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Shi, P. P., Baru, V., Guo, F. K., Hanhart, C., & Nefediev, A. (2024). Production of the X(4014) as the Spin-2 Partner of X(3872) in e + e – Collisions. Chin. Phys. Lett., 41(3), 031301–7pp.
Abstract: In 2021, the Belle collaboration reported the first observation of a new structure in the psi(2S)gamma final state produced in the two-photon fusion process. In the hadronic molecule picture, this new structure can be associated with the shallow isoscalar D*D* bound state and as such is an excellent candidate for the spin-2 partner of the X(3872) with the quantum numbers J(PC) = 2(++) conventionally named X-2. In this work we evaluate the electronic width of this new state and argue that its nature is sensitive to its total width, the experimental measurement currently available being unable to distinguish between different options. Our estimates demonstrate that the planned Super tau-Charm Facility offers a promising opportunity to search for and study this new state in the invariant mass distributions for the final states J/psi gamma and psi(2S)gamma.
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Penalva, N., Hernandez, E., & Nieves, J. (2019). Further tests of lepton flavor universality from the charged lepton energy distribution in b -> c semileptonic decays: The case of Lambda(b) -> Lambda(c) l(v)over-bar(l). Phys. Rev. D, 100(11), 113007–11pp.
Abstract: In a general framework, valid for any H -> H' l(-)(v) over bar (l) semileptonic decay, we analyze the d(2)Gamma/(d omega d cos theta(l)) and d(2)Gamma/(d omega dE(l)) distributions, with omega being the product of the hadron four-velocities, theta(l) the angle made by the three-momenta of the charged lepton and the final hadron in the W- center of mass frame and E-l the charged lepton energy in the decaying hadron rest frame. Within the Standard Model (SM), d(2)Gamma/(d omega dE(l)) proportional to (c(0) (omega) c(1) (omega)E-l/M + c(2) (omega)E-l(2)/M-2), with M the initial hadron mass. We find that c(2) (omega) is independent of the lepton flavor and thus it is an ideal candidate to look for lepton flavor universality (LFU) violations. We also find a correlation between the a(2) (omega) structure function, which governs the (cos theta(l))(2) dependence of d(2)Gamma/(d omega d cos theta(l)), and c(2) (omega). Apart from trivial kinematical and mass factors, the ratio of a(2) (omega)/c(2) (omega) is a universal function that can be measured in any semileptonic decay, involving not only b -> c transitions. These two SM predictions can be used as new tests in the present search for signatures of LFU violations. We also generalize the formalism to account for some new physics (NP) terms, and show that neither c(2) nor a(2) are modified by left and right scalar NP terms, being however sensitive to left and right vector corrections. We also find that the a(2)/c(2) ratio is not modified by these latter NP contributions. Finally, and in order to illustrate our findings, we apply our general framework to the Lambda(b) -> Lambda(c)l (v) over bar (l) decay. We show that a measurement of c(2) (or a(2)) for tau decay would not only be a direct measurement of the possible existence of NP, but it would also allow to distinguish from NP fits to b -> c tau(v) over bar (tau) anomalies in the meson sector, which otherwise give the same total and differential d Gamma/d omega widths. We show that the same occurs for the other two terms, c(0) and c(1), that appear in d(2)Gamma/(d omega dE(l)), and for the cos theta(l) linear term of the angular distribution.
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Molina, R., Xie, J. J., Liang, W. H., Geng, L. S., & Oset, E. (2020). Theoretical interpretation of the D-s(+) -> pi(+)pi(0)eta decay and the nature of a(0)(980). Phys. Lett. B, 803, 135279–4pp.
Abstract: In a recent paper [I], the BESIII Collaboration reported the so-called first observation of pure W-annihi- lation decays D-s(+) -> a(0)(+) (980)pi(0) and D-s(+) -> a(0)(0)(980)pi(+). The measured absolute branching fractions are, however, puzzlingly larger than those of other measured pure W-annihilation decays by at least one order of magnitude. In addition, the relative phase between the two decay modes is found to be about 0 degrees. In this letter, we show that all these can be easily understood if the a(0)(980) is a dynamically generated state from (K) over barK and pi eta interactions in coupled channels. In such a scenario, the D-s(+) decay proceeds via internal W emission instead of W-annihilation, which has a larger decay rate than W-annihilation. The proposed decay mechanism and the molecular nature of the a(0)(980) also provide a natural explanation to the measured negative interference between the two decay modes.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cantero, J., et al. (2023). Measurement of the total cross section and ρ-parameter from elastic scattering in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(5), 441–49pp.
Abstract: In a special run of the LHC with beta star=2.5 km, proton-proton elastic-scattering events were recorded at root s=13 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 340 μb(-1) using the ALFA subdetector of ATLAS in 2016. The elastic cross section was measured differentially in the Mandelstam t variable in the range from -t=2.5 center dot 10(-4) GeV2 to -t=0.46 GeV2 using 6.9 million elastic-scattering candidates. This paper presents measurements of the total cross section sigma(tot), parameters of the nuclear slope, and the rho-parameter defined as the ratio of the real part to the imaginary part of the elastic-scattering amplitude in the limit t -> 0. These parameters are determined from a fit to the differential elastic cross section using the optical theorem and different parameterizations of the t-dependence. The results for sigma(tot) and rho are sigma(tot) (PP -> X ) =104.7 +/- 1.1 mob , rho=0.098 +/- 0.011. The uncertainty in sigma(tot) is dominated by the luminosity measurement, and in rho by imperfect knowledge of the detector alignment and by modelling of the nuclear amplitude.
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Reig, M. (2021). The stochastic axiverse. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 207–40pp.
Abstract: In addition to spectacular signatures such as black hole superradiance and the rotation of CMB polarization, the plenitude of axions appearing in the string axiverse may have potentially dangerous implications. An example is the cosmological overproduction of relic axions and moduli by the misalignment mechanism, more pronounced in regions where the signals mentioned above may be observable, that is for large axion decay constant. In this work, we study the minimal requirements to soften this problem and show that the fundamental requirement is a long period of low-scale inflation. However, in this case, if the inflationary Hubble scale is lower than around O(100) eV, no relic DM axion is produced in the early Universe. Cosmological production of some axions may be activated, via the misalignment mechanism, if their potential minimum changes between inflation and today. As a particular example, we study in detail how the maximal-misalignment mechanism dilutes the effect of dangerous axions and allows the production of axion DM in a controlled way. In this case, the potential of the axion that realises the mechanism shifts by a factor increment theta = pi between the inflationary epoch and today, and the axion starts to oscillate from the top of its potential. We also show that axions with masses m(a) similar to O(1 – 100) H-0 realising the maximal-misalignment mechanism generically behave as dark energy with a decay constant that can take values well below the Planck scale, avoiding problems associated to super-Planckian scales. Finally, we briefly study the basic phenomenological implications of the mechanism and comment on the compatibility of this type of maximally-misaligned quintessence with the swampland criteria.
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Sieber, H., Kirpichnikov, D., Voronchikhin, I. V., Crivelli, P., Gninenko, S. N., Kirsanov, M. M., et al. (2023). Probing hidden sectors with a muon beam: Implication of spin-0 dark matter mediators for the muon (g-2) anomaly and the validity of the Weiszäcker-Williams approach. Phys. Rev. D, 108(5), 056018–11pp.
Abstract: In addition to vector (V) type new particles extensively discussed previously, both CP-even (S) and CP-odd (P) spin-0 dark matter (DM) mediators can couple to muons and be produced in the bremsstrahlung reaction mu- + N -mu- + N + S(P). Their possible subsequent invisible decay into a pair of Dirac DM particles, S(P) -chi chi over bar , can be detected in fixed target experiments through missing energy signature. In this paper, we focus on the case of experiments using high-energy muon beams. For this reason, we derive the differential cross sections involved using the phase space Weiszacker-Williams approximation and compare them to the exact-tree-level calculations. The formalism derived can be applied in various experiments that could observe muon-spin-0 DM interactions. This can happen in present and future proton beam-dump experiments such as NA62, SHIP, HIKE, and SHADOWS; in muon fixed target experiments as NA64 mu, MUonE and M3; in neutrino experiments using powerful proton beams such as DUNE. In particular, we focus on the NA64 μexperiment case, which uses a 160 GeV muon beam at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator. We compute the derived cross sections, the resulting signal yields and we discuss the experiment projected sensitivity to probe the relic DM parameter space and the (g – 2)mu anomaly favored region considering 1011 and 1013 muons on target.
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Guadilla, V. et al, Tain, J. L., Algora, A., Agramunt, J., Jordan, D., Monserrate, M., et al. (2020). Determination of beta-decay ground state feeding of nuclei of importance for reactor applications. Phys. Rev. C, 102(6), 064304–12pp.
