic field in relativistic plasmas or in the early universe.

title: Heavy fragment radioactivity of Pu-238: Si and Mg emission
abstract: In addition to its two known hadronic decay modes\char22{}alpha decay (half-life 88 yr) and spontaneous fission (5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{10}$ yr)\char22{}we have found that $^{238}\mathrm{Pu}$ also decays by emission of a Mg nucleus (\ensuremath{\sim}2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{18}$ yr) and by emission of a Si nucleus (\ensuremath{\sim}6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{17}$ yr). This extends to four (the other two being $^{14}\mathrm{C}$ emission and Ne emission) the number of known modes of decay by emission of a fragment of mass between that of an alpha particle and that resulting from fission. The branching ratios relative to alpha decay are the lowest yet observed: \ensuremath{\sim}6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}17}$ for Mg emission and 1.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}16}$ for Si emission.

title: Measurement of the top quark mass in the all-hadronic mode at CDF
abstract: A measurement of the top quark mass ( M top ) in the all-hadronic decay channel is presented. It uses 5.8 fb−1 of p p ¯ data collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Events with six to eight jets are selected by a neural network algorithm and by the requirement that at least one of the jets is tagged as a b-quark jet. The measurement is performed with a likelihood fit technique, which simultaneously determines M top and the jet energy scale (JES) calibration. The fit yields a value of M top = 172.5 ± 1.4 ( stat ) ± 1.0 ( JES ) ± 1.1 ( syst ) GeV / c 2 .

title: Model-Independent Global Search for New High-pT Physics at CDF