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NEXT Collaboration(Ferrario, P. et al), Laing, A., Lopez-March, N., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., et al. (2016). First proof of topological signature in the high pressure xenon gas TPC with electroluminescence amplification for the NEXT experiment. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 104–18pp.
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 in a high-pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescence (EL) to amplify the signal from ionization. One of the main advantages of this technology is the possibility to reconstruct the topology of events with energies close to Q(beta beta). This paper presents the first demonstration that the topology provides extra handles to reject background events using data obtained with the NEXT-DEMO prototype. Single electrons resulting from the interactions of Na-22 1275 keV gammas and electron-positron pairs produced by conversions of gammas from the Th-228 decay chain were used to represent the background and the signal in a double beta decay. These data were used to develop algorithms for the reconstruction of tracks and the identification of the energy deposited at the end-points, providing an extra background rejection factor of 24.3 +/- 1.4 (stat.)%, while maintaining an efficiency of 66.7 +/- 1.% for signal events.
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Flores-Tlalpa, A., Lopez Castro, G., & Roig, P. (2016). Five-body leptonic decays of muon and tau lepton. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 185–21pp.
Abstract: We study the five-body decays u(-) -> e(-)e(+)e(-)nu u (nu) over bar (e) and tau(-) -> l(-)l'+l'-nu(tau)(nu) over bar (l) for l, l' = e, u within the Standard Model (SM) and in a general effective field theory description of the weak interactions at low energies. We compute the branching ratios and compare our results with two previous – mutually discrepan – SM calculations. By assuming a general structure for the weak currents we derive the expressions for the energy and angular distributions of the three charged leptons when the decaying lepton is polarized, which will be useful in precise tests of the weak charged current at Belle II. In these decays, leptonic T-odd correlations in triple products of spin and momenta – which may signal time reversal violation in the leptonic sector – are suppressed by the tiny neutrino masses. Therefore, a measurement of such T-violating observables would be associated to neutrinoless lepton flavor violating (LFV) decays, where this effect is not extremely suppressed. We also study the backgrounds that the SM five-lepton lepton decays constitute to searches of LFV L- -> ? l(-)l'+l'(-) decays. Searches at high values of the invariant mass of the l'(+)l'(-) pair look the most convenient way to overcome the background.
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Fonseca, R. M., & Hirsch, M. (2016). Lepton number violation in 331 models. Phys. Rev. D, 94(11), 115003–16pp.
Abstract: Different models based on the extended SU(3)(C) x SU(3)(L) x U(1)(X) (331) gauge group have been proposed over the past four decades. Yet, despite being an active research topic, the status of lepton number in 331 models has not been fully addressed in the literature, and furthermore many of the original proposals can not explain the observed neutrino masses. In this paper we review the basic features of various 331 models, focusing on potential sources of lepton number violation. We then describe different modifications which can be made to the original models in order to accommodate neutrino (and charged lepton) masses.
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Fonseca, R. M., & Hirsch, M. (2016). A flipped 331 model. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 003–12pp.
Abstract: Models based on the extended SU(3)(C) x SU(3)(L) x U(1)(X) (331) gauge group usually follow a common pattern: two families of left-handed quarks are placed in anti triplet representations of the SU(3)(L) group; the remaining quark family, as well as the left-handed leptons, are assigned to triplets (or vice-versa). In this work we present a flipped 331 model where this scheme is reversed: all three quark families are in the same representation and it is the lepton families which are discriminated by the gauge symmetry. We discuss fermion masses and mixing, as well as Z' interactions, in a minimal model implementing this idea.
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Fuentes-Martin, J., Portoles, J., & Ruiz-Femenia, P. (2016). Integrating out heavy particles with functional methods: a simplified framework. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 156–26pp.
Abstract: We present a systematic procedure to obtain the one-loop low-energy effective Lagrangian resulting from integrating out the heavy fields of a given ultraviolet theory. We show that the matching coefficients are determined entirely by the hard region of the functional determinant involving the heavy fields. This represents an important simplification with respect the conventional matching approach, where the full and effective theory contributions have to be computed separately and a cancellation of the infrared divergent parts has to take place. We illustrate the method with a descriptive toy model and with an extension of the Standard Model with a heavy real scalar triplet. A comparison with other schemes that have been put forward recently is also provided.
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