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N-Acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) conjugated short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are a leading RNA interference (RNAi) platform allowing targeted inhibition of disease-causing genes in hepatocytes. More than a decade of development has recently resulted in the first approvals for this class of drugs. While substantial effort has been made to improve nucleic acid modification patterns for better payload stability and efficacy, relatively little attention has been given to the GalNAc targeting ligand. In addition, the lack of an intrinsic endosomal release mechanism has limited potency. Here, we report a stepwise analysis of the structure activity relationships (SAR) of the components comprising these targeting ligands. We show that there is relatively little difference in biological performance between bi-, tri-, and tetravalent ligand structures while identifying other features that affect their biological activity more significantly. Further, we demonstrate that subcutaneous co-administration of a GalNAc-functionalized, pH responsive endosomal release agent markedly improved the activity and duration of effect for siRNA conjugates, without compromising tolerability, in non-human primates. These findings could address a significant bottleneck for future siRNA ligand conjugate development.

We present the new MSHT20 set of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, determined from a global analysis of the available hard scattering data and superseding the MMHT14 sets. The parameterisation is now adapted and extended and we include a large number of new data sets: the final HERA and Tevatron data, and a significant number of LHC data sets on vector boson production, inclusive jets and top quark distributions. We include up to NNLO QCD corrections for all data sets that play a major role in the fit. There are some changes to central PDF values and a significant reduction in the uncertainties, but the PDFs and the predictions using them are generally within one standard deviation of the MMHT14 results. We discuss the phenomenological impact of our results.

We investigate the MSHT20 global PDF sets, demonstrating the effects of varying the strong coupling $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)$ and the masses of the charm and bottom quarks. We determine the preferred value, and accompanying uncertainties, when we allow $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)$ to be a free parameter in the MSHT20 global analyses of deep-inelastic and related hard scattering data, at both NLO and NNLO in QCD perturbation theory. We also study the constraints on $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)$ which come from the individual data sets in the global fit by repeating the NNLO and NLO global analyses at various fixed values of $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)$, spanning the range $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)=0.108$ to $0.130$ in units of $0.001$. We make all resulting PDFs sets available. We find that the best fit values are $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)=0.1203\pm 0.0015$ and $0.1174\pm 0.0013$ at NLO and NNLO respectively. We investigate the relationship between the variations in $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)$ and the uncertainties on the PDFs, and illustrate this by calculating the cross sections for key processes at the LHC. We also perform fits where we allow the heavy quark masses $m_c$ and $m_b$ to vary away from their default values and make PDF sets available in steps of $\Delta m_c =0.05~{\rm GeV}$ and $\Delta m_b =0.25~{\rm GeV}$, using the pole mass definition of the quark masses. As for varying $\alpha_S(M_Z^2)$ values, we present the variation in the PDFs and in the predictions. We examine the comparison to data, particularly the HERA data on charm and bottom cross sections and note that our default values are very largely compatible with best fits to data. We provide PDF sets with 3 and 4 active quark flavours, as well as the standard value of 5 flavours., Comment: 45 pages, 27 figures, 9 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1510.02332, arXiv:1506.05682. Version 3 - published version

We present the new MSHT20 set of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, determined from global analyses of the available hard scattering data. The PDFs are made available at NNLO, NLO, and LO, and supersede the MMHT14 sets. They are obtained using the same basic framework, but the parameterisation is now adapted and extended, and there are 32 pairs of eigenvector PDFs. We also include a large number of new data sets: from the final HERA combined data on total and heavy flavour structure functions, to final Tevatron data, and in particular a significant number of new LHC 7 and 8 TeV data sets on vector boson production, inclusive jets and top quark distributions. We include up to NNLO QCD corrections for all data sets that play a major role in the fit, and NLO EW corrections where relevant. We find that these updates have an important impact on the PDFs, and for the first time the NNLO fit is strongly favoured over the NLO, reflecting the wider range and in particular increased precision of data included in the fit. There are some changes to central values and a significant reduction in the uncertainties of the PDFs in many, though not all, cases. Nonetheless, the PDFs and the resulting predictions are generally within one standard deviation of the MMHT14 results. The major changes are the $u-d$ valence quark difference at small $x$, due to the improved parameterisation and new precise data, the $\bar d, \bar u$ difference at small $x$, due to a much improved parameterisation, and the strange quark PDF due to the effect of LHC $W,Z$ data and inclusion of new NNLO corrections for dimuon production in neutrino DIS. We discuss the phenomenological impact of our results, and in general find reduced uncertainties in predictions for processes such as Higgs, top quark pair and $W,Z$ production at post LHC Run-II energies., Comment: 140 pages, 96 figures, 16 tables. Published version plus very minor alterations - version 4

