Fischer, M., Kostrzewa, B., Liu, L. M., Romero-Lopez, F., Ueding, M., & Urbach, C. (2021). Scattering of two and three physical pions at maximal isospin from lattice QCD Extended Twisted Mass Collaboration. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(5), 436–19pp.
Abstract: We present the first direct N-f = 2 lattice QCD computation of two- and three-pi(+) scattering quantities that includes an ensemble at the physical point. We study the quark mass dependence of the two-pion phase shift, and the three-particle interaction parameters. We also compare to phenomenology and chiral perturbation theory (ChPT). In the two-particle sector, we observe good agreement to the phenomenological fits in s- and d-wave, and obtain M(pi)a(0) = -0.0481(86) at the physical point from a direct computation. In the three-particle sector, we observe reasonable agreement at threshold to the leading order chiral expansion, i.e. a mildly attractive three-particle contact term. In contrast, we observe that the energy-dependent part of the three-particle quasilocal scattering quantity is not well described by leading order ChPT.
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KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Alves Garre, S., Calvo, D., Carretero, V., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2021). The KM3NeT potential for the next core-collapse supernova observation with neutrinos. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(5), 445–19pp.
Abstract: The KM3NeT research infrastructure is under construction in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of two water Cherenkov neutrino detectors, ARCA and ORCA, aimed at neutrino astrophysics and oscillation research, respectively. Instrumenting a large volume of sea water with similar to 6200 optical modules comprising a total of similar to 200,000 photomultiplier tubes, KM3NeT will achieve sensitivity to similar to 10 MeV neutrinos from Galactic and near-Galactic core-collapse supernovae through the observation of coincident hits in photomultipliers above the background. In this paper, the sensitivity of KM3NeT to a supernova explosion is estimated from detailed analyses of background data from the first KM3NeT detection units and simulations of the neutrino signal. The KM3NeT observational horizon (for a 5 sigma discovery) covers essentially the Milky-Way and for the most optimistic model, extends to the Small Magellanic Cloud (similar to 60 kpc). Detailed studies of the time profile of the neutrino signal allow assessment of the KM3NeT capability to determine the arrival time of the neutrino burst with a few milliseconds precision for sources up to 5-8 kpc away, and detecting the peculiar signature of the standing accretion shock instability if the core-collapse supernova explosion happens closer than 3-5 kpc, depending on the progenitor mass. KM3NeT's capability to measure the neutrino flux spectral parameters is also presented.
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HAWC Collaboration(Abeysekara, A. U. et al), & Salesa Greus, F. (2021). HAWC observations of the acceleration of very-high-energy cosmic rays in the Cygnus Cocoon. Nat. Astron., 4, 465–471.
Abstract: Cosmic rays with energies up to a few PeV are known to be accelerated within the Milky Way(1,2). Traditionally, it has been presumed that supernova remnants were the main source of these very-high-energy cosmic rays(3,4), but theoretically it is difficult to accelerate protons to PeV energies(5,6) and observationally there simply is no evidence of the remnants being sources of hadrons with energies above a few tens of TeV7,8. One possible source of protons with those energies is the Galactic Centre region(9). Here, we report observations of 1-100 TeV gamma rays coming from the 'Cygnus Cocoon'(10), which is a superbubble that surrounds a region of massive star formation. These gamma rays are likely produced by 10-1,000 TeV freshly accelerated cosmic rays that originate from the enclosed star-forming region Cyg OB2. Until now it was not known that such regions could accelerate particles to these energies. The measured flux likely originates from hadronic interactions. The spectral shape and the emission profile of the Cocoon changes from GeV to TeV energies, which reveals the transport of cosmic particles and historical activity in the superbubble.
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Moretti, F., Bombacigno, F., & Montani, G. (2021). The Role of Longitudinal Polarizations in Horndeski and Macroscopic Gravity: Introducing Gravitational Plasmas. Universe, 7(12), 496–28pp.
Abstract: We discuss some general and relevant features of longitudinal gravitational modes in Horndeski gravity and their interaction with matter media. Adopting a gauge-invariant formulation, we clarify how massive scalar and vector fields can induce additional transverse and longitudinal excitations, resulting in breathing, vector, and longitudinal polarizations. We review, then, the interaction of standard gravitational waves with a molecular medium, outlining the emergence of effective massive gravitons, induced by the net quadrupole moment due to molecule deformation. Finally, we investigate the interaction of the massive mode in Horndeski gravity with a noncollisional medium, showing that Landau damping phenomenon can occur in the gravitational sector as well. That allows us to introduce the concept of “gravitational plasma”, where inertial forces associated with the background field play the role of cold ions in electromagnetic plasma.
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Barenboim, G., Turner, J., & Zhou, Y. L. (2021). Light neutrino masses from gravitational condensation: the Schwinger-Dyson approach. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(6), 511–12pp.
Abstract: In this work we demonstrate that non-zero neutrino masses can be generated from gravitational interactions. We solve the Schwinger-Dyson equations to find a non-trivial vacuum thereby determining the neutrino condensate scale and the number of new particle degrees of freedom required for gravitationally induced dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. We show for minimal beyond the Standard Model particle content, the scale of the condensation occurs close to the Planck scale.
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