Measurements of the Total and Differential Higgs Boson Production Cross Sections Combining the H→γγ and H→ZZ∗→4ℓ Decay Channels at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

Measurements of the total and differential cross sections of Higgs boson production are performed using 20.3 fb−1 of pp collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Cross sections are obtained from measured H→γγ and H→ZZ∗→4ℓ event yields, which are combined accounting for detector efficiencies, fiducial acceptances and branching fractions. Differential cross sections are reported as a function of Higgs boson transverse momentum, Higgs boson rapidity, number of jets in the event, and transverse momentum of the leading jet. The total production cross section is determined to be σpp→H=33.0±5.3(stat)±1.6(sys)pb. The measurements are compared to state-of-the-art predictions.

Measurement of the inclusive jet cross-section in proton--proton collisions at s√=7 TeV using 4.5 fb−1 of data with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive jet cross-section is measured in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.5 fb−1 collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. Jets are identified using the anti-kt algorithm with radius parameter values of 0.4 and 0.6. The double-differential cross-sections are presented as a function of the jet transverse momentum and the jet rapidity, covering jet transverse momenta from 100 GeV to 2 TeV. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations corrected for non-perturbative effects and electroweak effects, as well as Monte Carlo simulations with next-to-leading-order matrix elements interfaced to parton showering, are compared to the measured cross-sections. A quantitative comparison of the measured cross-sections to the QCD calculations using several sets of parton distribution functions is performed.

Measurement of the tt¯ production cross-section as a function of jet multiplicity and jet transverse momentum in 7 TeV proton--proton collisions with the ATLAS detector

The tt¯ production cross-section dependence on jet multiplicity and jet transverse momentum is reported for proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV in the single-lepton channel. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and comprise the full 2011 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb−1. Differential cross-sections are presented as a function of the jet multiplicity for up to eight jets using jet transverse momentum thresholds of 25, 40, 60, and 80 GeV, and as a function of jet transverse momentum up to the fifth jet. The results are shown after background subtraction and corrections for all detector effects, within a kinematic range closely matched to the experimental acceptance. Several QCD-based Monte Carlo models are compared with the results. Sensitivity to the parton shower modelling is found at the higher jet multiplicities, at high transverse momentum of the leading jet and in the transverse momentum spectrum of the fifth leading jet. The MC@NLO+HERWIG MC is found to predict too few events at higher jet multiplicities.

Measurement of the WW+WZ cross section and limits on anomalous triple gauge couplings using final states with one lepton, missing transverse momentum, and two jets with the ATLAS detector at s√=7 TeV

The production of a W boson decaying to eν or μν in association with a W or Z boson decaying to two jets is studied using 4.6 fb−1 of proton--proton collision data at s√=7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The combined WW+WZ cross section is measured with a significance of 3.4σ and is found to be 68±7 (stat.)±19 (syst.) pb, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation of 61.1±2.2 pb. The distribution of the transverse momentum of the dijet system is used to set limits on anomalous contributions to the triple gauge coupling vertices and on parameters of an effective-field-theory model.

Measurement of three-jet production cross-sections in pp collisions at 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy using the ATLAS detector

Double-differential three-jet production cross-sections are measured in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=7TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are presented as a function of the three-jet mass (mjjj), in bins of the sum of the absolute rapidity separations between the three leading jets (|Y∗|). Invariant masses extending up to 5 TeV are reached for 8<|Y∗|<10. These measurements use a sample of data recorded using the ATLAS detector in 2011, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.51fb−1. Jets are identified using the anti-kt algorithm with two different jet radius parameters, R=0.4 and R=0.6. The dominant uncertainty in these measurements comes from the jet energy scale. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations corrected to account for non-perturbative effects are compared to the measurements. Good agreement is found between the data and the theoretical predictions based on most of the available sets of parton distribution functions, over the full kinematic range, covering almost seven orders of magnitude in the measured cross-section values.

