[en] In this report we review the latest results on heavy quark physics reached at HERA by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations. We start from the open charm measurements performed both in photoproduction and in deep inelastic scattering regime following with bound charm physics. In this sector the main production channels expected at HERA, namely the inelastic, the elastic and the proton dissociative, have been identified and measured. Last but not least we will report on the first Υ measurement in the photoproduction regime ever performed

[en] In this report we review the latest results on heavy quark physics reached at HERA by the H1 and ZEUS collaborations. We start from the open charm measurements performed both in photoproduction and in deep inelastic scattering regime following with bound charm physics. In this sector the main production channels expected at HERA, namely the inelastic, the elastic and the proton dissociative, have been identified and measured. Last but not least we report on the first Υ measurement in the photoproduction regime ever performed. (orig.)

[en] Updated measurements of inelastic J/ψ differential cross-sections are compared to the latest theoretical predictions. For the first time, measurements in the low z region are presented. The ψ' to J/ψ inelastic cross section ratio is presented and compared to naive QCD expectations. Elastic Γ measurements are also presented. (author)

[en] The OPERA spectrometer is built from two large dipoles instrumented with around 1000 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), covering a surface of about 3350 m², and digitally read out by means of almost 27000 strips. The huge number of channels, the inaccessibility of many parts of the detector and the wide uncertainty about the signal amplitude pushed to study a low cost, high sensitivity discriminator, and a very carefully designed layout for the read out system. Here we will present a novel application of LVDS line receiver as discriminator, showing that it exceeds the requirements of a large RPC based detector and offers the intrinsic advantages of a mature technology in terms of costs, reliability and integration scale. We will also present the layout of the read out system showing as the sensitivity and the noise immunity were preserved in a system where the front end electronics is far away from the detector.

[en] A muon collider represents the ideal machine to reach very high center-of-mass energies and luminosities by colliding elementary particles. This is the result of the low level of beamstrahlung and synchrotron radiation compared to linear or circular electron-positron colliders. In contrast with other lepton machines, the design of a detector for a multi-TeV muon collider requires detailed knowledge of the interaction region due to the significant backgrounds created by muon beam decays in the collider ring. The physics reach can be properly evaluated only when the detector performance in such an environment is determined. In this work, the backgrounds generated by muon beams of $750$ GeV are characterized and the performance of the tracking system and the calorimeter detector is illustrated. Solutions to minimize the effect of the beam-induced backgrounds are discussed and applied to obtain track and jet reconstruction performance. The ${\mathrm{\mu <!--\; ??\; -->}}^{+}{\mathrm{\mu <!--\; ??\; -->}}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->}\to <!--\; ???\; -->H\mathrm{\nu <!--\; ??\; -->}\stackrel{¯<!--\; ??\; -->}{\mathrm{\nu <!--\; ??\; -->}}\to <!--\; ???\; -->b\stackrel{¯<!--\; ??\; -->}{b}\mathrm{\nu <!--\; ??\; -->}\stackrel{¯<!--\; ??\; -->}{\mathrm{\nu <!--\; ??\; -->}}$ process is fully simulated and reconstructed to demonstrate that physics measurements are possible in this harsh environment. The measurement precision for the Higgs boson coupling to $b\stackrel{¯<!--\; ??\; -->}{b}$ is evaluated for $\sqrt{s}=1.5$, 3, and 10 TeV and compared to other proposed machines.

[en] The muon collider represents one of the most promising solutions for a future machine exploring the high energy frontier, but several challenges due to the 2.2 μsec muon lifetime at rest have to be carefully considered. The LEMMA project is investigating the possibility of producing low emittance muon/antimuon pairs from the e${}^{+}$e${}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->}$ annihilation process at threshold energy, resulting in small transverse emittance beams without any additional beam cooling. However most of the measurements available are performed at higher $\sqrt{s}$ values. It is therefore necessary to measure muons production in positron annihilation at threshold energy and compare the experimental results with the predictions in this specific energy regime. Apart from being a topic of physical interest by itself, these near to threshold measurements can have a sizeable impact on the estimation of the ultimate luminosity achievable in a muon collider with the LEMMA injection scheme.

[en] OPERA is a dedicated experiment for the observation of ν_μ into ν_τ oscillations through τ appearance using a 730 km long baseline ν_μ beam from CERN to the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The detector is equipped with two spectrometers for muon identification and charm background rejection. Bakelite RPCs are used as inner trackers inside the iron magnet of the spectrometers. The experiment has already performed two short runs in 2006 and 2007. Results about the RPC performances are presented.

[en] OPERA is an underground experiment to search for ν_τ appearance from a pure ν_μ beam produced at CERN. To flag the events due to the neutrino interactions with the rock surrounding the OPERA detector, a large VETO system, based on the use of Glass Resistive Plate Chambers (GRPCs) has been realized. We describe the VETO system, the GRPCs, the tests performed on the chambers before their installation. Presently, the VETO is in phase of commissioning. The first results of its underground operation are also presented.

[en] The OPERA experiment is designed to study the ν_μ→ν_τ oscillation observing the ν_τ appearance in a pure ν_μ beam over a base line of 732 km from CERN to Gran Sasso Laboratory. The apparatus consists of a lead/emulsion-film target complemented by electronic detectors and muon spectrometers for muon charge and momentum measurements. The tracking inside the magnets is provide by Bakelite RPC chambers in a large scale application. The commissioning of the RPC system ended in August 2006. The paper present the layout of the RPC system and its performances.

[en] OPERA is an experiment dedicated to the observation of ν_μ into ν_τ oscillations through τ appearance exploiting the CNGS beam. The experiment is composed by two identical super-modules, each with a target section (made of emulsion/lead bricks alternated with a scintillator Target Tracker) and a muon spectrometer (instrumented with bakelite RPCs and drift tubes). The RPCs are operated in streamer mode with the gas mixture Ar/C₂H₂F₄/isoC₄H₁₀/SF₆=75.4/20/4/0.6. The present performances of the RPC detectors are presented and the aging status of the system after four years of operation is described. The sample of events induced by the CNGS neutrino beam as well as a large sample of cosmic rays have also been used to study general properties of streamer-operated RPCs.