New observables for multiple-parton interactions measurements using Z + jets process at the LHC

Multiple-parton interactions play a vital role in hadron-hadron collisions. This paper presents a study of the multiple-parton interactions with simulated Z + jets events in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The events are simulated with POWHEG followed by hadronization and parton-showering using PYTHIA 8. The events with dimuon invariant mass in the range of 60--120 GeV are selected for the analysis. The charged particle jets, having minimum transverse momentum of 5 GeV and absolute pseudo-rapidity less than 2, are used to construct the observables for measurements of the multiple-parton interactions. The proposed observables and phase-space region presented in this paper found to have enhanced sensitivity to multiple-parton interactions. The increased sensitivity to MPI will be lead to precise constraints on the parameters of the MPI models.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Physical Review

A Lawyer for John Doe: Alternative Models for Representing Maryland\u27s Middle Class

A Lawyer for John Doe, explores the growing disparity between the legal services available to the upper class and the poor in the state of Maryland. The article offers four models or solutions that creatively show different ways in which middle class citizens can obtain adequate and substantive legal representation for issues that specifically concern them

Phases and phase stabilities of Fe3X alloys (X=Al, As, Ge, In, Sb, Si, Sn, Zn) prepared by mechanical alloying

Mechanical alloying with a Spex 8000 mixer/mill was used to prepare several alloys of the Fe3X composition, where the solutes X were from groups IIB, IIIB, IVB, and VB of the periodic table. Using x-ray diffractometry and Mössbauer spectrometry, we determined the steady-state phases after milling for long times. The tendencies of the alloys to form the bcc phase after milling are predicted well with the modified usage of a Darken–Gurry plot of electronegativity versus metallic radius. Thermal stabilities of some of these phases were studied. In the cases of Fe3Ge and Fe3Sn, there was the formation of transient D03 and B2 order during annealing, although this ordered structure was replaced by equilibrium phases upon further annealing

Life-Add: Lifetime Adjustable Design for WiFi Networks with Heterogeneous Energy Supplies

WiFi usage significantly reduces the battery lifetime of handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets, due to its high energy consumption. In this paper, we propose "Life-Add": a Lifetime Adjustable design for WiFi networks, where the devices are powered by battery, electric power, and/or renewable energy. In Life-Add, a device turns off its radio to save energy when the channel is sensed to be busy, and sleeps for a random time period before sensing the channel again. Life-Add carefully controls the devices' average sleep periods to improve their throughput while satisfying their operation time requirement. It is proven that Life-Add achieves near-optimal proportional-fair utility performance for single access point (AP) scenarios. Moreover, Life-Add alleviates the near-far effect and hidden terminal problem in general multiple AP scenarios. Our ns-3 simulations show that Life-Add simultaneously improves the lifetime, throughput, and fairness performance of WiFi networks, and coexists harmoniously with IEEE 802.11.Comment: This is the technical report of our WiOpt paper. The paper received the best student paper award at IEEE WiOpt 2013. The first three authors are co-primary author

Nd-142/Nd-144 in SNCs and early differentiation of a heterogeneous Martian mantle

Sm/Nd correlated variations in Nd-142/Nd-144 have been observed for mineral phases of achondrites from decay of live Sm-146 in the early solar system. Crystallization ages of shergottites-nakhlites-Chassigny (SNC) meteorites are less than or = 1.3 Ga, so variations of Nd-142/Nd-144 among mineral phases of the SNC's are not expected. However, if SNC's were derived from source reservoirs of differing Sm/Nd ratios, established while Sm-146 was still alive, and which remained isolated except for magma extraction, then variations in Nd-142/Nd-144 would exist among individual SNC meteorites. Rb-Sr and U-Pb isotopic data for the shergottites imply differentiation of their parent planet approximately 4.6 Ga ago. The confirmation of the conclusion that the nakhlites and shergottites were derived from different source regions, and that, consequently, the shergottite parent body (SPB) mantle was heterogeneous is presented

Large-scale exact diagonalizations reveal low-momentum scales of nuclei

Ab initio methods aim to solve the nuclear many-body problem with controlled approximations. Virtually exact numerical solutions for realistic interactions can only be obtained for certain special cases such as few-nucleon systems. Here we extend the reach of exact diagonalization methods to handle model spaces with dimension exceeding $10^{10}$ on a single compute node. This allows us to perform no-core shell model (NCSM) calculations for 6Li in model spaces up to $N_\mathrm{max} = 22$ and to reveal the 4He+d halo structure of this nucleus. Still, the use of a finite harmonic-oscillator basis implies truncations in both infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) length scales. These truncations impose finite-size corrections on observables computed in this basis. We perform IR extrapolations of energies and radii computed in the NCSM and with the coupled-cluster method at several fixed UV cutoffs. It is shown that this strategy enables information gain also from data that is not fully UV converged. IR extrapolations improve the accuracy of relevant bound-state observables for a range of UV cutoffs, thus making them profitable tools. We relate the momentum scale that governs the exponential IR convergence to the threshold energy for the first open decay channel. Using large-scale NCSM calculations we numerically verify this small-momentum scale of finite nuclei.Comment: Minor revisions.Accepted for publication in Physical Review