Anton Petrov

In view of the High Luminosity LHC, the CMS Muon system will be upgraded to sustain its efficient muon triggering and reconstruction performance. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are dedicated detectors for muon triggering due to their excellent timing resolution. The RPC system will be extended up to 2.4 in pseudorapidity. Before the LHC Long Shutdown 3, new RE3/1 and RE4/1 stations of the forward Muon system will be equipped with improved Resistive Plate Chambers (iRPC) having, compared to the present RPC system, a different design and geometry and 2D strip readout. This advanced iRPC geometry configuration allows the rate capability to improve and hence survive the harsh background conditions during the HL-LHC phase. Several iRPC demonstrator chambers were installed in CMS during the recently completed 2nd Long Shutdown to study the detector behaviour under real LHC conditions. This paper summarizes the iRPC project and its schedule, including the status of the iRPC production sites, details of the chamber quality control procedures and results of the commissioning of the demonstrator chambers.

In view of the High Luminosity upgrade of the CERN LHC, the forward CMS Muon spectrometer will be extended with two new stations of improved Resistive Plate Chambers (iRPC) covering the pseudorapidity range from 1.8 to 2.4. Compared to the present RPC system, the gap thickness is reduced to lower the avalanche charge, and an innovative 2D strip readout geometry is proposed. These improvements will allow iRPC detector to cope with higher background rates. A new Front-End-Board (FEB) is designed to readout iRPC signals with a threshold as low as 30 fC and an integrated Time Digital Converter with a resolution of 30 ps. In addition, the communication bandwidth is significantly increased by using optical fibers. The history, final design, certification, and calibration of this FEB are presented.

The problems of registration of dynamic processes of interaction between rolling stock and railway tracks have been reviewed in this work. The ideas of a newly developed technology for continuous registration of forces between wheel and rail by measuring stresses on four concentric circles located on the inner side of the wheel disk have been presented in it. Also, theoretically, using the finite element method, the locations for the installation of strain gauges on the inner side of the wheel disk and the method of processing the received signals were determined, allowing continuous registration of vertical and lateral forces in contact between wheel and rail by measuring the stresses on the wheel disk and determining the values of these forces with sufficient accuracy when conducting tests on the impact on the track, as well as when monitoring the technical condition of the railway track using a strain gauge wheelset and navigation aids.

The CMS experiment, located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN, has a redundant muon system composed by three different gaseous detector technologies: Cathode Strip Chambers (in the forward regions), Drift Tubes (in the central region), and Resistive Plate Chambers (both its central and forward regions). All three are used for muon reconstruction and triggering. The CMS RPC system confers robustness and redundancy to the muon trigger. The RPC system operation in the challenging background and pileup conditions of the LHC environment is presented. The RPC system provides information to all muon track finders and thus contributing to both muon trigger and reconstruction. The summary of the detector performance results obtained with proton-proton collision at √s = 13 TeV during 2016 and 2017 data taking have been presented. The stability of the system is presented in terms of efficiency and cluster size vs time and increasing instantaneous luminosity. Data-driven predictions about the expected performance during High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) stage have been reported.

Abstract A new generation of resistive plate chambers, capable of withstanding high particle fluxes (up to 2000 Hz · cm -2 ) and instrumented with precise timing readout electronics is proposed to equip two of the four high pseudorapidity stations of the CMS muon system. Double-gap RPC detectors, with each gap made of two 1.4 mm High Pressure Laminate electrodes and separated by a gas gap of the same thickness, are proposed. The new layout reduces the amount of the avalanche charge produced by the passage of a charged particle through the detector. This improves the RPC rate capability by reducing the needed time to collect this charge. To keep the RPC efficiency high, a sensitive, low-noise and high time resolution front-end electronics is needed to cope with the lower charge signal of the new RPC. An ASIC called PETIROC that has all these characteristics has been selected to read out the strips of new chambers. Thin (0.6 mm) printed circuit board, 160 cm long, equipped with pickup strips of 0.75 cm average pitch, will be inserted between the two new RPC's gaps. The strips will be read out from both ends, and the arrival time difference of the two ends will be used to determine the hit position along the strip. Results from the improved RPC equipped with the new readout system and exposed to cosmic muons in the high irradiation environment at CERN GIF++ facility are presented in this work.

During Phase-2 of the LHC, known as the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the accelerator will increase its instantaneous luminosity to 5 × 1034 cm−2 s−1, delivering an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb−1 over 10 years of operation starting from 2027. In view of the HL-LHC, the CMS muon system will be upgraded to sustain efficient muon triggering and reconstruction performance. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) serve as dedicated detectors for muon triggering due to their excellent timing resolution, and will extend the acceptance up to pseudorapidity values of |η|=2.4. Before Long Shutdown 3 (LS3), the RE3/1 and RE4/1 stations of the endcap will be equipped with new improved Resistive Plate Chambers (iRPCs) having different design and geometry than the present RPC system. The iRPC geometry configuration improves the detector's rate capability and its ability to survive the harsh background conditions of the HL-LHC . Also, new electronics with excellent timing performances (time resolution of less than 150 ps) are developed to read out the RPC detectors from both sides of the strips to allow for good spatial resolution along them. The performance of the iRPC has been studied with gamma radiation at the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) at CERN. Ongoing longevity studies will help to certify the iRPCs for the HL-LHC running period. The main detector parameters such as the current, rate and resistivity are regularly monitored as a function of the integrated charge. Preliminary results of the detector performance will be presented.

Four double-gap CMS resistive plate chambers are being tested at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility to determine the performance and aging effects at the expected conditions of the High Luminosity-Large Hadron Collider. Results up to an integrated charge of 290 millicoulomb/cm2 are reported.

Abstract During the upcoming High Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), the integrated luminosity of the accelerator will increase to 3000 fb −1 . The expected experimental conditions in that period in terms of background rates, event pileup, and the probable aging of the current detectors present a challenge for all the existing experiments at the LHC, including the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. To ensure a highly performing muon system for this period, several upgrades of the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) system of the CMS are currently being implemented. These include the replacement of the readout system for the present system, and the installation of two new RPC stations with improved chamber and front-end electronics designs. The current overall status of this CMS RPC upgrade project is presented.

With the increase of the LHC luminosity foreseen in the coming years, many detectors currently used in the different LHC experiments will be dramatically impacted and some need to be replaced or upgraded. The new ones should be capable to provide time information to reduce the data ambiguity due to the expected high pileup. We propose to equip CMS high |η| muon chambers with pairs of single gap RPC detectors read out by long pickup strips PCB. The precise time measurement (0<15 ps) of the signal induced by particles crossing the detector on both ends of each strip will give an accurate measurement of the position of the incoming particle along the strip. The absolute time measurement, determined by RPC signal (around 1.5 ns) will also reduce the data ambiguity due to the highly expected pileup and help to identify Heavy Stable Charged Particles (HSCP). The development of a specific electronic chain (analog front-end ASIC, time-to-digital converter stage and printed circuit board design) and the corresponding first results on prototype chambers are presented.

The high luminosity expected from the HL-LHC will be a challenge for the CMS detector. The increased rate of particles coming from the collisions and the radioactivity induced in the detector material could cause significant damage and result in a progressive degradation of its performance. Simulation studies are very useful in these scenarios as they allow one to study the radiation environment and the impact on detector performance. Results are presented for CMS RPC stations considering the operating conditions expected at the HL-LHC.

The CMS experiment recorded 177.75 /fb of proton-proton collision data during the RUN-1 and RUN-2 data taking period. Successful data taking at increasing instantaneous luminosities with the evolving detector configuration was a big achievement of the collaboration. The CMS RPC system provided redundant information for the robust muon triggering, reconstruction, and identification. To ensure stable data taking, the CMS RPC collaboration has performed detector operation, calibration, and performance studies. Various software and related tools are developed and maintained accordingly. In this paper, the overall performance of the CMS RPC system and experiences of the data taking during the RUN-2 period are summarised.

This paper focuses on examination of the CFD simulated impact of irregularly heated surface on the flow recirculation and pollutant distributions in a tree-free idealised street canyon. For that purpose, the buoyantBoussinesqPimpleFoam solver of the CFD model OpenFOAM was tested against the CODASC wind tunnel database (http://www.windforschung.de/CODASC.htm). The wind tunnel experiments were run only under neutral atmospheric stratification conditions, so in order to be examined the impact of the heating on the flow, OpenFOAM was set for two general cases. In the first one, the model was run with initial conditions which correspond to the physical conditions in the wind tunnel. The simulated data is then compared to that measured in the tunnel. For the second case, an additional boundary condition for the air temperature near the surface of the street canyon was set. An intercomparison of the modelled data from both cases is then made.

During Run-3, the LHC is preparing to deliver instantaneous luminosity in the range from 5 × 1034 cm−2 s−1 to 7.5 × 1034 cm−2 s−1. To ensure stable data taking, providing redundant information for robust muon triggering, reconstruction and identification, the CMS RPC collaboration has used the opportunity given by the LHC long shutdown 2 (LS2), to perform a series of maintenance and preparation activities for the new data taking period. The overall performance of the RPC system after the LS2 commissioning period and the activities in preparation for future data taking will be presented.

During Run2 the high instantaneous luminosity, up to 2.21034cm−2s−1, lead to a substantial hit rate in the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment’s muon chambers due to multiple background sources to physics processes sought for at LHC. In this article we will describe the analysis method devised to measure and identify the contributions to such background in the Resistive Plate Chambers. Thorough understanding of the background rates provides the base for the upgrade of the muon detectors for the High-Luminosity LHC.

The present Compact Muon Solenoid Resistive Plate Chambers system has been worked efficiently during Run I and Run II of data taking period (Shah et al., 2020) [1]. In the coming years of operation with the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), the expected rate and integrated charge are expected to be about 600 Hz/cm2 and 840 mC/cm2, respectively (including a safety factor of three). Therefore, the HL-LHC phase will be a challenge for the RPC system since the expected operating conditions are much harsher than those for which the detectors have been designed, and could introduce non-recoverable aging effects which can alter the detector properties. A longevity test has been started at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility to estimate the impact of HL-LHC conditions on the RPC detector performance in order to determine whether the RPC system will survive the harsher background conditions expected at HL-LHC. The latest results of the irradiation test will be presented.

For the High Luminosity (HL-LHC) upgrade an upgrade of the CMS detector is foreseen. One of the main projects is the development of the improved Resistive Plate Chamber (iRPC) detectors that will be installed in the forward region of CMS. To validate the performance of the new detector gaps with HL-LHC radiation levels, experimental tests have been conducted at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++). One chamber equipped with electronics is studied and its parameters are monitored as a function of the accumulated charge.

The Snowmass report on rare processes and precision measurements recommended Mu2e-II and a next generation muon facility at Fermilab (Advanced Muon Facility) as priorities for the frontier. The Workshop on a future muon program at FNAL was held in March 2023 to discuss design studies for Mu2e-II, organizing efforts for the next generation muon facility, and identify synergies with other efforts (e.g., muon collider). Topics included high-power targetry, status of R&D for Mu2e-II, development of compressor rings, FFA and concepts for muon experiments (conversion, decays, muonium and other opportunities) at AMF. This document summarizes the workshop discussions with a focus on future R&D tasks needed to realize these concepts.

Abstract The expected radiation background in the CMS RPC system has been studied using the MC prediction with the CMS FLUKA simulation of the detector and the cavern. The MC geometry used in the analysis describes very accurately the present RPC system but still does not include the complete description of the RPC upgrade region with pseudorapidity 1.9 &lt; |η| &lt; 2.4. Present results will be updated with the final geometry description, once it is available. The radiation background has been studied in terms of expected particle rates, absorbed dose and fluence. Two High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) scenarios have been investigated — after collecting 3000 and 4000 fb -1 . Estimations with safety factor of 3 have been considered, as well.

The CMS experiment implements a two-level triggering system composed of Level-1, instrumented by custom-design hardware boards, and a software High Level Trigger. To cope with the more challenging luminosity conditions, a new Level-1 architecture has been deployed during run II. This new architecture exploits in a better way the redundancy and complementarity of the three muon subsystems: Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC), Drift Tubes (DT) and Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC). The role of each subsystem in the Level-1 Muon Trigger is described here, highlighting the contribution from the RPC system. Challenges brought by the HL-LHC environment and new possibilities coming from detector and trigger upgrades are also discussed.

The high pseudorapidity ($\eta$) region of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) muon system is covered by Cathode Strip Chambers only and lacks redundant coverage despite the fact that it is a challenging region for muons in terms of backgrounds and momentum resolution. During the annual Year-End Technical Stops 2022 & 2023, two new layers of improved Resistive Plate Chambers (iRPC) will be added, RE3/1 & RE4/1, which will completely cover the region of $1.8 < |\eta| < 2.4$ in the endcap. Thus, the additional new chambers will lead to increase efficiency for both trigger and offline reconstruction in the difficult region where the background is the highest and the magnetic field is the lowest within the muon system. The extended RPC system will improve the performance and the robustness of the muon trigger. The final design of iRPC chambers and the concept to integrate and install them in the CMS muon system have been finalized. In this report, the main results demonstrating the implementation and installation of the new iRPC detectors in the CMS muon system at high $|\eta|$ region will be presented.

Abstract The present RPC Link System has been servicing as one of the CMS subsystems since installation in 2008. Although the current Link System has been functioning well for the past 13 years, the aging of its electronic components and lack of radiation hard ASICs could present problems for future operations. Additionally, the needs to have a more robust control interface against electromagnetic interference, to improve the trigger performance with finer time granularity and to incorporate a higher bandwidth transmission lines led the idea of upgrading the Link System for the HL-LHC. This paper reviews the features of the recently developed prototype of the new Link System.

Abstract The paper describes the matching of tracks in a nuclear emulsion detector interleaved with scintillating optical fiber (SciFi) planes. This technology is planned to be used in the Scattering and Neutrino Detector (SND) of the new experiment SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) being developed in CERN. The experiment SHiP aimed on the search of very weakly interacting particles in the poorly studied region of the particle masses below 10 GeV will be installed in a beam dump facility at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The SND detector is aimed to provide temporal and spatial analysis of the particle showers and isolated tracks to separate and reconstruct events in nuclear emulsion. SND design includes emulsion cloud chamber (ECC) and SciFi tracker. Motivation for using the combination of ECC and SciFi is to obtain the “real-time” information for the prompt and high-accuracy event analysis. The algorithm presented in the article provides a track matching accuracy not less than 50 μm with an efficiency of (89±8)%.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at European Organization for Nuclear Research is planned to be upgraded to the high luminosity LHC. Increasing the luminosity makes muon triggering reliable and offline reconstruction very challenging. To enhance the redundancy of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Muon system and resolve the ambiguity of track reconstruction in the forward region, an improved Resistive Plate Chamber (iRPC) with excellent time resolution will be installed in the Phase-2 CMS upgrade. The iRPC will be equipped with Front-End Electronics (FEE), which can perform high-precision time measurements of signals from both ends of the strip. New Back-End Electronics (BEE) need to be researched and developed to provide sophisticated functionalities such as interacting with FEE with shared links for fast, slow control (SC) and data, in addition to trigger primitives (TPs) generation and data acquisition (DAQ). The BEE prototype uses a homemade hardware board compatible with the MTCA standard, the back-end board (BEB). BEE interacts with FEE via a bidirectional 4.8 Gbps optical paired-link that integrates clock, data, and control information. The clock and fast/slow control commands are distributed from BEB to the FEE via the downlink. The uplink is used for BEB to receive the time information of the iRPC’s fired strips and the responses to the fast/slow control commands. To have a pipelined detector data for cluster finding operation, recover (DeMux) the time relationship of which is changed due to the transmission protocol for the continuous incoming MUXed data from FEE. Then at each bunch crossing (BX), clustering fired strips that satisfy time and spatial constraints to generate TPs. Both incoming raw MUXed detector data and TPs in a time window and latency based on the trigger signal are read out to the DAQ system. Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) of SiTCP and commercial 10-GbE are used as link standards for SC and DAQ, respectively, for the BEB to interact with the server. The joint test results of the BEB with iRPC and Front-End Board (FEB) show a Bit Error Rate of the transmission links less than $$1\times {10^{-16}}$$ , a time resolution of the FEB Time-to-Digital Converter of 16 ps, and the resolution of the time difference between both ends of 160 ps which corresponding a spatial resolution of the iRPC of approximately 1.5 cm. Test results showed the correctness and stable running of the BEB prototype, of which the functionalities fulfill the iRPC requirements.

An intense source of 37Ar was produced by the (n, α) reaction on 40Ca by irradiating calcium oxide in the fast neutron breeder reactor at Zarechny, Russia. The 37Ar was released from the solid target, sealed into a small source, and was used to irradiate 13 tonnes of gallium metal in the Russian-American gallium solar neutrino experiment SAGE. The initial source strength was 409 ± 2 kCi. The measured production rate of 71Ge on gallium metal was 11.0+1.0−0.9 (stat) ± 0.6 (syst.) atoms per day, which is 0.79+0.09−0.10 of the theoretically calculated production rate.

Conceptual design studies are underway for both muon colliders and high-current non-colliding muon storage rings that have the potential to become the first true neutrino factories. Muon decays in long straight sections of the storage rings would produce uniquely intense and precisely characterized two-component neutrino beams--muon neutrinos plus electron antineutrinos from negative muon decays and electron neutrinos plus muon antineutrinos from positive muons. This article presents a long-term overview of the prospects for these facilities to greatly extend the capabilities for accelerator-based neutrino physics studies for both high rate and long baseline neutrino experiments. As the first major physics topic, recent experimental results involving neutrino oscillations have motivated a vigorous design effort towards dedicated neutrino factories that would store muon beams of energies 50 GeV or below. These facilities hold the promise of neutrino oscillation experiments with baselines up to intercontinental distances and utilizing well understood beams that contain, for the first time, a substantial component of multi-GeV electron-flavored neutrinos. In deference to the active and fast-moving nature of neutrino oscillation studies, the discussion of long baseline physics at neutrino factories has been limited to a concise general overview of the relevant theory, detector technologies, beam properties, experimental goals and potential physics capabilities. The remainder of the article is devoted to the complementary high rate neutrino experiments that would study neutrino-nucleon and neutrino-electron scattering and would be performed at high performance detectors placed as close as is practical to the neutrino production straight section of muon storage rings in order to exploit beams with transverse dimensions as small as a few tens of centimeters.

In the next decades, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will run at very high luminosity (HL-LHC) 5×1034 cm−2s−1, factor five more than the nominal LHC luminosity. During this period the CMS RPC system will be subjected to high background rates which could affect the performance by inducing aging effects. A dedicated longevity program to qualify the present RPC system for the HL-LHC running period is ongoing. At the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) four RPC detectors, from the spare production, are exposed to an intense gamma radiation for a dose equivalent to the one expected at the HL-LHC . The main detector parameters are under monitoring as a function of the integrated charge and the performance is studied with a muon beam. Preliminary results of the study after having collected ≈ 34% of the expected integrated charge will be presented.

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are used for muon triggers in the CMS experiment. To calibrate the high voltage working-points (WP) and identify degraded detectors due to radiation or chemical damage, a high voltage scan has been performed using 2017 data from pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. In this paper, we present the calibration method and the latest results obtained for the 2017 data. A comparison with all scans taken since 2011 is considered to investigate the stability of the detector performance in time.

The second LHC long shutdown period (LS2) is an important opportunity for the CMS Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) to complete their consolidation and upgrade projects. The consolidation includes detector maintenance for gas tightness, HV (high voltage), LV (low voltage) and slow control operation. All services for the RPC Phase-2 upgrade: improved RPC in stations RE3/1 and RE4/1, were anticipated for installation to LS2. This paper summarises the RPC system maintenance and upgrade activities.

The CMS experiment has 1054 RPCs in its muon system. Monitoring their currents is the first essential step towards maintaining the stability of the CMS RPC detector performance. The current depends on several parameters such as applied voltage, luminosity, environmental conditions, etc. Knowing the influence of these parameters on the RPC current is essential for the correct interpretation of its instabilities as they can be caused either by changes in external conditions or by malfunctioning of the detector in the ideal case. We propose a Machine Learning(ML) based approach to be used for monitoring the CMS RPC currents. The approach is crucial for the development of an automated monitoring system capable of warning for possible hardware problems at a very early stage, which will contribute further to the stable operation of the CMS RPC detector.

The Muon Upgrade Phase II of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) aims to guarantee the optimal conditions of the present system and extend the η coverage to ensure a reliable system for the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) period. The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) system will upgrade the off-detector electronics (called link system) of the chambers currently installed chambers and place improved RPCs (iRPCs) to cover the high pseudo−rapidity region, a challenging region for muon reconstruction in terms of background and momentum resolution. In order to find the best option for the iRPCs, an R&D program for new detectors was performed and real size prototypes have been tested in the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) at CERN. The results indicated that the technology suitable for the high background conditions is based on High Pressure Laminate (HPL) double-gap RPC. The RPC Upgrade Phase II program is planned to be ready after the Long Shutdown 3 (LS3).

Abstract As part of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment Phase-II upgrade program, new resistive plate chambers will be installed in the region at low angle with respect to the beam collision axis, in order to improve the detection of muons with a low transverse momentum. High background conditions are expected in this region during the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider, therefore an improved-RPC design has been proposed with a new front-end electronics to sustain a higher particle rate capability and better time resolution. A new technology is used in the front-end electronics resulting in low achievable signal detection of 1–20 fC. Crucial in the design of the improved-RPC is the capability of a two-dimensional readout in order to improve the spatial resolution, mainly motivated by trigger requirements. In this work, the first performance results towards this two-dimensional readout are presented, based on data taken on a real-size prototype chamber with two embedded readout planes with orthogonal strips.

We have developed new SKL hardware systems for wireline and memory logging in vertical, deviated or horizontal oil-and-gas wells drilled with fresh and biopolymer muds. Employing the SKL systems is accompanied by the development of algorithms and software for numerical interpretation of the electrical and electromagnetic soundings data. The interpretation is based on the integration of the electromagnetic field characteristics measured with the SKL systems. The high detail of investigation and the state-of-art software allow to reliably reconstruct spatial distribution of electrical resistivity in complex terrigenous formations.

This contribution discusses the domestic competition law, policy, and practice towards the grocery retail sector in Bulgaria. The report reflects the law and enforcement practice in existence as of the end of June 2014.

The article deals with the problems in constructing a protection system of executable code. The techniques of breaking the integrity of executable code and ways to eliminate them are described. The adoption of virtual machine technology in the context of executable code protection from analysis is considered. The substantiation of the application of virtual machines as the best way to oppose the analysis of executable code is made. The protection of executable code by transferring the protected code in a virtual execution environment is considered. An efficient implementation of the method is proposed.

The principal statutory instrument governing competition law in Bulgaria is the Protection of Competition Act (hereinafter PCA). The PCA comprises the substantive rules on restrictive horizontal and vertical agreements, abuse of dominance and monopoly, merger control, sector enquiries, compliance review of legislation and administrative acts, and unfair competition. In other words, the PCA regulates both restraints of competition (Chapters III and IV) and unfair competition (Chapter VII).

The complex is designed for surveying the open boreholes of the vertical and directional wells, being drilled for oil and gas.TThe complex comprises the telemetry module connected directly to the wireline, and the series of measuring modules that provide acquisition using electric, electromagnetic, radiation, and other methods.The command and data transfer between the telemetry module and the measuring modules is performed through the internal by-pass bus.

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processing of aluminum matrix composites (AMC) with nanodiamond and graphene additives was investigated. AlSi10Mg powder was selected as matrix material while different production techniques for the production of AMC were utilized. AMC with 0.5 wt% nanodiamonds addition was prepared by mechanical mixing, while AMC with 0.5 wt% of graphene was prepared by electrochemical deposition. Initial powders for LPBF were thoroughly characterized and optimal LPBF parameters were found based on the relative density analysis and optical microscopy. Processing windows of both AMCs moved towards lower energy density due to the increased total absorptivity of the powders. Raman spectroscopy results and SEM studies of samples after LPBF demonstrated the absence of nano-diamond in the structure after processing which is explained by graphitization of the nanodiamond particles during laser melting. In case of AMC with graphene additives, graphene particles remained in the structure with partial in situ formation of Al4C3, along with a noticeable strengthening effect, which increased material’s microhardness by more than 40% compared to the initial AlSi10Mg alloy. Strengthening is explained by the presence of a graphene network across the solidified melt-pool promoting the Orowan strengthening mechanism.

Several theoretical models inspired by the idea of supersymmetry (SUSY) accommodate the possibility of Heavy Stable Charged Particles (HSCPs). The Phase II upgrade of the CMS-RPC system will allow the trigger and identification of this kind of particles exploiting the Time-of-Flight Technique with the improved time resolution that a new Data Acquisition System (DAQ) system will provide (∼2 ns). Moreover, new Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) detector chambers will be installed to extend the acceptance coverage up to |η|<2.4 with similar time resolution and better spatial resolution. We present a trigger strategy to detect HSCPs with the RPC detectors. Its performance is studied with Monte Carlo simulations and the expected results with the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) data are shown.

The High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) phase is designed to increase by an order of magnitude the amount of data to be collected by the LHC experiments. The foreseen gradual increase of the instantaneous luminosity of up to more than twice its nominal value of $10\times10^{34}\ {\rm cm}^{-1}{\rm s}^{-2}$ during Phase I and Phase II of the LHC running, presents special challenges for the experiments. The region with high pseudo rapidity ($\eta$) region of the forward muon spectrometer ($2.4 > |\eta| > 1.9$) is not equipped with RPC stations. The increase of the expected particles rate up to 2 kHz cm$^{-1}$ ( including a safety factor 3 ) motivates the installation of RPC chambers to guarantee redundancy with the CSC chambers already present. The current CMS RPC technology cannot sustain the expected background level. A new generation of Glass-RPC (GRPC) using low-resistivity glass was proposed to equip the two most far away of the four high $\eta$ muon stations of CMS. In their single-gap version they can stand rates of few kHz cm$^{-1}$. Their time precision of about 1 ns can allow to reduce the noise contribution leading to an improvement of the trigger rate. The proposed design for large size chambers is examined and some preliminary results obtained during beam tests at Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) and Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN are shown. They were performed to validate the capability of such detectors to support high irradiation environment with limited consequence on their efficiency.

Bulgaria is seen by many as having a favourable foreign investment regime that includes government incentives for new ventures and low or flat corporate and income taxes. However, investors also note the existence of problems with the rule of law, slow judicial processes and unpredictability due to frequent legislative changes. This chapter outlines the main national rules on investment promotion and protection, as well as the most frequently used dispute resolution procedures at domestic and international level. An overview of arbitration cases shows how lucrative investments may fail due to misunderstanding or disregard of local social phenomena that cause swift and often unpredictable political decisions, switching the behaviour of regulatory agencies overnight. Due to the small number of published international arbitration awards, it is not possible to make a comprehensive assessment of the Bulgarian involvement in these procedures. The results so far indicate that the State was fairly successful and, therefore, the experience largely positive. At the same time, there is a growing discontent among the general public about the constantly rising number of cases launched against Bulgaria before the ICSID. The situation poses a dilemma before the national governments: how to balance the goal of attracting international capital, while at the same time preserve their political manoeuvring space.

Resistive Plate Chambers have a very important role for muon triggering both in the barrel and in the endcap regions of the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) . In order to optimize their performance, it is of primary importance to tune the electronic threshold of the front-end boards reading the signals from these detectors. In this paper we present the results of a study aimed to evaluate the effects on the RPC efficiency, cluster size and detector intrinsic noise rate, of variations of the electronics threshold voltage.