Investigation of Bose-Einstein Correlations in 3 jet events with the DELPHI detector

A preliminary investigation of Bose-Einstein correlations in 3 jet events has been made by analysing the collected data at the $Z^0$ peak from '94 and '95 and the calibration runs during the LEP2 period from '97 to 2000. Three methods were used to extract two-particle correlation functions. No significant difference was found between quark and gluon jets for all three methods.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures in ps and 1 in eps, talk given at XXXI International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Sept 1-7, 2001, Datong China. see http://ismd31.ccnu.edu.cn

Casimir effect in a weak gravitational field and the spacetime index of refraction

In a recent paper [arXiv:0904.2904] using a conjecture it is shown how one can calculate the effect of a weak stationary gravitational field on vacuum energy in the context of Casimir effect in an external gravitational field treated in 1+3 formulation of spacetime decomposition.. In this article, employing quntum field theory in curved spacetime, we explicitly calculate the effect of a weak static gravitational field on virtual massless scalar particles in a Casimir apparatus. It is shown that, as expected from the proposed conjecture, both the frequency and renormalized energy of the virtual scalar field are affected by the gravitational field through its index of refraction. This could be taken as a strong evidence in favour of the proposed conjecture. Generalizations to weak {\it stationary} spacetimes and virtual photons are also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, typos corrected (combined with arXiv:0904.2904 published in PRD

An evaluation resource for geographic information retrieval

In this paper we present an evaluation resource for geographic information retrieval developed within the Cross Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF). The GeoCLEF track is dedicated to the evaluation of geographic information retrieval systems. The resource encompasses more than 600,000 documents, 75 topics so far, and more than 100,000 relevance judgments for these topics. Geographic information retrieval requires an evaluation resource which represents realistic information needs and which is geographically challenging. Some experimental results and analysis are reported

GeoCLEF 2007: the CLEF 2007 cross-language geographic information retrieval track overview

GeoCLEF ran as a regular track for the second time within the Cross Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF) 2007. The purpose of GeoCLEF is to test and evaluate cross-language geographic information retrieval (GIR): retrieval for topics with a geographic specification. GeoCLEF 2007 consisted of two sub tasks. A search task ran for the third time and a query classification task was organized for the first. For the GeoCLEF 2007 search task, twenty-five search topics were defined by the organizing groups for searching English, German, Portuguese and Spanish document collections. All topics were translated into English, Indonesian, Portuguese, Spanish and German. Several topics in 2007 were geographically challenging. Thirteen groups submitted 108 runs. The groups used a variety of approaches. For the classification task, a query log from a search engine was provided and the groups needed to identify the queries with a geographic scope and the geographic components within the local queries

GeoCLEF 2006: the CLEF 2006 Ccross-language geographic information retrieval track overview

After being a pilot track in 2005, GeoCLEF advanced to be a regular track within CLEF 2006. The purpose of GeoCLEF is to test and evaluate cross-language geographic information retrieval (GIR): retrieval for topics with a geographic specification. For GeoCLEF 2006, twenty-five search topics were defined by the organizing groups for searching English, German, Portuguese and Spanish document collections. Topics were translated into English, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese. Several topics in 2006 were significantly more geographically challenging than in 2005. Seventeen groups submitted 149 runs (up from eleven groups and 117 runs in GeoCLEF 2005). The groups used a variety of approaches, including geographic bounding boxes, named entity extraction and external knowledge bases (geographic thesauri and ontologies and gazetteers)

Revisiting Thymic Positive Selection and the Mature T Cell Repertoire for Antigen

To support effective host defense, the T cell repertoire must balance breadth of recognition with sensitivity for antigen. The concept that T lymphocytes are positively selected in the thymus is well established, but how this selection achieves such a repertoire has not been resolved. Here we suggest that it is direct linkage between self and foreign antigen recognition that produces the necessary blend of TCR diversity and specificity in the mature peripheral repertoire, enabling responses to a broad universe of unpredictable antigens while maintaining an adequate number of highly sensitive T cells in a population of limited size. Our analysis also helps to explain how diversity and frequency of antigen-reactive cells in a T cell repertoire are adjusted in animals of vastly different size scale to enable effective antipathogen responses and suggests a possible binary architecture in the TCR repertoire that is divided between germline-related optimal binding and diverse recognition

Laser photon merging in proton-laser collisions

The quantum electrodynamical vacuum polarization effects arising in the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong, linearly polarized laser field are investigated. The probability that laser photons merge into one photon by interacting with the proton`s electromagnetic field is calculated taking into account the laser field exactly. Asymptotics of the probability are then derived according to different experimental setups suitable for detecting perturbative and nonperturbative vacuum polarization effects. The experimentally most feasible setup involves the use of a strong optical laser field. It is shown that in this case measurements of the polarization of the outgoing photon and and of its angular distribution provide promising tools to detect these effects for the first time.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figure

Scattering of neutrinos on a polarized electron target as a test for new physics beyond the Standard Model

In this paper, we analyze the scattering of the neutrino beam on the polarized electron target, and predict the effects of two theoretically possible scenarios beyond the Standard Model. In both scenarios, Dirac neutrinos are assumed to be massive. First, we consider how the existence of CP violation phase between the complex vector V and axial A couplings of the Left-handed neutrinos affects the azimuthal dependence of the differential cross section. The future superbeam and neutrino factory experiments will provide the unique opportunity for the leptonic CP violation studies, if the large magnetized sampling calorimeters with good event reconstruction capabilities are build. Next, we take into account a scenario with the participation of the exotic scalar S coupling of the Right-handed neutrinos in addition to the standard vector V and axial A couplings of the Left-handed neutrinos. The main goal is to show how the presence of the R-handed neutrinos, in the above process changes the spectrum of recoil electrons in relation to the expected Standard Model prediction, using the current limits on the non-standard couplings. The interference terms between the standard and exotic couplings in the differential cross section depend on the angle $\alpha$ between the transverse incoming neutrino polarization and the transverse electron polarization of the target, and do not vanish in the limit of massless neutrino. The detection of the dependence on this angle in the energy spectrum of recoil electrons would be a signature of the presence of the R-handed neutrinos in the neutrino-electron scattering. To make this test feasible, the polarized artificial neutrino source needs to be identified.Comment: 11 pages, 3 eps figures, revtex, submitted to publicatio