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J. Anderson

Publications and source records attributed to J. Anderson.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. IX. The Atlas of Multiple Stellar Populations

We use high-precision photometry of red-giant-branch (RGB) stars in 57 Galactic globular clusters (GCs), mostly from the `Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV Legacy Survey of Galactic globular clusters', to identify and characterize their multiple stellar populations. For each cluster the pseudo two-color diagram (or `chromosome map') is presented, built with a suitable combination of stellar magnitudes in the F275W, F336W, F438W and F814W filters that maximizes the separation between multiple populations. In the chromosome map of most GCs (Type I clusters), stars separate in two distinct groups that we identify with the first (1G) and the second generation (2G). This identification is further supported by noticing that 1G stars have primordial (oxygen-rich, sodium-poor) chemical composition, whereas 2G stars are enhanced in sodium and depleted in oxygen. This 1G-2G separation is not possible for a few GCs where the two sequences have apparently merged into an extended, continuous sequence. In some GCs (Type II clusters) the 1G and/or the 2G sequences appear to be split, hence displaying more complex chromosome maps. These clusters exhibit multiple SGBs also in purely optical color-magnitude diagrams, with the fainter SGB joining into a red RGB which is populated by stars with enhanced heavy-element abundance. We measure the RGB width by using appropriate colors and pseudo-colors. When the metallicity dependence is removed, the RGB width correlates with the cluster mass. The fraction of 1G stars ranges from ~8% to ~67% and anticorrelates with the cluster mass, indicating that incidence and complexity of the multiple population phenomenon both increase with cluster mass.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2016

LBCS: the LOFAR Long-Baseline Calibrator Survey

(abridged). We outline LBCS (the LOFAR Long-Baseline Calibrator Survey), whose aim is to identify sources suitable for calibrating the highest-resolution observations made with the International LOFAR Telescope, which include baselines >1000 km. Suitable sources must contain significant correlated flux density (50-100mJy) at frequencies around 110--190~MHz on scales of a few hundred mas. At least for the 200--300-km international baselines, we find around 1 suitable calibrator source per square degree over a large part of the northern sky, in agreement with previous work. This should allow a randomly selected target to be successfully phase calibrated on the international baselines in over 50% of cases. Products of the survey include calibrator source lists and fringe-rate and delay maps of wide areas -- typically a few degrees -- around each source. The density of sources with significant correlated flux declines noticeably with baseline length over the range 200--600~km, with good calibrators on the longest baselines appearing only at the rate of 0.5 per square degree. Coherence times decrease from 1--3 minutes on 200-km baselines to about 1 minute on 600-km baselines, suggesting that ionospheric phase variations contain components with scales of a few hundred kilometres. The longest median coherence time, at just over 3 minutes, is seen on the DE609 baseline, which at 227km is close to being the shortest. We see median coherence times of between 80 and 110 seconds on the four longest baselines (580--600~km), and about 2 minutes for the other baselines. The success of phase transfer from calibrator to target is shown to be influenced by distance, in a manner that suggests a coherence patch at 150-MHz of the order of 1 degree.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2016

A precise measurement of the $B^0$ meson oscillation frequency

The oscillation frequency, $Δm_d$, of $B^0$ mesons is measured using semileptonic decays with a $D^-$ or $D^{*-}$ meson in the final state, in a data sample of $pp$ collisions collected by the LHCb detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0$\mbox{fb}^{-1}$. A combination of the two decay modes gives $Δm_d = (505.0 \pm 2.1 \pm 1.0) \rm \,ns^{-1}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This is the most precise single measurement of this parameter. It is compatible with the current world average and has similar precision.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Production of associated $Υ$ and open charm hadrons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ and $8$TeV via double parton scattering

Associated production of bottomonia and open charm hadrons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ and $8$TeV is observed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3$fb^{-1}$ accumulated with the LHCb detector. The observation of five combinations, $Υ(1S)D^0$, $Υ(2S)D^0$, $Υ(1S)D^+$, $Υ(2S)D^+$ and $Υ(1S)D^+_{s}$, is reported. Production cross-sections are measured for $Υ(1S)D^0$ and $Υ(1S)D^+$ pairs in the forward region. The measured cross-sections and the differential distributions indicate the dominance of double parton scattering as the main production mechanism. This allows a precise measurement of the effective cross-section for double parton scattering.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

