Diffractive proteon fragmentation in 16, 32, and 110 GeV/cK − p interactions and the diffractive production of heavy quarks(s\bar s,c\bar c)

The inclusive proton diffraction dissociation cross sections in 16, 32, and 110 GeV/cK ^? p interactions are determined from the spike nearx=1 in the inclusive negative particle spectra and are compared to those obtained inK?p interactions using other selection methods at various energies. The same procedure is applied to events containing aV ⁰ in order to obtain the cross section for diffractive \(s\bar s\) production. While the total cross section for proton diffraction is found to be approximately constant in the energy range studied here, proton diffraction yielding an \(s\bar s - pair\) is found to increase significantly. In particular it is almost constant at 85 μb forΛ ⁰ and Σ production but for \(NK\bar K\) it rises from zero at 16 GeV.c to about 200 μb at 110 GeV/c. From the result for \(s\bar s\) diffractive production an estimate for the \(c\bar c\) diffractive production cross section of approximately 1–10 μb at 110 GeV/c is obtained.     

A measurement of differential cross-sections and nucleon structure functions in charged-current neutrino interactions on iron

A high-statistics measurement of the differential cross-sections for neutrino-iron scattering in the wide-band neutrino beam at the CERN SPS is presented. Nucleon structure functions are extracted and theirQ ² evolution is compared with the predictions of quantum chromodynamics.     

In search of elementary spin 0 particles

The Standard Model of strong and electroweak interactions uses point-like spin 1/2 particles as the building bricks of matter and point-like spin 1 particles as the force carriers. One of the most important questions to be answered by the present and future particle physics experiments is whether the elementary spin 0 particles exist, and if they do, what are their interactions with the spin 1/2 and spin 1 particles. Spin 0 particles have been searched extensively over the last decades. Several initial claims of their discoveries were finally disproved in the final experimental scrutiny process. The recent observation of the excess of events at the LHC in the final states involving a pair of vector bosons, or photons, is commonly interpreted as the discovery of the first elementary scalar particle, the Higgs boson. In this paper we recall examples of claims and subsequent disillusions in precedent searches spin 0 particles. We address the question if the LHC Higgs discovery can already be taken for granted, or, as it turned out important in the past, whether it requires a further experimental scrutiny before the existence of the first ever found elementary scalar particle is proven beyond any doubt. An example of the Double Drell–Yan process for which such a scrutiny is indispensable is discussed in some detail.     

Are there “prompt” like-sign dimuons?

From exposures of the CDHS detector at the CERN SPS we have obtained 367μ ⁺ μ ^? events in neutrino beams and 73μ ⁺ μ ⁺ events in an antineutrino beam. The magnitude of a prompt like-sign signal has been controversial in the past and moreover could not be explained by known production mechanisms. A critical discussion of the experimental situation is given. We have tried to reduce the systematic uncertainties of previous experiments and to get more information on the dependence of the signal with energy and the muon momentum cut-off. This experiment yields a signal of 2.8σ (2.4σ) of prompt like-sign dimuon events in the case of neutrinos (antineutrinos). The rate to charged current events is of the order of 10^?4 forp _μ<9GeV andE>100 GeV. The prompt signal has all the properties expected from the production and decay of charm-anticharm events. The magnitude, however, is substantially higher then the prediction of perturbative QCD but lower than some other experiments.     

Z boson as “the standard candle” for high-precision W boson physics at LHC

In this paper we propose a strategy for measuring the inclusive W boson production processes at LHC. This strategy exploits simultaneously the unique flexibility of the LHC collider in running variable beam particle species at variable beam energies, and the configuration flexibility of the LHC detectors. We propose their concrete settings for a precision measurement of the standard model parameters. These dedicated settings optimise the use of the Z boson and Drell–Yan-pair production processes as “the standard reference candles”. The presented strategy allows one to factorise and to directly measure those of the QCD effects that affect differently the W and Z production processes. It reduces to a level of the impact of uncertainties in the partonic distribution functions (PDFs) and in the transverse momentum of the quarks on the measurement precision. Last but not the least, it reduces by a factor of 10 the impact of systematic measurement errors, such as the energy scale and the measurement resolution, on the W boson production observables.     

Measurement of ${M_{W^{+}}-M_{W^{-}}}$ at LHC

This paper is the second of the series of papers proposing dedicated strategies for precision measurements of the Standard Model parameters at the LHC. The common feature of these strategies is their robustness with respect to the systematic measurement and modeling error sources. Their impact on the precision of the measured parameters is reduced using dedicated observables and dedicated measurement procedures which exploit flexibilities of the collider and detector running modes. In the present paper we focus our attention on the measurement of the charge asymmetry of the W-boson mass. This measurement is of primordial importance for the LHC experimental program, both as a direct test of the charge-sign-independent coupling of the W-bosons to the matter particles and as a necessary first step towards the precision measurement of the charge-averaged W-boson mass. We propose and evaluate the LHC-specific strategy to measure the mass difference between the positively and negatively charged W-bosons, M_W⁺-M_W^-M_{W^{+}}-M_{W^{-}} . We show that its present precision can be improved at the LHC by a factor of 20. We argue that such a precision is beyond the reach of the standard measurement and calibration methods imported to the LHC from the Tevatron program.