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At least 955 records · Page 53

Inclusive dielectron cross sections in p + p and p + d interactions at beam energies from 1.04 to 4.88 GeV

Measurements of dielectron production in p + p and p + d collisions with beamkinetic energies from 1.04 to 4.88 GeV are presented. The differential cross section is presented as a function of invariant pair mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity. The shapes of the mass spectra and their evolution with beam energy provide information about the relative importance of the various dielectron production mechanisms in this energy regime. The p + d to p + p ratio of the dielectron yield is also presented as a function of invariant pair mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity. The shapes of the transverse momentum and rapidity spectra from the p + d and p + p systems are found to be similar to one another for each of the beam energies studied. The beam energy dependence of the integrated cross sections is also presented.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗

Tunable Heteroassembly of a Plant Pseudoenzyme–Enzyme Complex

Pseudoenzymes have emerged as key regulatory elements in all kingdoms of life despite being catalytically nonactive. Yet many factors defining why one protein is active while its homologue is inactive remain uncertain. For pseudoenzyme–enzyme pairs, the similarity of both subunits can often hinder conventional characterization approaches. In plants, a pseudoenzyme, PDX1.2, positively regulates vitamin B 6 production by association with its active catalytic homologues such as PDX1.3 through an unknown assembly mechanism. Here we used an integrative experimental approach to learn that such pseudoenzyme–enzyme pair associations result in heterocomplexes of variable stoichiometry, which are unexpectedly tunable. We also present the atomic structure of the PDX1.2 pseudoenzyme as well as the population averaged PDX1.2–PDX1.3 pseudoenzyme–enzyme pair. Finally, we dissected hetero-dodecamers of each stoichiometry to understand the arrangement of monomers in the heterocomplexes and identified symmetry-imposed preferences in PDX1.2–PDX1.3 interactions. In this work, our results provide a new model of pseudoenzyme–enzyme interactions and their native heterogeneity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Search for neutral long-lived particles that decay into displaced jets in the ATLAS calorimeter in association with leptons or jets using pp collisions at $\sqrt{\textrm{s}}$ = 13 TeV

A search for neutral long-lived particles (LLPs) decaying in the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter using 140 fb -1 of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV delivered by the LHC is presented. The analysis is composed of three channels. The first targets pair-produced LLPs, where at least one LLP is produced with sufficiently low boost that its decay products can be resolved as separate jets. The second and third channels target LLPs respectively produced in association with a W or Z boson that decays leptonically. In each channel, different search regions target different kinematic regimes, to cover a broad range of LLP mass hypotheses and models. No excesses of events relative to the background predictions are observed. Higgs boson branching fractions to pairs of hadronically decaying neutral LLPs larger than 1% are excluded at 95% confidence level for proper decay lengths in the range of 30 cm to 4.5 m depending on the LLP mass, a factor of three improvement on previous searches in the hadronic calorimeter. The production of long-lived dark photons in association with a Z boson with cross-sections above 0.1 pb is excluded for dark photon mean proper decay lengths in the range of 20 cm to 50 m, improving previous ATLAS results by an order of magnitude. Finally, long-lived photo-phobic axion-like particle models are probed for the first time by ATLAS, with production cross-sections above 0.1 pb excluded in the 0.1 mm to 10 m range.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Photodegradation in silicon

The state of knowledge concerning the following defects in silicon is briefly surveyed: substitutional impurities; vacancy-related defects; interstitial-related defects; defect pairs. Although a great deal is known, it is argued that not enough is yet known to model radiation damage production in the bulk or in the vicinity of the junction of a solar cell. The results on photon degradation (and enhancement) of solar cells are then reviewed, and it is suggested that defect pairs may be the defects responsible. Mechanisms for photon-induced dissociation of pairs are discussed but a more detailed understanding awaits the identification of the actual defects.

Corbett, J. W.↗

Measurements of WH and ZH production in the $$H \rightarrow b\bar{b}$$ decay channel in pp collisions at $$13\,\text {Te}\text {V}$$ with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into a $$b\bar{b}$$ b b ¯ pair and produced in association with a W or Z boson decaying into leptons, using proton–proton collision data collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS detector, are presented. The measurements use collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s} = 13\,\text {Te}\text {V}$$ s = 13 Te , corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $$139\,\mathrm {fb}^{-1}$$ 139 fb - 1 . The production of a Higgs boson in association with a W or Z boson is established with observed (expected) significances of 4.0 (4.1) and 5.3 (5.1) standard deviations, respectively. Cross-sections of associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into bottom quark pairs with an electroweak gauge boson, W or Z , decaying into leptons are measured as a function of the gauge boson transverse momentum in kinematic fiducial volumes. The cross-section measurements are all consistent with the Standard Model expectations, and the total uncertainties vary from 30% in the high gauge boson transverse momentum regions to 85% in the low regions. Limits are subsequently set on the parameters of an effective Lagrangian sensitive to modifications of the WH and ZH processes as well as the Higgs boson decay into $$b\bar{b}$$ b b ¯ .

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for quantum black hole production in lepton + jet final states using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for quantum black holes in electron + jet and muon + jet invariant mass spectra is performed with 140 fb -1 of data collected by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ =13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed invariant mass spectrum of lepton + jet pairs is consistent with Standard Model expectations. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the production cross section times branching fractions for quantum black holes decaying into a lepton and a quark in a search region with invariant mass above 2.0 TeV. The resulting quantum black hole lower mass threshold limit is 9.2 TeV in the Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Dvali model, and 6.8 TeV in the Randall-Sundrum model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Measurements of J/ ψ Production vs. Event Multiplicity in Forward Rapidity in p + p Collisions in the PHENIX Experiment

J / Ψ, a charmonium bound state made of a charm and an anti-charm quark, was discovered in the 1970s and confirmed the quark model. Because the mass of charm quarks is significantly above the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) scale Λ QCD , charmonia are considered excellent probes to test perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations. In recent decades, they have been studied extensively at different high-energy colliders. However, their production mechanisms, which involve multiple scales, are still not very well understood. Recently, in high-multiplicity p + p collisions at RHIC and at the LHC, a significant enhancement of J / Ψ production yield has been observed, which suggests a strong contribution of multi-parton interaction (MPI). This is different from the traditional pQCD picture, where charm quark pairs are produced from a single hard scattering between partons in p + p collisions. In this work, we will report the J / Ψ normalized production yield as a function of normalized charged particle multiplicity over a board range of rapidity and event multiplicity in the J / Ψ → μ + μ – channel with PHENIX Run 15 p + p data at $\sqrt s$ =200 GeV. The results are compared with PYTHIA 8 simulations with the MPI option turned on and off. Finally, the outlooks of J / Ψ in p + Au and Au + p collisions, along with color glass condensate (CGC) predictions and the multiplicity-dependent Ψ(2S) /J / Ψ ratio in p + p data, will be briefly discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for bottom quark associated production of the standard model Higgs boson in final states with leptons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ =13 TeV

This Letter presents the first search for bottom quark associated production of the standard model Higgs boson, in final states with leptons. Higgs boson decays to pairs of tau leptons and pairs of leptonically decaying W bosons are considered. The search is performed using data collected from 2016 to 2018 by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb -1 . Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the signal strength for Higgs boson production in association with bottom quarks; the observed (expected) upper limit is 3.7 (6.1) times the standard model prediction

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Quark flavor balancing in nuclear collisions

The notion of charge balance function, originally designed to study the evolution of charge production in heavy-ion collisions, is extended to consider quark flavor balancing. This extension is considered based on simulations performed with the PYTHIA 8 event generator in the context of pp collisions at √𝑠 = 13.6, 7, and 2.76 TeV but can be trivially applied to any other scenario and implemented in measurements of correlated particle production in pp, pA, and AA collisions at colliders. Correlation of selected flavor balancing pairs is examined as a function of the produced charged particle multiplicity. One finds that the amplitude of the correlations increases monotonically with the number of balanced flavors and the actual flavor content of correlated particles.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Measurement of the associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into b-quarks with a vector boson at high transverse momentum in pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The associated production of a Higgs boson with a W or Z boson decaying into leptons and where the Higgs boson decays to a $b\bar{b}$ pair is measured in the high vector-boson transverse momentum regime, above 250 GeV, with the ATLAS detector. The analysed data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 , were collected in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The measured signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model, is $0.72^{+0.39}_{-0.36}$ corresponding to an observed (expected) significance of 2.1 (2.7) standard deviations. Cross-sections of associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into b quark pairs with a W or Z gauge boson, decaying into leptons, are measured in two exclusive vector boson transverse momentum regions, 250–400 GeV and above 400 GeV, and interpreted as constraints on anomalous couplings in the framework of a Standard Model effective field theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Υ production and nuclear modification at forward rapidity in Pb–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV

The production of Υ mesons in Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV is measured with the muon spectrometer of the ALICE detector at the LHC. The yields as well as the nuclear modification factors are determined in the forward rapidity region 2.5 < y < 4.0, as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum and collision centrality. The results show that the production of the Υ(1S) meson is suppressed by a factor of about three with respect to the production in proton– proton collisions. For the first time, a significant signal for the Υ(2S) meson is observed at forward rapidity, indicating a suppression stronger by about a factor 2–3 with respect to the ground state. The measurements are compared with transport, hydrodynamic, comover and statistical hadronisation model calculations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Enabling Solar Water Oxidation by BiVO 4 in Strongly Acidic Solutions

