Many measurements and searches for physics beyond the standard model at the LHC rely on the efficient identification of heavy-flavour jets, i.e. jets originating from bottom or charm quarks. In this paper, the discriminating variables and the algorithms used for heavy-flavour jet identification during the first years of operation of the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, are presented. Heavy-flavour jet identification algorithms have been improved compared to those used previously at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. For jets with transverse momenta in the range expected in simulated events, these new developments result in an efficiency of 68% for the correct identification of a b jet for a probability of 1% of misidentifying a light-flavour jet. The improvement in relative efficiency at this misidentification probability is about 15%, compared to previous CMS algorithms. In addition, for the first time algorithms have been developed to identify jets containing two b hadrons in Lorentz-boosted event topologies, as well as to tag c jets. The large data sample recorded in 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV has also allowed the development of new methods to measure the efficiency and misidentification probability of heavy-flavour jet identification algorithms. The b jet identification efficiency is measured with a precision of a few per cent at moderate jet transverse momenta (between 30 and 300 GeV) and about 5% at the highest jet transverse momenta (between 500 and 1000 GeV).

/pdf/identification-of-heavy-flavour-jets-with-the-cms-detector-35v292ac7c.pdf

Identification of heavy-flavour jets with the CMS detector in pp collisions at 13 TeV

The MEG experiment, designed to search for the $${\mu ^+ \rightarrow \hbox {e}^+ \gamma }$$
 decay, completed data-taking in 2013 reaching a sensitivity level of $${5.3\times 10^{-13}}$$
 for the branching ratio. In order to increase the sensitivity reach of the experiment by an order of magnitude to the level of $$6\times 10^{-14}$$
 , a total upgrade, involving substantial changes to the experiment, has been undertaken, known as MEG II. We present both the motivation for the upgrade and a detailed overview of the design of the experiment and of the expected detector performance.

/pdf/the-design-of-the-meg-ii-experiment-2yc73q4jtd.pdf

The design of the MEG II experiment

We report the observation of new properties of primary cosmic rays He, C, and O measured in the rigidity (momentum/charge) range 2 GV to 3 TV with 90×106 helium, 8.4×106 carbon, and 7.0×106 oxygen nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) during the first five years of operation. Above 60 GV, these three spectra have identical rigidity dependence. They all deviate from a single power law above 200 GV and harden in an identical way.

/pdf/observation-of-the-identical-rigidity-dependence-of-he-c-and-1bb4u3j8ae.pdf

Observation of the Identical Rigidity Dependence of He, C, and O Cosmic Rays at High Rigidities by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station

This Special Report presents a description of Geant4-DNA user applications dedicated to the simulation of track structures (TS) in liquid water and associated physical quantities (e.g., range, stopping power, mean free path…). These example applications are included in the Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit and are available in open access. Each application is described and comparisons to recent international recommendations are shown (e.g., ICRU, MIRD), when available. The influence of physics models available in Geant4-DNA for the simulation of electron interactions in liquid water is discussed. Thanks to these applications, the authors show that the most recent sets of physics models available in Geant4-DNA (the so-called "option4" and "option 6" sets) enable more accurate simulation of stopping powers, dose point kernels, and W-values in liquid water, than the default set of models ("option 2") initially provided in Geant4-DNA. They also serve as reference applications for Geant4-DNA users interested in TS simulations.

/pdf/geant4-dna-example-applications-for-track-structure-4hbsoixam3.pdf

Geant4-DNA example applications for track structure simulations in liquid water: A report from the Geant4-DNA Project.

We report on the observation of new properties of secondary cosmic rays Li, Be, and B measured in the rigidity (momentum per unit charge) range 1.9 GV to 3.3 TV with a total of 5.4×10^{6} nuclei collected by AMS during the first five years of operation aboard the International Space Station. The Li and B fluxes have an identical rigidity dependence above 7 GV and all three fluxes have an identical rigidity dependence above 30 GV with the Li/Be flux ratio of 2.0±0.1. The three fluxes deviate from a single power law above 200 GV in an identical way. This behavior of secondary cosmic rays has also been observed in the AMS measurement of primary cosmic rays He, C, and O but the rigidity dependences of primary cosmic rays and of secondary cosmic rays are distinctly different. In particular, above 200 GV, the secondary cosmic rays harden more than the primary cosmic rays.

/pdf/observation-of-new-properties-of-secondary-cosmic-rays-1a6rzsyqok.pdf

Observation of New Properties of Secondary Cosmic Rays Lithium, Beryllium, and Boron by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station

Geant4 is a software toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles through matter. It is used by a large number of experiments and projects in a variety of application domains, including high energy physics, astrophysics and space science, medical physics and radiation protection. Over the past several years, major changes have been made to the toolkit in order to accommodate the needs of these user communities, and to efficiently exploit the growth of computing power made available by advances in technology. The adaptation of Geant4 to multithreading, advances in physics, detector modeling and visualization, extensions to the toolkit, including biasing and reverse Monte Carlo, and tools for physics and release validation are discussed here.

/pdf/recent-developments-in-geant4-3pgbpf1ko3.pdf

D. Sawkey

Papers

Recent developments in GEANT4