We present results of a simulation of 2 flavour QCD on a 16{sup 3} x 4 lattice using p4-improved staggered fermions with bare quark mass m/T = 0.4. Derivatives of the thermodynamic grand canonical partition function Z(V,T,{mu}{sub u},{mu}{sub d}) with respect to chemical potentials {mu}{sub u,d} for different quark flavours are calculated up to sixth order, enabling estimates of the pressure and the quark number density as well as the chiral condensate and various susceptibilities as functions of {mu}{sub u,d} via Taylor series expansion. Results are compared to high temperature perturbation theory as well as a hadron resonance gas model. We also analyze baryon as well as isospin fluctuations and discuss the relation to the chiral critical point in the QCD phase diagram. We moreover discuss the dependence of the heavy quark free energy on the chemical potential.

We examine the violation of the k{sub {perpendicular}}factorization approximation for quark production in high energy proton-nucleus collisions. We comment on its implications for the open charm and quarkonium production in collider experiments.

We analyze fluctuations of quark number and electric charge, in 2-flavour QCD at finite temperature and vanishing net baryon number density. In the hadronic phase we find that an enhancement of charge fluctuations arises from contributions of doubly charged hadrons to the thermodynamics. The rapid suppression of fluctuations seen in the high temperature phase suggests that in the QGP quark number and electric charge are predominantly carried by quasi-particles with the quantum numbers of quarks.

We present a measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa CP-violating phase {gamma} with a Dalitz plot analysis of neutral D-meson decays to the K{sub S}{sup 0} {pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +} final state from B{sup {-+}} {yields} D{sup (*)}K{sup {-+}} and B{sup {-+}} {yields} DK*{sup {-+}} decays, using a sample of 227 million B{bar B} pairs collected by the BABAR detector. We measure {gamma} = (67 {+-} 28 {+-} 13 {+-} 11){sup o}, where the first error is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty and the third reflects the Dalitz model uncertainty. This result suffers from a two-fold ambiguity. The contribution to the Dalitz model uncertainty due to the description of the {pi}{pi} S-wave in D{sup 0} {yields} K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}, evaluated using a K-matrix formalism, is found to be 3{sup o}.

We present measurements of photoemission quantum efficiency (QE) for copper photocathodes heated and cleaned by low energy argon and hydrogen ion plasma. The QE and surface roughness parameters were measured before and after processing and surface chemical composition was tracked in-situ with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Thermal annealing at 230 C was sufficient to improve the QE by 3-4 orders of magnitude, depending on the initial QE. Exposure to residual gas slowly reduced the QE but it was easily restored by argon ion cleaning for a few minutes. XPS showed that the annealing or ion bombardment removed surface water and hydrocarbons.

Using a sample of 232 x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} events collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B-factory we study the decay B{sup -} {yields} [K{sup +}{pi}{sup -}]{sub D}K*{sup -} where the K{sup +}{pi}{sup -} is either from a Cabibbo-favored {bar D}{sup 0} decay or doubly-suppressed D{sup 0} decay. We measure two observables that are sensitive to the CKM angle {gamma}; the ratio R of the charge-averaged branching fractions for the suppressed and favored decays; and the charge asymmetry A of the suppressed decays: R = 0.046 {+-} 0.031(stat.) {+-} 0.008(syst.); A = -0.22 {+-} 0.61(stat.) {+-} 0.17(syst.).

We have developed a software package for reconstruction of quasi-monochromatic images from a multiple monochromatic x-ray imager for inertial confinement fusion implosions. The instrument consists of a pinhole array, a multi-layer Bragg mirror, and a image detector. The pinhole array projects hundreds of images onto the detector after reflection off the multi-layer Bragg mirror, which introduces spectral dispersion along the reflection axis. The quasi-monochromatic images of line emissions and continuum emissions can be used for measurement of temperature and density maps of implosion plasmas. In this paper, we describe a computer-aided processing technique for systematic reconstruction of quasi-monochromatic images from raw data. This technique provides flexible spectral bandwidth selection, and allows systematic subtraction of continuum emission from line emission images.

At the DESY TTF2 linear accelerator three special techniques to characterize the longitudinal charge distribution of the electron bunches that drive the free-electron laser are currently under study: electro-optical sampling, far-infrared spectral analysis of coherent radiation and the use of a transverse deflecting cavity to streak the bunch. The principles and implementations of the latter two are described in this paper. Details on electro-optical sampling can be found in [1].

The deep inelastic lepton scattering and deeply virtual Compton scattering cross sections can be interpreted in terms of the fundamental wavefunctions defined by the light-front Fock expansion, thus allowing tests of QCD at the amplitude level. The AdS/CFT correspondence between gauge theory and string theory provides remarkable new insights into QCD, including a model for hadronic wavefunctions which display conformal scaling at short distances and color confinement at large distances.

The scientific belief that the universe evolves in time is one of the legacies of the theory of the Big Bang. The concept that the universe has an history started to attract the interest of cosmologists soon after the first formulation of the theory: already Gamow (1948; 1949) investigated how and when galaxies could have been formed in the context of the expanding Universe. However, the specific topic of the formation (and of the fate) of the first objects dates to two decades later, when no objects with metallicities as low as those predicted by primordial nucleosynthesis (Z {approx}< 10{sup -10} {approx} 10{sup -8}Z{sub {circle_dot}}) were found. Such concerns were addressed in two seminal papers by Peebles & Dicke (1968; hereafter PD68) and by Doroshkevich, Zel'Dovich & Novikov (1967; hereafter DZN67), introducing the idea that some objects could have formed before the stars we presently observe. (1) Both PD68 and DZN67 suggest a mass of {approx} 10{sup 5} M{sub {circle_dot}} for the first generation of bound systems, based on the considerations on the cosmological Jeans length (Gamow 1948; Peebles 1965) and the possible shape of the power spectrum. (2) They point out the role of thermal instabilities in the formation …

The authors present measurements of the branching fraction and time-dependent CP asymmetries in B{sup 0} {yields} J/{psi} {pi}{sup 0} decays based on (231.8 {+-} 2.6) x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory at SLAC during the years 1999-2004. We obtain a branching fraction {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} J/{psi}{pi}{sup 0}) = (1.94 {+-} 0.22 (stat) {+-} 0.17 (syst)) x 10{sup -5}. They also measure the CP asymmetry parameters C = -0.21 {+-} 0.26 (stat) {+-} 0.09 (syst) and S = -0.68 {+-} 0.30 (stat) {+-} 0.04 (syst). All results presented in this paper are preliminary.

We present the application of hardware accelerated volume rendering algorithms to the simulation of radiographs as an aid to scientists designing experiments, validating simulation codes, and understanding experimental data. The techniques presented take advantage of 32-bit floating point texture capabilities to obtain solutions to the radiative transport equation for X-rays. The hardware accelerated solutions are accurate enough to enable scientists to explore the experimental design space with greater efficiency than the methods currently in use. An unsorted hexahedron projection algorithm is presented for curvilinear hexahedral meshes that produces simulated radiographs in the absorption-only regime. A sorted tetrahedral projection algorithm is presented that simulates radiographs of emissive materials. We apply the tetrahedral projection algorithm to the simulation of experimental diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion experiments on a laser at the University of Rochester.