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The LHCb experiment is dedicated to making precision measurements involving beauty and charm hadrons at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The LHCb RICH detectors provide charged particle identification required to distinguish final states in many decays important to the LHCb physics programme. Time alignment of the RICH photon detectors is necessary in order to ensure a high photon collection efficiency. Using both a pulsed laser and proton-proton collision data the photon detectors are aligned to within 1 ns. The LHCb detector is uniquely positioned to measure production cross-sections at energies and rapidities inaccessible to other experiments. With 1.81 nb−1 of proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment in 2010 at center-of-mass energy √s = 7 TeV the production crosssection of D±s and D± mesons decaying to the φ{K+K−}π ± final state have been determined in bins of transverse momentum and rapidity. These measurements use a data-driven recursive optimisation technique to improve signal significance. The cross-section ratio is measured to be σ(D± ) σ(D± s ) = 2.32±0.27(stat)±0.26(syst), consistent with the ratio of charm-quark hadronisation fractions to D± and D±s mesons. Time-dependent interference between mixing of B0s -B0s mesons and decay to the final state J/ψφ gives rise to a CP violating phase φs. This phase is constrained to be small within the Standard Model, a significant deviation from which would be a signal of new physics. φs has been measured with 0.37 fb−1 of protonproton collision data recorded during 2011 by the LHCb experiment. Isolation of the signal distribution is achieved using the S-plot technique, and the analysis accounts for inclusive B0s →J/ψK+K− s-wave contributions. The measured value of φs = 0.16±0.18(stat)±0.06(syst) rad is the most precise measurement to date, and is consistent with Standard Model predictions.

