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J. Smith

Publications and source records attributed to J. Smith.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2014

Coherent Imaging Spectroscopy of a Quantum Many-Body Spin System

Quantum simulators, in which well controlled quantum systems are used to reproduce the dynamics of less understood ones, have the potential to explore physics that is inaccessible to modeling with classical computers. However, checking the results of such simulations will also become classically intractable as system sizes increase. In this work, we introduce and implement a coherent imaging spectroscopic technique to validate a quantum simulation, much as magnetic resonance imaging exposes structure in condensed matter. We use this method to determine the energy levels and interaction strengths of a fully-connected quantum many-body system. Additionally, we directly measure the size of the critical energy gap near a quantum phase transition. We expect this general technique to become an important verification tool for quantum simulators once experiments advance beyond proof-of-principle demonstrations and exceed the resources of conventional computers.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2014

Shower development of particles with momenta from 1 to 10 GeV in the CALICE Scintillator-Tungsten HCAL

Lepton colliders are considered as options to complement and to extend the physics programme at the Large Hadron Collider. The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is an $e^+e^-$ collider under development aiming at centre-of-mass energies of up to 3 TeV. For experiments at CLIC, a hadron sampling calorimeter with tungsten absorber is proposed. Such a calorimeter provides sufficient depth to contain high-energy showers, while allowing a compact size for the surrounding solenoid. A fine-grained calorimeter prototype with tungsten absorber plates and scintillator tiles read out by silicon photomultipliers was built and exposed to particle beams at CERN. Results obtained with electrons, pions and protons of momenta up to 10 GeV are presented in terms of energy resolution and shower shape studies. The results are compared with several GEANT4 simulation models in order to assess the reliability of the Monte Carlo predictions relevant for a future experiment at CLIC.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2013

Beat note stabilization of mode-locked lasers for quantum information processing

We stabilize a chosen radiofrequency beat note between two optical fields derived from the same mode-locked laser pulse train, in order to coherently manipulate quantum information. This scheme does not require access or active stabilization of the laser repetition rate. We implement and characterize this external lock, in the context of two-photon stimulated Raman transitions between the hyperfine ground states of trapped 171-Yb+ quantum bits.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2013

Track segments in hadronic showers in a highly granular scintillator-steel hadron calorimeter

We investigate the three dimensional substructure of hadronic showers in the CALICE scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter. The high granularity of the detector is used to find track segments of minimum ionising particles within hadronic showers, providing sensitivity to the spatial structure and the details of secondary particle production in hadronic cascades. The multiplicity, length and angular distribution of identified track segments are compared to GEANT4 simulations with several different shower models. Track segments also provide the possibility for in-situ calibration of highly granular calorimeters.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2013

Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic (GNOME): Physics Novel scheme for exotic physics searches

A novel experimental scheme enabling investigation of transient exotic spin couplings is discussed. The scheme is based on synchronous measurements of optical-magnetometer signals of several devices operating in magnetically shielded environments in distant locations ($\gtrsim100$ km). Although signatures of such exotic couplings may be present in the signal from a single magnetometer, it would be challenging to distinguish them from noise. By analyzing the correlation between signals from multiple, geographically separated magnetometers, it is not only possible to identify the exotic transient but also to investigate its nature. The ability of the network to probe presently unconstrained physics beyond the Standard Model is examined by considering the spin coupling to stable topological defects (e.g., domain walls) of axion-like fields. In the spirit of this research, a brief ($\sim 2$ hours) demonstration experiment involving two magnetometers located in Kraków and Berkeley ($\sim 9000$ km separation) is presented and discussion of the data-analysis approaches that may allow for the transient signal identification is provided. The prospects of the network are outlined in the last part of the paper.

physics.atom-ph↗
arXiv2012

Proposal for Single-Bunch Collimator Wakefield Measurements at SLAC ESTB

Collimator wakefields in the Beam Delivery System (BDS) of future linear colliders, such as the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), can be an important source of emittance growth and beam jitter amplification, consequently degrading the luminosity. Therefore, a better understanding of collimator wakefield effects is essential to optimise the collimation systems of future linear colliders in order to minimise wakefield effects. In the past, measurements of single-bunch collimator wakefields have been carried out at SLAC with the aim of benchmarking theory, numerical calculations and experiments. Those studies revealed some discrepancies between the measurements and the theoretical models. New experimental tests using available beam test facilities, such as the End Station A Test Beam (ESTB) at SLAC, would help to improve our understanding on collimator wakefields. ESTB will provide the perfect test bed to investigate collimator wakefields for different bunch length conditions, relevant for both ILC (300 micrometers nominal bunch length) and CLIC (44 micrometers nominal bunch length) studies. Here we propose to perform new experimental tests of collimator wakefield effects on electron/positron beams at SLAC ESTB.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2012