Abstract: In beta-decay studies the determination of the decay probability to the ground state (g.s.) of the daughter nucleus often suffers from large systematic errors. The difficulty of the measurement is related to the absence of associated delayed gamma-ray emission. In this work we revisit the 4 pi gamma – beta method proposed by Greenwood and collaborators in the 1990s, which has the potential to overcome some of the experimental difficulties. Our interest is driven by the need to determine accurately the beta-intensity distributions of fission products that contribute significantly to the reactor decay heat and to the antineutrinos emitted by reactors. A number of such decays have large g.s. branches. The method is relevant for nuclear structure studies as well. Pertinent formulas are revised and extended to the special case of beta-delayed neutron emitters, and the robustness of the method is demonstrated with synthetic data. We apply it to a number of measured decays that serve as test cases and discuss the features of the method. Finally, we obtain g.s. feeding intensities with reduced uncertainty for four relevant decays that will allow future improvements in antineutrino spectrum and decay heat calculations using the summation method.
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Hueso-Gonzalez, F., Casaña Copado, J. V., Fernandez Prieto, A., Gallas Torreira, A., Lemos Cid, E., Ros Garcia, A., et al. (2022). A dead-time-free data acquisition system for prompt gamma-ray measurements during proton therapy treatments. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 1033, 166701–9pp.
Abstract: In cancer patients undergoing proton therapy, a very intense secondary radiation is produced during the treatment, which lasts around one minute. About one billion prompt gamma-rays are emitted per second, and their detection with fast scintillation detectors is useful for monitoring a correct beam delivery. To cope with the expected count rate and pile-up, as well as the scarce statistics due to the short treatment duration, we developed an eidetic data acquisition system capable of continuously digitizing the detector signal with a high sampling rate and without any dead time. By streaming the fully unprocessed waveforms to the computer, complex pile-up decomposition algorithms can be applied and optimized offline. We describe the data acquisition architecture and the multiple experimental tests designed to verify the sustained data throughput speed and the absence of dead time. While the system is tailored for the proton therapy environment, the methodology can be deployed in any other field requiring the recording of raw waveforms at high sampling rates with zero dead time.
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Affolder, A. et al, Garcia, C., Lacasta, C., Marco, R., Marti-Garcia, S., Miñano, M., et al. (2011). Silicon detectors for the sLHC. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 658(1), 11–16.
Abstract: In current particle physics experiments, silicon strip detectors are widely used as part of the inner tracking layers. A foreseeable large-scale application for such detectors consists of the luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the super-LHC or sLHC, where silicon detectors with extreme radiation hardness are required. The mission statement of the CERN RD50 Collaboration is the development of radiation-hard semiconductor devices for very high luminosity colliders. As a consequence, the aim of the R&D programme presented in this article is to develop silicon particle detectors able to operate at sLHC conditions. Research has progressed in different areas, such as defect characterisation, defect engineering and full detector systems. Recent results from these areas will be presented. This includes in particular an improved understanding of the macroscopic changes of the effective doping concentration based on identification of the individual microscopic defects, results from irradiation with a mix of different particle types as expected for the sLHC, and the observation of charge multiplication effects in heavily irradiated detectors at very high bias voltages.
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Jueid, A., Kip, J., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Skands, P. (2024). The Strong Force meets the Dark Sector: a robust estimate of QCD uncertainties for anti-matter dark matter searches. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 119–48pp.
Abstract: In dark-matter annihilation channels to hadronic final states, stable particles – such as positrons, photons, antiprotons, and antineutrinos – are produced via complex sequences of phenomena including QED/QCD radiation, hadronisation, and hadron decays. These processes are normally modelled by Monte Carlo (MC) event generators whose limited accuracy imply intrinsic QCD uncertainties on the predictions for indirect-detection experiments like Fermi-LAT, Pamela, IceCube or Ams-02. In this article, we perform a comprehensive analysis of QCD uncertainties, meaning both perturbative and nonperturbative sources of uncertainty are included – estimated via variations of MC renormalization-scale and fragmentation-function parameters, respectively – in antimatter spectra from dark-matter annihilation, based on parametric variations of the Pythia 8 event generator. After performing several retunings of light-quark fragmentation functions, we define a set of variations that span a conservative estimate of the QCD uncertainties. We estimate the effects on antimatter spectra for various annihilation channels and final-state particle species, and discuss their impact on fitted values for the dark-matter mass and thermally-averaged annihilation cross section. We find dramatic impacts which can go up to O(10%) for the annihilation cross section. We provide the spectra in tabulated form including QCD uncertainties and code snippets to perform fast dark-matter fits, in this github repository.
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