The ATLAS experiment has observed 1995 Z boson candidates in data corresponding to 0.15 inverse nb of integrated luminosity obtained in the 2011 LHC Pb+Pb run at sqrt(s_NN)=2.76 TeV. The Z bosons are reconstructed via di-electron and di-muon decay channels, with a background contamination of less than 3%. Results from the two channels are consistent and are combined. Within the statistical and systematic uncertainties, the per-event Z boson yield is proportional to the number of binary collisions estimated by the Glauber model. The elliptic anisotropy of the azimuthal distribution of the Z boson with respect to the event plane is found to be consistent with zero.
Measurements are presented of differential cross-sections for top quark pair production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV relative to the total inclusive top quark pair production cross-section. A data sample of 2.05/fb recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used. Relative differential cross-sections are derived as a function of the invariant mass, the transverse momentum and the rapidity of the top quark pair system. Events are selected in the lepton (electron or muon) + jets channel. The background-subtracted differential distributions are corrected for detector effects, normalized to the total inclusive top quark pair production cross-section and compared to theoretical predictions. The measurement uncertainties range typically between 10% and 20% and are generally dominated by systematic effects. No significant deviations from the Standard Model expectations are observed.
Jet cross sections have been measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector. The measurement uses an integrated luminosity of 17 nb-1 recorded at the Large Hadron Collider. The anti-kt algorithm is used to identify jets, with two jet resolution parameters, R = 0.4 and 0.6. The dominant uncertainty comes from the jet energy scale, which is determined to within 7% for central jets above 60 GeV transverse momentum. Inclusive single-jet differential cross sections are presented as functions of jet transverse momentum and rapidity. Dijet cross sections are presented as functions of dijet mass and the angular variable $\chi$. The results are compared to expectations based on next-to-leading-order QCD, which agree with the data, providing a validation of the theory in a new kinematic regime.
Dijet angular distributions from the first LHC pp collisions at center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV have been measured with the ATLAS detector. The dataset used for this analysis represents an integrated luminosity of 3.1 pb-1. Dijet $\chi$ distributions and centrality ratios have been measured up to dijet masses of 2.8 TeV, and found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions. Analysis of the $\chi$ distributions excludes quark contact interactions with a compositeness scale $\Lambda$ below 3.4 TeV, at 95% confidence level, significantly exceeding previous limits.
Results on $\phi$ meson production in inelastic p+p collisions at CERN SPS energies are presented. They are derived from data collected by the NA61/SHINE fixed target experiment, by means of invariant mass spectra fits in the $\phi \to K^+K^-$ decay channel. They include the first ever measured double differential spectra of $\phi$ mesons as a function of rapidity $y$ and transverse momentum $p_T$ for proton beam momenta of 80 GeV/c and 158 GeV/c, as well as single differential spectra of $y$ or $p_T$ for beam momentum of 40 GeV/c. The corresponding total $\phi$ yields per inelastic p+p event are obtained. These results are compared with existing data on $\phi$ meson production in p+p collisions. The comparison shows consistency but superior accuracy of the present measurements. The emission of $\phi$ mesons in p+p reactions is confronted with that occurring in Pb+Pb collisions, and the experimental results are compared with model predictions. It appears that none of the considered models can properly describe all the experimental observables.
We study the process of associated photon and jet production, p+pbar --> photon + jet + X, using 8.7 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at a center-of-mass energy sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. Photons are reconstructed with rapidity |y^gamma| <1.0 or 1.5<|y^{gamma}| < 2.5 and transverse momentum pT^gamma GeV. The highest-p_T jet is required to be in one of four rapidity regions up to |y^{jet}|< 3.2. For each rapidity configuration we measure the differential cross sections in pT_gamma separately for events with the same sign (y^{gamma} y^{jet}}>0) and opposite sign (y^{gamma} y^{jet}<=0) of photon and jet rapidities. We compare the measured triple differential cross sections, d^3 sigma / d pT_gamma y^{gamma} y^{jet}, to next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using different sets of parton distribution functions and to predictions from the SHERPA and PYTHIA Monte Carlo event generators. The NLO calculations are found to be in general agreement with the data, but do not describe all kinematic regions.
We present the first measurements at a hadron collider of differential cross sections for Z+jet+X production in delta phi(Z, jet), |delta y(Z, jet)| and |y_boost(Z, jet)|. Vector boson production in association with jets is an excellent probe of QCD and constitutes the main background to many small cross section processes, such as associated Higgs production. These measurements are crucial tests of the predictions of perturbative QCD and current event generators, which have varied success in describing the data. Using these measurements as inputs in tuning event generators will increase the experimental sensitivity to rare signals.
An experiment has been performed with the Fermilab 30-inch bubble chamber and Downstream Particle Identifier to study inclusive charged pion production in the high energy interactions of π±,K+,p and\(\bar p\) with thin foils of magnesium, silver and gold. The laboratory rapidity and transverse momentum distributions are presented separately for π+ and π− production. Comparisons are made with data from hadron-proton interactions and theA dependence of the cross sections in the different kinematic regions is discussed. We investigate the dependence of the cross sections on the number of observed protons ejected from the nucleus. By using our π−A data from two different beam energies, we study the energy dependence of these spectra. Comparisons are made with the VENUS string model Monte Carlo.
We present a comprehensive analysis of inclusive W(\to e\nu)+n-jet (n\geq 1,2,3,4) production in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV at the Tevatron collider using a 3.7 fb^{-1} dataset collected by the D0 detector. Differential cross sections are presented as a function of the jet rapidities (y), lepton transverse momentum (p_T) and pseudorapidity (\eta), the scalar sum of the transverse energies of the W boson and all jets (H_T), leading dijet p_T and invariant mass, dijet rapidity separations for a variety of jet pairings for p_T-ordered and angular-ordered jets, dijet opening angle, dijet azimuthal angular separations for p_T-ordered and angular-ordered jets, and W boson transverse momentum. The mean number of jets in an event containing a W boson is measured as a function of H_T, and as a function of the rapidity separations between the two highest-p_T jets and between the most widely separated jets in rapidity. Finally, the probability for third-jet emission in events containing a W boson and at least two jets is studied by measuring the fraction of events in the inclusive W+2-jet sample that contain a third jet over a p_T threshold. The analysis employs a regularized singular value decomposition technique to accurately correct for detector effects and for the presence of backgrounds. The corrected data are compared to particle level next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions, predictions from all-order resummation approaches, and a variety of leading-order and matrix-element plus parton-shower event generators. Regions of the phase space where there is agreement or disagreement with the data are discussed for the different models tested.
We present results from the initial run of Fermilab experiment E706. The data include incident π− and p beams at 500 GeV/c on Be and Cu targets, and span the kinematic ranges of transverse momentum and rapidity of 3.5≤pT≤10 GeV/c and −0.7≤yc.m.≤0.7, respectively. We have measured cross sections for π0 and direct-photon production, as well as the ηπ0 production ratio. From the data on Be and Cu, we have extracted the nuclear dependence of π0 production, parametrized as Aα. The cross sections are compared with next-to-leading-log QCD predictions for different choices of the QCD momentum scales and several sets of parton distribution functions.