0000000000344667
AUTHOR
Na Robertson
Search for High-energy Neutrinos from Gravitational Wave Event GW151226 and Candidate LVT151012 with ANTARES and IceCube
[EN] The Advanced LIGO observatories detected gravitational waves from two binary black hole mergers during their first observation run (O1). We present a high-energy neutrino follow-up search for the second gravitational wave event, GW151226, as well as for gravitational wave candidate LVT151012. We find two and four neutrino candidates detected by IceCube, and one and zero detected by ANTARES, within +/- 500 s around the respective gravitational wave signals, consistent with the expected background rate. None of these neutrino candidates are found to be directionally coincident with GW151226 or LVT151012. We use nondetection to constrain isotropic-equivalent high-energy neutrino emission …
Measurement of Ab_FB using inclusive b-hadron decays
Based on a sample of four million events collected by ALEPH from 1991 to 1995, a measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in Z -> b-barb decays using inclusive final states is presented. High-performance tagging of b-barb events in a wide angular range is achieved using neural network techniques. An optimal hemisphere charge estimator is built by merging primary and secondary vertex information, leading kaon identification and jet charge in a neural network. The average charge asymmetry, the flavour tagging efficiencies and mean b-hemisphere charges are measured from data and used to extract the pole b asymmetry in the Standard Model A^{0,b}_{FB} = 0.1009 +- 0.0027 (stat) +- 0.0015 …
Test of Colour Reconnection Models using Three-Jet Events in Hadronic Z Decays
Hadronic Z decays into three jets are used to test QCD models of colour reconnection (CR). A sensitive quantity is the rate of gluon jets with a gap in the particle rapidity distribution and zero jet charge. Gluon jets are identified by either energy-ordering or by tagging two b-jets. The rates predicted by two string-based tunable CR models, one implemented in JETSET (the GAL model), the other in ARIADNE, are too high and disfavoured by the data, whereas the rates from the corresponding non-CR standard versions of these generators are too low. The data can be described by the GAL model assuming a small value for the R_0 parameter in the range 0.01-0.02.
Measurement of the W boson Mass and Width in $e^{+}e^{-}$ Collisions at LEP
The mass of the W boson is determined from the direct reconstruction of W decays in WW→qq̄qq̄ and WW→ℓνqq̄ events in e+e- collisions at LEP. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 683 pb-1 collected with the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. To minimise any effect from colour reconnection a new procedure is adopted in which low energy particles are not considered in the mass determination from the qq̄qq̄ channel. The combined result from all channels is mW=80.440±0.043(stat.)±0.024(syst.)±0.009(FSI)±0.009(LEP)GeV/c2,where FSI represents the possible effects of final state interactions in the qq̄qq̄ channel and LEP indicates the uncertainty in the b…
Measurement of the Michel parameters and the nu(tau) helicity in tau lepton decays
A measurement of the Michel parameters and the average $\nu_\tau$ helicity in $\tau$ lepton decays is described. The data was collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP during the years 1991 to 1995. A total integrated luminosity of 155\,$\text{pb}^{-1}$ is analysed. The Michel parameters $\rho_l$, $\xi_l$, $(\xi\delta)_l$ ($l=e,\mu$), and $\eta_\mu$ are determined for the leptonic deca ys, and the chirality parameters $\xi_\pi$, $\xi_\rho$, and $\xi_{a_1}$ for the hadronic final states. Under the assumptions of $e$\bis $\mu$ universality and $\xi_\pi=\xi_\rho=\xi_{a_1}$, the values $\rho_l=0.742\pm 0.016, \eta_l=0.01 2\pm 0.026,\break (\xi\delta)_l=0.776\pm 0.051, \xi_l=0.986\pm 0.074$, and …
Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
On 2017 August 17, the gravitational-wave event GW170817 was observed by the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors, and the gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 170817A was observed independently by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, and the Anticoincidence Shield for the Spectrometer for the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory. The probability of the near-simultaneous temporal and spatial observation of GRB 170817A and GW170817 occurring by chance is $5.0\times 10^{-8}$. We therefore confirm binary neutron star mergers as a progenitor of short GRBs. The association of GW170817 and GRB 170817A provides new insight into fundamental physics and the origin of short gamma-ray bursts. We use the ob…