Recent berkeleylaw_oapdeposits items

How a Right-to-Know Law Shifts Industry away from Chemicals of Concern: The Case of California’s Proposition 65

Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Since enactment of the major federal environmental statutes of the 1970s, U.S. toxics policy has departed from a primary goal of controlling pollution to increasingly focus on information transparency. One of the most prominent right-to-know laws, California's Proposition 65, has been in force since 1986, yet there is scant literature on its systemic impacts. We conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with business leaders representing some of the largest actors in their sectors to investigate Proposition 65's impacts. We found that Proposition 65 prompts changes to consumer product ingredients and improves supply chain transparency. Businesses (re)formulated products for national and even international markets based on this state law, highlighting the leverage of environmental regulations in a large state like California. Information-forcing laws can thus protect public health in ways that transcend the immediate impacts of transparency with the public about product ingredients....

Conflict Resolution in Organizations

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Two meta-theoretical traditions mark research on conflict resolution in organizations: the rationalist tradition, which portrays organizations as goal-directed collectivities and conflict resolution as a threat to efficiency and performance; and the cultural tradition, which portrays organizations as normative collectivities constituted by ongoing social interaction, interpretive dynamics, and institutional environments, and emphasizes the interplay of law and social inequalities in interpersonal and collective organizational conflict resolution. Within these traditions, we distinguish between structural and processual styles of research, noting the empirical methods favored in each tradition, research that blurs the boundaries between the traditions, and vanguard scholarship. Finally, we discuss several potential areas of research that could enhance meaningful intellectual exchange between the traditions.

Culture and Organization Theory

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Culture has become a legitimate concern and part of the basic conceptual toolkit in much of contemporary organization theory. This article historically traces the contested place of culture in organization theory—from acultural rationalist theorizing at the turn of the twentieth century; to the accidental “discovery” of shop floor culture by human relations scholars in the 1920s; to mid-twentieth-century explorations of informal and institutionalized relations in organizations; to present-day approaches that blend concepts from organizational culture frameworks, neoinstitutional analysis, sociology of culture, and social movement theory. This historical backdrop provides a context for raising several research questions relevant to organizational change, boundaries, and deviance. In closing, the author suggests that an analytic nexus between culture, power, and agency is emerging in contemporary organization theory that ultimately may yield a theory of society.

Legal Mobilization in Schools: The Paradox of Rights and Race Among Youth

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, we analyze ethnoracial patterns in youth perceptions and responses to rights violations and advance a new model of legal mobilization that includes formal, quasi-, and extralegal action. Slightly more than half of the 5,461 students in our sample reported past rights violations involving discrimination, harassment, freedom of expression/assembly, and due process violations in disciplinary procedures. Students, regardless of race, are more likely to take extralegal than formal legal actions in response to perceived rights violations. Self-identified African American and Latino/a students are significantly more likely than white and Asian American students to perceive rights violations and are more likely to claim they would take formal legal action in response to hypothetical rights violations. However, when they perceive rights violations, African American and Asian American students are no more likely than whites to take formal legal action and Latino/a students...

COVERT POLITICAL CONFLICT IN ORGANIZATIONS: Challenges from Below

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

▪ Abstract This review considers a class of political activity that has largely been ignored by researchers extending social movement theory into organizations: covert political conflict. Although much of the literature we discuss focuses on contemporary corporations where the bulk of research on covert conflict has occurred, we also explore studies of covert conflict in a range of historical and organizational contexts that fall outside the contemporary work world. As we define it, covert political conflict encompasses four interrelated elements: contestation of institutionalized power and authority, perceptions of collective injury, social occlusion, and officially forbidden forms of dissent. Beyond these elements, covert conflict varies in its material and symbolic forms, collective dimensions, social visibility, and outcomes. We also examine explanatory approaches for covert conflict at the micro, organizational, field, and macro levels of analysis. Finally, we suggest a number...

‘Blawius paratissimus est excudere Niciana omnia’

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

‘Blawius paratissimus est excudere Niciana omnia’

Pax Economica and Its Discontents

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pax Economica and Its Discontents

Regulating the Attention Economy: The Possibilities and Limits of Antitrust

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

With the rapid expansion of digital technologies in recent years, the “attention economy” has attracted the interest of academics and policymakers. At the same time, the rise of the neo-Brandeisian approach to antitrust has caused regulatory bodies to investigate the market power of technology companies. This article analyzes the role of antitrust in the attention economy. First, it defends user autonomy as the standard for antitrust regulation, and second, it argues that facilitating competition must not be the orienting goal for regulating markets of attention that threaten user autonomy. Enhancing competition without restraints on the practices of technology companies within those markets is not only insufficient to address the fundamental harms to user autonomy that results from the attention economy, but may, in practice, exacerbate these harms. To address the problems of the attention economy, regulators must establish meaningful ex ante restrictions on the practices of...

