ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., Ferrer, A., et al. (2015). Search for new phenomena in events with three or more charged leptons in pp collisions at TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 138–60pp.
Abstract: A generic search for anomalous production of events with at least three charged leptons is presented. The data sample consists of pp collisions at TeV collected in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). Events are required to have at least three selected lepton candidates, at least two of which must be electrons or muons, while the third may be a hadronically decaying tau. Selected events are categorized based on their lepton flavour content and signal regions are constructed using several kinematic variables of interest. No significant deviations from Standard Model predictions are observed. Model-independent upper limits on contributions from beyond the Standard Model phenomena are provided for each signal region, along with prescription to re-interpret the limits for any model. Constraints are also placed on models predicting doubly charged Higgs bosons and excited leptons. For doubly charged Higgs bosons decaying to e tau or μtau, lower limits on the mass are set at 400 GeV at 95% confidence level. For excited leptons, constraints are provided as functions of both the mass of the excited state and the compositeness scale I >, with the strongest mass constraints arising in regions where the mass equals I >. In such scenarios, lower mass limits are set at 3.0 TeV for excited electrons and muons, 2.5 TeV for excited taus, and 1.6 TeV for every excited-neutrino flavour.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Bouchhar, N., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2023). A search for new resonances in multiple final states with a high transverse momentum Z boson in root s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 036–56pp.
Abstract: A generic search for resonances is performed with events containing a Z boson with transverse momentum greater than 100 GeV, decaying into e+e− or μ+μ−. The analysed data collected with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. Two invariant mass distributions are examined for a localised excess relative to the expected Standard Model background in six independent event categories (and their inclusive sum) to increase the sensitivity. No significant excess is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are derived for two cases: a model-independent interpretation of Gaussian-shaped resonances with the mass width between 3% and 10% of the resonance mass, and a specific heavy vector triplet model with the decay mode W′ → ZW → ℓℓqq.
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Filipuzzi, A., Portoles, J., & Ruiz-Femenia, P. (2012). Zeros of the W(L)Z(L) -> W(L)Z(L) amplitude: where vector resonances stand. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 080–22pp.
Abstract: A Higgsless electroweak theory may be populated by spin-1 resonances around E similar to 1 TeV as a consequence of a new strong interacting sector, frequently proposed as a tool to smear the high-energy behaviour of scattering amplitudes, for instance, elastic gauge boson scattering. Information on those resonances, if they exist, must be contained in the low-energy couplings of the electroweak chiral effective theory. Using the facts that: i) the scattering of longitudinal gauge bosons, W-L, Z(L), can be well described in the high-energy region (E >> M-W) by the scattering of the corresponding Goldstone bosons (equivalence theorem) and ii) the zeros of the scattering amplitude carry the information on the heavier spectrum that has been integrated out; we employ the O(p(4)) electroweak chiral Lagrangian to identify the parameter space region of the low-energy couplings where vector resonances may arise. An estimate of their masses is also provided by our method.
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Llosa, G., Barrillon, P., Barrio, J., Bisogni, M. G., Cabello, J., Del Guerra, A., et al. (2013). High performance detector head for PET and PET/MR with continuous crystals and SiPMs. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 702, 3–5.
Abstract: A high resolution PET detector head for small animal PET applications has been developed. The detector is composed of a 12 mm x 12 mm continuous LYSO crystal coupled to a 64-channel monolithic SiPM matrix from FBK-irst. Crystal thicknesses of 5 mm and 10 mm have been tested, both yielding an intrinsic spatial resolution around 0.7 mm FWHM with a position determination algorithm that can also provide depth-of-interaction information. The detectors have been tested in a rotating system that makes it possible to acquire tomographic data and reconstruct images of Na-22 sources. An image reconstruction method specifically adapted for continuous crystals has been employed. The Full Width at Half Maximum measured from a point source reconstructed with ML-EM was 0.7 mm with the 5 mm crystal and 0.8 mm with the 10 mm crystal.
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Brzezinski, K., Oliver, J. F., Gillam, J., & Rafecas, M. (2014). Study of a high-resolution PET system using a Silicon detector probe. Phys. Med. Biol., 59(20), 6117–6140.
Abstract: A high-resolution silicon detector probe, in coincidence with a conventional PET scanner, is expected to provide images of higher quality than those achievable using the scanner alone. Spatial resolution should improve due to the finer pixelization of the probe detector, while increased sensitivity in the probe vicinity is expected to decrease noise. A PET-probe prototype is being developed utilizing this principle. The system includes a probe consisting of ten layers of silicon detectors, each a 80 x 52 array of 1 x 1 x 1 mm(3) pixels, to be operated in coincidence with a modern clinical PET scanner. Detailed simulation studies of this system have been performed to assess the effect of the additional probe information on the quality of the reconstructed images. A grid of point sources was simulated to study the contribution of the probe to the system resolution at different locations over the field of view (FOV). A resolution phantom was used to demonstrate the effect on image resolution for two probe positions. A homogeneous source distribution with hot and cold regions was used to demonstrate that the localized improvement in resolution does not come at the expense of the overall quality of the image. Since the improvement is constrained to an area close to the probe, breast imaging is proposed as a potential application for the novel geometry. In this sense, a simplified breast phantom, adjacent to heart and torso compartments, was simulated and the effect of the probe on lesion detectability, through measurements of the local contrast recovery coefficient-to-noise ratio (CNR), was observed. The list-mode ML-EM algorithm was used for image reconstruction in all cases. As expected, the point spread function of the PET-probe system was found to be non-isotropic and vary with position, offering improvement in specific regions. Increase in resolution, of factors of up to 2, was observed in the region close to the probe. Images of the resolution phantom showed visible improvement in resolution when including the probe in the simulations. The image quality study demonstrated that contrast and spill-over ratio in other areas of the FOV were not sacrificed for this enhancement. The CNR study performed on the breast phantom indicates increased lesion detectability provided by the probe.