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is paired with various electrochemical and photoelectrochemical reduction reactions used for fuel and chemical production. As there is a strong interest in performing many of these reduction reactions in strongly acidic solutions to increase the reaction rate, efficiency, or selectivity, there is also a great interest in enabling efficient and stable OER in strongly acidic solutions. In this study, we report stable photoelectrochemical OER (POER) of a BiVO 4 photoanode in 0.1 M HNO 3 (pH 1). This was achieved by using Nb 2 O 5 as a protection layer. While Nb 2 O 5 was rarely used as a protection layer for photoelectrodes in the past, we show its excellent capability to suppress both the chemical and photoelectrochemical dissolution of BiVO 4 at pH 1. After stabilizing BiVO 4 with a Nb 2 O 5 protection layer, we added Co 2+ ions to the electrolyte as an OER catalyst to enhance the POER. We found that Co (aq) 2+ can serve as a homogeneous OER catalyst without being deposited as a CoO x solid catalyst on Nb 2 O 5 . When we performed the POER using unprotected BiVO 4 with Co (aq) 2+ under the same condition, although POER was enhanced, the enhancement could not be sustained due to the chemical dissolution of BiVO 4 . After the POER, we found that a Co 3+ -containing OER catalyst was deposited on the bare BiVO 4 surface. This result suggested that the use of Co 2+ ions as a homogeneous catalyst was possible due to the inertness of the Nb 2 O 5 surface toward the adsorption or deposition of Co ions. This study enabling stable POER of BiVO 4 in 0.1 M HNO 3 using the combination of a Nb 2 O 5 protection layer and Co (aq) 2+ as a homogeneous OER catalyst provides promising possibilities for acidic POER and OER.

Catalysts↗

Measurement of the top quark Yukawa coupling from $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ kinematic distributions in the dilepton final state in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV

A measurement of the Higgs boson Yukawa coupling to the top quark is presented using proton-proton collision data at s=13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb-1, recorded with the CMS detector. The coupling strength with respect to the standard model value, Yt, is determined from kinematic distributions in tt¯ final states containing ee, μμ, or eμ pairs. Variations of the Yukawa coupling strength lead to modified distributions for tt¯ production. In particular, the distributions of the mass of the tt¯ system and the rapidity difference of the top quark and antiquark are sensitive to the value of Yt. The measurement yields a best fit value of Yt=1.16-0.35+0.24, bounding Yt<1.54 at a 95% confidence level.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for narrow resonances in the b -tagged dijet mass spectrum in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV

A search is performed for narrow resonances decaying to final states of two jets, with at least one jet originating from a b quark, in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV . The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb - 1 collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Jets originating from energetic b hadrons are identified through a b -tagging algorithm that utilizes a deep neural network or the presence of a muon inside a jet. The invariant mass spectrum of jet pairs is well described by a smooth parametrization and no evidence for the production of new particles is observed. Upper limits on the production cross section are set for excited b quarks and other resonances decaying to dijet final states containing b quarks. These limits exclude at 95% confidence level models of Z ' bosons with masses from 1.8 TeV to 2.4 TeV and of excited b quarks with masses from 1.8 TeV to 4.0 TeV. This is the most stringent exclusion of excited b quarks to date.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Analysis of the NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) Test System for Friction-Ignition of Metallic Materials

Friction is a known ignition source for metals in oxygen-enriched atmospheres. The test system developed by the NASA White Sands Test Facility in response to ASTM G-94 has been used successfully to determine the relative ignition from friction of numerous metallic materials and metallic materials pairs. These results have been ranked in terms of a pressure-velocity product (PV) as measured under the prescribed test conditions. A high value of 4.1(exp 8) watts per square meter for Inconel MA 754 is used to imply resistance to friction ignition, whereas a low value of 1.04(exp 8) watts per square meter for stainless steel 304 is taken as indicating material susceptible to friction ignition. No attempt has been made to relate PV values to other material properties. This work reports the analysis of the WSTF friction-ignition test system for producing fundamental properties of metallic materials relating to ignition through friction. Three materials, aluminum, titanium, and nickel were tested in the WSTF frictional ignition instrument system under atmospheres of oxygen or nitrogen. Test conditions were modified to reach a steady state of operation, that is applied, the force was reduced and the rotational speed was reduced. Additional temperature measurements were made on the stator sample. The aluminum immediately galled on contact (reproducible) and the test was stopped. Titanium immediately ignited as a result of non-uniform contact of the stator and rotor. This was reproducible. A portion of the stator sampled burned, but the test continued. Temperature measurements on the stator were used to validate the mathematical model used for estimating the interface (stator/rotor) temperature. These interface temperature measurements and the associate thermal flux into the stator were used to distinguish material-phase transitions, chemical reaction, and mechanical work. The mechanical work was used to analyze surface asperities in the materials and to estimate a coefficient of fiction. The coefficient of fiction was analyzed in terms of material properties that is, hardness, Young's modulus and elasticity/plasticity of the material.

