14338309
The BaBar Mini
BaBar has recently deployed a new event data format referred to as the Mini. The mini uses efficient packing and aggressive noise suppression to represent the average reconstructed BaBar event in under 7 KBytes. The Mini packs detector information into simple transient data objects, which are then aggregated into roughly 10 composite persistent objects per event. The Mini currently uses Objectivity persistence, and it is being ported to use Root persistence. The Mini contains enough information to support detailed detector studies, while remaining small and fast enough to be used directly in physics analysis. Mini output is customizable, allowing users to both truncate unnecessary content or add content, depending on their needs. The Mini has now replaced three older formats as the primary output of BaBar event reconstruction. A reduced form of the Mini will soon replace the physics analysis format as well, giving BaBar a single, flexible event data format covering all its needs.
40634832
An Overview of the B A B AR Conditions Database
This paper presents special database software developed in the context of the BABAR experiment used to keep the detector alignments, calibrations constants, as well as other time-dependent records of the conditions under which the experimental events are taken.
117126887
A Search for Double Parton Interactions in 1.8-TeV Proton - Anti-Proton Collisions
17140866
Extracting longitudinal shower development information from crystal calorimetry plus tracking
arXiv:0711.1593v2 [physics.ins-det] 11 Apr 2008 Extracting longitudinal shower development information from crystal calorimetry plus tracking D.N. Brown a , J. Ilic b , G.B. Mohanty b a Lawrence b Department Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom Abstract We present an approach to derive longitudinal shower development information from the longitudinally unsegmented B A B AR electromagnetic calorimeter by using tracking information. Our algorithm takes advantage of the good three- dimensional tracking resolution of B A B AR , which provides an independent geometric constraint on the shower as measured in the B A B AR crystal calorimeter. We show that adding the derived longitudinal shower development information to standard particle identiﬁcation algorithms signiﬁcantly improves the low-momentum separation of pions from electrons and muons. We also verify that the energy dependence of the electromagnetic shower development we measure is consistent with the prediction of a standard electromagnetic shower model. Key words: Particle Identiﬁcation, Longitudinal Shower Depth, Electromagnetic Calorimetry, Tracking PACS: 29.40.Gx, 29.40.Vj, 07.05.Kf 1. Introduction In present-day nuclear and particle physics ex- periments, inorganic scintillating crystals, such as NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl), are often used to construct electromagnetic calorimeters when a precise mea- surement of the energy is required [1]. Crystal calorimeters can be ﬁnely segmented in the dimen- sion transverse to the shower development without sacriﬁcing energy resolution, thus providing a good measurement of the lateral shower development. However, engineering and energy resolution consid- erations prevent ﬁnely segmenting crystal calorime- ters along the direction of shower development. Both lateral and longitudinal shower development information are useful in charged particle identi- Email addresses: Dave Brown@lbl.gov (D.N. Brown), J.Ilic@warwick.ac.uk (J. Ilic), G.B.Mohanty@warwick.ac.uk (G.B. Mohanty). Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science ﬁcation (PID) algorithms, particularly in electron identiﬁcation. Because crystal calorimeters cannot provide direct longitudinal shower development in- formation, they lose an important input to particle identiﬁcation. In this paper, we present a technique in which longitudinal shower development information is indirectly extracted from a longitudinally unseg- mented crystal calorimeter in conjunction with a precise tracking system. This technique was devel- oped for use with the B A B AR [2] detector, but it can be applied at any detector which combines crystal calorimetry and precision tracking. It exploits the fact that B A B AR has a tracking system capable of precisely determining the three-dimensional trajec- tory of charged particles, and the fact that these trajectories are not in general collinear with the crystal axes. A similar algorithm has previously been used for sampling calorimeters with ﬁne lateral segmentation [3]. 11 April 2008
121719814
An electromagnetic calorimeter for the small angle regions of the collider detector at Fermilab
Two large electromagnetic calorimeters have been built for the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). These have been designed for use in the small angle regions in both the proton and the antiproton beam directions. Each calorimeter consists of 30 sampling layers of proportional tube chambers with cathode pad readout separated by lead sheets for a total thickness of 25.5 radiation lengths. Each proportional tube chamber is constructed using a novel technique in which the insulating side of the cathode pad board is bonded to the proportional tube walls using resistive epoxy. The measured energy response of the calorimeter is linear up to 160 GeV, and the measured energy resolution, σEE, is approximately 25%√E + 0.5%. The position resolution for single electrons varies between 1 and 4 mm depending on location in the calorimeter. The calorimeter offers good eπ discrimination, where typically the pion misidentification probability ƒπ → e < 0.5% for an electron identification efficiency ϵ90%.
61135312
Portable software for distributed readout controllers and event builders in FASTBUS and VME
We report on software developed as part of the PAN-DA system to support the functions of front end readout controllers and event builders in multiprocessor, multilevel, distributed data acquisition systems. For the next generation data acquisition system we have undertaken to design and implement software tools that are easily transportable to new modules. The first implementation of this software is for Motorola 68K series processor boards in FASTBUS and VME and will be used in the Fermilab accelerator run at the beginning of 1990. We use a Real Time Kernel Operating System. The software provides general connectivity tools for control, diagnosis and monitoring. 17 refs., 7 figs.
