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Berbig, M. (2025). Kick it like DESI: PNGB quintessence with a dynamically generated initial velocity. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 015–46pp.
Abstract: Motivated by the hint for time-dependent dynamical dark energy from an analysis of the DESI Baryon Accoustic Oscillation (BAO) data together with information from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Supernovae (SN), we relax the assumption of a vanishing initial velocity for a quintessence field. In particular we focus on pseudo-NambuGoldstone-Boson (PNGB) quintessence in the form of an axion like particle, that can arise as the phase of a complex scalar and could possess derivative couplings to fermions or topological couplings to abelian gauge fields, without upsetting the necessary flatness of its potential. We discuss mechanisms from the aforementioned interactions for sourcing an initial axion field velocity theta(center dot)i at redshifts 3 <= z <= 10, that will “kick” it into motion. Driven by this initial velocity the axion will first roll up in its potential, similar to “freezing” dark energy. After it has reached the pinnacle of its trajectory, it will start to roll down, and behave as “thawing” quintessence. As a proof of concept we undertake a combined fit to BAO, SN and CMB data at the background level. We find that a scenario with theta(center dot)i = O (1) ma, where ma is the axion mass, is slightly preferred over both Lambda CDM and the conventional “thawing” quintessence with theta(center dot)i = 0. The best fit points for this case exhibit transplanckian decay constants and very flat potentials, which both are in tension with conjectures from string theory.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aikot, A., Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Bouchhar, N., et al. (2024). Observation of electroweak production of W+W- in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 254–43pp.
Abstract: A measurement of the production of W bosons with opposite electric charges in association with two jets is presented based on 140 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV. The analysis is sensitive to the scattering of W bosons, which is of particular interest in the ATLAS physics programme as it can be used to probe the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism of the Standard Model. This signal is observed with a significance of 7.1 standard deviations above the background expectation, while 6.2 standard deviations were expected. The measured cross-section is determined in a signal-enriched fiducial volume and is found to be 2.7 +/- 0.5 fb, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction of 2.20(-0.13)(+0.14) fb.
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Salami, R. et al, Lacasta, C., Lopez, H., Platero, V., Solaz, C., & Soldevila, U. (2025). Quality concerns caused by quality control – deformation of silicon strip detector modules in thermal cycling tests. J. Instrum., 20(3), P03004–17pp.
Abstract: The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently preparing to replace its present Inner Detector (ID) with the upgraded, all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) for its High-Luminosity upgrade (HL-LHC). The ITk will consist of a central pixel tracker and the outer strip tracker, consisting of about 19,000 strip detector modules. Each strip module is assembled from up to two sensors, and up to five flexes (depending on its geometry) in a series of gluing, wirebonding and quality control steps. During detector operation, modules will be cooled down to temperatures of about -35 degrees C (corresponding to the temperature of the support structures on which they will be mounted) after being initially assembled and stored at room temperature. In order to ensure compatibility with the detector's operating temperature range, modules are subjected to thermal cycling as part of their quality control process. Ten cycles between -35 degrees C and +40 degrees C are performed for each module, with full electrical characterisation tests at each high and low temperature point. As part of an investigation into the stress experienced by modules during cooling, it was observed that modules generally showed a change in module shape before and after thermal cycling. This paper presents a summary of the discovery and understanding of the observed changes, connecting them with excess module stress, as well as the resulting modifications to the module thermal cycling procedure.
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Hati, C., Leite, J., Nath, N., & Valle, J. W. F. (2025). QCD axion, color-mediated neutrino masses, and B+ → K+ + Emiss anomaly. Phys. Rev. D, 111(1), 015038–16pp.
Abstract: Motivated by the recent Belle II result indicating a 2.76 excess of B+-* K+ + Emiss events compared to the Standard Model (SM) prediction for B+-* K+vv<overline>, we explore an explanation to this anomaly based on a Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov-type QCD axion model featuring a Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking at high scale, which can provide a solution to the strong CP problem with dark matter relic abundance. The model contains a PQ-charged scalar leptoquark which can interact with the SM quarks only via mass mixing of the latter with vectorlike quarks. The mixing between SM and vectorlike quarks is determined by the PQ mass scales and can explain the excess B+-* K+ + Emiss events while respecting other flavor constraints. The same PQ-charged scalar leptoquarks and vectorlike quarks also mediate the two-loop radiative neutrino masses.
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Gil-Domínguez, F., Giachino, A., & Molina, R. (2025). Quark mass dependence of the Tcc(3875) + pole. Phys. Rev. D, 111(1), 016029–21pp.
Abstract: Recently, several LQCD simulations have proven that the interaction in the isoscalar channel in DD* scattering is attractive. This channel is naturally connected to the Tcc(3875)+ which is observed in the D0D0,c+ invariant mass distribution. However, it remains an open question whether the virtual bound state found in these several LQCD simulations is actually linked to the LHCb experimental observation. In this article we perform an EFT-based analysis of the LQCD data and demonstrate that a proper chiral extrapolation leads to a Tcc pole compatible with experiment. At the physical pion mass, we find a virtual bound state with a binding energy Delta E = -0.06(+1.30 -2.20)(+0.5-1.110).Moreover, we extract from a global analysis both the light and heavy quark mass dependence of the Tcc pole and study the role of the p- and i-meson exchanges.
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