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Mengoni, D., Duenas, J. A., Assie, M., Boiano, C., John, P. R., Aliaga, R. J., et al. (2014). Digital pulse-shape analysis with a TRACE early silicon prototype. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 764, 241–246.
Abstract: A highly segmented silicon-pad detector prototype has been tested to explore the performance of the digital pulse shape analysis in the discrimination of the particles reaching the silicon detector. For the first time a 200 tun thin silicon detector, grown using an ordinary floating zone technique, has been shown to exhibit a level discrimination thanks to the fine segmentation. Light-charged particles down to few MeV have been separated, including their punch-through. A coaxial HPGe detector in time coincidence has further confirmed the quality of the particle discrimination.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Sanchez-Losa, A., Tönnis, C., Zornoza, J. D., et al. (2016). Constraints on the neutrino emission from the Galactic Ridge with the ANTARES telescope. Phys. Lett. B, 760, 143–148.
Abstract: A highly significant excess of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos has been reported by the IceCube Collaboration. Some features of the energy and declination distributions of IceCube events hint at a North/South asymmetry of the neutrino flux. This could be due to the presence of the bulk of our Galaxy in the Southern hemisphere. The ANTARES neutrino telescope, located in the Mediterranean Sea, has been taking data since 2007. It offers the best sensitivity to muon neutrinos produced by galactic cosmic ray interactions in this region of the sky. In this letter a search for an extended neutrino flux from the Galactic Ridge region is presented. Different models of neutrino production by cosmic ray propagation are tested. No excess of events is observed and upper limits for different neutrino flux spectral indices Gamma are set. For Gamma = 2.4 the 90% confidence level flux upper limit at 100 TeV for one neutrino flavour corresponds to phi(1f)(0) (100TeV) = 2.0 . 10(-17) GeV-1 cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1). Under this assumption, at most two events of the IceCube cosmic candidates can originate from the Galactic Ridge. A simple power-law extrapolation of the Fermi-LAT flux to account for IceCube High Energy Starting Events is excluded at 90% confidence level.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Oyanguren, A., & Ruiz Valls, P. (2013). Precision measurement of the B-s(0)-(B)over-bar(s)(0) oscillation frequency with the decay B-s(0) -> D-s(-)pi(+). New J. Phys., 15, 053021–15pp.
Abstract: A key ingredient to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model in B-s(0) mixing phenomena is the measurement of the B-s(0)-(B) over bar (0)(s) oscillation frequency, which is equivalent to the mass difference Delta m(s) of the B-s(0) mass eigenstates. Using the world's largest B-s(0) meson sample accumulated in a dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment at the CERN LHC in 2011, a measurement of Delta m(s) is presented. A total of about 34 000 B-s(0) -> D-s(-)pi(+) signal decays are reconstructed, with an average decay time resolution of 44 fs. The oscillation frequency is measured to be Delta m(s) = 17.768 +/- 0.023 (stat) +/- 0.006 (syst) ps(-1), which is the most precise measurement to date.
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Barenboim, G., & Park, W. I. (2017). A full picture of large lepton number asymmetries of the Universe. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 048–10pp.
Abstract: A large lepton number asymmetry of O(0.1-1) at present Universe might not only be allowed but also necessary for consistency among cosmological data. We show that, if a sizeable lepton number asymmetry were produced before the electroweak phase transition, the requirement for not producing too much baryon number asymmetry through sphalerons processes, forces the high scale lepton number asymmetry to be larger than about 30. Therefore a mild entropy release causing O(10-100) suppression of pre-existing particle density should take place, when the background temperature of the Universe is around T = O(10(-2) -10(2)) GeV for a large but experimentally consistent asymmetry to be present today. We also show that such a mild entropy production can be obtained by the late-time decays of the saxion, constraining the parameters of the Peccei-Quinn sector such as the mass and the vacuum expectation value of the saxion field to be m(phi) greater than or similar to O(10) TeV and phi(0) greater than or similar to O(10(14)) GeV, respectively.
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Carames, T. F., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2012). Too many X's, Y's and Z's? Phys. Lett. B, 709(4-5), 358–361.
Abstract: A large number of new states have been reported during the last few years in charmonium spectroscopy above the charmed meson production threshold. They have been called X's, Y's, and Z's. We reflect on the influence of thresholds on heavy meson spectroscopy comparing different flavor sectors and quantum numbers. The validity of a quark-model picture above open-flavor thresholds would severely restrict the number of channels that may lodge meson-meson molecules.
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