Using the Balance Function to study the charge correlations of hadrons

We present the recent Balance Function (BF) results obtained by the NA49 collaboration for the pseudo-rapidity dependence of non-identified charged particle correlations for two SPS energies. Experimental results indicate a clear centrality dependence only in the mid-rapidity region. The results of an energy dependence study of the BF throughout the whole SPS energy range will also be discussed. In addition, the correlation of identified hadrons is studied and presented for the first time. The study of hadron correlation has also been extended in order to cope with the high multiplicity environment that is expected to be seen at LHC. We will present the latest results from simulations concerning the extension of these studies to the ALICE experiment.Comment: To appear in the proccedings of the "Quark Confinement and Hadron Spectrum VII" conferenc

Fuel cells for power generation and organic waste treatment on the island of Mull

In-situ use of biomass and organic waste streams have the potential to provide the key to energy self sustainability for islands and remote communities. Traditionally biogas fuels have been used in combustion engines for electric power generation. However, fuel cells offer the prospect of achieving higher generating efficiencies, and additionally, important environmental benefits can be achieved by way of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, whilst providing a carbon sink. This paper presents the design details of a biogas gas plant and fuel cell installation that will provide a practical solution on an island (and be applicable in other remote and rural areas) where connection to the grid can be expensive, and where biofuels can be produced on site at no significant extra cost

VERITAS Distant Laser Calibration and Atmospheric Monitoring

As a calibrated laser pulse propagates through the atmosphere, the intensity of the Rayleigh scattered light arriving at the VERITAS telescopes can be calculated precisely. This allows for absolute calibration of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) to be simple and straightforward. In these proceedings, we present the comparison between laser data and simulation to estimate the light collection efficiencies of the VERITAS telescopes, and the analysis of multiple laser data sets taken in different months for atmospheric monitoring purpose.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of "4th Heidelberg International Symposium on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy 2008

The ECLAIRs telescope onboard the SVOM mission for gamma-ray burst studies

The X- and gamma-ray telescope ECLAIRs onboard the future mission for gamma-ray burst studies SVOM (Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor) is foreseen to operate in orbit from 2013 on. ECLAIRs will provide fast and accurate GRB triggers to other onboard telescopes, as well as to the whole GRB community, in particular ground-based follow-up telescopes. With its very low energy threshold ECLAIRs is particularly well suited for the detection of highly redshifted GRB. The ECLAIRs X- and gamma-ray imaging camera (CXG), used for GRB detection and localization, is combined with a soft X-ray telescope (SXT) for afterglow observations and position refinement. The CXG is a 2D-coded mask imager with a 1024 cm$^2$ detection plane made of 80$\times$80 CdTe pixels, sensitive from 4 to 300 keV, with imaging capabilities up to about 120 keV and a localization accuracy better than 10 arcmin. The CXG permanently observes a 2 sr-wide field of the sky and provides photon data to the onboard science and triggering unit (UTS) which detects GRB by count-rate increases or by the appearance of a new source in cyclic sky images. The SXT is a mirror focusing X-ray telescope operating from 0.3 to 2 keV with a sensitivity of 1 mCrab for 100 s observations. The spacecraft slews within $\simeq$3 min in order to place the GRB candidate into the 23$\times$23 arcmin$^2$ field of view of the SXT, after which it refines the GRB position to about 10 arcsec. GRB alerts are transmitted to ground-observers within tens of seconds via a VHF network and all detected photons are available hours later for detailed analysis. In this paper we present the ECLAIRs concepts, with emphasis on the expected performances.Comment: on behalf of the ECLAIRs collaboration. Proceedings of Gamma-Ray Bursts 2007 conference, Santa Fe, USA, 5-9 November 2007. Published in AIP conf. proc. 1000, 581-584 (2008

Neutral Current π0\pi^0 Production in MiniBooNE

This paper describes the analysis used to determine the neutral current $\pi^0$ production in MiniBooNE in bins of momentum. Additionally, a measurement of the relative coherent production of $\pi^0$s is discussed. The coherent production rate is found to be (19.5 $\pm$1.1 (stat) $\pm$2.5 (sys))% of the total exclusive neutral current $\pi^0$ production rate.Comment: Prepared for the Proceedings of Neutrino Interactions 200

Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts: Short vs. Long GRBs

We compiled a large sample of Swift-era photometric data on long (Type II) and short (Type I) GRB afterglows. We compare the luminosity and energetics of the different samples to each other and to the afterglows of the pre-Swift era. Here, we present the first results of these studies.Comment: Conference Proceedings, "Gamma-Ray Bursts 2007", Santa Fe, shortened poster presentation; 4 pages, 3 figures; for full updated papers, go here to arXiv:0712.2186 and also here to arXiv:0804.195

The Double Chooz Experiment

There is broad consensus in the worldwide physics community as to the need for a new reactor-neutrino experiment to measure or limit the neutrino mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. The Double Chooz Experiment, planned for operation in the years 2008-2011, will search for values of $\sin^2{2\theta_{13}}$ down to $\approx$0.03. This will be the first new information on $\theta_{13}$ in over a decade and will cover most of the remaining parameter space. A quick and relatively inexpensive project is made possible by the existing neutrino laboratory at the Chooz site.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Proceedings of the Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Puerto Rico, May 30 - June 3, 200

An exploratory study of heavy domain wall fermions on the lattice

We report on an exploratory study of domain wall fermions (DWF) as a lattice regularisation for heavy quarks. Within the framework of quenched QCD with the tree-level improved Symanzik gauge action we identify the DWF parameters which minimise discretisation effects. We find the corresponding effective 4$d$ overlap operator to be exponentially local, independent of the quark mass. We determine a maximum bare heavy quark mass of $am_h\approx 0.4$, below which the approximate chiral symmetry and O(a)-improvement of DWF are sustained. This threshold appears to be largely independent of the lattice spacing. Based on these findings, we carried out a detailed scaling study for the heavy-strange meson dispersion relation and decay constant on four ensembles with lattice spacings in the range $2.0-5.7\,\mathrm{GeV}$. We observe very mild $a^2$ scaling towards the continuum limit. Our findings establish a sound basis for heavy DWF in dynamical simulations of lattice QCD with relevance to Standard Model phenomenology.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Retrospective analysis of chronic injuries in recreational and competitive surfers:Injury location, type, and mechanism

Only two studies have reported on chronic musculoskeletal surfing injuries. They found over half of the injuries were non-musculoskeletal, but did not consider mechanisms of injury. This study identified the location, type, and mechanisms of chronic injury in Australian recreational and competitive surfers using a crosssectional retrospective observational design. A total of 1,348 participants (91.3% males, 43.1% competitive surfers) reported 1,068 chronic injuries, 883 of which were classified as major. Lower back (23.2%), shoulder (22.4%), and knee (12.1%) regions had the most chronic injuries. Competitive surfers had significantly (p \u3c .05) more lower back, ankle/foot, and head/face injuries than recreational surfers. Injuries were mostly musculoskeletal with only 7.8% being of non-musculoskeletal origin. Prolonged paddling was the highest frequency (21.1%) for mechanism of injury followed by turning maneuvers (14.8%). The study results contribute to the limited research on chronic surfing injuries

Hadron-Hadron Interactions from Nf=2+1+1N_f=2+1+1 Lattice QCD: isospin-2 ππ\pi\pi scattering length

We present results for the $I=2$ $\pi\pi$ scattering length using $N_f=2+1+1$ twisted mass lattice QCD for three values of the lattice spacing and a range of pion mass values. Due to the use of Laplacian Heaviside smearing our statistical errors are reduced compared to previous lattice studies. A detailed investigation of systematic effects such as discretisation effects, volume effects, and pollution of excited and thermal states is performed. After extrapolation to the physical point using chiral perturbation theory at NLO we obtain $M_\pi a_0=-0.0442(2)_\mathrm{stat}(^{+4}_{-0})_\mathrm{sys}$.Comment: Edited for typos, overhauled figures, more detailed comparison to existing lattice result