Measurements of the W production cross sections in association with jets with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents cross sections for the production of a W boson in association with jets, measured in proton--proton collisions at s√=7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. With an integrated luminosity of 4.6fb−1, this data set allows for an exploration of a large kinematic range, including jet production up to a transverse momentum of 1 TeV and multiplicities up to seven associated jets. The production cross sections for W bosons are measured in both the electron and muon decay channels. Differential cross sections for many observables are also presented including measurements of the jet observables such as the rapidities and the transverse momenta as well as measurements of event observables such as the scalar sums of the transverse momenta of the jets. The measurements are compared to numerous QCD predictions including next-to-leading-order perturbative calculations, resummation calculations and Monte Carlo generators.

Testing Nelder-Mead based repulsion algorithms for multiple roots of nonlinear systems via a two-level factorial design of experiments

This paper addresses the challenging task of computing multiple roots of a system of nonlinear equations. A repulsion algorithm that invokes the Nelder-Mead (N-M) local search method and uses a penalty-type merit function based on the error function, known as 'erf', is presented. In the N-M algorithm context, different strategies are proposed to enhance the quality of the solutions and improve the overall efficiency. The main goal of this paper is to use a two-level factorial design of experiments to analyze the statistical significance of the observed differences in selected performance criteria produced when testing different strategies in the N-M based repulsion algorithm. The main goal of this paper is to use a two-level factorial design of experiments to analyze the statistical significance of the observed differences in selected performance criteria produced when testing different strategies in the N-M based repulsion algorithm.

PTX3-based genetic testing for risk of aspergillosis after lung transplant

PTX3-based genetic testing for risk of aspergillosis after lung transplant

Assessing the application of polypropylene multifilament yarns in brain phantoms

The currently available clinical imaging methods do not provide highly detailed information about location and severity of axonal injury or the expected recovery time of patients with traumatic brain injury [1]. High-Definition Fiber Tractography (HDFT) is a novel imaging modality that allows visualizing and quantifying, directly, the degree of axons damage, predicting functional deficits due to traumatic axonal injury and loss of cortical projections. This imaging modality is based on diffusion technology [2]. The inexistence of a phantom able to mimic properly the human brain hinders the possibility of testing, calibrating and validating these medical imaging techniques. Most research done in this area fails in key points, such as the size limit reproduced of the brain fibers and the quick and easy reproducibility of phantoms [3]. For that reason, it is necessary to develop similar structures matching the micron scale of axon tubes. Flexible textiles can play an important role since they allow producing controlled packing densities and crossing structures that match closely the human crossing patterns of the brain. To build a brain phantom, several parameters must be taken into account in what concerns to the materials selection, like hydrophobicity, density and fiber diameter, since these factors influence directly the values of fractional anisotropy. Fiber cross-section shape is other important parameter. Earlier studies showed that synthetic fibrous materials are a good choice for building a brain phantom [4]. The present work is integrated in a broader project that aims to develop a brain phantom made by fibrous materials to validate and calibrate HDFT. Due to the similarity between thousands of hollow multifilaments in a fibrous arrangement, like a yarn, and the axons, low twist polypropylene multifilament yarns were selected for this development. In this sense, extruded hollow filaments were analysed in scanning electron microscope to characterize their main dimensions and shape. In order to approximate the dimensional scale to human axons, five types of polypropylene yarns with different linear density (denier) were used, aiming to understand the effect of linear density on the filament inner and outer areas. Moreover, in order to achieve the required dimensions, the polypropylene filaments cross-section was diminished in a drawing stage of a filament extrusion line. Subsequently, tensile tests were performed to characterize the mechanical behaviour of hollow filaments and to evaluate the differences between stretched and non-stretched filaments. In general, an increase of the linear density causes the increase in the size of the filament cross section. With the increase of structure orientation of filaments, induced by stretching, breaking tenacity increases and elongation at break decreases. The production of hollow fibers, with the required characteristics, is one of the key steps to create a brain phantom that properly mimics the human brain that may be used for the validation and calibration of HDFT, an imaging approach that is expected to contribute significantly to the areas of brain related research.

