Presented in this thesis is a summary of the development of gallium arsenide position sensitive detectors. These are aimed at various applications with the original motivation being experimental particle physics. An account is given of basic semiconductor physics relevant to particle detectors. A review of electronics applicable to reading out charged signals from semiconductor detectors is included. Applications of gallium arsenide X-ray detectors are described together with results from a Monte-Carlo simulation of the spectrum obtained from an X-ray source. The design, fabrication and laboratory testing of detectors is presented for pixel and microstrip detectors and other test structures. Test beam results are also presneted for pixel and microstrip detectors. An introduction to ATLAS detector simulation is also given, with examples of detector descriptions for the GaAs Forward Semiconductor Tracker. Results from a generator level study of b-jets from the process Hbb and predictions of influences in the Forward Tracker are also given.

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The gamma-ray transitions from the states populated in ⁵⁶Fe, ⁷⁵As and ¹⁵⁶Gd by the decay of ⁵⁶Co, ⁷⁵Se and ¹⁵⁶Eu were investigated using six Ge(Li) detectors and an intrinsic Ge detector. Coincidence studies were undertaken with a Dual-Parameter Energy-Time Spectrometer employing a fast-plastic scintillator detector and two large volume Ge(Li) detectors. The energies and intensities of measured gamma-rays were determined. The lifetime of energy levels in the n sec. range belonging to ⁷⁵As and ¹⁵⁶Gd were measured. The level schemes were constructed; log ft values, transition multipolarities, spins and parities were deduced. Different shell-model calculations were discussed and compared with experimental results.

We present a complete calculation of the photon +1 jet rate in e(^+)e(^-) annihilation up to O(aa(_s)). Although formally of next-to-leading order in perturbation theory, this calculation contains several ingredients appropriate to a next-to-next-to-leading order calculation of jet observables. No such calculation has been performed before, and the work discussed here represents a first step in that direction. In particular, we describe a generalization of the commonly used phase space slicing method to isolate the singularities present when more than one particle is unresolved. More precisely, we provide an analytic evaluation of the following multiple unresolved factors: triple collinear factor, soft/collinear factor and double single collinear factor. By comparing the results of our calculation with the existing data on the photon +1 jet rate from the ALEPH Collaboration at CERN, we make a new determination of the process-independent non-perturbative quark-to-photon fragmentation function D(_q-γ)(z,μ(_F)) at O(aa(_s)). at As a first application of this measurement allied with our improved perturbative calculation, we determine the dependence of the isolated photon -fl jet cross section in a democratic clustering approach on the jet resolution parameter y(_cut) at next-to-leading order. Inclusion of the next-to-leading order corrections to this observable considerably improves the agreement between theoretical prediction and experimental data.

This thesis is a study of data on pp → ππ in the range 0.36 ≤ P(_lab) ≤ 1.55 GeV/c taken by the PS 172 experiment at CERN's LEAR facility. The aim is to elucidate the nature of mesonic states coupling both to baryon-antibaryon and meson-meson channels. The PS 172 data are compared with, and found to be consistent with, earlier data on the same channel, and, in a model independent way, the consistency of the PS 172 results with BNL data on pp pp → π(^0)π(^0) is also established. The first amplitude analysis of pp → π(^0)π(^0) to incorporate the PS 172 data is performed and it is found that from the hundreds of possible amplitudes, only two are compatible with the BNL pp → π(^0)π(^0) data and with threshold conditions. The latter may be applied in a far more rigorous way than has been previously possible since the PS 172 momentum range extends so close to threshold. Both of the solutions found exhibit resonances with spins 0-5 and the masses, widths and couplings of these states are deduced. The lowest spin resonances are found to have such large couplings to NN that they are unlikely to be simple qq states.

This thesis is concerned with two-dimensional models that are integrable in the presence of a boundary and whose spectrum in the bulk is constituted of massless particles. Although there is already a vast literature on the subject (e.g. Kondo and Callan-Rubakov models), the common minimal denominator in all these situations is the fact that the bulk theory is conformal invariant and it is the boundary that is responsible for the broken scale invariance. Here, our purpose is to consider the alternative situation, where the boundary respects the conformal invariance of the theory and the renormalization group trajectory is controlled by a bulk perturbation. The model in question is the principal chiral model at level k = 1. We propose the set of permissible boundary conditions suggested by the symmetries of the problem and compute the corresponding minimal reflection matrices. For one of the boundary conditions we compute the boundary ground state energy and the boundary entropy using the technique of boundary thermodynamic Bethe ansatz. In the infrared limit our results are shown to be in complete agreement with the predictions of the boundary conformal field theory approach. Finally, we consider the classical supersymmetric Liouville theory on the half-line and compute the boundary conditions compatible with the superconformal invariance. We construct an infinite set of commuting integrals of motion using Lax-pair techniques and discuss some aspects of the quantum theory as well as its relation to the super Korteweg-de Vries equation.

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A phenomenological description is sought of the dynamics operating in high energy elastic hadron-hadron scattering. The predictions of a simple Pomeron and weak cut model of high energy elastic scattering are compared with the new and surprising ρ̄ρ data from the ISR and Sρ̄ρS Collider. The model, which gives a complete account of all the lower energy data, is incompatible with the unexpected energy dependence of the differential cross-section shown by the Collider data. Modifications within the original framework of the model are examined but found inadequate and it is concluded that new contributions are necessary. Two avenues are explored as likely candidates for the correct approach. The first approach considered is the possible existence of a small odd charge conjugation term with constant or increasing contribution to the cross-section. Two existing models of such an "Odderon" effect are studied which give good agreement with the new data but neither of which are entirely satisfactory. A reggeized Odderon contribution, analagous to these models, is examined and limitations are placed on its effect. The second possibility considered as a description of the additional contributions to the model are the correction terms necessary to prevent the violation of unitarity and the breaking of asymptotic bounds. An eikonalization model, in which a-channel unitarity is explicitly satisfied, is reviewed but several theoretical problems emerge due to the nature of the basic exchange and the model gives a relatively poor description of the data. A" similar model in which the born term is described by a Pomeron with the appropriate Regge phase is developed. This clears up some of the theoretical problems but is found to exaggerate the problems encountered in fitting the data and it is concluded that such an eikonal description is unlikely to work. A simple model of the unitarity corrections which gives a better chance of reproducing the data is proposed. The results of the phenomenology of the asymptotic and perturbative Reggeon field theory approaches to elastic scattering are briefly reviewed.