LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2018). Search for CP violation using triple product asymmetries in Lambda(0)(b) -> pK(-) pi(+) pi(-), Lambda(0)(b) -> pK(-) K+ K- and Xi(0)(b) -> pK(-) K- pi(+) decays. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 039–27pp.
Abstract: A search for CP and P violation using triple- product asymmetries is performed with Lambda(0)(b) -> pK(-) pi(+) pi(-), Lambda(0)(b) -> pK(-) K+ K- and Xi(0)(b) -> pK(-) K- pi(+) decays. The data sample corresponds to integrated luminosities of 1.0 fb(-1) and 2.0 fb(-1), recorded with the LHCb detector at centre- of- mass energies of 7TeV and 8TeV, respectively. The CP- and P-violating asymmetries are measured both integrating over all phase space and in speci fi c phase- space regions. No signi fi cant deviation from CP or P symmetry is found. The fi rst observation of Lambda(0)(b) -> pK(-) chi(c0) (1P)(->pi(+) pi(-), K+ K-) decay is also reported.
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de Salas, P. F., Gariazzo, S., Mena, O., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2018). Neutrino Mass Ordering From Oscillations and Beyond: 2018 Status and Future Prospects. Front. Astron. Space Sci., 5, 36–50pp.
Abstract: The ordering of the neutrino masses is a crucial input for a deep understanding of flavor physics, and its determination may provide the key to establish the relationship among the lepton masses and mixings and their analogous properties in the quark sector. The extraction of the neutrino mass ordering is a data-driven field expected to evolve very rapidly in the next decade. In this review, we both analyse the present status and describe the physics of subsequent prospects. Firstly, the different current available tools to measure the neutrino mass ordering are described. Namely, reactor, long-baseline (accelerator and atmospheric) neutrino beams, laboratory searches for beta and neutrinoless double beta decays and observations of the cosmic background radiation and the large scale structure of the universe are carefully reviewed. Secondly, the results from an up-to-date comprehensive global fit are reported: the Bayesian analysis to the 2018 publicly available oscillation and cosmological data sets provides strong evidence for the normal neutrino mass ordering vs. the inverted scenario, with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations. This preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering is mostly due to neutrino oscillation measurements. Finally, we shall also emphasize the future perspectives for unveiling the neutrinomass ordering. In this regard, apart from describing the expectations from the aforementioned probes, we also focus on those arising from alternative and novel methods, as 21 cm cosmology, core-collapse supernova neutrinos and the direct detection of relic neutrinos.
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ATLAS and CMS Collaborations(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2018). Combination of inclusive and differential t(t)over-bar charge asymmetry measurements using ATLAS and CMS data at root S =7 and 8 TeV. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 033–68pp.
Abstract: This paper presents combinations of inclusive and differential measurements of the charge asymmetry (A(C)) in top quark pair (t(t)over-bar) events with a lepton+jets signature by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations, using data from LHC proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The data correspond to integrated luminosities of about 5 and 20 fb(-1) for each experiment, respectively. The resulting combined LHC measurements of the inclusive charge asymmetry are A(C)(LHC7) = 0.005 +/- 0.007 (stat) +/- 0.006 (syst) at 7 TeV and A(C)(LHC8) = 0.0055 +/- 0.0023 (stat) +/- 0.0025 (syst) at 8 TeV. These values, as well as the combination of A(C )measurements as a function of the invariant mass of the t(t)over-bar system at 8 TeV, are consistent with the respective standard model predictions.
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Casas, J. A., Gomez Vargas, G. A., Moreno, J. M., Quilis, J., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2018). Extended Higgs-portal dark matter and the Fermi-LAT Galactic Center Excess. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 031–16pp.
Abstract: In the present work, we show that the Galactic Center Excess (GCE) emission, as recently updated by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration, could be explained by a mixture of Fermi bubbles-like emission plus dark matter (DM) annihilation, in the context of a scalar-singlet Higgs portal scenario (SHP). In fact, the standard SHP, where the DM particle, S, only has renormalizable interactions with the Higgs, is non-operational due to strong constraints, especially from DM direct detection limits. Thus we consider the most economical extension, called ESHP (for extended SHP), which consists solely in the addition of a second (more massive) scalar singlet in the dark sector. The second scalar can be integrated-out, leaving a standard SHP plus a dimension-6 operator. Mainly, this model has only two relevant parameters (the DM mass and the coupling of the dim-6 operator). DM annihilation occurs mainly into two Higgs bosons, SS -> hh. We demonstrate that, despite its economy, the ESHP model provides an excellent fit to the GCE (with p-value similar to 0.6-0.7) for very reasonable values of the parameters, in particular, ms similar or equal to 130 GeV. This agreement of the DM candidate to the GCE properties does not clash with other observables and keep the S – particle relic density at the accepted value for the DM content in the universe.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2018). Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into two spin-zero particles in the H -> aa -> 4b channel in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 031–48pp.
Abstract: A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of spin-zero particles, H -> aa, where the a-boson decays into b-quarks promptly or with a mean proper lifetime c tau(a) up to 6 mm and has a mass in the range of 20-60GeV, is presented. The search is performed in events where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a W or Z boson, giving rise to a signature of one or two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and multiple jets from b-quark decays. The analysis is based on the dataset of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36: 1 fb(-1). No significant excess of events above the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and 95% confidence-level upper limits are derived for the production cross-sections for pp -> WH, ZH and their combination, times the branching ratio of the decay chain H -> aa -> 4b. For a-bosons which decay promptly, the upper limit on the combination of cross-sections for WH and ZH times the branching ratio of H -> aa -> 4b ranges from 3.0 pb for m(a) = 20 GeV to 1.3 pb for m(a) = 60 GeV, assuming that the ratio of WH to ZH cros-ssections follows the Standard Model prediction. For a-bosons with longer proper lifetimes, the most stringent limits are 1.8 pb and 0.68 pb, respectively, at c tau(a) similar to 0.4 mm.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., et al. (2018). The search for neutrinos from TXS 0506+056 with the ANTARES telescope. Astrophys. J. Lett., 863(2), L30–6pp.
Abstract: The results of three different searches for neutrino candidates, associated with the IceCube-170922A event or from the direction of TXS 0506+056, by the ANTARES neutrino telescope, are presented. The first search refers to the online follow-up of the IceCube alert; the second is based on the standard time-integrated method employed by the Collaboration to search for point-like neutrino sources; the third uses information from the IceCube time-dependent analysis that reported bursting activity centered on 2014 December 13, as input for an ANTARES time-dependent analysis. The online follow-up and the time-dependent analysis yield no events related to the source. The time-integrated study performed over a period from 2007 to 2017 fits 1.03 signal events, which corresponds to a p-value of 3.4% (not considering trial factors). Only for two other astrophysical objects in our candidate list has a smaller p-value been found. When considering that 107 sources have been investigated, the post-trial p-value for TXS 0506+056 corresponds to 87%.
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n_TOF Collaboration(Barbagallo, M. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., & Tain, J. L. (2018). Experimental setup and procedure for the measurement of the Be-7(n,p)Li-7 reaction at n_TOF. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 887, 27–33.
Abstract: Following the completion of the second neutron beam line and the related experimental area (EAR2) at the n_TOF spallation neutron source at CERN, several experiments were planned and performed. The high instantaneous neutron flux available in EAR2 allows to investigate neutron induced reactions with charged particles in the exit channel even employing targets made out of small amounts of short-lived radioactive isotopes. After the successful measurement of the Be-7(n,alpha)alpha cross section, the Be-7(n,p)Li-7 reaction was studied in order to provide still missing cross section data of relevance for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), in an attempt to find a solution to the cosmological Lithium abundance problem. This paper describes the experimental setup employed in such a measurement and its characterization.
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Bertone, G., Bozorgnia, N., Kim, J. S., Liem, S., McCabe, C., Otten, S., et al. (2018). Identifying WIMP dark matter from particle and astroparticle data. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 026–42pp.
Abstract: One of the most promising strategies to identify the nature of dark matter consists in the search for new particles at accelerators and with so-called direct detection experiments. Working within the framework of simplified models, and making use of machine learning tools to speed up statistical inference, we address the question of what we can learn about dark matter from a detection at the LHC and a forthcoming direct detection experiment. We show that with a combination of accelerator and direct detection data, it is possible to identify newly discovered particles as dark matter, by reconstructing their relic density assuming they are weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) thermally produced in the early Universe, and demonstrating that it is consistent with the measured dark matter abundance. An inconsistency between these two quantities would instead point either towards additional physics in the dark sector, or towards a non-standard cosmology, with a thermal history substantially different from that of the standard cosmological model.
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Kuo, J. L., Lattanzi, M., Cheung, K., & Valle, J. W. F. (2018). Decaying warm dark matter and structure formation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 026–24pp.
Abstract: We examine the cosmology of warm dark matter (WDM), both stable and decaying, from the point of view of structure formation. We compare the matter power spectrum associated to WDM masses of 1.5 keV and 0.158 keV, with that expected for the stable cold dark matter ACDM Xi SCDM paradigm, taken as our reference model. We scrutinize the effects associated to the warm nature of dark matter, as well as the fact that it decays. The decaying warm dark matter (DWDM) scenario is well-motivated, emerging in a broad class of particle physics theories where neutrino masses arise from the spontaneous breaking of a continuous global lepton number symmetry. The majoron arises as a Nambu-Goldstone boson, and picks up a mass from gravitational effects, that explicitly violate global symmetries. The majoron necessarily decays to neutrinos, with an amplitude proportional to their tiny mass, which typically gives it cosmologically long lifetimes. Using N-body simulations we show that our DWDM picture leads to a viable alternative to the ACDM scenario, with predictions that can differ substantially on small scales.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2018). Search for heavy resonances decaying into WW in the e nu μnu final state in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(1), 24–34pp.
Abstract: A search for neutral heavy resonances is performed in the WW -> e nu μnu decay channel using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of such heavy resonances is found. In the search for production via the quark-antiquark annihilation or gluon-gluon fusion process, upper limits on sigma(X) x B(X -> WW) as a function of the resonance mass are obtained in the mass range between 200 GeV and up to 5 TeV for various benchmark models: a Higgs-like scalar in different width scenarios, a two-Higgs-doublet model, a heavy vector triplet model, and a warped extra dimensions model. In the vector-boson fusion process, constraints are also obtained on these resonances, as well as on a Higgs boson in the Georgi-Machacek model and a heavy tensor particle coupling only to gauge bosons.
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