Testing Hadronic Interactions at Ultrahigh Energies with Air Showers Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air showers probe particle physics at energies beyond the reach of accelerators. Here we introduce a new method to test hadronic interaction models without relying on the absolute energy calibration, and apply it to events with primary energy 6-16 EeV (ECM=110-170 TeV), whose longitudinal development and lateral distribution were simultaneously measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. The average hadronic shower is 1.33±0.16 (1.61±0.21) times larger than predicted using the leading LHC-tuned models EPOS-LHC (QGSJetII-04), with a corresponding excess of muons.

tt¯production cross section inpp¯collisions ats=1.8TeV

Multiple jet production at low transverse energies inpp¯collisions ats=1.8TeV

We present data on multiple production of jets with transverse energies near 20 GeV in p (p) over bar collisions at roots=1.8 TeV. QCD calculations in the parton-shower approximation of PYTHIA and HERWIG and the next-to-leading order approximation of JETRAD are compared to the data for one, two, three, and four jet inclusive production. Transverse energy spectra and multiple jet angular and summed transverse-energy distributions are adequately described by the shower approximation while next-to-leading order calculations describe the data poorly.

Search for photons with energies above 1018 eV using the hybrid detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

A search for ultra-high energy photons with energies above 1 EeV is performed using nine years of data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in hybrid operation mode. An unprecedented separation power between photon and hadron primaries is achieved by combining measurements of the longitudinal air-shower development with the particle content at ground measured by the fluorescence and surface detectors, respectively. Only three photon candidates at energies 1-2 EeV are found, which is compatible with the expected hadron-induced background. Upper limits on the integral flux of ultra-high energy photons of 0.027, 0.009, 0.008, 0.008 and 0.007 km-2 sr-1 yr-1 are derived at 95% C.L. for ener…

Search for flavor-changing-neutral-current D meson decays

We study the flavor-changing-neutral-current process c to u mu+ mu- using 1.3 fb^-1 of p p bar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV recorded by the D0 detector operating at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We see clear indications of the Ds+ and D+ to phi pi+ to mu+ mu- pi+ final states with significance greater than four standard deviations above background for the D+ state. We search for the continuum decay of D+ to pi+mu+mu- in the dimuon invariant mass spectrum away from the phi resonance. We see no evidence of signal above background and set a limit of B(D+ to pi+mu+mu-) < 3.9 x 10^-6 at the 90% C.L. This limit places the most stringent constraint on new phenomena in the c to u mu+ mu- t…

Model-independent measurement of the W-boson helicity in top-quark decays at D0.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T20:37:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-02-14 Science and Technology Facilities Council We present the first model-independent measurement of the helicity of W bosons produced in top quark decays, based on a 1fb-1 sample of candidate tt̄ events in the dilepton and lepton plus jets channels collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron pp̄ Collider. We reconstruct the angle θ* between the momenta of the down-type fermion and the top quark in the W boson rest frame for each top quark decay. A fit of the resulting cos θ* distribution finds that the fraction of longitudinal W bosons f0=0.425±0.166(stat)±0.102(syst) and the f…

Search for minimal supergravity in single-electron events with jets and large missing transverse energy inpp¯collisions ats=1.8TeV

We describe a search for evidence of minimal supergravity (MSUGRA) in 92.7 pb(-1) of data collected with the D empty set detector at the Fermilab Tevatron p (p) over bar collider at roots=1.8 TeV. Events with a single electron, four or more jets, and large missing transverse energy were used in this search. The major backgrounds are from W+jets, misidentified multijet, t (t) over bar, and WW production. We observe no excess above the expected number of background events in our data. A new limit in terms of MSUGRA model parameters is obtained.

Nanosecond-level time synchronization of autonomous radio detector stations for extensive air showers

To exploit the full potential of radio measurements of cosmic-ray air showers at MHz frequencies, a detector timing synchronization within 1 ns is needed. Large distributed radio detector arrays such as the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) rely on timing via the Global Positioning System (GPS) for the synchronization of individual detector station clocks. Unfortunately, GPS timing is expected to have an accuracy no better than about 5 ns. In practice, in particular in AERA, the GPS clocks exhibit drifts on the order of tens of ns. We developed a technique to correct for the GPS drifts, and an independent method is used to cross-check that indeed we reach a nanosecond-scale timing accura…