Borexino Collaboration(Bellini, G. et al), & Pena-Garay, C. (2014). Final results of Borexino Phase-I on low-energy solar neutrino spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. D, 89(11), 112007–68pp.
Abstract: Borexino has been running since May 2007 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy with the primary goal of detecting solar neutrinos. The detector a large unsegmented liquid scintillator calorimeter characterized by unprecedented low levels of intrinsic radioactivity is optimized for the study of the lower energy part of the spectrum. During Phase-I (2007-2010) Borexino first detected and then precisely measured the flux of the Be-7 solar neutrinos ruled out any significant day-night asymmetry of their interaction rate made the first direct observation of the pep neutrinos and set the tightest upper limit on the flux of solar neutrinos produced in the CNO cycle (carbon nitrogen oxigen) where carbon nitrogen and oxygen serve as catalysts in the fusion process. In this paper we discuss the signal signature and provide a comprehensive description of the backgrounds quantify their event rates describe the methods for their identification selection or subtraction and describe data analysis. Key features are an extensive in situ calibration program using radioactive sources the detailed modeling of the detector response the ability to define an innermost fiducial volume with extremely low background via software cuts and the excellent pulse-shape discrimination capability of the scintillator that allows particle identification. We report a measurement of the annual modulation of the Be-7 neutrino interaction rate. The period the amplitude and the phase of the observed modulation are consistent with the solar origin of these events and the absence of their annual modulation is rejected with higher than 99% C.L. The physics implications of Phase-I results in the context of the neutrino oscillation physics and solar models are presented.
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Binosi, D., Ibañez, D., & Papavassiliou, J. (2014). Nonperturbative study of the four gluon vertex. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 059–32pp.
Abstract: In this paper we study the nonperturbative structure of the SU(3) four-gluon vertex in the Landau gauge, concentrating on contributions quadratic in the metric. We employ an approximation scheme where “one-loop” diagrams are computed using fully dressed gluon and ghost propagators, and tree-level vertices. When a suitable kinematical configuration depending on a single momentum scale p is chosen, only two structures emerge: the tree-level four-gluon vertex, and a tensor orthogonal to it. A detailed numerical analysis reveals that the form factor associated with this latter tensor displays a change of sign (zero-crossing) in the deep infrared, and finally diverges logarithmically. The origin of this characteristic behavior is proven to be entirely due to the masslessness of the ghost propagators forming the corresponding ghost-loop diagram, in close analogy to a similar effect established for the three-gluon vertex. However, in the case at hand, and under the approximations employed, this particular divergence does not affect the form factor proportional to the tree-level tensor, which remains finite in the entire range of momenta, and deviates moderately from its naive tree-level value. It turns out that the kinematic configuration chosen is ideal for carrying out lattice simulations, because it eliminates from the connected Green's function all one-particle reducible contributions, projecting out the genuine one-particle irreducible vertex. Motivated by this possibility, we discuss in detail how a hypothetical lattice measurement of this quantity would compare to the results presented here, and the potential interference from an additional tensorial structure, allowed by Bose symmetry, but not encountered within our scheme.
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Bevan, A. J. et al, Martinez-Vidal, F., Pich, A., Azzolini, V., Bernabeu, J., Lopez-March, N., et al. (2014). The Physics of the B Factories. Eur. Phys. J. C, 74(11), 3026–916pp.
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Bertolini, S., Maiezza, A., & Nesti, F. (2014). Present and future K and B meson mixing constraints on TeV scale left-right symmetry. Phys. Rev. D, 89(9), 095028–15pp.
Abstract: We revisit the Delta F = 2 transitions in the K and B-d,B-s neutral meson systems in the context of the minimal left-right symmetric model. We take into account, in addition to up-to-date phenomenological data, the contributions related to the renormalization of the flavor-changing neutral Higgs tree-level amplitude. These contributions were neglected in recent discussions, albeit formally needed in order to obtain a gauge-independent result. Their impact on the minimal LR model is crucial and twofold. First, the effects are relevant in B meson oscillations, for both CP conserving and CP violating observables, so that for the first time these imply constraints on the LR scenario which compete with those of the K sector (plagued by long-distance uncertainties). Second, they sizably contribute to the indirect kaon CP violation parameter epsilon. We discuss the bounds from B and K mesons in both cases of LR symmetry: generalized parity (P) and charge conjugation (C). In the case of P, the interplay between the CP-violation parameters epsilon and epsilon' leads us to rule out the regime of very hierarchical bidoublet vacuum expectation values nu(2)/nu(1) < m(b)/m(t) similar or equal to 0.02. In general, by minimizing the scalar field contribution up to the limit of the perturbative regime and by definite values of the relevant CP phases in the charged right-handed currents, we find that a right-handed gauge boson W-R as light as 3 TeV is allowed at the 95% C. L. This is well within the reach of direct detection at the next LHC run. If not discovered, within a decade the upgraded LHCb and Super B factories may reach an indirect sensitivity to a left-right scale of 8 TeV.
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Bernardoni, F., Blossier, B., Bulava, J., Della Morte, M., Fritzsch, P., Garron, N., et al. (2014). The b-quark mass from non-perturbative N-f=2 Heavy Quark Effective Theory at O(1/m(h)). Phys. Lett. B, 730, 171–177.
Abstract: We report our final estimate of the b-quark mass from N-f = 2 lattice QCD simulations using Heavy Quark Effective Theory non-perturbatively matched to QCD at O(1/m(h)). Treating systematic and statistical errors in a conservative manner, we obtain (m) over bar ((MS) over bar)(b) (2 GeV) = 4.88(15) GeV after an extrapolation to the physical point.
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