Rational Judicial Review: Constitutions as Power-sharing Agreements, Secession, and the Problem of Dred Scott

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rational Judicial Review: Constitutions as Power-sharing Agreements, Secession, and the Problem of Dred Scott

Advanced Introduction to Corporate Compliance by David Hess (Elgar 2024)

Wed, 8 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Advanced Introduction to Corporate Compliance by David Hess (Elgar 2024)

A Critical Consideration of Two Methodologies of General Jurisprudence

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Whether in the form of conceptual analysis or as grounding reduction, armchair theorising has been the main method of theory construction in general jurisprudence in the English-speaking world. Given important deficiencies in this way of proceeding, empiricist jurisprudence, particularly in the form of reductive naturalism, has emerged as an alternative to armchair theorising and has gained some support within the discipline. In this article, I argue that both of these methodological positions ultimately provide us with partial and thus inadequate explanations of the complex social phenomenon of law. In their failure, however, each position does get something right. I then further argue that to make good of these positions' strengths and simultaneously correct their shortcomings, we need to be able to navigate between the self-understanding of participants of the social practice of law and the viewpoints of social scientists and critical observers.

How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800–1500. By Ivan G. Marcus

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800–1500. By Ivan G. Marcus

Movement Lawyers: The Tension Between Solidarity and Independence

Wed, 2 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Seeking to engage with scholars and activists who call for lawyer solidarity with social movements, this Essay considers professional ethics constraints on what a lawyer can justifiably do on behalf of clients in the name of solidarity with a movement. I consider whether the concept of solidarity, especially solidarity in the face of legal repression, justifies a movement lawyer in using tactics that would otherwise be grounds for legal prosecution, professional discipline, or moral condemnation. Drawing on the long history of legal repression of progressive activism, including repression of progressive lawyers, this Essay proposes a way to think about lawyers aligning themselves with client activism while acknowledging the attraction to the notion that the lawyer's role as counselor or adviser does not permit lawyer involvement in conduct that is immoral, unfair, or of doubtful legality. I test my argument about when lawyers may assist clients in conduct at the bounds of legality...

Is citizenship like feudalism? An egalitarian defense of bounded citizenship

Wed, 2 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is citizenship like feudalism? An egalitarian defense of bounded citizenship

JEWISH LAWYERS AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Wed, 2 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

JEWISH LAWYERS AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Search for tt¯H/A→tt¯tt¯ production in proton–proton collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 3 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search is presented for a heavy scalar (H) or pseudo-scalar (A) predicted by the two-Higgs-doublet models, where the H/A is produced in association with a top-quark pair (tt¯H/A),$$(t\bar{t}H/A),$$ and with the H/A decaying into a tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$ pair. The full LHC Run 2 proton–proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139fb-1.$$139~\text {fb}^{-1}.$$ Events are selected requiring exactly one or two opposite-charge electrons or muons. Data-driven corrections are applied to improve the modelling of the tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$+jets background in the regime with high jet and b-jet multiplicities. These include a novel multi-dimensional kinematic reweighting based on a neural network trained using data and simulations. An H/A-mass parameterised graph neural network is trained to optimise the signal-to-background discrimination. In combination with the previous search performed by the ATLAS Collaboration in the multilepton...

Observation of VVZ production at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 3 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search for the production of three massive vector bosons, V V Z ( V = W , Z ) , in proton–proton collisions at s = 13 TeV is performed using data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1 recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events produced in the leptonic final states W W Z → ℓ ν ℓ ν ℓ ℓ ( ℓ = e , μ ), W Z Z → ℓ ν ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ , Z Z Z → ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ , and the semileptonic final states W W Z → q q ℓ ν ℓ ℓ and W Z Z → ℓ ν q q ℓ ℓ , are analysed. The measured cross section for the p p → V V Z process is 660 − 90 + 93 ( stat. ) − 81 + 88 ( syst. ) fb, and the observed (expected) significance is 6.4 (4.7) standard deviations, representing the observation of VVZ production. In addition, the measured cross section for the p p → W W Z process is 442 ± 94 ( stat. ) − 52 + 60 ( syst. ) fb, and the observed (expected) significance is 4.4 (3.6) standard deviations, representing evidence of WWZ production. The measured cross sections are consistent with the Standard Model...

Reconstruction and identification of pairs of collimated τ-leptons decaying hadronically using s=13 TeV pp collision data with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 3 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper describes an algorithm for reconstructing and identifying a highly collimated hadronically decaying τ$$\tau $$-lepton pair with low transverse momentum. When two τ$$\tau $$-leptons are highly collimated, their visible decay products might overlap, degrading the reconstruction performance for each of the τ$$\tau $$-leptons. A dedicated treatment attempting to tag the τ$$\tau $$-lepton pair as a single object is required. The reconstruction algorithm is based on a large radius jet and its associated two leading subjets, and the identification uses a boosted decision tree to discriminate between signatures from τ+τ-$$\tau ^+\tau ^-$$ systems and those arising from QCD jets. The efficiency of the identification algorithm is measured in Zγ$$Z\gamma $$ events using proton–proton collision data at s=13$$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139fb-1$$139\,\text{ fb}^{-1}$$....

Test of lepton flavour universality in W-boson decays into electrons and τ-leptons using pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 3 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A measurement of the ratio of the branching fractions, Rτ/e = B(W → τν)/B(W → eν), is performed using a sample of W bosons originating from top-quark decays to final states containing τ-leptons or electrons. This measurement uses pp collisions at s$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during Run 2, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The W → τντ (with τ → eνeντ) and W → eνe decays are distinguished using the differences in the impact parameter distributions and transverse momentum spectra of the electrons. The measured ratio of branching fractions Rτ/e = 0.975 ± 0.012 (stat.) ± 0.020 (syst.), is consistent with the Standard Model assumption of lepton flavour universality in W-boson decays.

Search for vector-like leptons coupling to first- and second-generation Standard Model leptons in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 3 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search for pair production of vector-like leptons coupling to first- and second-generation Standard Model leptons is presented. The search is based on a dataset of proton-proton collisions at s$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. Events are categorised depending on the flavour and multiplicity of leptons (electrons or muons), as well as on the scores of a deep neural network targeting particular signal topologies according to the decay modes of the vector-like leptons. In each of the signal regions, the scalar sum of the transverse momentum of the leptons and the missing transverse momentum is analysed. The main background processes are estimated using dedicated control regions in a simultaneous fit with the signal regions to data. No significant excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and limits are set at 95% confidence level on the...

Search for a new scalar decaying into new spin-1 bosons in four-lepton final states with the ATLAS detector

Sat, 10 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search is conducted for a new scalar boson S, with a mass distinct from that of the Higgs boson, decaying promptly into four leptons ( ℓ = e , μ) via an intermediate state containing two on-shell, promptly decaying new spin-1 bosons Z d : S → Z d Z d → 4 ℓ , where the Z d boson has a mass between 15 and 300 GeV, and the S boson has a mass between either 30 and 115 GeV or 130 and 800 GeV. The search uses proton–proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV. No significant excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the production cross-section times branching ratio, σ ( g g → S ) × B ( S → Z d Z d → 4 ℓ ) , as a function of the mass of both particles, m S and m Z d .

Search for the jet-induced diffusion wake in the quark-gluon plasma via measurements of jet-track correlations in photon-jet events in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV with the ATLAS detector

Sat, 10 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper presents a measurement of jet-track correlations in photon-jet events, using 1.72 of data at recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events with energetic photon-jet pairs are selected, where the photon and jet are approximately back-to-back in azimuth. The angular correlation between jets and charged-particle tracks with transverse momentum ( ) in the range 0.5–2.0 GeV in the hemisphere opposite to the jet, , is measured as a function of their relative pseudorapidity difference, . In central collisions, these correlations are predicted to be sensitive to the diffusion wake in the quark-gluon plasma resulting from the lost energy of high- partons traversing the plasma, with a characteristic modification as a function of . The correlations are examined with different selections on the jet-to-photon ratio to select events with different degrees of energy loss. No diffusion wake signal is observed within the current sensitivity and upper limits at 95% confidence...

