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Tarifeño-Saldivia, A., & Soto, L. (2014). Effects of gas chamber geometry and gas flow on the neutron production in a fast plasma focus neutron source. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion, 56(12), 125013–5pp.
Abstract: This work reports that gas chamber geometry and gas flow management substantially affect the neutron production of a repetitive fast plasma focus. The gas flow rate is the most sensitive parameter. An appropriate design of the gas chamber combined with a suitable flow-rate management can lead to improvements in the neutron production of one order of magnitude working in a fast repetitive mode.
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Rinaldi, M., & Vento, V. (2020). Scalar spectrum in a graviton soft wall model. J. Phys. G, 47(12), 125003–16pp.
Abstract: In this study we present a unified phenomenological analysis of the scalar glueball and scalar meson spectra within an AdS/QCD framework in the bottom up approach. For this purpose we generalize the recently developed graviton soft-wall (GSW) model, which has shown an excellent agreement with the lattice QCD glueball spectrum, to a description of glueballs and mesons with a unique energy scale. In this scheme, dilatonic effects, are incorporated in the metric as a deformation of the AdS space. We apply the model also to the heavy meson spectra with success. We obtain quadratic mass equations for all scalar mesons while the glueballs satisfy an almost linear mass equation. Besides their spectra, we also discuss the mixing of scalar glueball and light scalar meson states within a unified framework: the GSW model. To this aim, the light-front (LF) holographic approach, which connects the mode functions of AdS/QCD to the LF wave functions, is applied. This relation provides the probabilistic interpretation required to properly investigate the mixing conditions.
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Marañon-Gonzalez, F. J., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2023). Adiabatic regularization for spin-1 fields. Phys. Rev. D, 108(12), 125001–11pp.
Abstract: We analyze the adiabatic regularization scheme to renormalize Proca fields in a four-dimensional Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetime. The adiabatic method is well established for scalar and spin-1/2 fields, but is not yet fully understood for spin-1 fields. We give the details of the construction and show that, in the massless limit, the renormalized stress-energy tensor of the Proca field is closely related to that of a minimally coupled scalar field. Our result is in full agreement with other approaches, based on the effective action, which also show a discontinuity in the massless limit. The scalar field can be naturally regarded as a Stueckelberg-type field. We also test the consistency of our results in de Sitter space.
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Kasieczka, G. et al, & Sanz, V. (2021). The LHC Olympics 2020: a community challenge for anomaly detection in high energy physics. Rep. Prog. Phys., 84(12), 124201–64pp.
Abstract: A new paradigm for data-driven, model-agnostic new physics searches at colliders is emerging, and aims to leverage recent breakthroughs in anomaly detection and machine learning. In order to develop and benchmark new anomaly detection methods within this framework, it is essential to have standard datasets. To this end, we have created the LHC Olympics 2020, a community challenge accompanied by a set of simulated collider events. Participants in these Olympics have developed their methods using an R&D dataset and then tested them on black boxes: datasets with an unknown anomaly (or not). Methods made use of modern machine learning tools and were based on unsupervised learning (autoencoders, generative adversarial networks, normalizing flows), weakly supervised learning, and semi-supervised learning. This paper will review the LHC Olympics 2020 challenge, including an overview of the competition, a description of methods deployed in the competition, lessons learned from the experience, and implications for data analyses with future datasets as well as future colliders.
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Bombacigno, F., Boudet, S., Olmo, G. J., & Montani, G. (2021). Big bounce and future time singularity resolution in Bianchi I cosmologies: The projective invariant Nieh-Yan case. Phys. Rev. D, 103(12), 124031.
Abstract: We extend the notion of the Nieh-Yan invariant to generic metric-affine geometries, where both torsion and nonmetricity are taken into account. Notably, we show that the properties of projective invariance and topologicity can be independently accommodated by a suitable choice of the parameters featuring this new Nieh-Yan term. We then consider a special class of modified theories of gravity able to promote the Immirzi parameter to a dynamical scalar field coupled to the Nieh-Yan form, and we discuss in more detail the dynamics of the effective scalar tensor theory stemming from such a revised theoretical framework. We focus, in particular, on cosmological Bianchi I models and we derive classical solutions where the initial singularity is safely removed in favor of a big bounce, which is ultimately driven by the nonminimal coupling with the Immirzi field. These solutions, moreover, turn out to be characterized by finite time singularities, but we show that such critical points do not spoil the geodesic completeness and wave regularity of these spacetimes.
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Rosa, J. L., Lobo, F. S. N., & Olmo, G. J. (2021). Weak-field regime of the generalized hybrid metric-Palatini gravity. Phys. Rev. D, 104(12), 124030–11pp.