A novel small-caliber bacterial cellulose vascular prosthesis: production, characterization, and preliminary in vivo testing

Vascular grafts are used to bypass damaged or diseased blood vessels. Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been studied for use as an off-the-shelf graft. Herein, we present a novel, cost-effective, method for the production of small caliber BC grafts with minimal processing or requirements. The morphology of the graft wall produced a tensile strength above that of native vessels, performing similarly to the current commercial alternatives. As a result of the production method, the luminal surface of the graft presents similar topography to that of native vessels. We have also studied the in vivo behavior of these BC graft in order to further demonstrate their viability. In these preliminary studies, 1 month patency was achieved, with the presence of neo-vessels and endothelial cells on the luminal surface of the graft.

Specification and testing of multiplicative time-varying GARCH models with applications

In this article, we develop a specification technique for building multiplicative time-varying GARCH models of Amado and Teräsvirta (2008, 2013). The variance is decomposed into an unconditional and a conditional component such that the unconditional variance component is allowed to evolve smoothly over time. This nonstationary component is defined as a linear combination of logistic transition functions with time as the transition variable. The appropriate number of transition functions is determined by a sequence of specification tests. For that purpose, a coherent modelling strategy based on statistical inference is presented. It is heavily dependent on Lagrange multiplier type misspecification tests. The tests are easily implemented as they are entirely based on auxiliary regressions. Finite-sample properties of the strategy and tests are examined by simulation. The modelling strategy is illustrated in practice with two real examples: an empirical application to daily exchange rate returns and another one to daily coffee futures returns.

Measurement of the t(t)over-barW and t(t)over-barZ production cross sections in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production cross sections of top-quark pairs in association with massive vector bosons have been measured using data from pp collisions at s√=8 TeV. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1 collected by the ATLAS detector in 2012 at the LHC. Final states with two, three or four leptons are considered. A fit to the data considering the tt¯W and tt¯Z processes simultaneously yields a significance of 5.0σ (4.2σ) over the background-only hypothesis for tt¯W (tt¯Z) production. The measured cross sections are σtt¯W=369+100−91 fb and σtt¯Z=176+58−52 fb. The background-only hypothesis with neither tt¯W nor tt¯Z production is excluded at 7.1σ. All measurements are consistent with next-to-leading-order calculations for the tt¯W and tt¯Z processes.

Erratum to: Measurement of the inclusive jet cross-section in proton-proton collisions at s√=7 TeV using 4.5 fb−1 of data with the ATLAS detector

It was found that the non-perturbative corrections calculated using Pythia with the Perugia 2011 tune did not include the effect of the underlying event. The affected correction factors were recomputed using the Pythia 6.427 generator. These corrections are applied as baseline to the NLO pQCD calculations and thus the central values of the theoretical predictions have changed by a few percent with the new corrections. This has a minor impact on the agreement between the data and the theoretical predictions. Figures 2 and 6 to 13, and all the tables have been updated with the new values. A few sentences in the discussion in sections 5.2 and 9 were altered or removed.

Measurement of differential J/psi production cross sections and forward-backward ratios in p plus Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of differential cross sections for J/ψ production in p+Pb collisions at sNN−−−−√=5.02 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector are presented. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 28.1 nb−1. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed in the dimuon decay channel over the transverse momentum range 8

On the temperature dependence of the absorption cross section for black holes in string theory

We study the low frequency absorption cross section of spherically symmetric nonextremal d-dimensional black holes. In the presence of α′ corrections, this quantity must have an explicit dependence on the Hawking temperature of the form 1/TH. This property of the low frequency absorption cross section is shared by the D1-D5 system from type IIB superstring theory already at the classical level, without α′ corrections. We apply our formula to the simplest example, the classical d-dimensional Reissner-Nordstr¨om solution, checking that the obtained formula for the cross section has a smooth extremal limit. We also apply it for a d-dimensional Tangherlini-like solution with α′3 corrections.