Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abraham, J. et al), & Pastor, S. (2010). Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 10(18) eV. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104(9), 091101–7pp.
Abstract: We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, X-max, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost 4000 events above 10(18) eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to evolve with energy at a rate of (106 +/- 35-21) g/cm(2)/decade below 10(18.24) +/- (0.05) eV, and d24 +/- 3 g/cm(2)/ecade above this energy. The measured shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 g/cm(2). The interpretation of these results in terms of the cosmic ray mass composition is briefly discussed.
|
Mena, O., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Vincent, A. C. (2014). Flavor Composition of the High-Energy Neutrino Events in IceCube. Phys. Rev. Lett., 113(9), 091103–5pp.
Abstract: The IceCube experiment has recently reported the observation of 28 high-energy (> 30 TeV) neutrino events, separated into 21 showers and 7 muon tracks, consistent with an extraterrestrial origin. In this Letter, we compute the compatibility of such an observation with possible combinations of neutrino flavors with relative proportion (alpha(e:)alpha(mu):alpha tau)(circle plus). Although the 7: 21 track-to-shower ratio is naively favored for the canonical (1:1:1)(circle plus) at Earth, this is not true once the atmospheric muon and neutrino backgrounds are properly accounted for. We find that, for an astrophysical neutrino E-2 energy spectrum, (1:1:1)(circle plus). at Earth is disfavored at 81% C. L. If this proportion does not change, 6 more years of data would be needed to exclude (1:1:1)(circle plus) at Earth at 3 sigma C.L. Indeed, with the recently released 3-yr data, that flavor composition is excluded at 92% C. L. The best fit is obtained for (1:0:0)(circle plus). at Earth, which cannot be achieved from any flavor ratio at sources with averaged oscillations during propagation. If confirmed, this result would suggest either a misunderstanding of the expected background events or a misidentification of tracks as showers, or even more compellingly, some exotic physics which deviates from the standard scenario.
|
XENON Collaboration(Aprile, E. et al), & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2015). Search for Event Rate Modulation in XENON100 Electronic Recoil Data. Phys. Rev. Lett., 115(9), 091302–6pp.
Abstract: We have searched for periodic variations of the electronic recoil event rate in the (2-6) keVenergy range recorded between February 2011 and March 2012 with the XENON100 detector, adding up to 224.6 live days in total. Following a detailed study to establish the stability of the detector and its background contributions during this run, we performed an unbinned profile likelihood analysis to identify any periodicity up to 500 days. We find a global significance of less than 1 sigma for all periods, suggesting no statistically significant modulation in the data. While the local significance for an annual modulation is 2.8 sigma, the analysis of a multiple-scatter control sample and the phase of the modulation disfavor a dark matter interpretation. The DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation interpreted as a dark matter signature with axial-vector coupling of weakly interacting massive particles to electrons is excluded at 4.8 sigma.
|
CDF Collaboration(Aaltonen, T. et al), & Cabrera, S. (2010). Search for New Bottomlike Quark Pair Decays Q(Q)over-bar -> (tW +/-)((t)over-barW +/- in Same-Charge Dileption Events. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104(9), 091801–8pp.
Abstract: We report the most restrictive direct limits on masses of fourth- generation down- type quarks b0, and quarklike composite fermions (B or T5= 3), decaying promptly to tW -/+. We search for a significant excess of events with two same- charge leptons (e, mu), several hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy. An analysis of data from pp collisions with an integrated luminosity of 2: 7 fb = 1 collected with the CDF II detector at Fermilab yields no evidence for such a signal, setting mass limits mb0, mB > 338 GeV= c2 and mT5= 3 > 365 GeV= c2 at 95% confidence level.
|
ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2015). Measurements of the Total and Differential Higgs Boson Production Cross Sections Combining the H -> gamma gamma and H -> ZZ* -> 4l Decay Channels at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS Detector. Phys. Rev. Lett., 115(9), 091801–19pp.
Abstract: Measurements of the total and differential cross sections of Higgs boson production are performed using 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Cross sections are obtained from measured H -> gamma gamma and H -> ZZ*. 4l event yields, which are combined accounting for detector efficiencies, fiducial acceptances, and branching fractions. Differential cross sections are reported as a function of Higgs boson transverse momentum, Higgs boson rapidity, number of jets in the event, and transverse momentum of the leading jet. The total production cross section is determined to be sigma(pp -> H) = 33.0 +/- 5.3 (stat) +/- 1.6 (syst) pb. The measurements are compared to state-of-the-art predictions.
|