First observation and amplitude analysis of the $B^{-}\to D^{+}K^{-}π^{-}$ decay

The $B^{-}\to D^{+}K^{-}π^{-}$ decay is observed in a data sample corresponding to $3.0~\rm{fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. Its branching fraction is measured to be ${\cal B}(B^{-}\to D^{+}K^{-}π^{-}) = (7.31 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.22 \pm 0.39) \times 10^{-5}$ where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic and from the branching fraction of the normalisation channel $B^{-}\to D^{+}π^{-}π^{-}$, respectively. An amplitude analysis of the resonant structure of the $B^{-}\to D^{+}K^{-}π^{-}$ decay is used to measure the contributions from quasi-two-body $B^{-}\to D_{0}^{*}(2400)^{0}K^{-}$, $B^{-}\to D_{2}^{*}(2460)^{0}K^{-}$, and $B^{-}\to D_{J}^{*}(2760)^{0}K^{-}$ decays, as well as from nonresonant sources. The $D_{J}^{*}(2760)^{0}$ resonance is determined to have spin~1.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

First observation of the decay $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}π^{+}μ^{+}μ^{-}$ in the $ρ^{0}$-$ω$ region of the dimuon mass spectrum

A study of the decay $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}π^{+}μ^{+}μ^{-}$ is performed using data collected by the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb$^{-1}$. Decay candidates with muon pairs that have an invariant mass in the range 675--875 MeV$/c^2$ are considered. This region is dominated by the $ρ^{0}$ and $ω$ resonances. The branching fraction in this range is measured to be ${\cal B}$($D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}π^{+}μ^{+}μ^{-}$) = $(4.17 \pm 0.12(stat) \pm 0.40(syst))\times10^{-6}$. This is the first observation of the decay $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}π^{+}μ^{+}μ^{-}$. Its branching fraction is consistent with the value expected in the Standard Model.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Hubble Space Telescope proper motion (HSTPROMO) catalogs of Galactic globular clusters. IV. Kinematic profiles and average masses of blue straggler stars

We make use of the Hubble Space Telescope proper-motion catalogs derived by Bellini et al. (2014) to produce the first radial velocity-dispersion profiles sigma(R) for blue straggler stars (BSSs) in Galactic globular clusters (GCs), as well as the first dynamical estimates for the average mass of the entire BSS population. We show that BSSs typically have lower velocity dispersions than stars with mass equal to the main-sequence turnoff mass, as one would expect for a more massive population of stars. Since GCs are expected to experience some degree of energy equipartition, we use the relation sigma~M^-eta, where eta is related to the degree of energy equipartition, along with our velocity-dispersion profiles to estimate BSS masses. We estimate eta as a function of cluster relaxation from recent Monte Carlo cluster simulations by Bianchini et al. (2016b) and then derive an average mass ratio M_BSS /M_MSTO=1.50+/-0.14 and an average mass M_BSS=1.22+/-0.12 M_Sun from 598 BSSs across 19 GCs. The final error bars include any systematic errors that are random between different clusters, but not any potential biases inherent to our methodology. Our results are in good agreement with the average mass of M_BSS=1.22+/-0.06 M_Sun for the 35 BSSs in Galactic GCs in the literature with properties that have allowed individual mass determination.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2016

The Frontier Fields: Survey Design

The Frontier Fields are a director's discretionary time campaign with HST and the Spitzer Space Telescope to see deeper into the universe than ever before. The Frontier Fields combine the power of HST and Spitzer with the natural gravitational telescopes of massive high-magnification clusters of galaxies to produce the deepest observations of clusters and their lensed galaxies ever obtained. Six clusters - Abell 2744, MACSJ0416.1-2403, MACSJ0717.5+3745, MACSJ1149.5+2223, Abell S1063, and Abell 370 - were selected based on their lensing strength, sky darkness, Galactic extinction, parallel field suitability, accessibility to ground-based facilities, HST, Spitzer and JWST observability, and pre-existing ancillary data. These clusters have been targeted by the HST ACS/WFC and WFC3/IR with coordinated parallels of adjacent blank fields for over 840 HST orbits. The Spitzer Space Telescope has dedicated > 1000 hours of director's discretionary time to obtain IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 micron imaging to ~26.5, 26.0 ABmag 5-sigma point-source depths in the six cluster and six parallel Frontier Fields. The Frontier Field parallel fields are the second-deepest observations thus far by HST with ~29th ABmag 5-sigma point source depths in seven optical - near-infrared bandpasses. Galaxies behind the Frontier Field cluster lenses experience typical magnification factors of a few, with small regions near the critical curves magnified by factors 10-100. Therefore, the Frontier Field cluster HST images achieve intrinsic depths of ~30-33 magnitudes over very small volumes. Early studies of the Frontier Fields have probed galaxies fainter than any seen before during the epoch of reionization 6 < z < 10, mapped out the cluster dark matter to unprecedented resolution, and followed lensed transient events.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2016

A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 10^{17} - 10^{17.5} eV from radio observations