Zur Erforschung des Verhaltens der Kernmaterie wurde mit dem Dielektronen-Spektrometer HADES am GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt unter anderem die Reaktion p + Nb bei 3,5 GeV kinetischer Strahlenergie untersucht. Obwohl HADES primär für den Nachweis seltener leptonischer Zerfälle der Vektormesonen ρ, ω und φ konzipiert wurde, eignet sich das Spektrometer aufgrund seiner präzisen Spurrekonstruktion auch für die Untersuchung von hadronischen Kanälen. Zum Studium der Strangeness-Signaturen in der Reaktion p + Nb wird in dieser Arbeit der im Jahr 2008 aufgezeichnete Datensatz von ca. 4,2 Milliarden Kollisionen hinsichtlich der Produktion und der dabei auftretenden Polarisation von Λ-Hyperonen untersucht. Die polarisierte Produktion von Hyperonen in Kernreaktionen mit unpolarisierten Ausgangsteilchen wurde entgegen den theoretischen Erwartungen erstmals 1976 beobachtet und fand bis heute keine allgemein akzeptierte und alle beobachteten Abhängigkeiten umfassende Erklärung auf Grundlage der starken Wechselwirkung. Es werden zunächst die theoretischen Modelle der Hyperonpolarisation diskutiert und der experimentelle Zugang erklärt. Dieser gelingt über den schwachen Zerfall des Λ-Hyperons, der als natürliches Polarimeter wirkt und somit insbesondere in Reaktionen mit unpolarisierten Nukleonen ein ideales Instrument zur Untersuchung der Polarisation darstellt. Aufgrund der großen Raumwinkelabdeckung ermöglicht HADES, Λ-Hyperonen in einem weiten Phasenraumbereich zu rekonstruieren, sodass deren Produktionsrate und Polarisation in Abhängigkeit der Observablen Transversalimpuls pt und Rapidität y analysiert werden. Aus insgesamt 1,1 Millionen rekonstruierten Λ-Hyperonen werden nach der Korrektur bezüglich der Detektorakzeptanz und -effizienz transversale Massenspektren extrahiert. Deren inverser Steigungsparameter TB (y) nimmt ein Maximum von rund 90 MeV bei y = 1, d.h. unterhalb der Schwerpunktsrapidität im Nukleon-Nukleon-Stoß (ycm = 1,12), an und fällt zu kleinen Rapiditäten deutlich schneller ab als für Teilchen im thermischen Gleichgewicht. Die Λ-Rapiditätsdichte zeigt eine asymmetrische Verteilung, die aufgrund von Mehrfachstreuung der Λ-Hyperonen hauptsächlich mit Kern-Nukleonen deutlich zur Targetrapidität verschoben ist und mit steigender Rapidität > 0,3 stark abnimmt. Auf den vollständigen Phasenraum extrapoliert, erfüllt die Produktionsrate von 0,018 ± 0,004 Λ-0 Hyperons je Ereignis, verbunden mit der Multiplizität von Ks -Mesonen und den mittels Transportmodell abgeleiteten Produktionsverhältnissen zu den übrigen Kaonen und Hyperonen, die Strangeness-Erhaltung im Mittel der gemessenen Kollisionen. Darüber hinaus zeigt das Λ-Hyperon eine signifikant negative Polarisation relativ zur Normalen seiner Produktionsebene, die über den verfügbaren Phasenraum gemittelt Px = (−10,6 ± 1,3) % beträgt und deren Betrag mit steigendem Transversalimpuls entsprechend Px (pt ) = (−0,19 ± 0,02) (GeV/c)−1 pt linear zunimmt. Die Ergebnisse bezüglich der Λ-Polarisation und Phasenraumverteilung werden mit denen anderer Experimente ähnlicher Stoßsysteme verglichen und im Rahmen von systematischen Untersuchungen mit Transportmodellen interpretiert, um Details zur Dynamik der Hyperon-Produktion in Proton-Kern-Reaktionen abzuleiten. Derzeit verfügbare Versionen der GiBUU- und UrQMD-Modelle können die experimentellen Verteilungen im Phasenraum jedoch nicht hinreichend reproduzieren. Mit der Rekonstruktion von Ξ− -Hyperonen und φ-Mesonen wird ein Ausblick auf weiterführende Studien zur Strangeness-Produktion in Nukleon-Kern-Stößen gegeben. / With the dielectron spectrometer HADES, located at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, p + Nb reactions at a kinetic beam energy of 3.5 GeV were measured to study the behavior of nuclear matter. Although primarily designed for the detection of rare leptonic decays of the light vector mesons ρ, ω and φ, the spectrometer renders itself very well suited for the investigation of hadrons, due to its excellent tracking capability. This thesis presents results of the production and polarization of strange Λ hyperons in about 4.2 billion reactions of p + Nb recorded in 2008. In contrast to theoretical expectations, the polarized production of hyperons was observed in 1976 for the first time in nuclear reactions with unpolarized beams. Based on the fundamental properties of strong interaction, to date no single explanation exists describing all dependencies of the observed hyperon polarization. Therefore, common theoretical models of hyperon polarization are introduced. Acting as a natural polarimeter, the Λ hyperon represents an excellent tool to study the phenomenon of hyperon polarization especially in reactions with unpolarized beams and targets. Hence, the experimental technique for extracting the polarization using the weak decay of the Λ hyperon is explained. Due to a large solid angle coverage, HADES allows for the reconstruction of hadrons within a wide phase space range. Consequently, a double-differential analysis of the polarization and production probability as a function of transverse momentum pt and rapidity y is performed. In total, 1.1 million Λ hyperons are reconstructed and corrected for detector acceptance and efficiency. The inverse slope parameter TB is extracted from transverse mass spectra. Its rapidity dependence TB (y) shows a maximum of 90 MeV at y = 1, i.e. below the center-of-mass rapidity of the nucleon-nucleon collision ycm = 1.12, and a stronger decrease to lower rapidities than particles in thermal equilibrium. The Λ rapidity density shows an asymmetric distribution, shifted towards target rapidity, which is probably caused by multiple scattering on target nucleons. Extrapolated to the full phase space, the total multiplicity of 0.018 ± 0.004 Λ hyperons per event satisfies strangeness conservati- 0 on on average. For that purpose, the Ks production rate from another analysis and ratios to the other, unmeasured, strange hadrons, derived from transport simulations, are taken into account. Furthermore, the Λ hyperon shows a significant negative polarization perpendicular to its production plane, which amounts to Px = (−10.6 ± 1.3) % averaged over the phase space accessible to HADES. The measured Λ polarization increases almost linearly with increasing transverse momentum pt , according to Px (pt ) = (−0.19 ± 0.02) (GeV/c)−1 pt . In order to spot details on the dynamics of hyperon production in proton-nucleus reactions, the results on Λ polarization and phase space distribution are compared to those of similar reactions. Additionally, a systematic investigation with transport model simulations is performed. The experimental distributions can not be reproduced sufficiently well by the presently available GiBUU and URQMD models. Moreover, an outlook on further studies of strangeness production in nucleon-nucleus collisions by reconstruction of Ξ− hyperons and φ mesons is given.

