We describe the upgrade project developed by the TOTEM Collaboration to measure the time of flight (TOF) of the protons in the vertical Roman Pot detectors. The physics program that the upgraded ...system aims to accomplish will be addressed. Simulation studies allowed us to define a geometry of the sensor such that the detection inefficiency due to the pile-up of the particles in the same electrode is low even with a small amount of read-out channels. The measurement of the protons TOF with ~ 50ps time resolution requires the development of several challenging technological solutions. The arrival time of the protons will be measured by scCVD diamond detectors, for which a dedicated fast and low-noise electronics for the signal amplification has been designed. Indeed, while diamond sensors have the advantage of higher radiation hardness, lower noise and faster signal than silicon sensors, the amount of charge released in the medium is lower. The sampling of the waveform is performed at a rate up to 10GS/s with the SAMPIC chip. The sampled waveforms are then analysed offline where optimal algorithms can be implemented to reduce the time walk effects. The clock distribution system, based on the Universal Picosecond Timing System developed at GSI, is optimized in order to have a negligible uncertainty on the TOF measurement. Finally an overview of the control system which will interface the timing detectors to the experiment DAQ is given.
The TOTEM collaboration has measured the proton-proton total cross section at √s=8 TeV using a luminosity-independent method. In LHC fills with dedicated beam optics, the Roman pots have been ...inserted very close to the beam allowing the detection of ~90% of the nuclear elastic scattering events. Simultaneously the inelastic scattering rate has been measured by the T1 and T2 telescopes. By applying the optical theorem, the total proton-proton cross section of (101.7±2.9) mb has been determined, well in agreement with the extrapolation from lower energies. This method also allows one to derive the luminosity-independent elastic and inelastic cross sections: σ(el)=(27.1±1.4) mb; σ(inel)=(74.7±1.7) mb.
Lymphoepithelial Kazal-type related inhibitor (LEKTI) is a multidomain serine protease inhibitor which plays a central role in skin permeability barrier and allergy. Loss-of-function mutations in the ...LEKTI encoding gene SPINK5 cause Netherton syndrome, a rare and severe genetic skin disease with a profound skin barrier defect and atopic manifestations. Several studies also reported genetic association between the multifactorial disease atopic dermatitis (AD) and a frequent and non-conservative LEKTI variant, E420K, in different populations. Here, we provide evidence that the 420K variant impacts on LEKTI function by increasing the likelihood of furin-dependent LEKTI precursor cleavage within the linker region D6-D7. This results in the reversal of the cleavage priorities for LEKTI proteolytic activation and prevents the formation of the LEKTI fragment D6D9 known to display the strongest inhibitory activity against kallikrein (KLK) 5-mediated desmoglein-1 (DSG1) degradation. Using in situ and gel zymographies, we show that the modification of the subtle balance in LEKTI inhibitory fragments leads to enhanced KLK5, KLK7 and elastase-2 (ELA-2) activities in 420KK epidermis. By immunohistochemistry and western blot analyses, we found that increased epidermal protease activity correlates with reduced DSG1 protein expression and accelerated profilaggrin proteolysis. All changes determined by the presence of residue 420K within the LEKTI sequence likely contribute to defective skin barrier permeability. Remarkably, LEKTI 420KK epidermis displays an increased expression of the proallergic cytokine thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). This is the first functional evidence supporting association studies which identified the 420K LEKTI variant as a predisposing factor to AD, in combination with other genetic and environmental factors.
Single crystal CVD (scCVD) diamond is an attractive material for particle detection in high energy physics for its good time resolution and reported outstanding radiation tolerance. In addition to ...direct signal loss via charge carrier trapping, polarization effect, caused by non-homogeneous filling of trap defects, is a known cause of signal degradation in irradiated scCVD diamond. This phenomenon was studied by intentionally polarizing irradiated diamonds. Even the relatively lightly irradiated (1014 protons/cm2) diamonds exhibited strong enough polarization to collapse the electric field with moderate rate of 5 MeV alpha particles. The transient current measurements were reproduced with TCAD simulations. The hypothesis that the polarization is caused by single neutral defect type in the bulk, was tested using two generic models. Neither one has a satisfactory agreement with the measurement data, which indicates that trapping at the interfaces play a significant role in space charge polarization.
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•Space charge polarization was studied with irradiated single crystal diamond sensors.•Full collapse of the electric field was observed for all irradiated samples.•To remove polarization in low fluence samples switching bias voltage on-off effective•Polarization very likely cannot be explained by trapping in the bulk only.