Cosmic rays are the highest energy particles found in nature. Measurements of the mass composition of cosmic rays between 10^{17} eV and 10^{18} eV are essential to understand whether this energy range is dominated by Galactic or extragalactic sources. It has also been proposed that the astrophysical neutrino signal comes from accelerators capable of producing cosmic rays of these energies. Cosmic rays initiate cascades of secondary particles (air showers) in the atmosphere and their masses are inferred from measurements of the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum, Xmax, or the composition of shower particles reaching the ground. Current measurements suffer from either low precision, or a low duty cycle and a high energy threshold. Radio detection of cosmic rays is a rapidly developing technique, suitable for determination of Xmax with a duty cycle of in principle nearly 100%. The radiation is generated by the separation of relativistic charged particles in the geomagnetic field and a negative charge excess in the shower front. Here we report radio measurements of Xmax with a mean precision of 16 g/cm^2 between 10^{17}-10^{17.5} eV. Because of the high resolution in $Xmax we can determine the mass spectrum and find a mixed composition, containing a light mass fraction of ~80%. Unless the extragalactic component becomes significant already below 10^{17.5} eV, our measurements indicate an additional Galactic component dominating at this energy range.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2016

Observation of the $B_s^0 \rightarrow J/ψϕϕ$ decay

The $B_s^0 \rightarrow J/ψϕϕ$ decay is observed in $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7 TeV and 8 TeV. This is the first observation of this decay channel, with a statistical significance of 15 standard deviations. The mass of the $B_s^0$ meson is measured to be $5367.08\,\pm \,0.38\,\pm\, 0.15$ MeV/c$^2$. The branching fraction ratio $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \rightarrow J/ψϕϕ)/\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \rightarrow J/ψϕ)$ is measured to be $0.0115\,\pm\, 0.0012\, ^{+0.0005}_{-0.0009}$. In both cases, the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. No evidence for non-resonant $B_s^0 \rightarrow J/ψϕK^+ K^-$ or $B_s^0 \rightarrow J/ψK^+ K^- K^+ K^-$ decays is found.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Model-independent measurement of mixing parameters in $D^0 \to K_S π^+ π^-$ decays

The first model-independent measurement of the charm mixing parameters in the decay $D^0 \to K_S π^+ π^-$ is reported, using a sample of $pp$ collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The measured values are \begin{eqnarray*} x &=& (-0.86 \pm 0.53 \pm 0.17) \times 10^{-2}, \\ y &=& (+0.03 \pm 0.46 \pm 0.13) \times 10^{-2}, \end{eqnarray*} where the first uncertainties are statistical and include small contributions due to the external input for the strong phase measured by the CLEO collaboration, and the second uncertainties are systematic.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Studies of the resonance structure in $D^0\to K^0_S K^{\pm}π^{\mp}$ decays

Amplitude models are applied to studies of resonance structure in $D^0\to K^0_S K^- π^+$ and $D^0\to K^0_S K^+ π^-$ decays using $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3.0\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. Relative magnitude and phase information is determined, and coherence factors and related observables are computed for both the whole phase space and a restricted region of $100\,\mathrm{MeV/}c^2$ around the $K^{*}(892)^{\pm}$ resonance. Two formulations for the $Kπ$ $S$-wave are used, both of which give a good description of the data. The ratio of branching fractions $\mathcal{B}(D^0\to K^0_S K^+ π^-)/\mathcal{B}(D^0\to K^0_S K^- π^+)$ is measured to be $0.655\pm0.004\,(\textrm{stat})\pm0.006\,(\textrm{syst})$ over the full phase space and $0.370\pm0.003\, (\textrm{stat})\pm0.012\,(\textrm{syst})$ in the restricted region. A search for $CP$ violation is performed using the amplitude models and no significant effect is found. Predictions from $SU(3)$ flavor symmetry for $K^{*}(892)K$ amplitudes of different charges are compared with the amplitude model results.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Search for long-lived heavy charged particles using a ring imaging Cherenkov technique at LHCb

A search is performed for heavy long-lived charged particles using 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ of pp collisions collected at $\sqrt{s}$= 7 and 8 TeV with the LHCb detector. The search is mainly based on the response of the ring imaging Cherenkovdetectors to distinguish the heavy, slow-moving particles from muons. No evidence is found for the production of such long-lived states. The results are expressed as limits on the Drell-Yan production of pairs of long-lived particles, with both particles in the LHCb pseudorapidity acceptance, $1.8 < η< 4.9$. The mass-dependent cross-section upper limits are in the range 2-4 fb (at 95\% CL) for masses between 124 and 309 GeV/c$^2$.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

The effect of unresolved binaries on globular cluster proper-motion dispersion profiles

High-precision kinematic studies of globular clusters require an accurate knowledge of all possible sources of contamination. Amongst other sources, binary stars can introduce systematic biases in the kinematics. Using a set of Monte Carlo cluster simulations with different concentrations and binary fractions, we investigate the effect of unresolved binaries on proper-motion dispersion profiles, treating the simulations like HST proper-motion samples. Since globular clusters evolve towards a state of partial energy equipartition, more massive stars lose energy and decrease their velocity dispersion. As a consequence, on average, binaries have a lower velocity dispersion, since they are more massive kinematic tracers. We show that, in the case of clusters with high binary fraction (initial binary fraction of 50%) and high concentration (i.e., closer to energy equipartition), unresolved binaries introduce a color-dependent bias in the velocity dispersion of main-sequence stars of the order of 0.1-0.3 km s$^{-1}$ (corresponding to $1-6$% of the velocity dispersion), with the reddest stars having a lower velocity dispersion, due to the higher fraction of contaminating binaries. This bias depends on the ability to distinguish binaries from single stars, on the details of the color-magnitude diagram and the photometric errors. We apply our analysis to the HSTPROMO data set of NGC 7078 (M15) and show that no effect ascribable to binaries is observed, consistent with the low binary fraction of the cluster. Our work indicates that binaries do not significantly bias proper-motion velocity-dispersion profiles, but should be taken into account in the error budget of kinematic analyses.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2016

A model-independent confirmation of the $Z(4430)^-$ state

The decay $B^0\to ψ(2S) K^+π^-$ is analyzed using $\rm 3~fb^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data collected with the LHCb detector. A model-independent description of the $ψ(2S) π$ mass spectrum is obtained, using as input the $Kπ$ mass spectrum and angular distribution derived directly from data, without requiring a theoretical description of resonance shapes or their interference. The hypothesis that the $ψ(2S)π$ mass spectrum can be described in terms of $Kπ$ reflections alone is rejected with more than 8$σ$ significance. This provides confirmation, in a model-independent way, of the need for an additional resonant component in the mass region of the $Z(4430)^-$ exotic state.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Search for the lepton-flavour violating decay $D^0 \to e^\pmμ^\mp$

A search for the lepton-flavour violating decay $D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp$ is made with a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $7$ TeV and $8$ TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. Candidate $D^0$ mesons are selected using the decay $D^{*+} \to D^0 π^+$ and the $D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp$ branching fraction is measured using the decay mode $D^0 \to K^-π^+$ as a normalisation channel. No significant excess of $D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp$ candidates over the expected background is seen, and a limit is set on the branching fraction, $\mathcal{B}(D^0 \to e^\pm μ^\mp) < 1.3 \times 10^{-8}$, at 90 % confidence level. This is an order of magnitude lower than the previous limit and it further constrains the parameter space in some leptoquark models and in supersymmetric models with R-parity violation.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2016

Study of the production of $Λ_b^0$ and $\overline{B}^0$ hadrons in $pp$ collisions and first measurement of the $Λ_b^0\rightarrow J/ψpK^-$ branching fraction

The product of the $Λ_b^0$ ($\overline{B}^0$) differential production cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay $Λ_b^0\rightarrow J/ψpK^-$ ($\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/ψ\overline{K}^*(892)^0$) is measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, and rapidity, $y$. The kinematic region of the measurements is $p_{\rm T}<20~{\rm GeV}/c$ and $2.0<y<4.5$. The measurements use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb detector in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=7~{\rm TeV}$ in 2011 and $\sqrt{s}=8~{\rm TeV}$ in 2012. Based on previous LHCb results of the fragmentation fraction ratio, $f_{Λ_B^0}/f_d$, the branching fraction of the decay $Λ_b^0\rightarrow J/ψpK^-$ is measured to be \begin{equation*} \mathcal{B}(Λ_b^0\rightarrow J/ψpK^-)= (3.17\pm0.04\pm0.07\pm0.34^{+0.45}_{-0.28})\times10^{-4}, \end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the decay $\overline{B}^0\rightarrow J/ψ\overline{K}^*(892)^0$, and the fourth is due to the knowledge of $f_{Λ_b^0}/f_d$. The sum of the asymmetries in the production and decay between $Λ_b^0$ and $\overlineΛ_b^0$ is also measured as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and $y$. The previously published branching fraction of $Λ_b^0\rightarrow J/ψpπ^-$, relative to that of $Λ_b^0\rightarrow J/ψpK^-$, is updated. The branching fractions of $Λ_b^0\rightarrow P_c^+(\rightarrow J/ψp)K^-$ are determined.

hep-ex↗