111119743
Upgrade of the COMPASS calorimetric trigger
In 2009 COMPASS performed a short measurement of neutral Primakoff reactions, characterised by highly energetic photons in one of the two electromagnetic calorimeters. A digital trigger was implemented in the existing readout electronics which calculates the energy released in the central region of the calorimeter. In 2012 a long measurement of these processes has been performed. In order to extend the kinematic range to lower energetic photons the trigger system has been upgraded in a way to be more selective to specific physics channels. The new ADC firmware preserves hit information and provides it to newly developed backplane trigger modules. There hits from all three thousand channels are processed and the trigger decision is made.
118063177
Measurement of the Pion Polarizability at COMPASS
The value of the pion polarizability is predicted with high precision by Chiral Perturbation Theory. However, the existing experimental values are at tension with this prediction as well as among themselves. The COMPASS experiment at the CERN SPS accesses pion-photon reactions via the Primakoff effect, where high-energetic pions react with the quasi-real photon field surrounding the target nuclei. Flagship channel is the Primakoff reaction in which a single real photon is produced, giving access to pion Compton scattering. Using this process the pion polarizability is extracted from the measured cross-section shape. End of 2009 COMPASS performed a measurement of the pion polarizability using a nickel target. The large amount of data collected in combination with the possibility to study systematic effects using the analogous reaction with a muon beam, the most precise experimental value to date was determined.
8636737
The universal sampling ADC readout system of the COMPASS experiment
The COMPASS experiment (COmpact Muon Proton Apparatus for Structure and Spectroscopy) is a fixed target experiment located at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The physics program is focused on the study of hadron structure and hadron spectroscopy with high intensity muon and hadron beams, up to 160 GeV/c for muons and 190 GeV/c for hadrons respectively. To allow the tracking of charged particles with very low and as well very high momentum, COMPASS comprises two magnetic spectrometer stages extending to a total length of 60 m. From the data acquisition point of view, about 200000 analog detector channels have to be read along the complete experiment. Depending on the detector signal characteristics and the number of channels, this task is realized by frontend electronics using either dedicated ASICs and/or sampling analog-to-digital (ADC) or time-to-digital (TDC) components. The sampling ADC based readout system of the COMPASS experiment comprises today over 127k channels equipped with the APV25 frontend ASIC and 5728 direct sampling channels. An important feature from the beginning was the combination of data transfer, clock and trigger distribution and configuration access within a standardized serial interface between the different ADC modules and the first stage of data concentrator modules. By choosing between a copper or fiber realization for this interface, either a low cost interconnect or a link with galvanic decoupling can be realized. The ongoing development of the sampling ADC electronics is focused on the migration toward the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) crate standard, to overcome the backplane bandwidth limitations in VME systems. In addition, the ATCA standard provides better cooling and monitoring capabilities. To simplify the transition to ATCA, the MSADC module was already realized as a mezzanine card, which can be mounted on an ATCA based carrier card as well. In addition, the MSADC card fits also to the MicroTCA form factor, which allows to provide a handy building block for laboratory based data acquisition systems.
14514505
Majorana neutrinos in a warped 5D standard model
Abstract We consider neutrino oscillations and neutrinoless double beta decay in a five-dimensional standard model with warped geometry. Although the see-saw mechanism in its simplest form cannot be implemented because of the warped geometry, the bulk standard model neutrinos can acquire the desired (Majorana) masses from dimension five interactions. We discuss how large mixings can arise, why the large mixing angle MSW solution for solar neutrinos is favored, and provide estimates for the mixing angle U e 3 . Implications for neutrinoless double beta decay are also discussed.
4014855
SUSY variants of the electroweak phase transition
Abstract. The MSSM with a light right-handed stop and supersymmetric models with a singlet whose vev is comparable to that of the $SU(2)_W$ Higgs allow for a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition even for a mass of the lightest Higgs around 100 GeV. After a short review of the standard model situation we discuss these supersymmetric models. We also compare perturbative calculations based on the dimensionally reduced 3-dimensional action with lattice results and present an analytic procedure based on an analogue of the stochastic vacuum model of QCD to estimate the nonperturbative contributions.
16265499
Bubble wall velocity in the minimal supersymmetric light stop scenario
We build on existing calculations of the wall velocity of the expanding bubbles of the broken symmetry phase in a first-order electroweak phase transition within the light stop scenario (LSS) of the MSSM. We carry out the analysis using the 2-loop thermal potential for values of the Higgs mass consistent with present experimental bounds. Our approach relies on describing the interaction between the bubble and the hot plasma by a single friction parameter, which we fix by matching to an existing 1-loop computation and extrapolate to our regime of interest. For a sufficiently strong phase transition (in which washout of the newly created baryon asymmetry is prevented) we obtain values of the wall velocity, vw≈0.05, far below the speed of sound in the medium, and not very much deviating from the previous 1-loop calculation. We find that the phase transition is about 10% stronger than suggested by simply evaluating the thermal potential at the critical temperature. We also comment on the relevance of our results to extended models, such as the NMSSM.
16756712
Bubble walls, CP-violation and electroweak baryogenesis in the MSSM
Abstract. We discuss the generation of the baryon asymmetry by a strong first order electroweak phase transition in the early universe, particularly in the context of the MSSM. This requires a thorough numerical treatment of the bubble wall profile in the case of two Higgs fields. CP-violating complex particle masses varying with the Higgs field in the wall are essential. Since in the MSSM there is no indication of spontaneous CP-violation around the critical temperature (contrary to the NMSSM) we have to rely on standard explicit CP-violation. Using the WKB approximation for particles in the plasma we are led to Boltzmann transport equations for the difference of left-handed particles and their CP-conjugates. This asymmetry is finally transformed into a baryon asymmetry by out of equilibrium sphaleron transitions in the symmetric phase. We solve the transport equations and find a baryon asymmetry depending mostly on the CP-violating phases and the wall velocity.
9379751
Non-perturbative contributions to the hot electroweak potential and the crossover
We discuss non-perturbative contributions to the three-dimensional 1-loop effective potential of the electroweak theory at high temperatures in the framework of the stochastic vacuum model. It assumes a gauge-field background with Gaussian correlations which leads to confinement. The instability of 〈F2〉 = 0 in Yang-Mills theory appears for small Higgs expectation value 〈φ2〉 in an IR regularized form. The gauge-boson propagator obtains a positive momentum-dependent “diamagnetic” effective (mass)2 due to confinement effects and a negative one due to “paramagnetic” spin-spin interactions which are related to the 〈F2〉 = 0 instability. Numerical evaluation of an approximate effective potential containing these masses shows qualitatively the fading away of the first-order phase transition with increasing Higgs mass which was observed in lattice calculations. The crossover point can be roughly determined postulating that the effective φ4 and φ2 terms vanish there.