Showing papers by "Fr Pastore published in 2009"

A study of quasi-elastic muon neutrino and antineutrino scattering in the NOMAD experiment

Abstract: We have studied the muon neutrino and antineutrino quasi-elastic (QEL) scattering reactions ( ν μ n→ μ - p and bar{ν }_{μ}ptoμ+n ) using a set of experimental data collected by the NOMAD Collaboration. We have performed measurements of the cross-section of these processes on a nuclear target (mainly carbon) normalizing it to the total ν μ ( bar{ν}_{μ} ) charged-current cross section. The results for the flux-averaged QEL cross sections in the (anti)neutrino energy interval 3-100 GeV are < σ_{qel}rangle_{ν_{μ}}=(0.92±0.02(stat)±0.06(syst))×10^{-38} cm2 and <σ_{qel}rangle_{bar{ν}_{μ}}=(0.81±0.05(stat)±0.09(syst))×10^{-38} cm2 for neutrino and antineutrino, respectively. The axial mass parameter M A was extracted from the measured quasi-elastic neutrino cross section. The corresponding result is M A =1.05±0.02(stat)±0.06(syst) GeV. It is consistent with the axial mass values recalculated from the antineutrino cross section and extracted from the pure Q 2 shape analysis of the high purity sample of ν μ quasi-elastic 2-track events, but has smaller systematic error and should be quoted as the main result of this work. Our measured M A is found to be in good agreement with the world average value obtained in previous deuterium filled bubble chamber experiments. The NOMAD measurement of M A is lower than those recently published by K2K and MiniBooNE Collaborations. However, within the large errors quoted by these experiments on M A , these results are compatible with the more precise NOMAD value.

Expected performance of the ATLAS experiment - detector, trigger and physics

Abstract: A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN.

Large-angle production of charged pions with incident pion beams on nuclear targets

Abstract: We gratefully acknowledge the help and support of the PS beam staff and of the numerous technical collaborators who contributed to the detector design, construction, commissioning and operation. In particular, we would like to thank G. Barichello, R. Brocard, K. Burin, V. Carassiti, F. Chignoli, D. Conventi, G. Decreuse, M. Delattre, C. Detraz, A. Domeniconi, M. Dwuznik, F. Evangelisti, B. Friend, A. Iaciofano, I. Krasin, D. Lacroix, J.-C. Legrand, M. Lobello, M. Lollo, J. Loquet, F. Marinilli, J. Mulon, L. Musa, R. Nicholson, A. Pepato, P. Petev, X. Pons, I. Rusinov, M. Scandurra, E. Usenko, and R. van der Vlugt, for their support in the construction of the detector. The collaboration acknowledges the major contributions and advice of M. Baldo-Ceolin, L. Linssen, M.T. Muciaccia and A. Pullia during the construction of the experiment. The collaboration is indebted to V. Ableev, P. Arce, F. Bergsma, P. Binko, E. Boter, C. Buttar, M. Calvi, M. Campanelli, C. Cavion, A. Chukanov, A. De Min, M. Doucet, D. Dullmann, R. Engel, V. Ermilova, W. Flegel, P. Gruber, Y. Hayato, P. Hodgson, A. Ichikawa, I. Kato, O. Klimov, T. Kobayashi, D. Kustov, M. Laveder, M. Mass, H. Meinhard, T. Nakaya, K. Nishikawa, M. Paganoni, F. Paleari, M. Pasquali, J. Pasternak, C. Pattison, M. Placentino, S. Robbins, G. Santin, V. Serdiouk, S. Simone, A. Tornero, S. Troquereau, S. Ueda, A. Valassi, F. Vannucci and K. Zuber for their contributions to the experiment and to P. Dini for help in MC production. We acknowledge the contributions of V. Ammosov, G. Chelkov, D. Dedovich, F. Dydak, M. Gostkin, A. Guskov, D. Khartchenko, V. Koreshev, Z. Kroumchtein, I. Nefedov, A. Semak, J. Wotschack, V. Zaets and A. Zhemchugov to the work described in this paper. The experiment was made possible by grants from the Institut Interuniversitaire des Sciences Nucleaires and the Interuniversitair Instituut voor Kernwetenschappen (Belgium), Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Grant FPA2003-06921-c02-02 and Generalitat Valenciana, grant GV00-054-1, CERN (Geneva, Switzerland), the German Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), INR RAS (Moscow), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 08-02-00018) and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK). We gratefully acknowledge their support. This work was supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in the framework of the programme SCOPES - Scientific co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland.

The Level-1 Trigger Muon Barrel System of the ATLAS experiment at CERN

Abstract: The ATLAS Level-1 Muon Barrel Trigger is one of the main elements of the first stage of event selection of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The challenge of the Level-1 system is a reduction of the event rate from a collision rate of 40 MHz by a factor 103, using simple algorithms that can be executed in highly parallel custom electronics with a latency of the order of 1 ?s. The input stage of the Level-1 Muon consists of an array of processors receiving the full granularity of data from a dedicated detector (Resistive Plate Chambers in the Barrel). This first stage of the algorithm is performed directly on-detector, while the final stage is performed in boards mounted in the counting room, by the so-called off-detector electronics. The trigger algorithm is executed within a fixed latency, its real-time output is the multiplicity of muon candidates passing a set of programmable pT thresholds, and their topological information. The detector system and the trigger electronics are designed to achieve a safe bunch-crossing identification. In order to optimize design effort and cost, the trigger system integrates also the readout of the detector, with its own requirements on time resolution and overall data bandwidth. We present the detailed functional requirements of the Level-1 Muon Barrel system, its architecture, implementation and construction.

Forward production of charged pions with incident protons on nuclear targets at the CERN Proton Synchrotron

Abstract: Measurements of the double-differential π± production cross section in the range of momentum 0.5⩽p⩽8.0 GeV/c and angle 0.025⩽θ⩽0.25 rad in collisions of protons on beryllium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, aluminum, copper, tin, tantalum, and lead are presented. The data were taken with the large-acceptance HAdRon Production (HARP) detector in the T9 beamline of the CERN Proton Synchrotron. Incident particles were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors. Thin targets of 5% of a nuclear interaction length were used. The tracking and identification of the produced particles were performed using the forward system of the HARP experiment. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross sections d2σ/dp dΩ mainly at four incident proton beam momenta (3, 5, 8, and 12 GeV/c). Measurements are compared with the GEANT4 and MARS Monte Carlo generators. A global parametrization is provided as an approximation of all the collected datasets, which can serve as a tool for quick yield estimates

Triggering on Long-Lived Neutral Particles in the ATLAS Detector

Abstract: Neutral particles with long decay paths that decay to many-particle final states represent, from an experimental point of view, a challenge both for the trigger and for the reconstruction capabilities of the ATLAS apparatus. The Hidden Valley scenario serves as an excellent setting for the purpose of exploring the challenges to the trigger posed by long-lived particles.