The TOTEM experiment has made a precise measurement of the elastic proton-proton differential cross-section at the centre-of-mass energy √ s = 8 TeV based on a high-statistics data sample obtained with the β * = 90 m optics. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties remain below 1 %, except for the t-independent contribution from the overall normalisation. This unprecedented precision allows to exclude a purely exponential differential cross-section in the range of fourmomentum transfer squared 0.027 < |t| < 0.2 GeV 2 with a significance greater than 7 σ. Two extended parametrisations, with quadratic and cubic polynomials in the exponent, are shown to be well compatible with the data. Using them for the differential cross-section extrapolation to t = 0, and further applying the optical theorem, yields total cross-section estimates of (101.5 ± 2.1) mb and (101.9 ± 2.1) mb, respectively, in agreement with previous TOTEM measurements.This article is dedicated to the memory of Prof. E. Lippmaa and Prof. M. Lo Vetere who passed away recently

This paper describes the design and the performance of the timing detector developed by the TOTEM Collaboration for the Roman Pots (RPs) to measure the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) of the protons produced in central diffractive interactions at the LHC. The measurement of the TOF of the protons allows the determination of the longitudinal position of the proton interaction vertex and its association with one of the vertices reconstructed by the CMS detectors. The TOF detector is based on single crystal Chemical Vapor Deposition (scCVD) diamond plates and is designed to measure the protons TOF with about 50 ps time precision. This upgrade to the TOTEM apparatus will be used in the LHC run 2 and will tag the central diffractive events up to an interaction pileup of about 1. A dedicated fast and low noise electronics for the signal amplification has been developed. The digitization of the diamond signal is performed by sampling the waveform. After introducing the physics studies that will most profit from the addition of these new detectors, we discuss in detail the optimization and the performance of the first TOF detector installed in the LHC in November 2015.

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The TOTEM experiment at the CERN LHC has measured elastic proton-proton scattering at the centre-ofmass energy √ s = 8 TeV and four-momentum transfers squared, |t|, from 6 × 10 −4 GeV 2 to 0.2 GeV 2 . Near the lower end of the t-interval the differential cross-section is sensitive to the interference between the hadronic and the electromagnetic scattering amplitudes. This article presents the elastic cross-section measurement and the constraints it arXiv:1610.00603v1 [nucl-ex] 3 Oct 2016 2 imposes on the functional forms of the modulus and phase of the hadronic elastic amplitude. The data exclude the traditional Simplified West and Yennie interference formula that requires a constant phase and a purely exponential modulus of the hadronic amplitude. For parametrisations of the hadronic modulus with second-or third-order polynomials in the exponent, the data are compatible with hadronic phase functions giving either central or peripheral behaviour in the impact parameter picture of elastic scattering. In both cases, the ρ-parameter is found to be 0.12 ± 0.03. The results for the total hadronic cross-section are σ tot = (102.9 ± 2.3) mb and (103.0 ± 2.3) mb for central and peripheral phase formulations, respectively. Both are consistent with previous TOTEM measurements.

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A reliable odometry source is a prerequisite to enable complex autonomy behaviour in next-generation robots operating in extreme environments. In this work, we present a high-precision lidar odometry system to achieve robust and real-time operation under challenging perceptual conditions. LOCUS (Lidar Odometry for Consistent operation in Uncertain Settings), provides an accurate multi-stage scan matching unit equipped with an health-aware sensor integration module for seamless fusion of additional sensing modalities. We evaluate the performance of the proposed system against state-ofthe-art techniques in perceptually challenging environments, and demonstrate top-class localization accuracy along with substantial improvements in robustness to sensor failures. We then demonstrate real-time performance of LOCUS on various types of robotic mobility platforms involved in the autonomous exploration of the Satsop power plant in Elma, WA where the proposed system was a key element of the CoSTAR team's solution that won first place in the Urban Circuit of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge.

DNNs reach a classification accuracy significantly higher than other machine learning strategies; on the other hand, fuzzy logic is particularly accurate with cMCI, suggesting a combination of these approaches could lead to interesting future perspectives.

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