Angular distribution of Z(0 power) bosons in Z+jet events at the square root of S = 7 TeV

For the first time, the Z0 boson angular distribution in the center-of-momentum frame is measured in proton-proton collisions at [special characters omitted] = 7 TeV at the CERN LHC. The data sample, recorded with the CMS detector, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 36 pb–1 . Events in which there is a Z0 and at least one jet, with a jet transverse momentum threshold of 20 GeV and absolute jet rapidity less than 2.4, are selected for the analysis. Only the Z0's muon decay channel is studied. Within experimental and theoretical uncertainties, the measured angular distribution is in agreement with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions.

A Search for a New Particle Decaying to Pairs of Weak Gauge Bosons with the ATLAS Detector

A search for new heavy resonances decaying to boson pairs (WZ, WW or ZZ) using 20.3 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at a center of mass energy of 8 TeV is presented. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012. The analysis combines several search channels with the leptonic, semi-leptonic and fully hadronic final states. The diboson invariant mass spectrum is studied for local excesses above the Standard Model background prediction, and no significant excess is observed for the combined analysis. 95$\%$ confidence limits are set on the cross section times branching ratios for three signal models: an extended gauge model with a heavy W boson, a bulk Randall-Sundrum model with a spin-2 graviton, and a simplified model with a heavy vector triplet. Among the individual search channels, the fully-hadronic channel is predominantly presented where boson tagging technique and jet substructure cuts are used. Local excesses are found in the dijet mass distribution around 2 TeV, leading to a global significance of 2.5 standard deviations. This deviation from the Standard Model prediction results in many theory explanations, and the possibilities could be further explored using the LHC Run 2 data.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of harmonically trapped bosons

We apply the framework of non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics to the physics of quenched small-size bosonic quantum gases in a harmonic trap. By studying the temporal behaviour of the Loschmidt echo and of the atomic density profile within the trap, which are informative of the non-equilibrium physics and the correlations among the particles, we establish a link with the statistics of (irreversible) work done on the system. This highlights interesting connections between the degree of inter-particle entanglement and the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of the system.

Searches for Beyond Standard Model Higgs Bosons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 and 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Bosonization and entanglement spectrum for one-dimensional polar bosons on disordered lattices

Ultra cold polar bosons in a disordered lattice potential, described by the extended Bose-Hubbard model, display a rich phase diagram. In the case of uniform random disorder one finds two insulating quantum phases-the Mott-insulator and the Haldane insulator-in addition to a superfluid and a Bose glass phase. In the case of a quasiperiodic potential, further phases are found, e.g. the incommensurate density wave, adiabatically connected to the Haldane insulator. For the case of weak random disorder we determine the phase boundaries using a perturbative bosonization approach. We then calculate the entanglement spectrum for both types of disorder, showing that it provides a good indication of the various phases.

Searching for doubly charged Higgs bosons at the LHC in a 3-3-1 model

Using a peculiar version of the SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(N) electroweak model, we investigate the production of doubly charged Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. Our results include branching ratio calculations for the doubly charged Higgs and for one of the neutral scalar bosons of the model. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neutral Higgs bosons in the SU(3)(L)circle times U(1)(N) model

The SU(3)(L)circle times U(1)(N) electroweak model predicts new Higgs bosons beyond the one of the standard model. In this work we investigate the signature and production of neutral SU(3)(L)circle times U(1)(N) Higgs bosons in the e(-)e(+) Next Linear Collider and in the CERN Linear Collider . We compute the branching ratios of two of the SU(3)(L)circle times U(1)(N) neutral Higgs bosons and study the possibility to detect them and the Z' extra neutral boson of the model.

Probing doubly charged Higgs bosons in e(+)e(-) colliders at the ILC and the CLIC in a 3-3-1 model

The SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(N) electroweak model predicts new Higgs bosons beyond the one of the standard model. In this work we investigate the signature and production of doubly charged Higgs bosons in the e(+)e(-) International Linear Collider and in the CERN Linear Collider. We compute the branching ratios for the doubly charged gauge bosons of the model.

Networks cities and ecological habitats

As the world’s rural populations continue to migrate from farmland to sprawling cities, transport networks form an impenetrable maze within which monocultures of urban form erupt from the spaces in‐between. These urban monocultures are as problematic to human activity in cities as cropping monocultures are to ecosystems in regional landscapes. In China, the speed of urbanisation is exacerbating the production of mono‐functional private and public spaces. Edges are tightly controlled. Barriers and management practices at these boundaries are discouraging the formation of new synergistic relationships, critical in the long‐term stability of ecosystems that host urban habitats. Some urban planners, engineers, urban designers, architects and landscape architects have recognised these shortcomings in contemporary Chinese cities. The ideology of sustainability, while critically debated, is bringing together thinking people in these and other professions under the umbrella of an ecological ethic. This essay aims to apply landscape ecology theory, a conceptual framework used by many professionals involved in land development processes, to a concept being developed by BAU International called Networks Cities: a city with its various land uses arranged in nets of continuity, adjacency, and superposition. It will consider six lesser‐known concepts in relation to creating enhanced human activity along (un)structured edges between proposed nets and suggest new frontiers that might be challenged in an eco‐city. Ecological theory suggests that sustaining biodiversity in regions and landscapes depends on habitat distribution patterns. Flora and fauna biologists have long studied edge habitats and have been confounded by the paradox that maximising the breadth of edges is detrimental to specialist species but favourable to generalist species. Generalist species of plants and animals tolerate frequent change in the landscape, frequenting two or more habitats for their survival. Specialist species are less tolerant of change, having specific habitat requirements during their life cycle. Protecting species richness then may be at odds with increasing mixed habitats or mixed‐use zones that are dynamic places where diverse activities occur. Forman (1995) in his book Land Mosaics however argues that these two objectives of land use management are entirely compatible. He postulates that an edge may be comprised of many small patches, corridors or convoluting boundaries of large patches. Many ecocentrists now consider humans to be just another species inhabiting the ecological environments of our cities. Hence habitat distribution theory may be useful in planning and designing better human habitats in a rapidly urbanising context like China. In less‐constructed environments, boundaries and edges provide important opportunities for the movement of multi‐habitat species into, along and from adjacent land use areas. For instance, invasive plants may escape into a national park from domestic gardens while wildlife may forage on garden plants in adjoining residential areas. It is at these interfaces that human interactions too flow backward and forward between land types. Spray applications of substances by farmers on cropland may disturb neighbouring homeowners while suburban residents may help themselves to farm produce on neighbouring orchards. Edge environments are some of the most dynamic and contested spaces in the landscape. Since most of us require access to at least two or three habitats diurnally, weekly, monthly or seasonally, their proximity to each other becomes critical in our attempts to improve the sustainability of our cities.