We consider the central exclusive production of high $E_T$ jets $pp\to p+(X+{\rm dijet})+p$. In particular we study the possible contamination of the purely exclusive signal by semi-exclusive production where no other secondaries are emitted in one hemisphere, between the highest $E_T$ dijet and the recoil proton, while in the other hemisphere a third jet, plus possibly additional hadron activity, is allowed, but still separated from the incoming proton by a large rapidity gap. This process arising from the fusion of a hard and a soft Pomeron has not been considered before. It turns out that it gives a negligible contribution. %contamination, which was not known before the calculation. The calculation involves a careful treatment of the QCD colour structure of the amplitudes., 15 pages, 4 figures, version to be published in EPJC

We address a long standing problem concerning the scale behaviour of parton densities in the low $x$, low $Q^2$ domain. We emphasize the important role of absorptive corrections at low $x$ and use knowledge of diffractive deep inelastic scattering to exclude the absorptive effect from conventional deep inelastic data. In this way we obtain a significantly different low $x$ behaviour of the gluon density, which is now much better described by linear DGLAP evolution. Accounting also for a second power correction, which arises from the freezing of $\alpha_s$ at low $Q^2$, leads to an essentially flat behaviour of the low $x$ gluon density., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, text and 2 figures improved

The transversity and the Sivers distribution functions of quarks incorporate important information about the transverse-spin and transverse-momentum structure of nucleons. We show how these distributions can be directly determined point by point from leptoproduction asymmetry data collected for various targets and produced hadrons by the COMPASS Collaboration. Only simple symmetry relations are used in the extraction.

The low $x$ behavior of the gluon density $xg(x,{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2})$ at scale ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2}=2.4\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{2}$ is determined using exclusive $J/\ensuremath{\psi}$ production data from HERA and LHCb within the framework of collinear factorization at next-to-leading order (NLO). It is shown that in the interval $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}lxl{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ the gluon distribution function grows as $xg(x,{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2})\ensuremath{\propto}{x}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\lambda}}$ with $\ensuremath{\lambda}=0.135\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.006$. The impact this experimental data will have for the global parton distribution function (PDF) analyses in this low $x$ domain is quantified. No indication in favour of parton density saturation is observed.

We discuss the exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction process, as measured recently at LHCb, as a means of constraining and ultimately determining the low $x$ and low $Q$ gluon PDF. The scale dependence of the theoretical prediction for this process is shown to be systematically improved via a taming of the known $\bar{\text{MS}}$ result, this amounts to resumming logarithmically enhanced small-$x$ terms and implementing a small-$Q$ power correction. The cross section level predictions allow the behaviour of the gluon PDF in the low $(x, Q)$ domain to be determined., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of Light Cone 19 - QCD on the light cone: from hadrons to heavy ions (LC2019), submitted to PoS

We compare the cross section for exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction calculated at NLO in the collinear factorization approach with HERA and LHCb data. Using the optimum scale formalism together with the subtraction of the low $k_t, Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, text improved, references added

We evaluate the contribution of inelastic intermediate states (such as $p\to N^*$ excitations) to the phase between the one-photon-exchange and the `nuclear' high energy $pp$ scattering amplitudes as $t\to 0$, caused by multiphoton diagrams. It turns out to be rather small - much smaller than to have any influence on the experimental accuracy of the measurements of $\rho$, defined to be the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the forward `nuclear' amplitude., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, version published in Phys.Rev. D

We study the rapidity dependence of the cross section on the rapidity of the central exclusive production cross sections of C-even mesons in $pA$ and $AA$ collisions, where $A$ is a heavy ion. We observe qualitatively different behaviour of the contributions arising from $\gamma$-Odderon and Pomeron-Pomeron fusion mechanisms. This can be used to extract the Odderon signal from the events of $f_2$ mesons exclusively produced in the forward region. Estimates, obtained using expected values of the Odderon cross section, indicate that the $\gamma$-Odderon contribution may exceed by a few times the Pomeron-induced background in Pb-Pb collisions. Moreover, the Odderon effect can be clearly seen in terms of the asymmetry in $pA$ and $AA$ collisions with the beam and target reversed. It is particularly interesting to note that the asymmetry for $\gamma$-Odderon fusion reaches its maximum value close to 1 in the forward direction, whereas the asymmetry for the Pomeron-Pomeron fusion contribution is small. The role of additional interactions of the $f_2$ meson with nucleons in the heavy ion, and also the contributions from secondary Reggeons, are estimated. The photon-Odderon contribution has a large normalisation uncertainty but the enhances cross-section in the forward region combined with a large asymmetry increases the chance of experimentally detecting the Odderon., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Version published in EPJC containing extra references

COMPASS is a fixed target experiment at CERN SPS aimed to study hadron structure and spectroscopy. Hadron identification in the momentum range between $3$ and $55 GeV/c$ is provided by a large gaseous Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter, RICH-1. To cope with the challenges imposed by the new physics program of COMPASS, RICH-1 has been upgraded by replacing four MWPC-based photon detectors with newly developed MPGD-based photon detectors. The architecture of the novel detectors is a hybrid combination of two layers of THGEMs and a Micromegas. The top of the first THGEM is coated with CsI acting as a reflective photo-cathode. The anode is segmented in pads capacitively coupled to the APV-25 based readout. The new hybrid detectors have been commissioned during the 2016 COMPASS data taking and stably operated during the 2017 run. In this paper design, construction, operation and performance aspects of the novel photon detectors for COMPASS RICH-1 are discussed., Comment: 11 Pages; 9 Figures; 8 Sections including References; 18 References; Proceedings for INSTR20 conference accepted in JINST for publication

We describe a QCD based model which incorporates the main properties of the inclusive particle distributions expected for diffractive processes, including the diffractive dissociation at high energies. We study, in turn, the total cross section, $\sigma_{tot}$, the differential elastic, $d\sigma_{el}/dt$, cross section, the dependence of the single proton dissociation cross section, $\xi d^{SD}/d\xi $, on the momentum fraction, $\xi = 1-x_L$, lost by the leading proton, the multiplicity distributions in inelastic (non-diffractive) collisions and in the processes of dissociation. Besides this we calculate the mean transverse momenta of the `wee partons' (secondaries) produced in the case of dissociation (that is in the processes with a large rapidity gap) and compare it with that in inelastic interactions., Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures

We have searched for exclusive production of exotic charmonia in the reaction μ + N → μ + ( J / ψ π + π − ) π ± N ′ using COMPASS data collected with incoming muons of 160 GeV/c and 200 GeV/c momentum. In the J / ψ π + π − mass distribution we observe a signal with a statistical significance of 4.1 σ. Its mass and width are consistent with those of the X ( 3872 ) . The shape of the π + π − mass distribution from the observed decay into J / ψ π + π − shows disagreement with previous observations for X ( 3872 ) . The observed signal may be interpreted as a possible evidence of a new charmonium state. It could be associated with a neutral partner of X ( 3872 ) with C = − 1 predicted by a tetraquark model. The product of cross section and branching fraction of the decay of the observed state into J / ψ π + π − is determined to be 71±28(stat)±39(syst) pb.

We argue that the so-called maximal Odderon contribution breaks the `black disk' behaviour of the asymptotic amplitude, since the cross section of the events with Large Rapidity Gaps grows faster than the total cross section. That is the `maximal Odderon' is not consistent with the unitarity., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, Section 2 extended, version to be published in Phys.Lett.B

We discuss how the stability of the theoretical prediction for exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction has been improved through a systematic taming of the known $\overline{\text{MS}}$ coefficient functions by accounting for a formally power suppressed, but numerically significant, correction encoded within a $Q_0$ cut. The phenomenological implications of this will be emphasised meaning, ultimately, the possibility to include the exclusive data into a global fitter framework to provide constraints on the small $x$ gluon., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Proceedings of the XXVII International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects (DIS2019), submitted to PoS

In recent years information on the transversity distribution $h_1$ has been obtained combining the Collins asymmetry results from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) data on transversely polarized nucleon targets with the information on the fragmentation function of a transversely polarized quark from the asymmetries measured in $e^+e^-$ annihilation into hadrons. An alternative method was proposed long time ago, which does not require the $e^+e^-$ data, but allows one to get ratios of the $u$ and $d$ quark transversity distributions from the SIDIS data alone. The method utilizes the ratio of the difference of the Collins asymmetries of positively and negatively charged hadrons produced on transversely polarized proton and deuteron targets. We have applied this method to the COMPASS proton and deuteron data, and extracted the ratio $h_1^d/h_1^u$. The results are compared to those obtained in a previous point--by--point extraction based both on SIDIS and $e^+e^-$ data., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

We recall the main properties of inclusive particle distributions expected for Pomeron-proton and Pomeron-Pomeron interactions. Due to the small size of the Pomeron we expect larger transverse momenta of secondaries and a smaller probability of Multiple Interactions, that is a narrower multiplicity distribution. We propose to compare the spectra of secondaries produced in the Pomeron and the proton interactions in terms of the Feynman $x_F$ variable. The main difference should be observed for a relatively large $x_F$, that is near the edge of rapidity gaps. Such data offer the opportunity to illuminate the properties of the `soft' or `Regge' Pomeron, which drives the minimum-bias type of events in high energy $pp$ interactions. Besides this, there should be a good opportunity to observe a glueball in the Pomeron fragmentation region., 7 pages, 1 figure, text improved, to be published in J.Phys.G-letters

We explore the possibility of observing Odderon exchange in proton--ion collisions at the LHC, via the ultraperipheral photoproduction of C-even mesons. As well as the signal, we consider in detail the principle backgrounds, due to QCD--initiated production (i.e. double Pomeron exchange) and $\gamma\gamma$ fusion. We find that while the photon--initiated background is dominant at very small momentum transfer, this can be effectively removed by placing a reasonable cut on the transverse momentum of the produced meson. In the case of QCD--initiated production, we show this is in general strongly suppressed by the small probability of no additional particle production in the central detector, namely the survival factor. In some scenarios, this suppression is sufficient to permit the observation of Odderon exchange in Pb$-p$ collisions in a clean environment, or else to place bounds on this. We in addition identify the cases of $\pi^0$ and $\eta(548)$ production as particularly promising channels. Here, the QCD--initiated background is absent for $\pi^0$ due to isospin conservation and very small for $\eta(548)$ due to its dominantly flavour octet nature and odd parity., Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures

Physics letters / B B793, 188-194 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2019.04.038, Published by North-Holland Publ., Amsterdam

We present the MMHT2015qed PDF set, resulting from the inclusion of QED corrections to the existing set of MMHT Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs), and which contain the photon PDF of the proton. Adopting an input distribution from the LUXqed formulation, we discuss our methods of including QED effects for the full, coupled DGLAP evolution of all partons with QED at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha)$, $\mathcal{O}(\alpha\alpha_{S})$, $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^2)$. While we find consistency for the photon PDF of the proton with other recent sets, building on this we also present a set of QED corrected neutron PDFs and provide the photon PDF separated into its elastic and inelastic contributions. The effect of QED corrections on the other partons and the fit quality is investigated, and the sources of uncertainty for the photon are outlined. Finally we explore the phenomenological implications of this set, giving the partonic luminosities for both the elastic and inelastic contributions to the photon and the effect of our photon PDF on fits to high mass Drell-Yan production, including the photon--initiated channel., Comment: 54 pages, 34 figures. Typo corrected in Eq.(7)

New results for the double spin asymmetry A(1)(p) and the proton longitudinal spin structure function g(1)(p) are presented. They were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration using polarised 200 GeV muons scattered off a longitudinally polarised NH3 target. The data were collected in 2011 and complement those recorded in 2007 at 160 GeV, in particular at lower values of x. They improve the statistical precision of g(1)(p)(x) by about a factor of two in the region x less than or similar to 0.02. A next-to-leading order QCD fit to the g(1) world data is performed. It leads to a new determination of the quark spin contribution to the nucleon spin, Delta Sigma, ranging from 0.26 to 0.36, and to a re-evaluation of the first moment of g(1)(p). The uncertainty of Delta Sigma is mostly due to the large uncertainty in the present determinations of the gluon helicity distribution. A new evaluation of the Bjorken sum rule based on the COMPASS results for the non-singlet structure function g(1)(NS) (x, Q(2)) yields as ratio of the axial and vector coupling constants vertical bar gA/gV vertical bar = 1.22 +/- 0.05 (stat.) +/- 0.10 (syst.), which validates the sum rule to an accuracy of about 9%.

We discuss the causes which can limit the accuracy of the predictions based on the conventional PDFs when including in global parton analyses the data at moderate scales $\mu$. The first is the existence of power corrections ${\cal O} (Q_0^2/\mu^2)$ due to the double counting of contributions arising from the region below the input scale $Q_0$. The second concerns the possible inclusion of the BFKL re-summation of the $(\alpha_s\ln (1/x))^n$ terms. The third is the treatment of the heavy-quark thresholds. We show how to include the heavy-quark masses ($m_h$ with $h=c,b,t$) in DGLAP evolution which provides the correct {\it smooth} behaviour through the threshold regions and how to subtract the low parton virtuality $|k^2, Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1307.3508

We argue that if the elastic proton-proton cross section increases with energy, the Froissart-like high energy behaviour of the elastic amplitude (which corresponds to a `black disk' of radius $R(s)=c\ln s-\beta\ln(\ln s)$) is the only possibility to satisfy the unitarity equation at each value of the impact parameter, $b$. Otherwise the cross section of events with Large Rapidity Gaps grows faster than the total cross section at the same $b$. That is, these `gap' events require {\it maximal} growth of the high-energy (asymptotic) cross section and of the interaction radius $R(s)$ in order to be consistent with unitarity., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. text added, arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1801.07065

We summarise the effects of including jet data from the LHC in the MMHT PDF extraction. We also present the latest results on the preferred value of the strong coupling α S ( M 2 Z ) αS(MZ2) in a number of fit variations. The best current value with all new data is α S ( M 2 Z )=0.1176 αS(MZ2)=0.1176 .

Inspired by the new TOTEM data on elastic $pp$ scattering at 13 TeV, we study the possibility to describe all the diffractive collider data ($\sigma_{\rm tot}, d\sigma_{\rm el}/dt$, $\rho\equiv$Re$A$/Im$A$, \sd) in a wide interval of energy (0.0625 to 13 TeV) in the framework of a two-channel eikonal model. We show that a satisfactory description can be achieved without an odd-signature (Odderon) exchange contribution. We consider the possible role of the QCD Odderon which may improve the description of $\rho$ and discuss the importance of the odd-signature term if the amplitude were to exceed the black disc limit., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, version published in Phys. Lett. B

We compare the rapidity, $y$, and the beam energy, $\sqrt{s}$, behaviours of the cross section of the data for $D$ meson production in the forward direction that were measured by the LHCb collaboration. We describe the observed cross sections using NLO perturbative QCD, and choose the optimal factorization scale for the LO contribution which provides the resummation of the large double logarithms. We emphasize the inconsistency observed in the $y$ and $\sqrt{s}$ behaviours of the $D$ meson cross sections. The $y$ behaviour indicates a very {\it flat} $x$ dependence of the gluon PDF in the unexplored low $x$ region around $x\sim 10^{-5}$. However, to describe the $\sqrt{s}$ dependence of the data we need a steeper gluon PDF with decreasing $x$. Moreover, an even steeper behaviour is needed to provide an extrapolation which matches on to the well known gluons found in the global PDF analyses for $x\sim 10^{-3}$. The possible role of non-perturbative effects is briefly discussed., 12 pages, 4 figures, this article supersedes arXiv:1705.08845, version to be published in PRD

We investigate the impact of the high precision ATLAS and CMS 7 TeV measurements of inclusive jet production on the MMHT global PDF analysis at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). This is made possible by the recent completion of the long-term project to calculate the NNLO corrections to the hard cross section. We find that a good description of the ATLAS data is not possible with the default treatment of experimental systematic errors, and develop a simplified solution that retains the dominant physical information of the data. We then investigate the fit quality and the impact on the gluon PDF central value and uncertainty when the ATLAS and CMS data are included in a MMHT fit. We consider both common choices for the factorization and renormalization scale, namely the inclusive jet transverse momentum, $p_\perp$, and the leading jet $p_\perp$, as well as the different jet radii for which the ATLAS and CMS data are made available. We find that the impact of these data on the gluon is relatively insensitive to these inputs, in particular the scale choice, while the inclusion of NNLO corrections tends to improve the data description somewhat, and gives a qualitatively similar though not identical impact on the gluon in comparison to NLO., 21 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Version accepted for publication in EPJC

© 2017 Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). We present an updated and improved extraction of the low-x gluon distribution from the HERA and LHCb exclusive J/ψ production data in the context of kT factorisation. Critically, we use a more precise expression for the photon flux and updated rapidity gap survival factors. In collinear factorisation, exclusive J/ψ photoproduction receives large perturbative corrections at next-to-leading order which depend sensitively on the factorisation scale. This prevents the use of the available data to extract a gluon PDF within this framework. Attempts to understand and overcome the problems caused by the large perturbative corrections are discussed.

I consider the effects of including a variety of new LHC data sets into the MMHT approach for PDF determination. I consider the impact of fitting new LHC and Tevatron data, which leads to clear improvements in some PDF uncertainties. There are specific issues with ATLAS 7 TeV jet data and I include a discussion of the treatment of correlated uncertainties and briefly the effects of NNLO corrections. I also present preliminary results with the inclusion of the high precison final ATLAS 7 TeV W,Z rapidity-dependent data.

A search for the exclusive production of the Z(c)(+/-)(3900) hadron by virtual photons has been performed in the channel Z(c)(+/-)(3900). J/Psi pi(+/-). The data cover the range from 7GeV to 19GeV in the centre-of- mass energy of the photon-nucleon system. The full set of the COMPASS data set collected with a muon beam between 2002 and 2011 has been used. An upper limit for the ratio BR(Z(c)(+/-)(3900)-> J/Psi pi(+/-)) x sigma(gamma N) -> Z(c)(+/-)(3900) N/sigma gamma N -> J/Psi N 3.7 x10(-3) has been established at the confidence level of90%. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

We are developing large size THick GEM (THGEM)-based detectors of single photons, mainly meant for Cherenkov imaging applications. The R&D programme includes the complete characterisation of the THGEM electron multipliers, the study of the aspects related to the detection of single photons and the engineering towards large size detector prototypes. Our most recent achievements include dedicated studies concerning the ion backflow to the photocathode; relevant progress in the engineering aspects, in particularly related to the production of large-size THGEMs, where the strict correlation between the local gain-value and the local thickness-value has been demonstrated and a 300×300 mm2 active area detector has been successfully operated at the CERN PS T10 test beam; the introduction of a new hybrid detector architecture, offering promising performance, which is formed by a THGEM layer which acts both as photocathode and pre-amplification device, followed by a MICROMEGAS (MM) multiplication stage. We report about the general status of the R&D programme and, in detail, about the recent progress.

A short review is given on the status of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, g − 2 . Emphasis is put on recent developments in the different sectors and the accuracy of the Standard Model prediction. We comment on the prospects for further improvements in time for the upcoming g − 2 experiments and on New Physics explanations of the discrepancy, which has been further consolidated.

We use the very forward neutron energy spectra measured by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment at 7 TeV to extract the $\pi^+ p$ total cross section at centre-of-mass energies in the range 2.3$-$3.5 TeV. To do this we have to first isolate the $\pi$-exchange pole in forward neutron production in $pp$ collisions, by evaluating other possible contributions. Namely, those from $\rho$ and $a_2$ exchange, from both eikonal and enhanced screening effects, from migration, from neutron production by $\Delta$-isobar decay and from diffractive nucleon excitations. We discuss the possible theoretical uncertainties due to the fact that the data do not exactly reach the $\pi$ pole. We choose the kinematical domain where the pion contribution dominates and demonstrate the role of the different corrections which could affect the final result., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, text improved, version to be published in Phys. Rev. D

To obtain more precise parton distribution functions (PDFs) it is important to include data on inclusive high transverse energy jet production in the global parton analyses. These data have high statistics and the NNLO terms in the perturbative QCD (pQCD) description are now available. Our aim is to reduce the uncertainty in the comparison of the jet data with pQCD. To ensure the best convergence of the pQCD series it is important to choose the appropriate factorization scales, $\mu_F$. We show that it is possible to absorb and resum in the incoming PDFs and fragmentation function ($D$) an essential part of the higher $\alpha_s$ order corrections by determining the `optimal' values of $\mu_F$. We emphasize that it is necessary to optimize different factorization scales for the various factors in the cross section: indeed, both of the PDFs, and also the fragmentation function, have their own optimal scale. We show how the values of these scales can be calculated for the LO (NLO) part of the pQCD prediction of the cross section based on the theoretically known NLO (NNLO) corrections. After these scales are fixed at their optimal values, the residual factorization scale dependence is much reduced., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, version to be published in EPJC

We discuss the possibility of identifying invisible objects (e.g. dark matter) via missing mass in Central Exclusive Processes; that is, in events where only forward protons are detected at the LHC. We show that the signal must have a cross section greater than 0.25 fb in order that it can be detected. We estimate the huge background caused by soft proton dissociation and evaluate the requirements of the detector `veto' system needed to sufficiently suppress these events. In addition, we discuss the related process leading to the possible identification of the particles from the so-called `compressed-mass Beyond the Standard Model (BSM)' scenarios. In this case the background is not so severe., 15 pages, 3 figures

Proton transverse-spin azimuthal asymmetries are extracted from the COMPASS 2010 semi-inclusive hadron measurements in deep inelastic muon-nucleon scattering in those four regions of the photon virtuality $Q^2$, which correspond to the four regions of the di-muon mass $\sqrt{Q^2}$ used in the ongoing analysis of the COMPASS Drell-Yan measurements. This allows for a future direct comparison of the nucleon transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution functions extracted from these two alternative measurements. Various two-dimensional kinematic dependences are presented for the azimuthal asymmetries induced by the Sivers transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution function. The integrated Sivers asymmetries are found to be positive with an accuracy that appears to be sufficient to test the sign change of the Sivers function predicted by Quantum Chromodynamics., 13 pages, 6 figures

Multiplicities of charged pions and charged hadrons produced in deep-inelastic scattering were measured in three-dimensional bins of the Bjorken scaling variable x , the relative virtual-photon energy y and the relative hadron energy z . Data were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration using a 160GeV muon beam and an isoscalar target ( 6 LiD). They cover the kinematic domain in the photon virtuality Q2>1(GeV/c)2 , 0.004 1(GeV/c$)^2$, $0.004 < x < 0.4$, $0.2 < z < 0.85$ and $0.1 < y < 0.7$. In addition, a leading-order pQCD analysis was performed using the pion multiplicity results to extract quark fragmentation functions.

We present a point-by-point determination of the Sivers distributions from hadron leptoproduction data. The method, which relies on some simple assumptions, is based on the combined analysis of proton and deuteron observables. We make use of the single-spin asymmetries measured by COMPASS in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of 160 GeV muons on transversely polarized proton and deuteron targets., 5 figures

COMPASS is a fixed target experiment at CERN SPS aimed to study Hadron Structure and Spectroscopy. Hadron Identification in the momentum range between 3 and 55 GeV/c is provided by a large gaseous Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter (RICH-1). To cope with the challenges imposed by the new physics program of COMPASS, RICH-1 have been upgraded by replacing four MWPCs based photon detectors with newly developed MPGD based photon detectors. The architecture of the novel detectors is a hybrid combination of two layers of THGEMs and a MicroMegas. The top of the first THGEM is coated with CsI acting as a reflective photo-cathode. The anode is segmented in pads capacitively coupled to the APV-25 based readout. The new hybrid detectors have been commissioned during 2016 COMPASS data taking and stably operated during 2017 run. In this paper all aspects of the novel photon detectors for COMPASS RICH-1 are discussed., 4 Pages, 8 Figures, Proceedings for conference NDIP2017

The perturbative QCD expansion for $J/\psi$ photoproduction appears to be unstable: the NLO correction is large (and of opposite sign) to the LO contribution. Moreover, the predictions are very sensitive to the choice of factorization and renormalization scales. Here we show that perturbative stability is greatly improved by imposing a $`Q_0$ cut' on the NLO coefficient functions; a cut which is required to avoid double counting. $Q_0$ is the input scale used in the parton DGLAP evolution. This result opens the possibility of high precision exclusive $J/\psi$ data in the forward direction at the LHC being able to determine the low $x$ gluon distribution at low scales., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. Final paragraph of Sect. 3.2 added. Version to be published in EPJC

We study exclusive vector meson photoproduction, $\gamma p \to V + p$ with $V=J/\psi$ or $\Upsilon$, at NLO in collinear factorisation, in order to examine what may be learnt about the gluon distribution at very low $x$. We examine the factorisation scale dependence of the predictions. We argue that, using knowledge of the NLO corrections, terms enhanced by a large $\ln(1/\xi)$ can be reabsorbed in the LO part by a choice of the factorisation scale. (In these exclusive processes $\xi$ takes the role of Bjorken-$x$.) Then, the scale dependence coming from the remaining NLO contributions has no $\ln(1/\xi)$ enhancements. As a result, we find that predictions for the amplitude of $\Upsilon$ production are stable to within about $\pm 15\%$. This will allow data for the exclusive process $p p \to p\Upsilon p$ at the LHC, particularly from LHCb, to be included in global parton analyses to constrain the gluon PDF down to $x\sim 10^{-5}$. Moreover, the study of exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction indicates that the gluon density found in the recent global PDF analyses is too small at low $x$ and low scales., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Text significantly improved, references added, version to be published in J.Phys.G

We will cover a number of topics: some clarifications on MMHT PDFs with varying quark masses; a review of the fit to final HERA data, with consequences for MMHT PDFs, and a study of the fit quality; a brief introduction to topics just starting investigation, mainly the inclusion of new LHC data sets.

The torturous path that led to Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, is intriguing. It arguably rivals even the best detective stories. Starting with the discovery of the pion ...

We discuss the salient features of exclusive vector meson production in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies. Special attention is paid to the space-time picture of the process. We account for both coherent and incoherent contributions. The explicit quantitative predictions are given for the $\rho$-meson differential cross section in lead-lead collisions in different kinematical configurations relevant for the LHCb and ALICE experiments., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, text, references and figures 5 and 6 improved

We investigate the effect of including the HERA run I + II combined cross section data on the MMHT2014 PDFs. We present the fit quality within the context of the global fit and when only the HERA data are included. We examine the changes in both the central values and uncertainties in the PDFs. We find that the prediction for the data is good, and only relatively small improvements in $\chi^2$ and changes in the PDFs are obtained with a refit at both NLO and NNLO. PDF uncertainties are slightly reduced. There is a small dependence of the fit quality on the value of $Q^2_{\min}$. This can be improved by phenomenologically motived corrections to $F_L(x,Q^2)$ which parametrically are largely in the form of higher-twist type contributions., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures