Alpha particle and deuteron impactL-shell ionization of Ar,Cu, Ge,Br, Zr and Ag

Alpha particle and deuteron impactL-subshell ionization cross-sections of Ar, Cu, Ge, Br, Zr and Ag have been computed using Vriens’ expressions for ionization cross-section of atoms due to impact of heavy charged particles. The effects of Coulomb deflection of the projectile and increase in binding of the target electron in the presence of projectile have been incorporated. Hartree-Fock velocity distributions for the target electrons have been used in the present calculations. The simple binary encounter approximation model is found to give results which are in satisfactory agreement with those obtained from experiments and from other theories.     

Working group report: Collider Physics

This is summary of the activities of the working group on collider physics in the IXth Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-9) held at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India in January 2006. Some of the work subsequently done on these problems by the subgroups formed during the workshop is included in this report.     

Extended inflation in higher-dimensional spacetime with a Brans-Dicke scalar field

Starting from an assumption of homogeneity of matter-energy tensor and Brans-Dicke (BD) scalar field we obtain a Robertson-Walker type of metric form in five-dimensional spacetime with the essential difference that our model is spatially inhomogeneous. The model exhibits an interesting feature in that as we approach the centre of symmetry the compact dimension becomes very large, with the implication that the Kaluza-Klein excitations become very light when located there and that the origin may represent a singular concentration of matter with motion in the extra dimension. Following Wesson the effective 4D properties of matter from the 5D vacuum solutions are also briefly discussed. Assuming particular functional relationships between and as also between the scale factor and scalar field, we obtain exact solutions which may be of relevance to the early universe and its extended inflation in the BD type of theory. We also discuss very briefly rollover time immediately after tunneling to the true vacuum state to explore if dimensionality has any marked influence on the situation.     

Enriching the exploration of the mUED model with event shape variables at the CERN LHC

We propose a new search strategy based on the event shape variables for new physics models where the separations among the masses of the particles in the spectrum are small. Collider signature of these models, characterized by low _pT$p_T$ leptons/jets and low missing _pT$p_T$, are known to be difficult to look for. The conventional search strategies involving hard cuts may not work in such situations. As a case study, we have investigated the hitherto neglected jets + missing _ET$E_T$ signature – known to be a challenging one – arising from the pair productions and decay of n=1$n=1$ KK-excitations of gluons and quarks in the minimal Universal Extra Dimension (mUED) model. Judicious use of the event shape variables enables us to reduce the Standard Model backgrounds to a negligible level. We have shown that in mUED, R⁻¹$R^{-1}$ up to 850 GeV$850\text{GeV}$ can be explored or ruled out with 12 fb⁻¹ of integrated luminosity at the 7 TeV run of the LHC. We also discuss the prospects of employing these variables for searching other beyond Standard Model physics with compressed or partially compressed spectra.     

The Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem and resource utilization

We study the dynamics of the “Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem”. The problem is the following: In each period, N agents have to choose between N restaurants. Agents have a common ranking of the restaurants. Restaurants can only serve one customer. When more than one customer arrives at the same restaurant, one customer is chosen at random and is served; the others do not get the service. We first introduce the one-shot versions of the Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem which we call one-shot KPR games. We then study the dynamics of the Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem (which is a repeated game version of any given one shot KPR game) for large N. For statistical analysis, we explore the long time steady state behavior. In many such models with myopic agents we get under-utilization of resources, that is, we get a lower aggregate payoff compared to the social optimum. We study a number of myopic strategies, focusing on the average occupation fraction of restaurants.     

Observation of enhanced two-photon absorption in ZnS quantum dots at an ultraviolet wavelength

Two-photon absorption(2PA) in zinc sulphide(ZnS) and Mn2+-doped ZnS quantum dots is reported by the z-scan technique,with nanosecond pulsed laser radiation at 355 nm.The observed values of the 2PA cross section of all the samples are 105 times larger than that of bulk ZnS.     

Nucleation efficiency of R134a as a sensitive liquid for superheated drop emulsion detector

Superheated emulsion detector is known to detect neutrons, γ-rays and other charged particles. The present work includes the study of nucleation efficiency of superheated drops of one of the CFC-free liquids, R134a (C₂H₂F₄), to fast neutrons, its response to γ-rays from ²⁴¹Am and ¹³⁷Cs and compare its nucleation efficiency with that of R12. The observation indicates that because of the presence of hydrogen, the nucleation efficiency is less in R134a than in R12 in the present neutron energy range of consideration. R134a is one of the most environment-friendly, commercially available liquid that is suitable for superheated drop detector, specially in neutron dosimetry and one needs to investigate it in detail.