Observation of tt¯ Production in Pb+Pb Collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Top-quark pair production is observed in lead-lead (Pb+Pb) collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. The data sample was recorded in 2015 and 2018, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 nb^{-1}. Events with exactly one electron and one muon and at least two jets are selected. Top-quark pair production is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 5.0 (4.1) standard deviations. The measured top-quark pair production cross section is σ_{tt[over ¯]}=3.6 _{-0.9}^{+1.0}(stat) _{-0.5}^{+0.8}(syst) μb, with a total relative uncertainty of 31%, and is consistent with theoretical predictions using a range of different nuclear parton distribution functions. The observation of this process consolidates the evidence of the existence of all quark flavors in the preequilibrium stage of the quark-gluon plasma at very high energy densities, similar to the conditions present in the early Universe.

Measurement of the Lund jet plane in hadronic decays of top quarks and W bosons with the ATLAS detector

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Lund jet plane (LJP) is measured for the first time in tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$ events, using 140 fb-1$$\textrm{fb}^{-1}$$ of s=13$$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ TeV pp collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The LJP is a two-dimensional observable of the sub-structure of hadronic jets that acts as a proxy for the kinematics of parton showers and hadron formation. The observable is constructed from charged particles and is measured for R=1.0$$R=1.0$$ anti-kt$$k_t$$ jets with transverse momentum above 350 GeV containing the full decay products of either a top quark or a daughter W boson. The other top quark in the event is identified from its decay into a b-quark, an electron or a muon and a neutrino. The measurement is corrected for detector effects and compared with a range of Monte Carlo predictions sensitive to different aspects of the hadronic decays of the heavy particles. In the W-boson-initiated jets, all the predictions are incompatible with the measurement....

Measurement of photonuclear jet production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions at the LHC, each nucleus acts a sources of high-energy real photons that can scatter off the opposing nucleus in ultraperipheral photonuclear ( ) collisions. Hard scattering processes initiated by the photons in such collisions provide a novel method for probing nuclear parton distributions in a kinematic region not easily accessible to other measurements. ATLAS has measured production of dijet and multijet final states in ultraperipheral collisions at using a dataset recorded in 2018 with an integrated luminosity of . Photonuclear final states are selected by requiring a rapidity gap in the photon direction; this selects events where one of the outgoing nuclei remains intact. Jets are reconstructed using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter, . Triple-differential cross sections, unfolded for detector response, are measured and presented using two sets of kinematic variables. The first set consists of the total transverse momentum...

Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Dark Higgs Boson in the bb¯ Final State Using pp Collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search is performed for dark matter particles produced in association with a resonantly produced pair of b-quarks with 30

Search for light neutral particles decaying promptly into collimated pairs of electrons or muons in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search for a dark photon, a new light neutral particle, which decays promptly into collimated pairs of electrons or muons is presented. The search targets dark photons resulting from the exotic decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson, assuming its production via the dominant gluon-gluon fusion mode. The analysis is based on 140fb-1$$140~\hbox {fb}^{-1}$$ of data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV$$\text {T}\text {e}\hspace{-1.00006pt}\text {V}$$. Events with collimated pairs of electrons or muons are analysed and background contributions are estimated using data-driven techniques. No significant excess in the data above the Standard Model background is observed. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson decay into dark photons between 0.001% and 5%, depending on the assumed dark photon mass and signal model.

Software and computing for Run 3 of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC

Tue, 8 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The ATLAS experiment has developed extensive software and distributed computing systems for Run 3 of the LHC. These systems are described in detail, including software infrastructure and workflows, distributed data and workload management, database infrastructure, and validation. The use of these systems to prepare the data for physics analysis and assess its quality are described, along with the software tools used for data analysis itself. An outlook for the development of these projects towards Run 4 is also provided.

Measurement of the associated production of a top-antitop-quark pair and a Higgs boson decaying into a bb¯ pair in pp collisions at s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper reports the measurement of Higgs boson production in association with a tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$ pair in the H→bb¯$$H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$$ decay channel. The analysis uses 140 fb-1$$^{-1}$$ of 13 TeV$$\text {TeV}$$ proton–proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The final states with one or two electrons or muons are employed. An excess of events over the expected background is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.6 (5.4) standard deviations. The tt¯H$$t\bar{t}H$$ cross-section is σtt¯H=411-92+101fb=411±54(stat.)-75+85(syst.)fb$$\sigma _{t\bar{t}H} = 411~^{+101}_{-92}~\text {fb} = 411 \pm 54(\text {stat.})~^{+85}_{-75}(\text {syst.})~\text {fb}$$ for a Higgs boson mass of 125.09 GeV$$\text {GeV}$$, consistent with the prediction of the Standard Model of 507-50+35$$507^{+35}_{-50}$$ fb. The cross-section is also measured differentially in bins of the Higgs boson transverse momentum within the simplified template...