Shoffstall, Michael S.↗

PAIReD jet: A multi-pronged resonance tagging strategy across all Lorentz boosts

We propose a new approach of jet-based event reconstruction that aims to optimally exploit correlations between the products of a hadronic multi-pronged decay across all Lorentz boost regimes. The new approach utilizes clustered small-radius jets as seeds to define unconventional jets, referred to as PAIReD jets. The constituents of these jets are subsequently used as inputs to machine learning-based algorithms to identify the flavor content of the jet. We demonstrate that this approach achieves higher efficiencies in the reconstruction of signal events containing heavy-flavor jets compared to other event reconstruction strategies at all Lorentz boost regimes. Classifiers trained on PAIReD jets also have significantly better background rejections compared to those based on traditional event reconstruction approaches using small-radius jets at low Lorentz boost regimes. The combined effect of a higher signal reconstruction efficiency and better classification performance results in a two to four times stronger rejection of light-flavor jets compared to conventional strategies at low Lorentz-boosts, and rejection rates similar to classifiers based on large-radius multi-pronged jets at high Lorentz-boost regimes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Flexible operation of nuclear hybrid energy systems for load following and water desalination

Nuclear hybrid energy systems (NHES) have the potential to provide dependable and emission-free electricity to the grid while also increasing the flexibility and reliability of the electrical grid. Molten salt reactor (MSR) technology can provide consistent, carbon-free electricity while also increasing efficiency, security, and sustainability and reducing nuclear waste. This study investigates the integration of Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) and conventional Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) with desalination technologies: Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD), Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSFD), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Dynamic first-principles models were developed and tested using real grid data from the New York Independent System Operator. The results demonstrate that nuclear power is capable of flexibly responding to changing grid demand while simultaneously producing clean water, particularly during periods of low electricity demand. The MSR-RO system was found to be the most efficient in electricity generation and water production, and all hybrid systems reduced CO2 emissions by 356,000 to 682,000 tons annually. Economic analysis reveals that nuclear desalination technologies are cost-competitive with conventional systems, especially when paired with RO. Finally, these findings confirm the technical feasibility and environmental benefits of nuclear hybrid systems for sustainable electricity and water production.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Submillimetric Spectroscopic Observations of Volatiles in Comet C-2004 Q2 (Machholz)

Submillimeter spectroscopic observations of comets provide an important tool for understanding their chemical composition and enable a taxonomic classification. Aims. We aim to determine the production rates of several parent- and product volatiles and the C-12/C-13 isotopic carbon ratio in the long-period comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), which is likely to originate from the Oort Cloud. Methods. The line emission from several molecules in the coma was measured with high signal-to-noise ratio in January 2005 at heliocentric distance of 1.2 AU by means of high-resolution spectroscopic observations using the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) at the Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO). Results. We have obtained production rates of several volatiles (CH3OH, HCN, H(sup 13)CN, HNC, H2CO, CO, and CS) by comparing the observed and simulated line-integrated intensities. We calculated the synthetic profiles using a radiative transfer code that includes collisions between neutrals and electrons, and the effects of radiative pumping of the fundamental vibrational levels by solar infrared radiation. Furthermore, multiline observations of the CH3OH J = 7-6 series allow us to estimate the rotational temperature using the rotation diagram technique. We find that the CH3OH population distribution of the levels sampled by these lines can be described by a rotational temperature of 40 +/- 3 K. Derived mixing ratios relative to hydrogen cyanide are CO/CH3OH/H2CO/CS/HNC/HC-13N/HCN= 30.9/24.6/4.8/0.57/0.031/0.013/1 assuming a pointing offset of 8" due to the uncertain ephemeris at the time of the observations and the telescope pointing error. Conclusions. The measured relative molecular abundances in C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) are between low- to typical values of those obtained in Oort Cloud comets, suggesting that it has visited the inner solar system previously and undergone thermal processing. The HNC/HCN abundance ratio of approx 3.1% is comparable to that found in other comets, accounting for the dependence on the heliocentric distance, and could possibly be explained by ion-molecule chemical processes in the low-temperature atmosphere. From a tentative HC-13N detection, the measured value of 97 +/- 30 for the HC-12N/HC-13N isotopologue pair is consistent with a telluric value. The outgassing variability observed in the HCN production rates over a period of two hours is consistent with the rotation of the nucleus derived using different observational techniques.

chemical composition↗