118583202
Fast timing detectors for forward protons at the LHC
I discuss the development of high precision timing detectors for high momentum protons at the LHC, and their application in studying exclusive Higgs boson production.
82550552
Search for stable particles of charge 1 and mass deuteron mass
In a search for stable massive particles of charge q ⩾ 1 at the CERN ISR (√s = 53 GeV) no new particle in the mass range q × 2.4 GeV < m ≲ 30 GeV has been found among 3.1 × 107 recorded secondaries. At x = 2pL/√s = 0.21 and pT = 0.21 GeV/c the deuteron to π+ ratio is (1.3±0.2) × 10−4 and the antideuteron to π− ratio is (7.6±2.3) × 10−6. for (anti)tritons upper limits of (t/π+) < 5 × 10−7and (t/π−7) < 5 × 10−7 have been obtained.
115609427
VIIth Blois Workshop summary: experimental
The Blois Workshop has become a conference not just restricted to diffractive scattering, but including topics such as searches for SUSY and Higgs, measurements of the top mass and b-decays. I will mention these briefly but will mostly discuss new results (and needed future measurements) in hard diffraction at HERA and the Tevatron.
126196482
ELASTIC SCATTERING OF POSITIVE KAONS ON POLARIZED PROTONS BETWEEN 0.87 AND 2.74 GeV/c. RESULTS AND PHASE-SHIFT ANALYSIS.
Abstract Polarization and differential cross-section data at 16 momenta between 0.86 and 2.74 GeV/ c are presented. (Preliminary data on some of the momenta have been published earlier.) In an energy-independent phase-shift analysis from threshold up to 2.5 GeV/ c , resonant-like as well as non-resonant solutions are found for the P 3 wave. An helicity flip-non-flip decomposition of the partial waves partly supports the indications found in the analyses of other reactions that the pomeron is built up mainly from s -channel helicity non-flip contributions.
59382161
QCD subgroup on diffractive and forward physics
Over the last few years, there has been a resurgence of interest in small-x or diffractive physics. This has been due to the realization that perturbative QCD techniques may be applicable to what was previously thought of as a non-perturbative problem and to the opening up of new energy regimes at HERA and the Tevatron collider. The goal is to understand the pomeron, and hence the behavior of total cross sections, elastic scattering and diffractive excitation, in terms of the underlying theory, QCD. This paper is divided into experiments of hadron-hadron colliders and electron-proton colliders.
118601539
Quartz Cherenkov counters for fast timing: QUARTIC
We have developed particle detectors based on fused silica (quartz) Cherenkov radi- ators read out with microchannel plate photomultipliers (MCP-PMTs) or silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for high precision timing (st 10-15 ps). One application is to measure the times of small angle protons from exclusive reactions, p+ p! p+ X + p, at the Large Hadron Collider, LHC. They may also be used to measure directional particle fluxes close to external or stored beams. The detectors have small areas (cm 2 ), but need to be active very close ( 4 mm) to the intense LHC beam, and so must be radiation hard and nearly edgeless. We present results of tests of detectors with quartz bars inclined at the Cherenkov angle, and with bars in the form of an "L" (with a 90 corner). We also describe a possible design for a fast timing hodoscope with few mm 2 elements.
55031010
Difference image analysis: extension to a spatially varying photometric scale factor and other considerations
We present a general framework for matching the point-spread function (PSF), photometric scaling and sky background between two images, a subject which is commonly referred to as difference image analysis (DIA). We introduce the new concept of a spatially varying photometric scale factor which will be important for DIA applied to wide-field imaging data in order to adapt to transparency and airmass variations across the field-of-view. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to separately control the degree of spatial variation of each kernel basis function, the photometric scale factor and the differential sky background. We discuss the common choices for kernel basis functions within our framework, and we introduce the mixed-resolution delta basis functions to address the problem of the size of the least-squares problem to be solved when using delta basis functions. We validate and demonstrate our algorithm on simulated and real data. We also describe a number of useful optimizations that may be capitalized on during the construction of the least-squares matrix and which have not been reported previously. We pay special attention to presenting a clear notation for the DIA equations which are set out in a way that will hopefully encourage developers to tackle the implementation of DIA software.