Configuration, Performance, and Commissioning of the ATLAS b-jet Triggers for the 2022 and 2023 LHC data-taking periods

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In 2022 and 2023, the Large Hadron Collider produced approximately two billion hadronic interactions each second from bunches of protons that collide at a rate of 40 MHz. The ATLAS trigger system is used to reduce this rate to a few kHz for recording. Selections based on hadronic jets, their energy, and event topology reduce the rate to ?(10) kHz while maintaining high efficiencies for important signatures resulting in b-quarks, but to reach the desired recording rate of hundreds of Hz, additional real-time selections based on the identification of jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) are employed to achieve low thresholds on the jet transverse momentum at the High-Level Trigger. The configuration, commissioning, and performance of the real-time ATLAS b-jet identification algorithms for the early LHC Run 3 collision data are presented. These recent developments provide substantial gains in signal efficiency for critical signatures; for the Standard Model production of Higgs boson...

Expected tracking performance of the ATLAS Inner Tracker at the High-Luminosity LHC

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The high-luminosity phase of LHC operations (HL-LHC), will feature a large increase in simultaneous proton-proton interactions per bunch crossing up to 200, compared with a typical leveling target of 64 in Run 3. Such an increase will create a very challenging environment in which to perform charged particle trajectory reconstruction, a task crucial for the success of the ATLAS physics program, and will exceed the capabilities of the current ATLAS Inner Detector (ID). A new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) will replace the current ID in time for the start of the HL-LHC. To ensure successful use of the ITk capabilities in Run 4 and beyond, the ATLAS tracking software has been successfully adapted to achieve state-of-the-art track reconstruction in challenging high-luminosity conditions with the ITk detector. This paper presents the expected tracking performance of the ATLAS ITk based on the latest available developments since the ITk technical design reports.

Search for triple Higgs boson production in the 6b final state using pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search for the production of three Higgs bosons ( ) in the final state is presented. The search uses of proton-proton collision data at collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis targets both nonresonant and resonant production of . The resonant interpretations primarily consider a cascade decay topology of with masses of the new scalars and up to 1.5 and 1 TeV, respectively. In addition to scenarios where is off-shell, the nonresonant interpretation includes a search for Standard Model production, with limits on the trilinear and quartic Higgs self-coupling set. No evidence for production is observed. An upper limit of 59 fb is set, at the 95% confidence level, on the cross section for Standard Model production.

Search for Magnetic Monopole Pair Production in Ultraperipheral Pb+Pb Collisions at sNN=5.36 TeV with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This Letter presents a search for highly ionizing magnetic monopoles in 262 μb^{-1} of ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collision data at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.36 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. A new methodology that exploits the properties of clusters of hits reconstructed in the innermost silicon detector layers is introduced to study highly ionizing particles in heavy-ion data. No significant excess above the background, which is estimated using a data-driven technique, is observed. Using a nonperturbative semiclassical model, upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the cross section for pair production of monopoles with a single Dirac magnetic charge in the mass range of 20-150 GeV. Depending on the model, monopoles with a single Dirac magnetic charge and mass below 80-120 GeV are excluded.

Criminalizing Poverty: The Consequences of Court Fees in a Randomized Experiment

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Court-related fines and fees are widely levied on criminal defendants who are frequently poor and have little capacity to pay. Such financial obligations may produce a criminalization of poverty, where later court involvement results not from crime but from an inability to meet the financial burdens of the legal process. We test this hypothesis using a randomized controlled trial of court-related fee relief for misdemeanor defendants in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. We find that relief from fees does not affect new criminal charges, convictions, or jail bookings after 12 months. However, control respondents were subject to debt collection efforts at significantly higher rates that involved new warrants, additional court debt, tax refund garnishment, and referral to a private debt collector. Despite significant efforts at debt collection among those in the control group, payments to the court totaled less than 5 percent of outstanding debt. The evidence indicates that court debt charged...

Migration

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Migration

Inequality in the Provision of Police Services: Evidence from Residential Burglary Investigations

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Inequality in the Provision of Police Services: Evidence from Residential Burglary Investigations

Political Underrepresentation Among Public Benefits Recipients: Evidence from Linked Administrative Data

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

People receiving government assistance have personal stakes in the political process and intimate knowledge of policy implementation. However, data limitations have made it hard to measure voting among those receiving assistance across various programs. Using linked administrative data from a large county in Pennsylvania, merged with the Pennsylvania voter file, we calculate voting rates among benefits recipients. We find that people receiving means-tested benefits (cash assistance, food assistance, health insurance, disability benefits, childcare, and housing) vote at just over half the rate of other county residents (45% compared with 84% in 2020). In the 2020 election, public benefits recipients comprised over 20% of the voting-eligible population but only 12% of voters. To the extent that benefits recipients are more supportive of generous welfare policy than nonrecipients and more familiar with administrative burdens programs impose, this underrepresentation may obscure popular...

Sensitive Questions, Spillover Effects, and Asking about Citizenship on the US Census

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many topics social scientists study are sensitive in nature. Although we know some people may be reluctant to respond to sensitive questions in surveys, we know less about how such questions could influence responses to other questions appearing later in a survey. In this study, we use the Trump administration’s proposal to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census to demonstrate how such spillover effects can undermine important survey-based estimates. Using a large survey experiment (n p 9,035 respondents), we find that asking about citizenship status significantly increases the percentage of questions skipped and makes respondents less likely to report that members of their household are Hispanic. Not only does this demonstrate that sensitive questions can have important downstream effects on survey responses, but our results also speak to an important public policy debate that will likely arise in the future.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 and 5.44 TeV, respectively, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. All observables show distinct features in ultracentral collisions, which are explained by a suppression of the geometrical component as the overlap area reaches its maximum. These results demonstrate a new technique to separate geometrical and intrinsic fluctuations, providing constraints on initial conditions and properties of the quark-gluon plasma, such as...

Search for a light charged Higgs boson in t→H±b decays, with H±→cs, in pp collisions at s=13TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A search for a light charged Higgs boson produced in decays of the top quark, t→H±b$$t \rightarrow H^{\pm } b$$ with H±→cs$$H^{\pm } \rightarrow cs$$, is presented. This search targets the production of top-quark pairs tt¯→WbH±b$$t\bar{t} \rightarrow Wb H^{\pm } b$$, with W→ℓν$$W \rightarrow \ell u $$ (ℓ=e,μ$$\ell = e, \mu $$), resulting in a lepton-plus-jets final state characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. The search exploits b-quark and c-quark identification techniques as well as multivariate methods to suppress the dominant tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$ background. The data analysed correspond to 140fb-1$$140\hbox { fb}^{-1}$$ of pp$$pp$$ collisions at s=13TeV$$\sqrt{s} = 13\hbox { TeV}$$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC between 2015 and 2018. Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits on the branching fraction B(t→H±b)$$\mathscr {B}(t\rightarrow H^{\pm } b)$$, assuming B(t→Wb)+B(t→H±(→cs)b)=1.0$$\mathscr {B}(t\rightarrow Wb) + \mathscr...

Combination of searches for singly produced vectorlike top quarks in pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A combination of searches for the single production of vectorlike top quarks ( ) is presented. These analyses are based on proton-proton collisions at recorded in 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of . The decay modes considered in this combination are into a top quark and either a Standard Model Higgs boson or a boson ( and ). The individual searches used in the combination are differentiated by the number of leptons ( , ) in the final state. The observed data are found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model background prediction. Interpretations are provided for a range of masses and couplings of the vectorlike top quark for benchmark models and generalized representations in terms of 95% confidence level limits. For a benchmark signal prediction of a vectorlike top quark SU(2) singlet with electroweak coupling, , of 0.5, masses below 2.1 TeV are excluded, resulting in the most restrictive...

Total Cost of Ownership and Evaluation of Google Cloud Resources for the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The ATLAS Google Project was established as part of an ongoing evaluation of the use of commercial clouds by the ATLAS Collaboration, in anticipation of the potential future adoption of such resources by WLCG grid sites to fulfil or complement their computing pledges. Seamless integration of Google cloud resources into the worldwide ATLAS distributed computing infrastructure was achieved at large scale and for an extended period of time, and hence cloud resources are shown to be an effective mechanism to provide additional, flexible computing capacity to ATLAS. For the first time a total cost of ownership analysis has been performed, to identify the dominant cost drivers and explore effective mechanisms for cost control. Network usage significantly impacts the costs of certain ATLAS workflows, underscoring the importance of implementing such mechanisms. Resource bursting has been successfully demonstrated, whilst exposing the true cost of this type of activity. A follow-up to...