The TOTEM collaboration at the CERN LHC has measured the differential cross-section of elastic proton–proton scattering at
s
=
8
TeV
in the squared four-momentum transfer range
0.2
GeV
2
<
|
t
|
<
...1.9
GeV
2
. This interval includes the structure with a diffractive minimum (“dip”) and a secondary maximum (“bump”) that has also been observed at all other LHC energies, where measurements were made. A detailed characterisation of this structure for
s
=
8
TeV
yields the positions,
|
t
|
dip
=
(
0.521
±
0.007
)
GeV
2
and
|
t
|
bump
=
(
0.695
±
0.026
)
GeV
2
, as well as the cross-section values,
d
σ
/
d
t
dip
=
(
15.1
±
2.5
)
μ
b
/
GeV
2
and
d
σ
/
d
t
bump
=
(
29.7
±
1.8
)
μ
b
/
GeV
2
, for the dip and the bump, respectively.
Abstract
The TOTEM collaboration at the CERN LHC has measured the differential cross-section of elastic proton–proton scattering at
$$\sqrt{s} = 8\,\mathrm{TeV}$$
s
=
8
TeV
in the squared ...four-momentum transfer range
$$0.2\,\mathrm{GeV^{2}}< |t| < 1.9\,\mathrm{GeV^{2}}$$
0.2
GeV
2
<
|
t
|
<
1.9
GeV
2
. This interval includes the structure with a diffractive minimum (“dip”) and a secondary maximum (“bump”) that has also been observed at all other LHC energies, where measurements were made. A detailed characterisation of this structure for
$$\sqrt{s} = 8\,\mathrm{TeV}$$
s
=
8
TeV
yields the positions,
$$|t|_{\mathrm{dip}} = (0.521 \pm 0.007)\,\mathrm{GeV^2}$$
|
t
|
dip
=
(
0.521
±
0.007
)
GeV
2
and
$$|t|_{\mathrm{bump}} = (0.695 \pm 0.026)\,\mathrm{GeV^2}$$
|
t
|
bump
=
(
0.695
±
0.026
)
GeV
2
, as well as the cross-section values,
$$\left. {\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}t}\right| _{\mathrm{dip}} = (15.1 \pm 2.5)\,\mathrm{{\mu b/GeV^2}}$$
d
σ
/
d
t
dip
=
(
15.1
±
2.5
)
μ
b
/
GeV
2
and
$$\left. {\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}t}\right| _{\mathrm{bump}} = (29.7 \pm 1.8)\,\mathrm{{\mu b/GeV^2}}$$
d
σ
/
d
t
bump
=
(
29.7
±
1.8
)
μ
b
/
GeV
2
, for the dip and the bump, respectively.
The proton–proton elastic differential cross section
d
σ
/
d
t
has been measured by the TOTEM experiment at
s
=
2.76
TeV
energy with
β
∗
=
11
m
beam optics. The Roman Pots were inserted to 13 times ...the transverse beam size from the beam, which allowed to measure the differential cross-section of elastic scattering in a range of the squared four-momentum transfer (|
t
|) from 0.36 to
0.74
GeV
2
. The differential cross-section can be described with an exponential in the |
t
|-range between 0.36 and
0.54
GeV
2
, followed by a diffractive minimum (dip) at
|
t
dip
|
=
(
0.61
±
0.03
)
GeV
2
and a subsequent maximum (bump). The ratio of the
d
σ
/
d
t
at the bump and at the dip is
1.7
±
0.2
. When compared to the proton–antiproton measurement of the D0 experiment at
s
=
1.96
TeV
, a significant difference can be observed. Under the condition that the effects due to the energy difference between TOTEM and D0 can be neglected, the result provides evidence for the exchange of a colourless C-odd three-gluon compound state in the
t
-channel of the proton–proton and proton–antiproton elastic scattering.
Precise knowledge of the beam optics at the LHC is crucial to fulfill the physics goals of the TOTEM experiment, where the kinematics of the scattered protons is reconstructed with near-beam ...telescopes-so-called Roman pots (RP). Before being detected, the protons' trajectories are influenced by the magnetic fields of the accelerator lattice. Thus precise understanding of the proton transport is of key importance for the experiment. A novel method of optics evaluation is proposed which exploits kinematical distributions of elastically scattered protons observed in the RPs. Theoretical predictions, as well as Monte Carlo studies, show that the residual uncertainty of the optics estimation method is smaller than .