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The fluoropolymer CYTOP was investigated in order to evaluate its suitability as a coating material for ultracold neutron (UCN) storage vessels. Using neutron reflectometry on CYTOP-coated silicon wafers, its neutron optical potential was measured to be 115.2(2) neV. UCN storage measurements were carried out in a 3.8 l CYTOP-coated aluminum bottle, in which the storage time constant was found to increase from 311(9) s at room temperature to 564(7) s slightly above 10 K. By combining experimental storage data with simulations of the UCN source, the neutron loss factor of CYTOP is estimated to decrease from 1.1(1)$$\times 10^{-4}$$$\times {10}^{-4}$to 2.7(2)$$\times 10^{-5}$$$\times {10}^{-5}$at these temperatures, respectively. These results are of particular importance to the next-generation superthermal UCN source SuperSUN, currently under construction at the Institut Laue-Langevin, for which CYTOP is a possible top-surface coating in the UCN production volume.

We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive$$\rho ^0$$${\rho }^0$meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160 GeV/cpolarised$$ \mu ^{+}$$${\mu }^{+}$and$$ \mu ^{-}$$${\mu }^{-}$beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0 GeV/$$c^2$$$c^2$$$< W<$$$<W<$17.0 GeV/$$c^2$$$c^2$, 1.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$${}^2$$$< Q^2<$$$<Q^2<$10.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$${}^2$and 0.01 (GeV/c)$$^2$$${}^2$$$< p_{\textrm{T}}^2<$$$<p_{\text{T}}^2<$0.5 (GeV/c)$$^2$$${}^2$. Here,Wdenotes the mass of the final hadronic system,$$Q^2$$$Q^2$the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$$p_{\text{T}}$the transverse momentum of the$$\rho ^0$$${\rho }^0$meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($$\gamma ^*_T \rightarrow V^{ }_L$$${\gamma }_T^{\ast }\to V_L^{}$) indicate a violation ofs-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive$$\rho ^0$$${\rho }^0$production.

The ATLAS detector is installed in its experimental cavern at Point 1 of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. During Run 2 of the LHC, a luminosity of  ℒ = 2 × 10³⁴cm^-2s^-1was routinely achieved at the start of fills, twice the design luminosity. For Run 3, accelerator improvements, notably luminosity levelling, allow sustained running at an instantaneous luminosity of  ℒ = 2 × 10³⁴cm^-2s^-1, with an average of up to 60 interactions per bunch crossing. The ATLAS detector has been upgraded to recover Run 1 single-lepton trigger thresholds while operating comfortably under Run 3 sustained pileup conditions. A fourth pixel layer 3.3 cm from the beam axis was added before Run 2 to improve vertex reconstruction and b-tagging performance. New Liquid Argon Calorimeter digital trigger electronics, with corresponding upgrades to the Trigger and Data Acquisition system, take advantage of a factor of 10 finer granularity to improve triggering on electrons, photons, taus, and hadronic signatures through increased pileup rejection. The inner muon endcap wheels were replaced by New Small Wheels with Micromegas and small-strip Thin Gap Chamber detectors, providing both precision tracking and Level-1 Muon trigger functionality. Trigger coverage of the inner barrel muon layer near one endcap region was augmented with modules integrating new thin-gap resistive plate chambers and smaller-diameter drift-tube chambers. Tile Calorimeter scintillation counters were added to improve electron energy resolution and background rejection. Upgrades to Minimum Bias Trigger Scintillators and Forward Detectors improve luminosity monitoring and enable total proton-proton cross section, diffractive physics, and heavy ion measurements. These upgrades are all compatible with operation in the much harsher environment anticipated after the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC and are the first steps towards preparing ATLAS for the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC. This paper describes the Run 3 configuration of the ATLAS detector.