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"Dougherty, Liam Andrew"
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MATHUSLA: An External Long-Lived Particle Detector to Maximize the Discovery Potential of the HL-LHC
by
Silver, Yiftah
,
Kincso Balazs
,
Fischer, Oliver
in
Dark matter
,
Higgs bosons
,
Large Hadron Collider
2025
We present the current status of the MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles) long-lived particle (LLP) detector at the HL-LHC, covering the design, fabrication and installation at CERN Point 5. MATHUSLA40 is a 40 m-scale detector with an air-filled decay volume that is instrumented with scintillator tracking detectors, to be located near CMS. Its large size, close proximity to the CMS interaction point and about 100 m of rock shielding from LHC backgrounds allows it to detect LLP production rates and lifetimes that are one to two orders of magnitude beyond the ultimate reach of the LHC main detectors. This provides unique sensitivity to many LLP signals that are highly theoretically motivated, due to their connection to the hierarchy problem, the nature of dark matter, and baryogenesis. Data taking is projected to commence with the start of HL-LHC operations. We summarize the new 40m design for the detector that was recently presented in the MATHUSLA Conceptual Design Report, alongside new realistic background and signal simulations that demonstrate high efficiency for the main target LLP signals in a background-free HL-LHC search. We argue that MATHUSLA's uniquely robust expansion of the HL-LHC physics reach is a crucial ingredient in CERN's mission to search for new physics and characterize the Higgs boson with precision.
Conceptual Design Report for the MATHUSLA Long-Lived Particle Detector near CMS
by
Silver, Yiftah
,
Kincso Balazs
,
Fischer, Oliver
in
Conceptual design
,
Cosmic rays
,
Cost estimates
2025
We present the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for the MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles) long-lived particle detector at the HL-LHC, covering the design, fabrication and installation at CERN Point 5. MATHUSLA is a 40 m-scale detector with an air-filled decay volume that is instrumented with scintillator tracking detectors, to be located near CMS. Its large size, close proximity to the CMS interaction point and about 100 m of rock shielding from HL-LHC backgrounds allows it to detect LLP production rates and lifetimes that are one to two orders of magnitude beyond the ultimate sensitivity of the HL-LHC main detectors for many highly motivated LLP signals. Data taking is projected to commence with the start of HL-LHC operations. We present a new 40m design for the detector: its individual scintillator bars and wavelength-shifting fibers, their organization into tracking layers, tracking modules, tower modules and the veto detector; define a high-level design for the supporting electronics, DAQ and trigger system, including supplying a hardware trigger signal to CMS to record the LLP production event; outline computing systems, civil engineering and safety considerations; and present preliminary cost estimates and timelines for the project. We also conduct detailed simulation studies of the important cosmic ray and HL-LHC muon backgrounds, implementing full track/vertex reconstruction and background rejection, to ultimately demonstrate high signal efficiency and \\(\\ll 1\\) background event in realistic LLP searches for the main physics targets at MATHUSLA. This sensitivity is robust with respect to detector design or background simulation details. Appendices provide various supplemental information.
Quantifying variation in female internal genitalia: no evidence for plasticity in response to sexual conflict risk in a seed beetle
by
Dougherty, Liam R.
,
McNamara, Kathryn
,
Shaw, Jeremy
in
Animals
,
Biological Evolution
,
Coleoptera
2021
Sexually antagonistic coevolution can drive the evolution of male traits that harm females, and female resistance to those traits. While males have been found to vary their harmfulness to females in response to social cues, plasticity in female resistance traits remains to be examined. Here, we ask whether female seed beetles Callosobruchus maculatus are capable of adjusting their resistance to male harm in response to the social environment. Among seed beetles, male genital spines harm females during copulation and females might resist male harm via thickening of the reproductive tract walls. We develop a novel micro computed tomography imaging technique to quantify female reproductive tract thickness in three-dimensional space, and compared the reproductive tracts of females from populations that had evolved under high and low levels of sexual conflict, and for females reared under a social environment that predicted either high or low levels of sexual conflict. We find little evidence to suggest that females can adjust the thickness of their reproductive tracts in response to the social environment. Neither did evolutionary history affect reproductive tract thickness. Nevertheless, our novel methodology was capable of quantifying fine-scale differences in the internal reproductive tracts of individual females, and will allow future investigations into the internal organs of insects and other animals.