Jet radius dependence of dijet momentum balance and suppression in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper describes a measurement of the jet radius dependence of the dijet momentum balance between leading back-to-back jets in of collisions collected in 2018 and of collisions collected in 2017 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Both datasets were collected at TeV. Jets are reconstructed using the anti- algorithm with jet radius parameters , 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6. The dijet momentum balance distributions are constructed for leading jets with transverse momentum from 100 to 562 GeV for , 0.3, and 0.4 jets, and from 158 to 562 GeV for and 0.6 jets. The absolutely normalized dijet momentum balance distributions are constructed to compare measurements of the dijet yields in collisions directly to the dijet cross sections in collisions. For all jet radii considered here, there is a suppression of more balanced dijets in collisions compared with collisions, while for more imbalanced dijets there is an enhancement. There is a jet radius dependence to the dijet...

Operation and performance of the ATLAS tile calorimeter in LHC Run 2

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The ATLAS tile calorimeter (TileCal) is the hadronic sampling calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This paper gives an overview of the calorimeter’s operation and performance during the years 2015–2018 (Run 2). In this period, ATLAS collected proton–proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and the TileCal was 99.65% efficient for data-taking. The signal reconstruction, the calibration procedures, and the detector operational status are presented. The performance of two ATLAS trigger systems making use of TileCal information, the minimum-bias trigger scintillators and the tile muon trigger, is discussed. Studies of radiation effects allow the degradation of the output signals at the end of the LHC and HL-LHC operations to be estimated. Finally, the TileCal response to isolated muons, hadrons and jets from proton–proton collisions is presented. The energy and time calibration methods performed...

Constraint on the total width of the Higgs boson from Higgs boson and four-top-quark measurements in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This Letter presents a constraint on the total width of the Higgs boson ( Γ H ) using a combined measurement of on-shell Higgs boson production and the production of four top quarks, which involves contributions from off-shell Higgs boson-mediated processes. This method relies on the assumption that the tree-level Higgs-top Yukawa coupling strength is the same for on-shell and off-shell Higgs boson production processes, thereby avoiding any assumptions about the relationship between on-shell and off-shell gluon fusion Higgs production rates, which were central to previous measurements. The result is based on up to 140 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit on Γ H is 450 MeV (75 MeV). Additionally, considering the constraint on the Higgs-top Yukawa coupling from loop-induced Higgs boson production and decay processes further...

Measurement of top-quark pair production in association with charm quarks in proton–proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Inclusive cross-sections for top-quark pair production in association with charm quarks are measured with proton–proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1, collected with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC between 2015 and 2018. The measurements are performed by requiring one or two charged leptons (electrons and muons), two b-tagged jets, and at least one additional jet in the final state. A custom flavor-tagging algorithm is employed for the simultaneous identification of b-jets and c-jets. In a fiducial phase space that replicates the acceptance of the ATLAS detector, the cross-sections for t t ¯ + ≥ 2 c and t t ¯ + 1 c production are measured to be 1.28 − 0.24 + 0.27 pb and 6.4 − 0.9 + 1.0 pb , respectively. The measurements are primarily limited by uncertainties in the modeling of inclusive t t ¯ and t t ¯ + b b ¯ production, in the calibration of the flavor-tagging algorithm, and by data statistics. Cross-section...

Measurement of the W-boson mass and width with the ATLAS detector using proton–proton collisions at s=7 TeV

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2011, at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, have been used for an improved determination of the W-boson mass and a first measurement of the W-boson width at the LHC. Recent fits to the proton parton distribution functions are incorporated in the measurement procedure and an improved statistical method is used to increase the measurement precision. The measurement of the W-boson mass yields a value of mW=80,366.5±9.8(stat.)±12.5(syst.)$$m_W = 80{,}366.5 \pm 9.8~(\text {stat.}) \pm 12.5~(\text {syst.})$$ MeV =80,366.5±15.9$$= 80{,}366.5 \pm 15.9$$ MeV, and the width is measured as ΓW=2202±32(stat.)±34(syst.)$$\Gamma _W = 2202 \pm 32~(\text {stat.}) \pm 34~(\text {syst.})$$ MeV =2202±47$$= 2202 \pm 47$$ MeV. The first uncertainty components are statistical and the second correspond to the experimental and physics-modelling systematic uncertainties. Both results are consistent with the...