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A sample of $ L dt = 3.67 pb{-1} of minimum bias events observed using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at $\s=7 TeV is analyzed for Missing Transverse Energy (MET) response in the presence of in-time pile-up. We find that the MET resolution ($\sigma_\text{X,Y}$) is consistent with a simple model of the detector response for minimum bias events, scaling with respect to the sum of the scalar energy ($\sum E_\text{T}$) as $\sigma_\text{X,Y}=A\sqrt{\sum E_\text{T} }$. This behavior is observed in the presence of in-time pile-up and does not vary with global calibration schemes. We find a bias in the mean ($\mu_\text{X,Y}$) of the MET that is linear with respect to $\sum E_\text{T}$, leading to an asymmetry in the $\phi_\text{X,Y}$ distribution of the MET. We propose an explanation for this problem in terms of a misalignment of the nominal center of the ATLAS detector with respect to its real center. We contrast the data with a Monte Carlo sample produced using PYTHIA. We find that the resolution, bias and asymmetry are all approximately reproduced in simulation. / Graduate

Many ATLAS analyses study events with muons in them including those searching for the Higgs boson and new physics. Cosmics muons, however, can also occasionally enter the detector and mimic the trajectory of a muon from one of the collisions produced by CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. By understanding the different ways ATLAS triggers on, collects, reconstructs, and analyses data from cosmic rays and collisions, the flux of cosmic muons with transverse momenta above 20 GeV in the central region of the detector was measured to be 1.34 ± 0.06 (stat.) s^−1 m^−2 . At the same time the cosmic muon charge ratio has been measured to be 1.3 ± 0.1 (stat.). This measurement of the cosmic muon flux in ATLAS is the first step in quantifying the sizes of the cosmic muon backgrounds to various physics analyses that look for events with muons. / Graduate

Charmed hadron production has been studied in 225 pb^-1 of data collected with the ZEUS detector in the HERA-II runnning period. Studies were made in the D* → D⁰π → Kππ decay channel to determine the potential for the microvertex detector to improve charm signals. Integrated cross sections were measured for the decays D⁰ → K⁰_sπ⁺ π⁻, D^± → K⁰_s π^±, D^±_s → K⁰s K^± and Lambda^±_c → Lambda⁰π^± in the kinematic region 5< Q² < 1000 GeV², 0.02 < y < 0.7, 1.5 < pT(D,Lambda_c) < 20.0 GeV, -1.6 < pseudorapidity(D, Lambda_c) < 1.6. The D⁰ cross section was additionally measured down to pT(D⁰) > 1.0 GeV. Differential cross sections as a function of Q², x, pT(D) and pseudorapidity(D) were measured for the D⁰, D^±, and D_s^± channels. The measurements were compared to next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations, and good agreement found for all variables in all channels over the measured kinematic region. The strangeness-suppression factor, gamma_s = D_s^±/(D^± + D⁰), was measured and found to be in good agreement with values previously measured at HERA and elsewhere, and with the DJANGOH and RAPGAP Monte Carlo. The ratio of charmed baryons to mesons, Lambda_c^±/(D^± + D⁰), was measured and also found to be in good agreement with Monte Carlo.

This thesis presents the design qualification and construction of the Beam Scintillator Counter (BSC) for the CMS Collaboration at CERN in 2007 - 2008. The BSC detector is designed to aid in the commissioning of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) during the first 2 years of operation and provide technical triggering for beam halo and minimum-bias events. Using plastic scintillator tiles mounted at both ends of CMS, it will detect minimum ionizing particles through the low-to-mid luminosity phases of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) commissioning. During these early phases, the BSC will provide probably the most interesting and widely used data of any of the CMS sub-detectors and will be employed in the track based alignment procedure of the central tracker and commissioning of the Forward Hadron Calorimeter.

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-170). Also available via the World Wide Web.