[en] Full text: The study of relativistic heavy ion interactions is motivated by its potential to reveal the creation of a new state of hadronic matter, the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). The existence of QGP has been postulated to occur at very high energy densities, in excess of 3GeV.fm^-3. Such energy densities are believed to be achievable in very central, head-on collisions of heavy ions. For this reason, the concept of the 'centrality' of a collision is crucially important for the pre-selection, classification and analysis of event data. However, since the impact parameter of a collision is not directly measurable, its accurate estimation has to rely on other experimentally observable event variables and features. The complexity and the fluctuations of this process can make this a very difficult task. In this work we investigate the capabilities and limitations of impact parameter estimation by means of various neural network architectures and algorithms. The performance of the neural network classifiers is compared with traditional methods of impact parameter estimation

[en] The telescope measures the charge, velocity and trajectory of any particle passing through it. For slowing particles the mass can also be estimated. The distinguishing feature of this telescope, as opposed to many others, is that the readout is photographic. This results in the apparatus being sensitive, not only to unassociated particles, but also to events where there is a delay of more than 20 n sec between the shower front and the particle of interest. A loose triggering system searches for events which have one or more of the following characteristics:- (a) fractional charge, (b) low β, (c) delay behind the shower front. Results are presented summarising the first two years of operation and their significance will be discussed. (author)

[en] We report the results of an experiment on search for decays of charmed particles. Type BR-2 cryogenically sensitive nuclear emulsion placed in the 15-foot bubble chamber was exposed to a beam of muon neutrinos with a broad energy spectrum in the FNAL accelerator. We give an analysis of five recorded decays of short-lived particles, four of which are interpreted as decays of the charmed Λ⁺/sub c/ baryon and D⁺, D⁰, and D⁰ mesons

[en] Full text: The EMU01 Collaboration has examined lead-lead collisions at 158GeV/nucleon at CERN using emulsion chambers and stacks. The study of the behaviour of hadronic matter under very high energy density conditions may lead to the observation of a deconfinement phase transitions of the hadronic matter into a new state, the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). One of the postulated signatures of QGP creation is the nonstatistical fluctuations of particle production as revealed by the clustering of hadrons. The existence of such isolated groups of hadrons, or 'spikes' in either azimuthal or pseudorapidity distributions have been observed in various experiments. It has been proposed that these spikes may be due to Cherenkov radiation of gluons propagating through the plasma. However, the non-statistical nature of these spikes needs to be confirmed - as their appearance may also be due to stochastic fluctuations in the hadronization process. As there have recently been results from CERN experiment NA50 suggesting QGP production, the EMU01 data have been examined to search for signs of self similarity expected to result from the phase transition from QGP to ordinary matter. Techniques such as factorial moments, intermittency and erraticity analysis have been employed

[en] The University of Sydney is now operating a telescope in a search for unusual particles amongst cosmic ray air showers. The apparatus consists of eight plastic scintillators, cerenkov counters and geiger counter trays for trajectory location. Readout is onto a fast oscilloscope and data is acquired both from film and electronics. The telescope operates in conjunction with a local extensive air shower array, defining the time of arrival of the associated air shower front (when it exists). (orig./WL)

[en] The cumulative effect in neutrino interactions in the 10-200 GeV energy range with nuclear photoemulsion is investigated. The medium cumulative proton yield drop at the neutrino energy exceeding 50 GeV (four momentum squared more than 15 (GeV/c²)², energy transfer more than 20 GeV) is observed for the first time

[en] Full text: The observation of large Charge-Parity, CP, symmetry violation in the decay of B mesons has recently been reported by the Belle collaboration. Belle is an international collaboration of 54 institutes from 13 countries. The Belle experiment studies the decay of B B meson pairs produced at the KEKB B factory in Tsukuba, Japan. This presentation will include a survey of recent measurements by Belle, including the latest measurement of the CP violation parameter, sin2φ₁. The Australian contribution to the construction and maintenance of the Belle detector will also be presented - including the assembly of detector modules for the recent upgrade of the Belle Silicon Vertex Detector

[en] Results are presented on the experimental search for decays of charmed particles. A cryogenic-sensitive nuclear emulsion of the type BR-2, placed inside the 15-ft bubble chamber was exposed to the wide-energy-range neutrino beam at the FNAL accelerator. The analysis of five detected decays of short-lived particles is presented, among which four events are interpreted as decays of charmed particles: Λ_c⁺ baryon, D⁺, D⁰, D⁰ mesons

[en] Comparative analysis results of the secondary hadrons inclusive characteristics in neutrino interactions with photoemulsion and neon nuclei at the energies of 10-200 GeV are presented. It is shown that the whole complex of data on the multiple production of the secondary particles is satisfactorily described in the frames of the parton-hadron cascade with the mean square of the transverse parton mass μ²=0.08 GeV²

[en] Results of comparative analysis of mean multiplicities of secondary charged particles under neutrino interaction with photoemulsion and neon nuclei are presented. A sharp decrease of mean multiplicity of heavy-ionizing particles under the hadron invariant mass square values W²→40GeV² in ν Em -interactions in contrast to h Em - interactions is observed, Such a decrease has no quantitative description within the framework of parton-hadron cascade model