Journal Article
Quantifying variation in female internal genitalia
2021
Sexually antagonistic coevolution can drive the evolution of male traits that harm females, and female resistance to those traits. While males have been found to vary their harmfulness to females in response to social cues, plasticity in female resistance traits remains to be examined. Here, we ask whether female seed beetles Callosobruchus maculatus are capable of adjusting their resistance to male harm in response to the social environment. Among seed beetles, male genital spines harm females during copulation and females might resist male harm via thickening of the reproductive tract walls. We develop a novel micro computed tomography imaging technique to quantify female reproductive tract thickness in three-dimensional space, and compared the reproductive tracts of females from populations that had evolved under high and low levels of sexual conflict, and for females reared under a social environment that predicted either high or low levels of sexual conflict. We find little evidence to suggest that females can adjust the thickness of their reproductive tracts in response to the social environment. Neither did evolutionary history affect reproductive tract thickness. Nevertheless, our novel methodology was capable of quantifying fine-scale differences in the internal reproductive tracts of individual females, and will allow future investigations into the internal organs of insects and other animals.
Journal Article
Report of the Council for 2010
2011
President's foreword. For the Royal Statistical Society, the year 2010 was first and foremost the year of the ‘getstats’ campaign. The first World Statistics Day, sponsored by the United Nations, took place on 20.10.2010, and statistical Societies around the world took part in activities to raise awareness of our discipline and to celebrate its many achievements. According to the United Nations, the day ‘was celebrated in over 130 countries and areas’, and the Society chose this auspicious date to launch getstats, its 10‐year statistical literacy campaign (http://www.getstats.org.uk). Statistical literacy is a key ability in today's data‐driven society, comprising a fundamental set of skills and knowledge needed to make important life choices as well as to support roles in employment, research and policy making. At the launch event John Pullinger, Chair of the getstats steering group, argued that ‘just as the 3 ‘‘Rs’’ were the new skills that were needed for advancement in the time of the industrial revolution, so the fourth ‘‘R’’ (statistical Reasoning) is now a vital life skill’. The campaign launch was marked by a paper read to the Society entitled ‘Towards more accessible conceptions of statistical inference’ by Chris Wild, Maxine Pfannkuch, Matt Regan (University of Auckland, New Zealand) and Nicholas Horton (Smith College, USA). This was followed by a reception at which excerpts of the BBC‐commissioned film ‘The joy of statistics’ were shown (its YouTube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?vjbkSRLYSojo&featurerelated has now topped 4 million views). There were also impressive demonstrations by developers of new exploratory data sites and data visualization tools, before a countdown to 8.10 p.m. (20.10) when the red button was pressed to launch the campaign. A further week of launch events followed in London and Plymouth organized by the RSS Centre for Statistical Education and included activities for teachers in schools and higher education, employers and young statisticians. Collaborating bodies for getstats include the Actuarial Profession, the British Academy, the Institute of Physics, the Nuffield Foundation, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, the UK Statistics Authority and many others. In particular, funding from the Nuffield Foundation is enabling the Society to appoint a Getstats Director in 2011, giving a real impetus to the campaign. The Society has more than 7000 members, of whom roughly 20% now have Chartered membership. The numbers of both Chartered Statisticians and Graduate Statisticians are growing, and roughly a seventh of professional members now have Chartered Scientist status. A new development this year is the provision of on‐line continuing professional development recording; this facility is available to all Fellows of the Society. The continuing difficult economic climate has inevitably had an effect on the Society's finances, but the staff at Errol Street have been very effective in reducing expenses wherever possible and the Society has been able further to raise its profile and activities across a range of areas. As usual, the Society has run a very extensive programme of Ordinary Meetings, and Section and Local Group meetings, and it held a successful and enjoyable annual conference in Brighton. Highlights of the conference included well‐received plenary lectures by Tim Davis, Peter Donnelly, Robert Groves, Nancy Reid and Robert Stine, a fish‐and‐chip supper on a wind‐swept pier and a conference dinner with a highly entertaining after‐dinner talk from Andrew Dilnot. The next (revamped) annual conference will take place in 2012, following a full review of the conference structure and consultation with the membership. The annual awards ceremony is another regular event in the Society's calendar. In 2010, as well as Guy, Greenfield and Chambers Medals, awards were given for Statistical Excellence in Journalism, which has continued to attract increased interest, and, for the first time this year, for Excellence in Official Statistics sponsored by the ONS. Plans are now in hand for an award for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Statistics sponsored jointly with PSI (Statisticians in the Pharmaceutical Industry). Short courses and workshops took place before the Brighton conference, and