• Energy Research

Proc. of Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, 68 - 71; DESY-PROC-2011-04; ISSN 1435-8077 Contribution to Proceedings

Physics beyond the Standard Model might include Weakly Interacting Slim Particles (WISPs) that address questions such as what is the nature of dark matter or even shed insight into the underlying nature of dark energy. WISPs are a general class of particles that include axions, axion-like particles, hidden sector photons, milli-charged particles, chameleons, etc. The GammeV (Gamma to milli-eV) experiment originated in 2007 in order to test a positive anomalous axion-like particle interpretation of the PVLAS experiment which was not evident in subsequent data. The experiment was also motivated as it was realized that the milli-eV scale appears naturally in a see-saw between the electroweak and Planck scales, neutrino mass differences, the dark energy density, and the possible mass for certain dark matter candidates. GammeV was first to exclude both a scalar and pseudoscalar axion-like particle interpretation of the anomalous PVLAS result setting a limit of around 3.1 x 10{sup -7} GeV{sup -1} on the coupling to photons for low mass axion-like particles. It has also been found that the parameter space of a variety of other WISP candidates is both largely unexplored and is accessible by modest experiments employing lasers and possibly accelerator magnets. GammeV data has also been more » used to set limits on possible hidden sector photons. Further work by the GammeV team has focused on a reconfiguration of the apparatus to be sensitive to possible chameleon particles. Chameleons are scalar (or pseudoscalar) particles that couple to the stress energy tensor in a potential such that their properties depend on their environment. In particular, a chameleon acquires an effective mass which increases with local matter density, {rho}. For a certain class of such potentials, the chameleon field has properties that might explain dark energy. GammeV set the first limits on the coupling of chameleons to photons. A dedicated follow-up experiment, GammeV-CHASE, (CHameleon Afterglow SEarch), has also been performed and sets limits on both photon and some model dependent matter couplings as a function of an effective chameleon mass. « less

SVX4 is the new silicon strip readout IC designed to meet the increased radiation tolerance requirements for Run IIb at the Tevatron collider. Devices have been fabricated, tested, and approved for production. The SVX4 design is a technology migration of the SVX3D design currently in use by CDF. Whereas SVX3D was fabricated in a 0.8-/spl mu/m radiation-hard process, SVX4 was fabricated in a standard 0.25-/spl mu/m mixed-signal CMOS technology using the "radiation tolerant by design" transistor topologies devised by the CERN RD49 collaboration. The specific cell layouts include digital cells developed by the ATLAS Pixel group, and full-custom analog blocks. Unlike its predecessors, the new design also includes the necessary features required for generic use by both the CDF and D0 experiments at Fermilab. Performance of the IC includes >20 MRad total dose tolerance, and /spl sim/2000 e-rms equivalent input noise charge with 40-pF input capacitance, when sampled at 132-ns period with an 80-ns preamp risetime. At the nominal digitize/readout rate of 106/53 MHz, the 9 mm/spl times/6.3 mm die dissipates /spl sim/2 mW/channel average at 2.5 V. A review of typical operation, details of the design conversion process, and performance measurements are covered.

A search is presented for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with top quarks using the full Run II proton-antiproton collision data set, corresponding to 9.45 inverse fb, collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. No significant excess over the expected background is observed, and 95% credibility-level upper bounds are placed on the cross section sigma(t\bar{t}H --> lepton + missing transverse energy + jets). For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, we expect to set a limit of 12.6, and observe a limit of 20.5 times the standard model rate. This represents the most sensitive search for a standard model Higgs boson in this channel to date. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett