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n_TOF Collaboration(Mastromarco, M. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., & Tain, J. L. (2022). High accuracy, high resolution U-235(n,f) cross section from n_TOF (CERN) from 18 meV to 10 keV. Eur. Phys. J. A, 58(8), 147–13pp.
Abstract: The U-235(n,f) cross section was measured in a wide energy range (18 meV-170 keV) at the nTOF facility at CERN, relative to Li-6(n,t) and B-10(n,alpha) standard reactions, with high resolution and accuracy, with a setup based on a stack of six samples and six silicon detectors placed in the neutron beam. In this paper we report on the results in the region between 18 meV and 10 keV neutron energy. A resonance analysis has been performed up to 200 eV, with the code SAMMY. The resulting fission kernels are compared with the ones extracted on the basis of the resonance parameters of the most recent major evaluated data libraries. A comparison of the nTOF data with the evaluated cross sections is also performed from thermal to 10 keV neutron energy for the energy-averaged cross section in energy groups of suitably chosen width. A good agreement, within 0.5%, is found on average between the new results and the latest evaluated data files ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3, as well as with respect to the broad group average fission cross section established in the framework of the standard working group of IAEA (the so-called reference file). However, some discrepancies, of up to 4%, are still present in some specific energy regions. The new dataset here presented, characterized by a unique combination of high resolution and accuracy, low background and wide energy range, can help to improve the evaluations from the Resolved Resonance Region up to 10 keV, also reducing the uncertainties that affect this region.
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Massimi, C., Cristallo, S., Domingo-Pardo, C., & Lederer-Woods, C. (2022). n_TOF: Measurements of Key Reactions of Interest to AGB Stars. Universe, 8(2), 100–19pp.
Abstract: In the last 20 years, the neutron time-of-flight facility nTOF at CERN has been providing relevant data for the astrophysical slow neutron capture process (s process). At nTOF, neutron-induced radiative capture (n,gamma) as well as (n,p) and (n,alpha) reaction cross sections are measured as a function of energy, using the time-of-flight method. Improved detection systems, innovative ideas and collaborations with other neutron facilities have lead to a considerable contribution of the n_TOF collaboration to studying the s process in asymptotic giant branch stars. Results have been reported for stable and radioactive samples, i.e.,Mg- 24,Mg-25,Mg-26, Al-26, S-33,Fe- 54,Fe-57, Ni-58,Ni-59,Ni-62,Ni-63, Ge-70,Ge-72,Ge-73, Zr-90,Zr-91,Zr-92,Zr-93,Zr-94,Zr-96, La-139, Ce-140, Pm-147, Sm-151,Gd- 154,Gd-155,Gd-157, Tm-171, Os-186,Os-187,Os-188, Au-197, Tl-203,Tl-204,Pb- 204,Pb-206,Pb-207 and Bi-209 isotopes, while others are being studied or planned to be studied in the near future. In this contribution, we present an overview of the most successful achievements, and an outlook of future challenging measurements, including ongoing detection system developments.
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Martinez-Mirave, P., Molina Sedgwick, S., & Tortola, M. (2022). Nonstandard interactions from the future neutrino solar sector. Phys. Rev. D, 105(3), 035004–14pp.
Abstract: The next-generation neutrino experiment JUNO will determine the solar oscillation parameters- sin(2) theta(12) and Delta m(21)(2)-with great accuracy, in addition to measuring sin(2)theta(13), Delta m(31)(2), and the mass ordering. In parallel, the continued study of solar neutrinos at Hyper-Kamiokande will provide complementary measurements in the solar sector. In this paper, we address the expected sensitivity to nonuniversal and flavor-changing nonstandard interactions (NSI) with d-type quarks from the combination of these two future neutrino experiments. We also show the robustness of their measurements of the solar parameters sin(2)theta(12) and Delta m(2)(1)(2) in the presence of NSI. We study the impact of the exact experimental configuration of the Hyper-Kamiokande detector, and conclude it is of little relevance in this scenario. Finally, we find that the LMA-D solution is expected to be present if no additional input from nonoscillation experiments is considered.
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Martinez de Lejarza, J. J., Cieri, L., & Rodrigo, G. (2022). Quantum clustering and jet reconstruction at the LHC. Phys. Rev. D, 106(3), 036021–16pp.
Abstract: Clustering is one of the most frequent problems in many domains, in particular, in particle physics where jet reconstruction is central in experimental analyses. Jet clustering at the CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is computationally expensive and the difficulty of this task will increase with the upcoming High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). In this paper, we study the case in which quantum computing algorithms might improve jet clustering by considering two novel quantum algorithms which may speed up the classical jet clustering algorithms. The first one is a quantum subroutine to compute a Minkowski-based distance between two data points, whereas the second one consists of a quantum circuit to track the maximum into a list of unsorted data. The latter algorithm could be of value beyond particle physics, for instance in statistics. When one or both of these algorithms are implemented into the classical versions of well-known clustering algorithms (K-means, affinity propagation, and k(T) -jet) we obtain efficiencies comparable to those of their classical counterparts. Even more, exponential speed-up could be achieved, in the first two algorithms, in data dimensionality and data length when the distance algorithm or the maximum searching algorithm are applied.
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Martinelli, M., Scarcella, F., Hogg, N. B., Kavanagh, B. J., Gaggero, D., & Fleury, P. (2022). Dancing in the dark: detecting a population of distant primordial black holes. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 006–47pp.
Abstract: Primordial black holes (PBHs) are compact objects proposed to have formed in the early Universe from the collapse of small-scale over-densities. Their existence may be detected from the observation of gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by PBH mergers, if the signals can be distinguished from those produced by the merging of astrophysical black holes. In this work, we forecast the capability of the Einstein Telescope, a proposed third-generation GW observatory, to identify and measure the abundance of a subdominant population of distant PBHs, using the difference in the redshift evolution of the merger rate of the two populations as our discriminant. We carefully model the merger rates and generate realistic mock catalogues of the luminosity distances and errors that would be obtained from GW signals observed by the Einstein Telescope. We use two independent statistical methods to analyse the mock data, finding that, with our more powerful, likelihood-based method, PBH abundances as small as fPBH approximate to 7 x 10(-6) ( fPBH approximate to 2 x 10(-6)) would be distinguishable from f(PBH) = 0 at the level of 3 sigma with a one year (ten year) observing run of the Einstein Telescope. Our mock data generation code, darksirens, is fast, easily extendable and publicly available on GitLab.
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Mandic, I., Cindro, V., Debevc, J., Gorisek, A., Hiti, B., Kramberger, G., et al. (2022). Study of neutron irradiation effects in Depleted CMOS detector structures. J. Instrum., 17(3), P03030–13pp.
Abstract: In this paper the results of Edge-TCT and I-V measurements with passive test structures made in LFoundry 150 nm HV-CMOS process on p-type substrates with different initial resistivities ranging from 0.5 to 3 k Omega cm are presented. Samples were irradiated with reactor neutrons up to a fluence of 2.10(15) n(eq)/cm(2). The depletion depth was measured with Edge-TCT. The effective space charge concentration N-eff was estimated from the dependence of the depletion depth on bias voltage and studied as a function of neutron fluence. The dependence of N-eff on fluence changes with initial acceptor concentration in agreement with other measurements with p-type silicon. A long term accelerated annealing study of N-eff and detector current up to 1280 minutes at 60 degrees C was made. It was found that N-eff and current in reverse biased detector behave as expected for irradiated silicon.
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Mandal, S., Miranda, O. G., Sanchez Garcia, G., Valle, J. W. F., & Xu, X. J. (2022). Toward deconstructing the simplest seesaw mechanism. Phys. Rev. D, 105(9), 095020–32pp.
Abstract: The triplet or type-II seesaw mechanism is the simplest way to endow neutrinos with mass in the Standard Model (SM). Here we review its associated theory and phenomenology, including restrictions from S, T, U parameters, neutrino experiments, charged lepton flavor violation as well as collider searches. We also examine restrictions coming from requiring consistency of electroweak symmetry breaking, i.e., perturbative unitarity and stability of the vacuum. Finally, we discuss novel effects associated to the scalar mediator of neutrino mass generation namely, (i) rare processes, e.g., l(alpha)-> l(beta)gamma decays, at the intensity frontier, and also (ii) four-lepton signatures in colliders at the high-energy frontier. These can be used to probe neutrino properties in an important way, providing a test of the absolute neutrino mass and mass ordering, as well as of the atmospheric octant. They may also provide the first evidence for charged lepton flavor violation in nature. In contrast, neutrino nonstandard interaction strengths are found to lie below current detectability.
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Mandal, S., Miranda, O. G., Sanchez Garcia, G., Valle, J. W. F., & Xu, X. J. (2022). High-energy colliders as a probe of neutrino properties. Phys. Lett. B, 829, 137110–5pp.
Abstract: The mediators of neutrino mass generation can provide a probe of neutrino properties at the next round of high-energy hadron (FCC-hh) and lepton colliders (FCC-ee/ILC/CEPC/CLIC). We show how the decays of the Higgs triplet scalars mediating the simplest seesaw mechanism can shed light on the neutrino mass scale and mass-ordering, as well as the atmospheric octant. Four-lepton signatures at the high-energy frontier may provide the discovery-site for charged lepton flavor non-conservation in nature, rather than low-energy intensity frontier experiments.
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Majumdar, A., Papoulias, D. K., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2022). Physics implications of recent Dresden-II reactor data. Phys. Rev. D, 106(9), 093010–14pp.
Abstract: Prompted by the recent Dresden-II reactor data, we examine its implications for the determination of the weak mixing angle, paying attention to the effect of the quenching function. We also determine the resulting constraints on the unitarity of the neutrino mixing matrix, as well as on the most general type of nonstandard neutral-current neutrino interactions.
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Magalhaes, R. B., Crispino, L. C. B., & Olmo, G. J. (2022). Compact objects in quadratic Palatini gravity generated by a free scalar field. Phys. Rev. D, 105(6), 064007–15pp.
Abstract: We study the correspondence that connects the space of solutions of general relativity (GR) with that of Ricci-based gravity theories (RBGs) of the f(R, Q) type in the metric-affinc formulation, where Q = R(mu nu)R(mu nu). We focus on the case of scalar matter and show that when one considers a free massless scalar in the GR frame, important simplifications arise that allow one to establish the correspondence for arbitrary f (R, Q) Lagrangian. We particularize the analysis to a quadratic f (R, Q) theory and use the spherically symmetric, static solution of Jannis-Newman-Winicour as seed to generate new compact objects in our target theory. We find that two different types of solutions emerge, one representing naked singularities and another corresponding to asymmetric wormholes with bounded curvature scalars everywhere. The latter solutions, nonetheless, are geodesically incomplete.
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