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Loya Villalpando, A. A., Martin-Albo, J., Chen, W. T., Guenette, R., Lego, C., Park, J. S., et al. (2020). Improving the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers through the use of metalenses. J. Instrum., 15(11), P11021–13pp.
Abstract: Metalenses are optical devices that implement nanostructures as phase shifters to focus incident light. Their compactness and simple fabrication make them a potential cost-effective solution for increasing light collection efficiency in particle detectors with limited photosensitive area coverage. Here we report on the characterization and performance of metalenses in increasing the light collection efficiency of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) of various sizes using an LED of 630 nm, and find a six to seven-fold increase in signal for a 1.3 x 1 3 mm(2) SiPM when coupled with a 10-mm-diameter metalens manufactured using deep ultraviolet stepper lithography. Such improvements could be valuable for future generations of particle detectors, particularly those employed in rare-event searches such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay.
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Martin Lozano, V., Sanda Seoane, R. M., & Zurita, J. (2023). Z'-explorer 2.0: Reconnoitering the dark matter landscape. Comput. Phys. Commun., 288, 108729–14pp.
Abstract: We introduce version 2.0 of Z'-explorer, a software tool that provides a simple, fast, and user-friendly test of models with an extra U (1) gauge boson (Z') against experimental LHC results. The main novelty of the second version is the inclusion of missing energy searches, as the first version only included final states into SM particles. Hence Z'-explorer 2.0 is able to test dark matter models where the Z' acts as an s-channel mediator between the Standard Model and the dark sector, a widespread benchmark employed by the ATLAS and CMS experimental collaborations. To this end, we perform here the first public reinterpretation of the most recent ATLAS mono-jet search with 139 fb-1. In addition, the corresponding searches in the visible final states have also been updated. We illustrate the power of our code by re -obtaining public plots and also showing novel results. In particular, we study the cases where the Z' couples strongly to top quarks (top-philic), where dark matter couples with a mixture of vector and axial-vector couplings, and also perform a scan in the parameter space of a string inspired Stuckelberg model. Z'-explorer 2.0 is publicly available on GitHub. Program summary Program Title: Z'-explorer 2.0 CPC Library link to program files: https://doi .org /10 .17632 /k7tdp8kwgf .2 Developer's repository link: https://github .com /ro -sanda /Z--explorer-2 .0 Licensing provisions: GPLv3 Programming language: C++ and bash Nature of problem: New SM neutral gauge bosons, Z', are ubiquitously present in models of New Physics. In order to confront these models versus a large and ever-growing library of LHC searches, Z'-explorer 1.0 had already included all final states including Standard Model particles. Notably, the previous version of this tool lacked the so-called invisible final states manifested as a momentum imbalance in the transverse plane (“missing energy”). These searches help to probe mediators into a dark sector, where a dark matter candidate resides. Solution method: Z'-explorer encodes the production cross sections for Z' bosons at the LHC as a function of their mass, allowing for a fast evaluation of the exclusion limits. This version of Z'-explorer includes a careful validation of the latest search with one energetic jet (mono-jet) performed by the ATLAS collaboration. Hence one can now test if a given point in parameter space is excluded by both visible and invisible searches. The modular structure of the code has been kept, which allows for potential additions (low-energy constraints, flavor, extrapolation to future colliders).
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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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Melcon, A. A., Cuendis, S. A., Cogollos, C., Diaz-Morcillo, A., Dobrich, B., Gallego, J. D., et al. (2020). Scalable haloscopes for axion dark matter detection in the 30 μeV range with RADES. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 084–28pp.
Abstract: RADES (Relic Axion Detector Exploratory Setup) is a project with the goal of directly searching for axion dark matter above the 30 μeV scale employing custom-made microwave filters in magnetic dipole fields. Currently RADES is taking data at the LHC dipole of the CAST experiment. In the long term, the RADES cavities are envisioned to take data in the BabyIAXO magnet. In this article we report on the modelling, building and characterisation of an optimised microwave-filter design with alternating irises that exploits maximal coupling to axions while being scalable in length without suffering from mode-mixing. We develop the mathematical formalism and theoretical study which justifies the performance of the chosen design. We also point towards the applicability of this formalism to optimise the MADMAX dielectric haloscopes.
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Meloni, D., Morisi, S., & Peinado, E. (2011). Neutrino phenomenology and stable dark matter with A(4). Phys. Lett. B, 697(4), 339–342.
Abstract: We present a model based on the A(4) non-Abelian discrete symmetry leading to a predictive five-parameter neutrino mass matrix and providing a stable dark matter candidate. We found an interesting correlation among the atmospheric and the reactor angles which predicts theta(23) similar to pi/4for very small reactor angle and deviation from maximal atmospheric mixing for large theta(13). Only normal neutrino mass spectrum is possible and the effective mass entering the neutrinoless double beta decay rate is constrained to be vertical bar m(ee)vertical bar > 4 x 10(-4) eV.
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