SiD Letter of Intent

Letter of intent describing SiD (Silicon Detector) for consideration by the International Linear Collider IDAG panel. This detector concept is founded on the use of silicon detectors for vertexing, tracking, and electromagnetic calorimetry. The detector has been cost-optimized as a general-purpose detector for a 500 GeV electron-positron linear collider.

Search for New Bottomlike Quark Pair Decays QQ̅ →(tW∓)(t̅ W±) in Same-Charge Dilepton Events

We report the most restrictive direct limits on masses of fourth-generation down-type quarks $b^{\prime}$, and quark-like composite fermions ($B$ or $T_{5/3}$), decaying promptly to $t W^{\mp}$. We search for a significant excess of events with two same-charge leptons ($e$, $\mu$), several hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy. An analysis of data from $p\overline{p}$ collisions with an integrated luminosity of 2.7 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the CDF II detector at Fermilab yields no evidence for such a signal, setting mass limits $m_{b^{\prime}}, m_{B} >$ 338 $\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ and $m_{T_{5/3}} >$ 365 $\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ at 95% confidence level.

Observation of single top quark production and measurement of |Vtb| with CDF

We report the observation of electroweak single top quark production in 3.2 fb-1 of ppbar collision data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. Candidate events in the W+jets topology with a leptonically decaying W boson are classified as signal-like by four parallel analyses based on likelihood functions, matrix elements, neural networks, and boosted decision trees. These results are combined using a super discriminant analysis based on genetically evolved neural networks in order to improve the sensitivity. This combined result is further combined with that of a search for a single top quark signal in an orthogonal sample of events with missing transverse energy plus jets and no charged lepton. We observe a signal consistent with the standard model prediction but inconsistent with the background-only model by 5.0 standard deviations, with a median expected sensitivity in excess of 5.9 standard deviations. We measure a production cross section of 2.3+0.6-0.5(stat+sys) pb, extract the CKM matrix element value |Vtb|=0.91+0.11-0.11 (stat+sys)+-0.07(theory), and set a lower limit |Vtb|>0.71 at the 95% confidence level, assuming m_t=175 GeVc^2.

Search for WW and WZ Resonances Decaying to Electron, Missing ET, and Two Jets in pp̅ Collisions at √s=1.96 TeV.

Using data from 2.9/fb of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector at the Tevatron, we search for resonances decaying into a pair of on-shell gauge bosons, WW or WZ, where one W decays into an electron and a neutrino, and the other boson decays into two jets. We observed no statistically significant excess above the expected standard model background, and we set cross section limits at 95% confidence level on G*(Randall-Sundrum graviton), Z', and W' bosons. By comparing these limits to theoretical cross sections, mass exclusion regions for the three particles are derived. The mass exclusion regions for Z' and W' are further evaluated as a function of their gauge coupling strength.

Measurement of the tt̅ production cross section in pp̅ collisions at √s=1.96 TeV using soft electron b-tagging

We present a measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using a data sample corresponding to 1.7/fb of integrated luminosity collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We reconstruct ttbar events in the lepton+jets channel. The dominant background is the production of W bosons in association with multiple jets. To suppress this background, we identify electrons from the semileptonic decay of heavy-flavor jets. We measure a production cross section of 7.8 +/- 2.4 (stat) +/- 1.6 (syst) +/- 0.5 (lumi) pb. This is the first measurement of the top pair production cross section with soft electron tags in Run II of the Tevatron.

Measurement of the Ratio σtt̅ /σZ/γ*→ll and Precise Extraction of the tt̅ Cross Section

We report a measurement of the ratio of the tt̅ to Z/γ* production cross sections in √s=1.96  TeV pp̅ collisions using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 4.6  fb-1, collected by the CDF II detector. The tt̅ cross section ratio is measured using two complementary methods, a b-jet tagging measurement and a topological approach. By multiplying the ratios by the well-known theoretical Z/γ*→ll cross section predicted by the standard model, the extracted tt̅ cross sections are effectively insensitive to the uncertainty on luminosity. A best linear unbiased estimate is used to combine both measurements with the result σtt̅ =7.70±0.52  pb, for a top-quark mass of 172.5  GeV/c2.

Measurement of Zγ production in pp̅ collisions at √s=1.96 TeV

The production rate and kinematics of photons produced in association with Z bosons are studied using 2/fb of p\bar{p} collision data collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross section for p\bar{p} -> l^+ l^- gamma + X (where the leptons l are either muons or electrons with dilepton mass M_{ll} > 40 GeV/c^2, and where the photon has transverse energy Et_{gamma} > 7 GeV and is well separated from the leptons) is 4.6 +/- 0.2 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst) +/- 0.3 (lum) pb, which is consistent with standard model expectations. We use the photon Et distribution from Z-gamma events where the Z has decayed to mu^+ mu^-, e^+ e^-, or nu\bar{nu} to set limits on anomalous (non-standard-model) trilinear couplings between photons and Z bosons.

Diffractive W and Z production at the Fermilab Tevatron

We report on a measurement of the fraction of events with a W or Z boson produced diffractively in antiproton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV, using data from 0.6 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF-II detector equipped with a Roman-pot spectrometer that detects the antiproton (pbar) from pbar+p --> pbar+[X+W/Z]. We find that (0.97 +/- 0.11)% of Ws and (0.85 +/- 0.22)% of Zs are produced diffractively in a region of (anti)proton fractional momentum loss (\xi) of 0.03-1t p+[X+W/Z]+pbar, and on exclusive Z production, pbar+p-->pbar+Z+p. No signal is seen above background for these processes, and comparisons are made with expectations.