119441536
Early estimation of microlensing event magnifications
Gravitational microlensing events with high peak magnifications provide a much-enhanced sensitivity to the detection of planets around the lens star. However, estimates of peak magnification during the early stages of an event by means of χ2 minimization frequently involve an overprediction, making observing campaigns with strategies that rely on these predictions inefficient. I show that a rudimentary Bayesian formulation, incorporating the known statistical characteristics of a detection system, produces much more accurate predictions of peak magnification than χ2 minimization. Implementation of this system will allow efficient follow-up observing programs that focus solely on events that contribute to planetary abundance statistics.
14681380
Probing the atmosphere of the bulge G5III star OGLE-2002-BUL-069 by analysis of microlensed Hα line
We discuss high-resolution, time-resolved spectra of the caustic exit of the binary microlensing event OGLE 2002-BUL-69 obtained with UVES on the VLT. The source star is a G5III giant in the Galactic Bulge. During such events, the source star is highly magnified, and a strong differential magnification around the caustic resolves its surface. Using an appropriate model stellar atmosphere generated by the NextGEN code we obtained a model light curve for the caustic exit and compared it with a dense set of photometric observations obtained by the PLANET microlensing follow up network. We further compared predicted variations in the H alpha equivalent width with those measured from our spectra. While the model and observations agree in the gross features, there are discrepancies suggesting shortcomings in the model, particularly for the H alpha line core, where we have detected amplified emission from the stellar chromosphere as the source star\'s trailing limb exited the caustic. This achievement became possible by the provision of the OGLE-III Early Warning System, a network of small telescopes capable of nearly-continuous round-the-clock photometric monitoring, on-line data reduction, daily near-real-time modelling in order to predict caustic crossing parameters, and a fast and efficient response of a 8m-class telescope to a ``Target-Of-Opportunity\'\' observation request.
2974286
First microlens mass measurement: Planet photometry of EROS BLG-2000-5
We analyze PLANET photometric observations of the caustic-crossing binary lens microlensing event, EROS BLG-2000-5, and find that modeling the observed light curve requires incorporation of the microlens parallax and the binary orbital motion. The projected Einstein radius (E = 3.61 ± 0.11 AU) is derived from the measurement of the microlens parallax, and we are also able to infer the angular Einstein radius (θE = 1.38 ± 0.12 mas) from the finite source effect on the light curve, combined with an estimate of the angular size of the source given by the source position in a color-magnitude diagram. The lens mass, M = 0.612 ± 0.057 M☉, is found by combining these two quantities. This is the first time that parallax effects are detected for a caustic-crossing event and also the first time that the lens mass degeneracy has been completely broken through photometric monitoring alone. The combination of E and θE also allows us to conclude that the lens lies in the near side of the disk, within 2.6 kpc of the Sun, while the radial velocity measurement indicates that the source is a Galactic bulge giant.
59381191
High-Precision Limb-Darkening Measurement of a K3 Giant Using Microlensing
We obtain high-precision limb-darkening measurements in five bands (V, VE, IE, I, and H) for the K3 III (Teff = 4200 K, [Fe/H] = +0.3, log g = 2.3) source of the Galactic bulge microlensing event EROS BLG-2000-5. These measurements are inconsistent with the predictions of atmospheric models at higher than 10 σ. While the disagreement is present in all bands, it is most apparent in I, IE, and VE, in part because the data are better and in part because the intrinsic disagreement is stronger. We find that when limb-darkening profiles are normalized to have unit total flux, the I-band models for a broad range of temperatures all cross each other at a common point. The solar profile also passes through this point. However, the profile as measured by microlensing does not. We hypothesize that the models have incorporated some aspect of solar physics that is not shared by giant atmospheres.