The DANSS detector is located directly under the nuclear reactor at the Kalinin nuclear power plant. Such a position ensures about 50 m.w.e. shielding from cosmic rays in the vertical direction; as a ...result, the detector occupies an intermediate position between surface and underground detectors in the shielding from cosmic rays. The sensitive volume of the detector consisting of a 1-m
3
plastic scintillator is surrounded by the multilayer passive shielding and muon veto. The main aim of the DANSS experiment is to measure the antineutrino spectrum at various distances from the source. To this end, the detector is placed on a lifting platform in order to record data at three positions of 10.9, 11.9, and 12.9 m from the reactor core. The detector can reconstruct muon tracks passing through its sensitive volume. The pressure, temperature, and decay coefficients for muons in various regions of the zenith angle
have been determined from the muon data collected during four years using the effective generation level method.
Detection of antineutrino by the reaction of the inverse
β
-decay can be used for an independent monitoring of a nuclear reactor power. DANSS detector is located directly under a commercial WWER-1000 ...reactor and counts up to 5000 antineutrino per day, providing the accuracy of 1.5% in 2 days of the flux measurement. A powerful system of the passive and active shielding in combination with the fine spatial segmentation of the detector allows to diminish the contribution of the background processes to a level, negligible in comparison to the statistical error. The influence of the nuclear fuel composition on the neutrino flux can be accounted for based on the input from the NPP staff.
The detection equipment of the DANSS setup includes 2500 silicon photomultipliers and approximately 100 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The system of data acquisition from these photosensors is based ...on waveform digitization, with which it is possible to simultaneously obtain both amplitude and timing information. The modules of waveform digitizers (WFDs) are made to the VME standard and allow parallel digitization of 64 differential signals at a frequency of 125 MHz with a 12-bit amplitude resolution. The programmable logic of the WFDs provides production of the system trigger based on the analysis of the PMT signals and its propagation without any additional hardware. Owing to the extremely low analog noise, it is possible to use the full dynamic range of the digitization. These WFD modules are superior to other similar modules in the throughput and may find wide application to perform similar tasks of waveform digitization.
The production of J/ψ pairs in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV has been observed using an integrated luminosity of 37.5 pb−1 collected with the LHCb detector. The ...production cross-section for pairs with both J/ψ in the rapidity range 2<yJ/ψ<4.5 and transverse momentum pTJ/ψ<10 GeV/c isσJ/ψJ/ψ=5.1±1.0±1.1 nb, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.
The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay $B^{0} \to K^{*0} \mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions at ...$\sqrt{s}=7\,{\rm TeV}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $1.0\,{\rm fb}^{-1}$. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, $q^{2}$. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be $q_{0}^{2} = 4.9 \pm 0.9 \,{\rm GeV}^{2}/c^{4}$, where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.
A measurement of the ratio of the branching fractions of the B(+) → K(+)μ(+)μ(-) and B(+) → K(+)e(+)e(-) decays is presented using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated ...luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), recorded with the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The value of the ratio of branching fractions for the dilepton invariant mass squared range 1 < q(2) < 6 GeV(2)/c(4) is measured to be 0.745(-0.074)(+0.090)(stat) ± 0.036(syst). This value is the most precise measurement of the ratio of branching fractions to date and is compatible with the standard model prediction within 2.6 standard deviations.
Decays of b hadrons into final states containing a D0 meson and a muon are used to measure the bb¯ production cross-section in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC. ...In the pseudorapidity interval 2<η<6 and integrated over all transverse momenta we find that the average cross-section to produce b-flavoured or b¯-flavoured hadrons is (75.3±5.4±13.0) μb.
A search for the doubly charmed baryon Xi_cc^+ in the decay mode Xi_cc^+ -> Lambda_c^+ K^- pi^+ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.65/fb, of pp collisions ...recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. No significant signal is found in the mass range 3300-3800 MeV/c^2. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the ratio of the Xi_cc^+ production cross-section times branching fraction to that of the Lambda_c^+, R, are given as a function of the Xi_cc^+ mass and lifetime. The largest upper limits range from R < 1.4 x 10^-2 for a lifetime of 100 fs to R < 3.4 x 10^-4 for a lifetime of 400 fs.
Apart from monitoring nuclear reactor parameters, the DANSS neutrino experiment is aimed at searching for sterile neutrinos through a detailed analysis of the ratio of reactor antineutrino spectra ...measured at different distances from the reactor core. The light collection system of the detector is dual, comprising both the vacuum photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). In this paper, the techniques developed to calibrate the responses of these photodetectors are discussed in detail. The long-term stability of the key parameters of the detector and their dependences on the ambient temperature are investigated. The results of detector light yield measurements, performed independently with PMTs and SiPMs are reported.