Search for the Higgs Boson Using Neural Networks in Events with Missing Energy and b-Quark Jets in pp̅ Collisions at √s=1.96 TeV

We report on a search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV recorded by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.1 fb$^{-1}$. We consider events which have no identified charged leptons, an imbalance in transverse momentum, and two or three jets where at least one jet is consistent with originating from the decay of a $b$ hadron. We find good agreement between data and predictions. We place 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross section for several Higgs boson masses ranging from 110$\gevm$ to 150$\gevm$. For a mass of 115$\gevm$ the observed (expected) limit is 6.9 (5.6) times the standard model prediction.

Measurement of the Ratio σtt̅ /σZ/γ*→ll and Precise Extraction of the tt̅ Cross Section

We report a measurement of the ratio of the top-antitop to Z/gamma* production cross sections in sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV proton-antiproton collisions using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 4.6 fb-1, collected by the CDF II detector. The top-antitop cross section ratio is measured using two complementary methods, a b-jet tagging measurement and a topological approach. By multiplying the ratios by the well-known theoretical Z/gamma*->ll cross section, the extracted top-antitop cross sections are effectively insensitive to the uncertainty on luminosity. A best linear unbiased estimate is used to combine both measurements with the result sigma_(top-antitop) = 7.70 +/- 0.52 pb, for a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV/c^2.

Search for the supersymmetric partner of the top quark in pp̅ collisions at √s=1.96 TeV

We present a search for the lightest supersymmetric partner of the top quark in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy √s=1.96  TeV. This search was conducted within the framework of the R parity conserving minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, assuming the stop decays dominantly to a lepton, a sneutrino, and a bottom quark. We searched for events with two oppositely-charged leptons, at least one jet, and missing transverse energy in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1  fb-1 collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab experiment. No significant evidence of a stop quark signal was found. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level in the stop quark versus sneutrino mass plane are set. Stop quark masses up to 180  GeV/c2 are excluded for sneutrino masses around 45  GeV/c2, and sneutrino masses up to 116  GeV/c2 are excluded for stop quark masses around 150  GeV/c2.

Impact of cosmic inhomogeneities on SNe observations

We study the impact of cosmic inhomogeneities on the interpretation of SNe observations. We build an inhomogeneous universe model that can confront supernova data and yet is reasonably well compatible with the Copernican Principle. Our model combines a relatively small local void, that gives apparent acceleration at low redshifts, with a meatball model that gives sizeable lensing (dimming) at high redshifts. Together these two elements, which focus on different effects of voids on the data, allow the model to mimic the concordance model.

Top polarization as a probe of new physics

We investigate the effects of new physics scenarios containing a high mass vector resonance on top pair production at the LHC, using the polarization of the produced top. In particular we use kinematic distributions of the secondary lepton coming from top decay, which depends on top polarization, as it has been shown that the angular distribution of the decay lepton is insensitive to the anomalous tbW vertex and hence is a pure probe of new physics in top quark production. Spin sensitive variables involving the decay lepton are used to probe top polarization. Some sensitivity is found for the new couplings of the top.

Residual noise covariance for Planck low-resolution data analysis

Aims: Develop and validate tools to estimate residual noise covariance in Planck frequency maps. Quantify signal error effects and compare different techniques to produce low-resolution maps. Methods: We derive analytical estimates of covariance of the residual noise contained in low-resolution maps produced using a number of map-making approaches. We test these analytical predictions using Monte Carlo simulations and their impact on angular power spectrum estimation. We use simulations to quantify the level of signal errors incurred in different resolution downgrading schemes considered in this work. Results: We find an excellent agreement between the optimal residual noise covariance matrices and Monte Carlo noise maps. For destriping map-makers, the extent of agreement is dictated by the knee frequency of the correlated noise component and the chosen baseline offset length. The significance of signal striping is shown to be insignificant when properly dealt with. In map resolution downgrading, we find that a carefully selected window function is required to reduce aliasing to the sub-percent level at multipoles, ell > 2Nside, where Nside is the HEALPix resolution parameter. We show that sufficient characterization of the residual noise is unavoidable if one is to draw reliable contraints on large scale anisotropy. Conclusions: We have described how to compute the low-resolution maps, with a controlled sky signal level, and a reliable estimate of covariance of the residual noise. We have also presented a method to smooth the residual noise covariance matrices to describe the noise correlations in smoothed, bandwidth limited maps.

Coherent quasiparticle approximation cQPA and nonlocal coherence

We show that the dynamical Wigner functions for noninteracting fermions and bosons can have complex singularity structures with a number of new solutions accompanying the usual mass-shell dispersion relations. These new shell solutions are shown to encode the information of the quantum coherence between particles and antiparticles, left and right moving chiral states and/or between different flavour states. Analogously to the usual derivation of the Boltzmann equation, we impose this extended phase space structure on the full interacting theory. This extension of the quasiparticle approximation gives rise to a self-consistent equation of motion for a density matrix that combines the quantum mechanical coherence evolution with a well defined collision integral giving rise to decoherence. Several applications of the method are given, for example to the coherent particle production, electroweak baryogenesis and study of decoherence and thermalization.