the Professional Development Centre ran a varied programme of nine training courses appealing both to statisticians and to statistics users throughout the year. The successful programme of workshops for journalists continued and, in addition, funding was obtained from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to co‐ordinate science training for non‐specialist journalists, with a member of staff seconded from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology acting as national co‐ordinator. Through the Professional Affairs Committee, the Society continues to accredit universities for their statistics degrees both in the UK and overseas, and attracted an increasing number of candidates for its Ordinary and Higher Certificates and Graduate Diploma. Education in schools is also an essential part of the Society's activities, in which the Education Theme and the RSS Centre for Statistical Education are playing a vital role through the ‘Significance in schools’ projects, CensusAtSchool (funded by the ONS) and involvement in student conferences such as ‘Planet Earth—over the limit?’. The Society actively continued its programme of policy development and communication, engaging with politicians and government, the media, education funding and regulatory bodies, and many other groups. For example, its call to the UK Statistics Authority for a comprehensive review of inflation measures was given wide media coverage and, before the general election, more than 300 Fellows and guests heard representatives of the three major political parties setting out their views on the official statistics system. The Statistics User Forum brings together users of official statistics across the spectrum from industry and local government, through to Learned Societies and research institutes. The Society's expertise is sought on a wide variety of subjects, and it submitted responses to consultations and invitations to comment from many official bodies including the Cabinet Office, the Forensic Science Regulator, the Law Commission, the ONS, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and the UK Statistics Authority. In addition, it has regular meetings with the National Statistician, and with the other mathematical Learned Societies through its membership of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences. As part of the latter, there are regular meetings with the Chief Executives of the Higher Education Funding Council for England and of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The shortage of trained manpower in statistics is an on‐going problem, so it was particularly pleasing that a presentation by the Society at a liaison meeting with the manager of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's mathematics programme led to continued funding being earmarked for Masters training in statistics and operational research for a further 3 years. The Society's journal series (A, B and C) form a crucial part of the output of the Society, providing a service and resource not only to members but also to statisticians world wide. This year, more papers were submitted than ever before. Changes to the procedures for handling those papers submitted for possible reading to the Society were introduced: an important aspect is that all Sections of the Society are now encouraged to sponsor papers for reading. The year 2010 also saw a transformational step for Significance, with the agreement with the American Statistical Association for joint publication. This has resulted in a fourfold increase in the readership and plans for more frequent issues. To the relief of some, English spellings have been maintained, and the content included censuses, oil spills, ethnic profiling and Pictish carvings. The year also saw the launch of its own Web site, where rapidly changing short articles and news stories can be found. The Significance Web site was quickly accepted by the Google News aggregator, not only recognizing it as a reputable news source but also giving it greater prominence on Google. Links with other statistical Societies are increasingly important also. Discussions on closer co‐operation took place in Paris with the Presidents of other European Societies, and these will be continued at the next International Statistical Institute World Congress in Dublin. This foreword gives only a taste of the activities of the Society in 2010. More details, with accounts of all the Themes, Section meetings and other activities, which give a much fuller picture of all that the Society does, can be found in the following report. A striking feature is the incredible number of names that appear in these pages. A very great many people give their services to the Society, as committee members, organizers and speakers, as editors and referees, and in other capacities. They contribute enormous energy, enthusiasm and commitment, complementing that of the Society's permanent staff. The Society owes all these people, staff and volunteers alike, a great debt of gratitude for all they enable it to achieve. Valerie Isham
Journal Article
Report of the Council for 2009
2010