Underlying-event studies with strange hadrons in pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Properties of the underlying-event in pp interactions are investigated primarily via the strange hadrons KS0$$K_{S}^{0}$$, Λ$$\Lambda $$ and Λ¯$$\bar{\Lambda }$$, as reconstructed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC in minimum-bias pp collision data at s=13$$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ TeV. The hadrons are reconstructed via the identification of the displaced two-particle vertices corresponding to the decay modes , Λ→π-p$$\Lambda \rightarrow \pi ^-p$$ and Λ¯→π+p¯$$\bar{\Lambda }\rightarrow \pi ^+\bar{p}$$. These are used in the construction of underlying-event observables in azimuthal regions computed relative to the leading charged-particle jet in the event. None of the hadronisation and underlying-event physics models considered can describe the data over the full kinematic range considered. Events with a leading charged-particle jet in the range of 10

Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross-Section Measurement of Twenty-Four Z+jets Kinematic Observables with the ATLAS Detector

Tue, 4 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Z boson events at the Large Hadron Collider can be selected with high purity and are sensitive to a diverse range of QCD phenomena. As a result, these events are often used to probe the nature of the strong force, improve Monte Carlo event generators, and search for deviations from standard model predictions. All previous measurements of Z boson production characterize the event properties using a small number of observables and present the results as differential cross sections in predetermined bins. In this analysis, a machine learning method called omnifold is used to produce a simultaneous measurement of twenty-four Z+jets observables using 139 fb^{-1} of proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector. Unlike any previous fiducial differential cross-section measurement, this result is presented unbinned as a dataset of particle-level events, allowing for flexible reuse in a variety of contexts and for new observables to be constructed from...

The long-term impact of debt relief for indigent defendants in a misdemeanor court

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

US courts regularly assess fines, fees, and costs against criminal defendants. Court-related debt can cause continuing court involvement and incarceration, not because of new crimes, but because of unpaid financial obligations. We conducted an experiment with 606 people found guilty of misdemeanors in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Study participants were randomly selected to receive relief from all current and prior fines and fees assessed for criminal charges in the county. Fee relief reduced jail bookings 21 mo after randomization and the effect persisted over 44 mo of follow-up. Although fee relief reduced incarceration, financial sanctions had no effect on indicators of lawbreaking. Instead, the control group (who obtained no relief from fines and fees) were rearrested at significantly higher rates because of open arrest warrants for nonpayment. These results indicate the long-term and criminalizing effects of legal debt, supporting claims that financial sanctions disproportionately...

Combination of searches for singly and doubly charged Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion in proton–proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Wed, 4 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A combination of searches for singly and doubly charged Higgs bosons, H ± and H ± ± , produced via vector-boson fusion is performed using 140 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. Searches targeting decays to massive vector bosons in leptonic final states (electrons or muons) are considered. New constraints are reported on the production cross-section times branching fraction for charged Higgs boson masses between 200 GeV and 3000 GeV. The results are interpreted in the context of the Georgi-Machacek model for which the most stringent constraints to date are set for the masses considered in the combination.

Search for heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos in the decay of top quarks produced in proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Wed, 4 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A search for heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos is performed with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, using the of proton–proton collision data at collected during Run 2. This search targets production, in which both top quarks decay into a bottom quark and a boson, where one of the bosons decays hadronically and the other decays into an electron or muon and a heavy neutral lepton. The heavy neutral lepton is identified through a decay into an electron or muon and another boson, resulting in a pair of same-charge same-flavor leptons in the final state. This paper presents the first search for heavy neutral leptons in the mass range of 15–75 GeV using events. No significant excess is observed over the background expectation, and upper limits are placed on the signal cross sections. Assuming a benchmark scenario of the phenomenological type-I seesaw model, these cross section limits are then translated into upper limits on the mixing parameters of...

Schools, Safety, and Semantics: Progress and Possibilities for Menstrual Equity

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Schools, Safety, and Semantics: Progress and Possibilities for Menstrual Equity

Trends in NHANES Biomonitored Exposures in California and the United States following Enactment of California’s Proposition 65

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of toxic chemicals in US commerce has prompted some states to adopt laws to reduce exposure. One with broad reach is California's Proposition 65 (Prop 65), which established a list of chemicals that cause cancer, developmental harm, or reproductive toxicity. The law is intended to discourage businesses from using these chemicals and to minimize consumer exposure. However, a key question remains unanswered: Has Prop 65 reduced population-level exposure to the listed chemicals? OBJECTIVE: We used national biomonitoring data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate the impact of Prop 65 on population-level exposures. METHODS: We evaluated changes in blood and urine concentrations of 37 chemicals (including phthalates, phenols, VOCs, metals, PAHs, and PFAS), among US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) participants in relation to the time of chemicals' Prop 65 listing. Of these, 11 were listed prior to,...

Measurements of jet cross-section ratios in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions with ATLAS