Diffraction dissociation of nuclei in 450 GeV/c proton-nucleus collisions

Diffractive dissociation of nuclei (Be, Al, W) in collisions with 450 GeV/c protons,pApX, has been measured with the HELIOS spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton synchrotron. The dependence of the single-diffraction cross-section on the nuclear massA can be parametrized as _SD mb×A ^0.35±0.02, showing the peripheral nature of the process. The differential cross-section d_SD=(3.8±0.3)mb ×A ^0.35±0.02, is exponential with the slope parameter, increasing from 6.2±0.4 (GeV/c)^–2 for beryllium to 7.9±0.5 (GeV/c)^–2 for tungsten. The slope parameter also increases with increasing massM _X of the diffractively produced state. The rapidity, multiplicity, and transverse-momentum distributions of the particles of the diffractively produced stateX show a longitudinal phase-space population and are remarkably insensitive to the nuclear mass. This, together with theA ^1/3 dependence of _SD, suggests that the dominant process of nuclear diffractive excitation is the dissociation of single nucleons.Deceased     

Radiation effect studies in single crystal of Trifluoroacetyl-α-Aminoisobutyric acid

In this study, electron paramagnetic resonance of γ-irradiated single crystals of N-Trifluoroacetyl-α-amino isobutyric acid (F₃Ac-Aib-OH) was investigated at room temperature and analyzed for different orientations of the crystal in the magnetic field. The paramagnetic species in N-Trifluoroacetyl-α-aminoisobutyric acid was attributed to the ?F₂-R radical (R= CONHC(CH₃)COOH). Hyperfine coupling constants and g value were also determined. In addition, the single crystal of F₃Ac-Aib-OH was UV-irradiated and paramagnetic species formed was studied at room temperature. The effects of gamma irradiation on fluoroamino acid and stability were discussed.     

Freeze-drying for the stabilisation of shellfish toxins in mussel tissue (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Mytilus edulis</Emphasis>) reference materials

Two samples of mussels (Mytilus edulis) were collected from the southwest of Ireland. One sample contained domoic acid, the other sample contained okadaic acid, dinophysistoxin-2 and azaspiracid-1, -2 and -3. Wet and freeze-dried reference materials were prepared from each of the two samples to test for differences in homogeneity, stability and extractability of the analytes in either condition. Wet materials were homogenised, aliquoted and hermetically sealed under argon and subsequently frozen at −80 °C. Dry materials were similarly homogenised but frozen in flat cakes prior to freeze-drying. After grinding, sieving and further homogenisation, the resulting powder was aliquoted and hermetically sealed. Domoic acid materials were characterised using HPLC–UV, while LC–MS was used for the determination of lipophilic toxins. The extractabilities of all phycotoxins studied were comparable for wet and freeze-dried materials once a sonication step had been carried out for reconstitution of the freeze-dried materials prior to extraction. Homogeneity was assessed through replicate analysis of the phycotoxins (n = 10), and was found to be similar for wet and freeze-dried materials, for both hydrophilic and lipophilic toxins. Water contents were determined for both wet and freeze-dried materials, and particle size was determined for the freeze-dried materials. Stability was evaluated isochronously over eight months at four temperatures (−20, +4, +20 and +40 °C). The freeze-dried material containing domoic acid was stable over the whole duration at all temperatures, while in the wet material domoic acid degraded to some extent at all temperatures except −20 °C. In freeze-dried and wet materials containing lipophilic toxins, okadaic acid, dinophysistoxin-2, azaspiracid-1 and azaspiracid-2 were stable over the whole duration at all conditions, while concentrations of azaspiracid-3 changed significantly in both materials at some storage temperatures. Figure Aliquots of freeze-dried and wet mussel tissue reference materials containing the various shellfish toxins examined in the study     

Determination of organophosphate esters in air samples by dynamic sonication-assisted solvent extraction coupled on-line with large-volume injection gas chromatography utilizing a programmed-temperature vaporizer