President's foreword. The year 2009 was the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Society. Various events were held to celebrate the achievements and longevity of the Society, and to engage other people and organizations where we wished to raise awareness of our activities. These events included a Founders’ Day meeting of presentations followed by a reception at the Barbican Centre, a reception at the Palace of Westminster engaging with Members of Parliament and Peers, a President's dinner, the award of four Honorary Fellowships and celebratory events at the annual conference, of which more below. Despite the difficult economic climate which pervaded the year, and which had its due impact on the Society, it is apparent that the Society has been successful in raising both its profile and its influence. Our National Statistics Working Party continued to engage with the Office for National Statistics and the UK Statistics Authority, as well as to monitor and comment appropriately when statistics were misused or misreported in the public domain. This is an important role for the Society, since it is both expert and independent of government. In a related vein, plans were laid to launch an ‘Excellence in official statistics’ award, paralleling the award for statistical excellence in journalism, which has continued to attract increased interest. It is perhaps in the nature of statistics that the Society might be expected to comment on a wide variety of subjects affecting society, and it indeed responded to a number of government and other consultation documents. We also used our role in the Council for the Mathematical Sciences to make comments on issues such as the research excellence framework and the international review of mathematics. After the lengthy tendering process conducted during 2008, the Society's Centre for Statistical Education moved to its new host institution, the University of Plymouth, on August 1st, 2009. The move was marked with a week of events in November, including an afternoon of presentations attended by the Mayor of Plymouth and the Director General for Science and Research of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. In addition to its work through the Centre, the Society contributed to education planning and organization at various levels, from meeting with the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, through contributing to consultations on ‘more maths grads’, the higher education science, technology, engineering and mathematics higher education initiative, and the Bologna Agreement, to promoting the Guy Lecture in schools. The Society introduced a modular version of its Graduate Diploma in 2009, and continued to accredit university statistics degrees, where it is strengthening its international engagement. The overall number of candidates sitting the Society's examinations increased in 2009. The Society's 2009 conference was held in Edinburgh. Although occurring in an odd‐numbered year, and therefore technically a special theme conference, it was decided to make that theme ‘175 years of progress’, so that the anniversary could be properly marked. And, thanks to the superb local organization and wonderful scientific programme, the conference was a runaway success, with a record breaking number of attendees. The reception at Edinburgh Castle was launched by the Scottish Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, and speakers included the Presidents of several parallel statistical organizations from other countries. Plenary speakers included the National Statistician and the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser. In addition there were 79 invited talks, 116 contributed presentations and 62 poster presentations. There is a general drift in the direction of strengthening international collaborations, and the Society took part in discussions at both the International Statistical Institute's conference in Durban and the Joint Statistical Meeting in Washington concerning co‐ordinating the activities of the various national statistical organizations. Because of its size and history, the Society is a key and respected player in such discussions. The Society continued to push, on several fronts, to improve both the public image of statistics and the public understanding of it. For example, the statistical workshops for journalists have continued to be very positively received. When the Science Minister is led to remark that ‘leading the field is the Royal Statistical Society, who have been doing exemplary work in this area [of science training] for years’ we know we are getting it right. The Society's stable of publications continued to flourish. In particular, we began discussions with the American Statistical Association about collaborating on the magazine Significance, and distributing it to the Association's membership. These plans will come to fruition in 2010. This is in parallel with the ‘Bringing Significance to the classroom’ project, which made substantial progress in 2009. The Long Term Strategy Group, which was established in 2008 to undertake horizon scanning to explore how the Society should position itself to ensure that it met its objectives, reported during 2009. One of its recommendations was that the Society should set up a statistical literacy campaign, and Council duly did so. The campaign will be formally launched in 2010, as a long‐term exercise aimed at enhancing statistical understanding across society. Progress has been made on the information technology front, with the members’ database and improved Web facilities, although, as appears to be common with such projects, it has not always been a smooth process. RSS eNews has been a marked success, as has progress on audio and video recording of meetings and other events. The activities noted above represent a mere sample from the range of activities which the Society undertook during 2009. Full details of these and the many other activities of the Society are given in the body of this report. My overall impression of the year is that the image and public perception of statistics and its importance in modern life is improving. This progress is entirely attributable to the energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the many volunteers, who run Sections, manage Local Groups, run committees and carry out a myriad of other activities behind the scenes of the Society, and to the matching energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the Errol Street staff: the engine room of the Society. David J. Hand
Conference Proceeding