M.T. Muciaccia

Hardware performance of a scanning system for high speed analysis of nuclear emulsions

The use of nuclear emulsions in very large physics experiments is now possible thanks to the recent improvements in the industrial production of emulsions and to the development of fast automated microscopes. In this paper the hardware performances of the European Scanning System (ESS) are described. The ESS is a very fast automatic system developed for the mass scanning of the emulsions of the OPERA experiment, which requires microscopes with scanning speeds of � 20 cm 2 =h in an emulsion volume of 44mm thickness.

Measurement of charm production in neutrino charged-current interactions

The nuclear emulsion target of the CHORUS detector was exposed to the wide-band neutrino beam of the CERN SPS of 27 GeV average neutrino energy from 1994 to 1997. In total, about 100 000 charged-current (CC) neutrino interactions with at least one identified muon were located in the emulsion target and fully reconstructed, using newly developed automated scanning systems. Charmed particles were searched for by a program recognizing particle decays. The observation of the decay in nuclear emulsion makes it possible to select a sample with very low background and minimal kinematical bias. In all, 2013 CC interactions with a charmed hadron candidate in the final state were selected and confirmed through visual inspection. The charm production rate induced by neutrinos relative to the CC cross-section is measured to be σ(νμN→μ−CX)/σ(CC)=(5.75 ± 0.32(stat)±0.30(syst))%. The charm production cross-section as a function of neutrino energy is also obtained. The results are in good agreement with previous measurements. The charm-quark hadronization produces the following charmed hadrons with relative fractions (in %): fD0=43.7±4.5, fΛc+=19.2±4.2, fD+=25.3±4.2 and fDs+=11.8±4.7.

Direct observation of the decay of beauty particles into charm particles

Abstract The associated production of a pair of beauty particles B− and B 0 by a 350 GeV π− interaction has been observed in an emulsion target inserted in an array of silicon microstrip detectors. Both beauty particles decay into charm particles, both of which are also observed to decay in the emulsion. Two negative muons were identified and their momenta measured in a large muon spectrometer. One muon has a pT of 1.9 GeV/c and is associated with a beauty particle decay. The other, with a pT of 0.45 GeV/c is associated with a charm particle decay. The flight times of the two beauty particles are respectively (0.8 ± 0.1) × 10−13 s and (5+2−1) × 10−13 s. Alternative interpretations of this event have negligible probability.

Electromagnetic dissociation of 200 GeV/nucleon 16O and 32s ions in nuclear emulsions

Abstract This work represents the results of an experimental investigation of the electromagnetic dissociation of 200 GeV/nucleon 16 O and 32 S ions in nuclear emulsions. Exclusive channels involving charged fragments have been studied as a function of the energy released, and, assuming a Weizsacker-Williams spectrum of virtual photons, there is a good agreement with results for the (γ, p) processes obtained with real photons. However, the rates found for other processes are larger, in particular for the (γ, α) on both nuclei. The values of the total integrated absorption cross sections are generally larger than those obtained from real photon experiments but the extent of the discrepancy depends strongly upon which photon results are used in the comparison.

Track reconstruction in the emulsion-lead target of the OPERA experiment using the ESS microscope

The OPERA experiment, designed to conclusively prove the existence of ????? oscillations in the atmospheric sector, makes use of a massive lead-nuclear emulsion target to observe the appearance of ??s in the CNGS ?? beam. The location and analysis of the neutrino interactions in quasi real-time required the development of fast computer-controlled microscopes able to reconstruct particle tracks with sub-micron precision and high efficiency at a speed of ~20 cm2/h. This paper describes the performance in particle track reconstruction of the European Scanning System, a novel automatic microscope for the measurement of emulsion films developed for OPERA.

Nuclear emulsions in a large, hybrid experiment (CHORUS) to search for νμ→ντ oscillations

Abstract We describe the (2×800 kg ) emulsion target in the CHORUS hybrid detector set-up for the search of ν μ →ν τ oscillations, together with the CERN pouring and processing facilities (upgraded for this purpose), and the techniques employed to treat the emulsions used as the active target in the experiment.

A-dependence of the charm production cross section in 300 GeV/c proton interactions

Abstract The A-dependence of the charm production cross section is determined by measuring the yield of prompt single muons in a beam-dump experiment, using a 300 GeV/c proton beam on Al, Fe, and U targets. Assuming that the production cross section varies as Aα, we obtain α(μ+) = 0.79±0.12 and α(μ−) = 0.76±0.13 in the kinematical region xF≳0.1 of the charm.

Electron/pion separation with an emulsion cloud chamber by using a neural network.

We have studied the performance of a new algorithm for electron/pion separation in an Emulsion Cloud Chamber (ECC) made of lead and nuclear emulsion films. The software for separation consists of two parts: a shower reconstruction algorithm and a Neural Network that assigns to each reconstructed shower the probability to be an electron or a pion. The performance has been studied for the ECC of the OPERA experiment [1]. The e/π separation algorithm has been optimized by using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the ECC and tested on real data taken at CERN (pion beams) and at DESY (electron beams). The algorithm allows to achieve a 90% electron identification efficiency with a pion misidentification smaller than 1% for energies higher than 2 GeV.

THE DOUBLE ASSOCIATED PRODUCTION OF CHARMED PARTICLES BY THE INTERACTION OF 350 GEV/C PI-MESONS WITH EMULSION NUCLEI

Abstract Evidence is reported for the simultaneous production of four charmed particles in interactions induced by 350 GeV/ c π − mesons in stacks of nuclear emulsions. The events were found during a search for beauty particles among a sample of about 200 interactions with candidates for charmed particles. The events selected required the presence of at least one muon with a high component of momentum transverse to the beam direction.

The production of beauty particles in π−-U interactions at 320 GeV energy

Abstract B B production in π − -uranium interactions has been observed at 320 GeV beam energy looking at events with three muons in the final state. The cross section is found to be σ B B = 4.5±1.4±1.4 nb per nucleon (for a linear A -dependence) or σ B B = 17.6±5.5±5.5 nb per nucleon (assuming A 0.75 dependence). An estimate of x F distribution is given.