Emergence and Frustration of Magnetic Order with Variable-Range Interactions in a Trapped Ion Quantum Simulator

Frustration, or the competition between interacting components of a network, is often responsible for the complexity of many body systems, from social and neural networks to protein folding and magnetism. In quantum magnetic systems, frustration arises naturally from competing spin-spin interactions given by the geometry of the spin lattice or by the presence of long-range antiferromagnetic couplings. Frustrated magnetism is a hallmark of poorly understood systems such as quantum spin liquids, spin glasses and spin ices, whose ground states are massively degenerate and can carry high degrees of quantum entanglement. The controlled study of frustrated magnetism in materials is hampered by short dynamical time scales and the presence of impurities, while numerical modeling is generally intractable when dealing with dynamics beyond N~30 particles. Alternatively, a quantum simulator can be exploited to directly engineer prescribed frustrated interactions between controlled quantum systems, and several small-scale experiments have moved in this direction. In this article, we perform a quantum simulation of a long-range antiferromagnetic quantum Ising model with a transverse field, on a crystal of up to N = 16 trapped Yb+ atoms. We directly control the amount of frustration by continuously tuning the range of interaction and directly measure spin correlation functions and their dynamics through spatially-resolved spin detection. We find a pronounced dependence of the magnetic order on the amount of frustration, and extract signatures of quantum coherence in the resulting phases.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2012

Hadronic energy resolution of a highly granular scintillator-steel hadron calorimeter using software compensation techniques

The energy resolution of a highly granular 1 m3 analogue scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter is studied using charged pions with energies from 10 GeV to 80 GeV at the CERN SPS. The energy resolution for single hadrons is determined to be approximately 58%/sqrt(E/GeV}. This resolution is improved to approximately 45%/sqrt(E/GeV) with software compensation techniques. These techniques take advantage of the event-by-event information about the substructure of hadronic showers which is provided by the imaging capabilities of the calorimeter. The energy reconstruction is improved either with corrections based on the local energy density or by applying a single correction factor to the event energy sum derived from a global measure of the shower energy density. The application of the compensation algorithms to Geant4 simulations yield resolution improvements comparable to those observed for real data.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2012

Direct Search for Low Mass Dark Matter Particles with CCDs

A direct dark matter search is performed using fully-depleted high-resistivity CCD detectors . Due to their low electronic readout noise (RMS ~ 7 eV) these devices operate with a very low detection threshold of 40 eV, making the search for dark matter particles with low masses (~ 5 GeV) possible. The results of an engineering run performed in a shallow underground site are presented, demonstrating the potential of this technology in the low mass region.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2011

Electromagnetic response of a highly granular hadronic calorimeter

The CALICE collaboration is studying the design of high performance electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters for future International Linear Collider detectors. For the hadronic calorimeter, one option is a highly granular sampling calorimeter with steel as absorber and scintillator layers as active material. High granularity is obtained by segmenting the scintillator into small tiles individually read out via silicon photo-multipliers (SiPM). A prototype has been built, consisting of thirty-eight sensitive layers, segmented into about eight thousand channels. In 2007 the prototype was exposed to positrons and hadrons using the CERN SPS beam, covering a wide range of beam energies and incidence angles. The challenge of cell equalization and calibration of such a large number of channels is best validated using electromagnetic processes. The response of the prototype steel-scintillator calorimeter, including linearity and uniformity, to electrons is investigated and described.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2010

Observation of a Long-Wavelength Hosing Modulation of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse in Underdense Plasma

We report the first experimental observation of a long-wavelength hosing modulation of a high-intensity laser pulse. Side-view images of the scattered optical radiation at the fundamental wave-length of the laser reveal a transverse oscillation of the laser pulse during its propagation through underdense plasma. The wavelength of the oscillation λ_hosing depends on the background plasma density n_e and scales as λ_hosing~n_e^-3/2. Comparisons with an analytical model and 2-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that this laser hosing can be induced by a spatio-temporal asymmetry of the intensity distribution in the laser focus which can be caused by a misalignment of the parabolic focussing mirror or of the diffraction gratings in the pulse compressor.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2010

Construction and Commissioning of the CALICE Analog Hadron Calorimeter Prototype

An analog hadron calorimeter (AHCAL) prototype of 5.3 nuclear interaction lengths thickness has been constructed by members of the CALICE Collaboration. The AHCAL prototype consists of a 38-layer sandwich structure of steel plates and highly-segmented scintillator tiles that are read out by wavelength-shifting fibers coupled to SiPMs. The signal is amplified and shaped with a custom-designed ASIC. A calibration/monitoring system based on LED light was developed to monitor the SiPM gain and to measure the full SiPM response curve in order to correct for non-linearity. Ultimately, the physics goals are the study of hadron shower shapes and testing the concept of particle flow. The technical goal consists of measuring the performance and reliability of 7608 SiPMs. The AHCAL was commissioned in test beams at DESY and CERN. The entire prototype was completed in 2007 and recorded hadron showers, electron showers and muons at different energies and incident angles in test beams at CERN and Fermilab.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2009

Averages of b-hadron and c-hadron Properties at the End of 2007

This article reports world averages for measurements of b-hadron and c-hadron properties obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group (HFAG) using the results available at the end of 2007. For the averaging, common input parameters used in the various analyses are adjusted (rescaled) to common values, and known correlations are taken into account. The averages include branching fractions, lifetimes, neutral meson mixing parameters, CP violation parameters, and parameters of semileptonic decays.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2007

Warm Molecular Gas in M51: Mapping the Excitation Temperature and Mass of H_2 with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph

We have mapped the warm molecular gas traced by the H_2 S(0) - H_2 S(5) pure rotational mid-infrared emission lines over a radial strip across the nucleus and disk of M51 (NGC 5194) using the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The six H_2 lines have markedly different emission distributions. We obtained the H_2 temperature and surface density distributions by assuming a two temperature model: a warm (T = 100 - 300 K) phase traced by the low J (S(0) - S(2)) lines and a hot phase (T = 400 - 1000 K) traced by the high J (S(2) - S(5)) lines. The lowest molecular gas temperatures are found within the spiral arms (T ~ 155 K), while the highest temperatures are found in the inter-arm regions (T > 700 K). The warm gas surface density reaches a maximum of 11 M_sun/pc^2 in the northwestern spiral arm, whereas the hot gas surface density peaks at 0.24 M_sun/pc^2 at the nucleus. The spatial offset between the peaks in the warm and hot phases and the differences in the distributions of the H_2 line emission suggest that the warm phase is mostly produced by UV photons in star forming regions while the hot phase is mostly produced by shocks or X-rays associated with nuclear activity. The warm H_2 is found in the dust lanes of M51, spatially offset from the brightest HII regions. The warm H_2 is generally spatially coincident with the cold molecular gas traced by CO (J = 1 - 0) emission, consistent with excitation of the warm phase in dense photodissociation regions (PDRs). In contrast, the hot H_2 is most prominent in the nuclear region. Here, over a 0.5 kpc radius around the nucleus of M51, the hot H_2 coincides with [O IV](25.89 micron) and X-ray emission indicating that shocks and/or X-rays are responsible for exciting this phase.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2007

Stellar Intensity Interferometry with Air Cherenkov Telescope arrays

The present generation of ground-based Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray observatories consist of arrays of up to four large (> 12m diameter) light collectors quite similar to those used by R. Hanbury Brown to measure stellar diameters by Intensity Interferometry in the late 60's. VHE gamma-ray observatories to be constructed over the coming decade will involve several tens of telescopes of similar or greater sizes. Used as intensity interferometers, they will provide hundreds of independent baselines. Now is the right time to re-assess the potential of intensity interferometry so that it can be taken into consideration in the design of these large facilities.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2007

Air fluorescence measurements in the spectral range 300-420 nm using a 28.5 GeV electron beam

Measurements are reported of the yield and spectrum of fluorescence, excited by a 28.5 GeV electron beam, in air at a range of pressures of interest to ultra-high energy cosmic ray detectors. The wavelength range was 300 - 420 nm. System calibration has been performed using Rayleigh scattering of a nitrogen laser beam. In atmospheric pressure dry air at 304 K the yield is 20.8 +/- 1.6 photons per MeV.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2007

Threshold corrections to rapidity distributions of Z and W^\pm bosons beyond N^2 LO at hadron colliders

Threshold enhanced perturbative QCD corrections to rapidity distributions of $Z$ and $W^\pm$ bosons at hadron colliders are presented using the Sudakov resummed cross sections at N${}^3$LO level. We have used renormalisation group invariance and the mass factorisation theorem that these hard scattering cross sections satisfy to construct the QCD amplitudes. We show that these higher order threshold QCD corrections stabilise the theoretical predictions for vector boson production at the LHC under variations of both renormalisation and factorisation scales.

hep-ph↗