A data mining driven risk profiling method for road asset management

Road surface skid resistance has been shown to have a strong relationship to road crash risk, however, applying the current method of using investigatory levels to identify crash prone roads is problematic as they may fail in identifying risky roads outside of the norm. The proposed method analyses a complex and formerly impenetrable volume of data from roads and crashes using data mining. This method rapidly identifies roads with elevated crash-rate, potentially due to skid resistance deficit, for investigation. A hypothetical skid resistance/crash risk curve is developed for each road segment, driven by the model deployed in a novel regression tree extrapolation method. The method potentially solves the problem of missing skid resistance values which occurs during network-wide crash analysis, and allows risk assessment of the major proportion of roads without skid resistance values.

Characterizing transport through a crowded environment with different obstacle sizes

Transport through crowded environments is often classified as anomalous, rather than classical, Fickian diffusion. Several studies have sought to describe such transport processes using either a continuous time random walk or fractional order differential equation. For both these models the transport is characterized by a parameter α, where α = 1 is associated with Fickian diffusion and α < 1 is associated with anomalous subdiffusion. Here, we simulate a single agent migrating through a crowded environment populated by impenetrable, immobile obstacles and estimate α from mean squared displacement data. We also simulate the transport of a population of such agents through a similar crowded environment and match averaged agent density profiles to the solution of a related fractional order differential equation to obtain an alternative estimate of α. We examine the relationship between our estimate of α and the properties of the obstacle field for both a single agent and a population of agents; we show that in both cases, α decreases as the obstacle density increases, and that the rate of decrease is greater for smaller obstacles. Our work suggests that it may be inappropriate to model transport through a crowded environment using widely reported approaches including power laws to describe the mean squared displacement and fractional order differential equations to represent the averaged agent density profiles.

Constructing the ideal EVE online player

EVE Online, released in 2003 by CCP Games, is a space-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). This sandbox style MMOG has a reputation for being a difficult game with a punishing learning curve that is fairly impenetrable to new players. This has led to the widely held belief among the larger MMOG community that “EVE players are different”, as only a very particular type of player would be dedicated to learning how to play a game this challenging. Taking a critical approach to the claim that “EVE players are different”, this paper complicates the idea that only a certain type of player capable of playing the most hardcore of games will be attracted to this particular MMOG. Instead, we argue that EVE’s “exceptionalism” is actually the result of conscious design decisions on the part of CCP games, which in turn compel particular behaviours that are continually reinforced as the norm by the game’s relatively homogenous player community.

Proteases and proteomics : cutting to the core of human skin pathologies

Preserving the integrity of the skin's outermost layer (the epidermis) is vital for humans to thrive in hostile surroundings. Covering the entire body, the epidermis forms a thin but impenetrable cellular cordon that repels external assaults and blocks escape of water and electrolytes from within. This structure exists in a perpetual state of regeneration where the production of new cellular subunits at the base of the epidermis is offset by the release of terminally differentiated corneocytes from the surface. It is becoming increasingly clear that proteases hold vital roles in assembling and maintaining the epidermal barrier. More than 30 proteases are expressed by keratinocytes or infiltrating immune cells and the activity of each must be maintained within narrow limits and confined to the correct time and place. Accordingly, over- or under-exertion of proteolytic activity is a common factor in a multitude of skin disorders that range in severity from relatively mild to life-threatening. This review explores the current state of knowledge on the involvement of proteases in skin diseases and the latest findings from proteomic and transcriptomic studies focused on uncovering novel (patho)physiological roles for these enzymes.

Surviving the electronic panopticon: New lessons in democracy, surveillance, and community in young adult fiction

The ability of new information and communication technologies to pierce previously impenetrable physical, personal, and social boundaries has particular relevance to contemporary society and young people as there is now more information that can be collected, accessed, and distributed about individuals and groups. The ability to know about each other has become a central feature of many young people’s lives. The need to know is further complicated by other questions – Who knows? What do they know? What are the implications of this knowledge?. These questions are a consequence of society having become more mobile and networked enabling increased surveillance, tracking, and spreading of dis/information. With the acceleration of new pervasive and immersive technologies, these questions have taken on a new urgency and significance that go beyond an Orwellian Big Brother scenario. This chapter extends Foucault’s notion of the panopticon to take account of the challenges of an AmI environment of smart networked devices. By drawing on examples of recent young adult fiction, I examine some of the ways in which these texts invite their readers to reflect and speculate on the uneasy relationship between surveillance and democracy and what this means for individual rights and freedom, and a sense of place and belonging.