Abstract: In this work we explore the dynamics of the generalized hybrid metric-Palatini theory of gravity in the weak-field, slow-motion regime. We start by introducing the equivalent scalar-tensor representation of the theory, which contains two scalar degrees of freedom, and perform a conformal transformation to the Einstein frame. Linear perturbations of the metric in a Minkowskian background are then studied for the metric and both scalar fields. The effective Newton constant and the PPN parameter. of the theory are extracted after transforming back to the (original) Jordan frame. Two particular cases where the general method ceases to be applicable are approached separately. A comparison of these results with observational constraints is then used to impose bounds on the masses and coupling constants of the scalar fields.
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Middeldorf-Wygas, M. M., Oldengott, I. M., Bödeker, D., & Schwarz, D. J. (2022). Cosmic QCD transition for large lepton flavor asymmetries. Phys. Rev. D, 105, 123533–10pp.
Abstract: We study the impact of large lepton flavor asymmetries on the cosmic QCD transition. Scenarios of unequal lepton flavor asymmetries are observationally almost unconstrained and therefore open up a whole new parameter space for the cosmic QCD transition. We find that for large asymmetries, the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of pions can occur and identify the corresponding parameter space. In the vicinity of the QCD transition scale, we express the pressure in terms of a Taylor expansion with respect to the complete set of chemical potentials. The Taylor coefficients rely on input from lattice QCD calculations from the literature. The domain of applicability of this method is discussed.
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Alicki, R., Barenboim, G., & Jenkins, A. (2023). Quantum thermodynamics of de Sitter space. Phys. Rev. D, 108(12), 123530–13pp.
Abstract: We consider the local physics of an open quantum system embedded in an expanding three-dimensional space x, evolving in cosmological time t, weakly coupled to a massless quantum field. We derive the corresponding Markovian master equation for the system's nonunitary evolution and show that, for a de Sitter space with Hubble parameter h 1/4 const, the background fields act as a physical heat bath with temperature TdS 1/4 h/2z. The energy density of this bath obeys the Stefan-Boltzmann law pdS proportional to h4. We comment on how these results clarify the thermodynamics of de Sitter space and support previous arguments for its instability in the infrared. The cosmological implications are considered in an accompanying Letter.
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Hagstotz, S., de Salas, P. F., Gariazzo, S., Pastor, S., Gerbino, M., Lattanzi, M., et al. (2021). Bounds on light sterile neutrino mass and mixing from cosmology and laboratory searches. Phys. Rev. D, 104(12), 123524–20pp.
Abstract: We present a consistent framework to set limits on properties of light sterile neutrinos coupled to all three active neutrinos using a combination of the latest cosmological data and terrestrial measurements from oscillations, beta-decay, and neutrinoless double-beta-decay (0 nu beta beta) experiments. We directly constrain the full 3 + 1 active-sterile mixing matrix elements vertical bar U-alpha 4 vertical bar(2) , with alpha is an element of (e,mu,tau), and the mass-squared splitting Delta m(41)(2) (math) m(4)(2) – m(1)(2). We find that results for a 3 + 1 case differ from previously studied 1 + 1 scenarios where the sterile is coupled to only one of the neutrinos, which is largely explained by parameter space volume effects. Limits on the mass splitting and the mixing matrix elements are currently dominated by the cosmological datasets. The exact results are slightly prior dependent, but we reliably find all matrix elements to be constrained below vertical bar U-alpha 4 vertical bar(2) less than or similar to 10(-3) . Short-baseline neutrino oscillation hints in favor of eV-scale sterile neutrinos arc in serious tension with these bounds, irrespective of prior assumptions. We also translate the bounds from the cosmological analysis into constraints on the parameters probed by laboratory searches, such as m(beta) or m(beta)(beta), the effective mass parameters probed by beta-decay and 0 nu beta beta searches, respectively. When allowing for mixing with a light sterile neutrino, cosmology leads to upper bounds of m(beta) < 0.09 eV and m(beta)(beta )< 0.07 eV at 95% CL, more stringent than the limits from current laboratory experiments.
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Servant, G., & Simakachorn, P. (2023). Constraining postinflationary axions with pulsar timing arrays. Phys. Rev. D, 108(12), 123516–16pp.
Abstract: Models that produce axionlike particles (ALPs) after cosmological inflation due to spontaneous U(1) symmetry breaking also produce cosmic-string networks. Those axionic strings lose energy through gravitational-wave emission during the whole cosmological history, generating a stochastic background of gravitational waves that spans many decades in frequency. We can therefore constrain the axion decay constant and axion mass from limits on the gravitational-wave spectrum and compatibility with dark matter abundance as well as dark radiation. We derive such limits from analyzing the most recent NANOGrav data from pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). The limits are similar to the Neff bounds on dark radiation for ALP masses ma less than or similar to 10-22 eV. On the other hand, for heavy ALPs with ma greater than or similar to 0.1 GeV and NDW not equal 1, new regions of parameter space can be probed by PTA data due to the dominant domain-wall contribution to the gravitational-wave background.
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