An on-line method for the determination of airborne organophosphate esters based on dynamic sonication-assisted solvent extraction and large-volume injection (LVI) gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorous detection is introduced. The LVI is performed with a programmed-temperature vaporizer. The entire extracted fraction of 800 microl (hexane-methyl-tert.-butyl ether, 7:3, v/v) is introduced directly into the GC system without any clean-up step following extraction. The extraction and analysis step were completed in less than 15 min. The limit of detection of the investigated organophosphate esters was established to be in the range of 5-32 pg/filter. The correlation coefficients (r2) were investigated in the linear range study of the entire system and established to be approximately 0.9900 for all the investigated organophosphates esters. Applications of the method was demonstrated with the extraction of air samples collected onto glass fiber filters from different indoor environments. Six organophosphate esters were found at the levels 0.4-138 ng/m3.     

A precise measurement of 180 GeV muon energy losses in iron

The energy loss spectrum of 180 GeV muons has been measured with the 5.6 m long finely segmented Module 0 of the ATLAS hadron Tile Calorimeter at the CERN SPS. The differential probability per radiation length of a fractional energy loss has been measured in the range ; it is compared with theoretical predictions for energy losses due to bremsstrahlung, production of electron–positron pairs, and energetic knock-on electrons. The iron elastic form factor correction to muon bremsstrahlung in the region of no screening of the nucleus by atomic electrons has been measured for the first time, and is compared with different theoretical predictions. Received: 28 December 2000 / Revised version: 14 February 2001 / Published online: 28 May 2001     

A precise measurement of the direct CP violation parameter \mathrm{Re}(\varepsilon'/\varepsilon)

The direct CP violation parameter has been measured from the decay rates of neutral kaons into two pions using the NA48 detector at the CERN SPS. With 3.3 million events collected during the 1998 and 1999 running periods, a result of has been obtained. The result combined with the published 1997 sample is . Received: 20 July 2001 / Published online: 21 November 2001     

Search for Higgs bosons in {\rm e^+e^-} collisions at 183 GeV

The data collected by the OPAL experiment at GeV were used to search for Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Standard Model and various extensions, such as general models with two Higgs field doublets and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 54 pb. None of the searches for neutral and charged Higgs bosons have revealed an excess of events beyond the expected background. This negative outcome, in combination with similar results from searches at lower energies, leads to new limits for the Higgs boson masses and other model parameters. In particular, the 95% confidence level lower limit for the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson is 88.3 GeV. Charged Higgs bosons can be excluded for masses up to 59.5 GeV. In the MSSM, GeV and GeV are obtained for , no and maximal scalar top mixing and soft SUSY-breaking masses of 1 TeV. The range is excluded for minimal scalar top mixing and GeV. More general scans of the MSSM parameter space are also considered. Received: 27 October 1998 / Published online: 19 February 1999     

Injection seeding for single-mode operation in an optically pumped high-power D2O laser

Spectrally narrow, pulsed outputs consisting of almost a single mode have been obtained from an optically-pumped high-power (200kW) D₂O laser by adopting the injection seeding method, where single-mode radiation (seed pulse) from a low-power, compact D₂O laser has been injected into the main D₂O laser. Spectrally narrow outputs with high power having spectral widths as narrow as 5 MHz have been obtained, when the seed pulses with frequency tuned to one longitudinal mode of the main D₂O laser have been injected at a time sufficiently before the lasing of the main laser took place. The experimental results have been compared with those of numerical simulation modified to include the injection field with varying injection times.     

Measurement of the strange quark forward-backward asymmetry around the Z^{0} peak

A precise measurement of the strange quark forward-backward asymmetry used 3.2M multihadronic events around the Z peak collected by the DELPHI experiment from 1992 to 1995. The ring imaging Cherenkov detectors in the barrel and end-cap regions identify high energy charged kaons which tag the s quark. The s quark asymmetry was measured at different centre-of-mass energies; in particular at the Z pole taking the expected d and u quark asymmetries from the Standard Model. The quark flavour fractions are assumed from the Standard Model and the fragmentation process is modelled by JETSET. From the s quark pole asymmetry the electroweak mixing angle was determined: The parity violating coupling of the s quark to the Z was determined to be: Received: 8 October 1999 / Revised version: 23 February 2000 / Published online: 18 May 2000