51807515
Data formats for numerical relativity waves
This document proposes data formats to exchange numerical relativity results, in particular gravitational waveforms. The primary goal is to further the interaction between gravitational-wave source modeling groups and the gravitational-wave data-analysis community. We present a simple and extendable format which is applicable to various kinds of gravitational wave sources including binaries of compact objects and systems undergoing gravitational collapse, but is nevertheless sufficiently general to be useful for other purposes.
1576896
Comparison of high-accuracy numerical simulations of black-hole binaries with stationary-phase post-Newtonian template waveforms for initial and advanced LIGO
We study the effectiveness of stationary-phase approximated post-Newtonian waveforms currently used by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors to search for the coalescence of binary black holes by comparing them to an accurate waveform obtained from numerical simulation of an equal-mass non-spinning binary black hole inspiral, merger and ringdown. We perform this study for the initial- and advanced-LIGO detectors. We find that overlaps between the templates and signal can be improved by integrating the match filter to higher frequencies than used currently. We propose simple analytic frequency cutoffs for both initial and advanced LIGO, which achieve nearly optimal matches, and can easily be extended to unequal-mass, spinning systems. We also find that templates that include terms in the phase evolution up to 3.5 post-Newtonian (pN) order are nearly always better, and rarely significantly worse, than 2.0 pN templates currently in use. For initial LIGO we recommend a strategy using templates that include a recently introduced pseudo-4.0 pN term in the low-mass (M ≤ 35 M☉) region, and 3.5 pN templates allowing unphysical values of the symmetric reduced mass η above this. This strategy always achieves overlaps within 0.3% of the optimum, for the data used here. For advanced LIGO we recommend a strategy using 3.5 pN templates up to M = 12 M☉, 2.0 pN templates up to M = 21 M☉, pseudo-4.0 pN templates up to 65 M☉, and 3.5 pN templates with unphysical η for higher masses. This strategy always achieves overlaps within 0.7% of the optimum for advanced LIGO.
41266047
Model waveform accuracy standards for gravitational wave data analysis
Model waveforms are used in gravitational wave data analysis to detect and then to measure the properties of a source by matching the model waveforms to the signal from a detector. This paper derives accuracy standards for model waveforms which are sufficient to ensure that these data analysis applications are capable of extracting the full scientific content of the data, but without demanding excessive accuracy that would place undue burdens on the model waveform simulation community. These accuracy standards are intended primarily for broadband model waveforms produced by numerical simulations, but the standards are quite general and apply equally to such waveforms produced by analytical or hybrid analytical-numerical methods.
1026408
Turduckening black holes: An Analytical and computational study
We provide a detailed analysis of several aspects of the turduckening technique for evolving black holes. At the analytical level we study the constraint propagation for a family of formulations of Einstein's field equations and identify under what conditions the turducken procedure is rigorously justified and under what conditions constraint violations will propagate to the outside of the black holes. We present high resolution spherically symmetric studies which verify our analytical predictions. Then we present three-dimensional simulations of single distorted black holes using different variations of the turduckening method and also the puncture method. We study the effect that these different methods have on the coordinate conditions, constraint violations, and extracted gravitational waves. We find that the waves agree up to small but nonvanishing differences, caused by escaping superluminal gauge modes. These differences become smaller with increasing detector location.
59368902
Nonspinning searches for spinning binaries in ground-based detector data: Amplitude and mismatch predictions in the constant precession cone approximation
Current searches for compact binary mergers by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors assume for simplicity the two bodies are not spinning. If the binary contains compact objects with significant spin, then this can reduce the sensitivity of these searches, particularly for black hole--neutron star binaries. In this paper we investigate the effect of neglecting precession on the sensitivity of searches for spinning binaries using non-spinning waveform models. We demonstrate that in the sensitive band of Advanced LIGO, the angle between the binary's orbital angular momentum and its total angular momentum is approximately constant. Under this \emph{constant precession cone} approximation, we show that the gravitational-wave phasing is modulated in two ways: a secular increase of the gravitational-wave phase due to precession and an oscillation around this secular increase. We show that this secular evolution occurs in precisely three ways, corresponding to physically different apparent evolutions of the binary's precession about the line of sight. We estimate the best possible fitting factor between \emph{any} non-precessing template model and a single precessing signal, in the limit of a constant precession cone. Our closed form estimate of the fitting-factor depends only the geometry of the in-band precession cone; it does not depend explicitly on binary parameters, detector response, or details of either signal model. The precessing black hole--neutron star waveforms least accurately matched by nonspinning waveforms correspond to viewing geometries where the precession cone sweeps the orbital plane repeatedly across the line of sight, in an unfavorable polarization alignment.