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Bruce, R. et al, & Lari, L. (2014). Simulations and measurements of beam loss patterns at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Phys. Rev. Spec. Top.-Accel. Beams, 17(8), 081004–16pp.
Abstract: The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to collide proton beams of unprecedented energy, in order to extend the frontiers of high-energy particle physics. During the first very successful running period in 2010-2013, the LHC was routinely storing protons at 3.5-4 TeV with a total beam energy of up to 146 MJ, and even higher stored energies are foreseen in the future. This puts extraordinary demands on the control of beam losses. An uncontrolled loss of even a tiny fraction of the beam could cause a superconducting magnet to undergo a transition into a normal-conducting state, or in the worst case cause material damage. Hence a multistage collimation system has been installed in order to safely intercept high-amplitude beam protons before they are lost elsewhere. To guarantee adequate protection from the collimators, a detailed theoretical understanding is needed. This article presents results of numerical simulations of the distribution of beam losses around the LHC that have leaked out of the collimation system. The studies include tracking of protons through the fields of more than 5000 magnets in the 27 km LHC ring over hundreds of revolutions, and Monte Carlo simulations of particle-matter interactions both in collimators and machine elements being hit by escaping particles. The simulation results agree typically within a factor 2 with measurements of beam loss distributions from the previous LHC run. Considering the complex simulation, which must account for a very large number of unknown imperfections, and in view of the total losses around the ring spanning over 7 orders of magnitude, we consider this an excellent agreement. Our results give confidence in the simulation tools, which are used also for the design of future accelerators.
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Alvarez-Ruso, L., Hayato, Y., & Nieves, J. (2014). Progress and open questions in the physics of neutrino cross sections at intermediate energies. New J. Phys., 16, 075015–62pp.
Abstract: New and more precise measurements of neutrino cross sections have renewed interest in a better understanding of electroweak interactions on nucleons and nuclei. This effort is crucial to achieving the precision goals of the neutrino oscillation program, making new discoveries, like the CP violation in the leptonic sector, possible. We review the recent progress in the physics of neutrino cross sections, putting emphasis on the open questions that arise in the comparison with new experimental data. Following an overview of recent neutrino experiments and future plans, we present some details about the theoretical development in the description of (anti) neutrino-induced quasielastic (QE) scattering and the role of multi-nucleon QE-like mechanisms. We cover not only pion production in nucleons and nuclei but also other inelastic channels including strangeness production and photon emission. Coherent reaction channels on nuclear targets are also discussed. Finally, we briefly describe some of the Monte Carlo event generators, which are at the core of all neutrino oscillation and cross-section measurements.
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Hernandez, P., Kekic, M., & Lopez-Pavon, J. (2014). Low-scale seesaw models versus N-eff. Phys. Rev. D, 89(7), 073009–7pp.
Abstract: We consider the contribution of the extra sterile states in generic low-scale seesaw models to extra radiation, parametrized by N-eff. We find that the value of Neff is roughly independent of the seesaw scale within a wide range. We explore the full parameter space in the case of two extra sterile states and find that these models are strongly constrained by cosmological data for any value of the seesaw scale below O(100 MeV).
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Helo, J. C., Kovalenko, S. G., & Hirsch, M. (2014). Heavy neutrino searches at the LHC with displaced vertices. Phys. Rev. D, 89(7), 073005–7pp.
Abstract: Sterile neutrinos with masses in the range of 1-100 GeV have been searched for in a variety of experiments. Here, we discuss the prospects of searching for sterile neutrinos at the LHC using displaced vertices. Two different cases are discussed: (i) the standard model extended with sterile neutrinos, and (ii) right-handed neutrinos in a left-right symmetric extension of the standard model. A dedicated displaced vertex search will allow us to probe parts of the parameter space not accessible to other searches, but both cases will require a large luminosity.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2014). Study of heavy-flavor quarks produced in association with top-quark pairs at root s=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 89(7), 072012–23pp.
Abstract: Using a sample of dilepton top-quark pair ((tt) over bar) candidate events, a study is performed of the production of top-quark pairs together with heavy-flavor (HF) quarks, the sum of (tt) over bar + b + X and (tt) over bar + c + X, collectively referred to as (tt) over bar + HF. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The presence of additional HF (b or c) quarks in the (tt) over bar sample is inferred by looking for events with at least three b-tagged jets, where two are attributed to the b quarks from the (tt) over bar decays and the third to additional HF production. The dominant background to (tt) over bar + HF in this sample is (tt) over bar + jet events in which a light-flavor jet is misidentified as a heavy-flavor jet. To determine the heavy-and light-flavor content of the additional b-tagged jets, a fit to the vertex mass distribution of b-tagged jets in the sample is performed. The result of the fit shows that 79 +/- 14 (stat) +/- 22 (syst) of the 105 selected extra b-tagged jets originate from HF quarks, 3 standard deviations away from the hypothesis of zero (tt) over bar + HF production. The result for extra HF production is quoted as a ratio (R-HF) of the cross section for (tt) over bar + HF production to the cross section for (tt) over bar production with at least one additional jet. Both cross sections are measured in a fiducial kinematic region within the ATLAS acceptance. R-HF is measured to be [6.2 +/- 1.1(stat) +/- 1.8 (syst)]% for jets with p(T) > 25 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5, in agreement with the expectations from Monte Carlo generators.
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2014). Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current interaction cross section by observing nuclear deexcitation gamma rays. Phys. Rev. D, 90(7), 072012–11pp.
Abstract: We report the first measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic (NCQE) cross section gamma It is obtained by observing nuclear deexcitation. rays which follow neutrino-oxygen interactions at the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector. We use T2K data corresponding to 3.01 x 10(20) protons on target. By selecting only events during the T2K beam window and with well-reconstructed vertices in the fiducial volume, the large background rate from natural radioactivity is dramatically reduced. We observe 43 events in the 4-30 MeV reconstructed energy window, compared with an expectation of 51.0, which includes an estimated 16.2 background events. The background is primarily nonquasielastic neutral-current interactions and has only 1.2 events from natural radioactivity. The flux-averaged NCQE cross section we measure is 1.55 x 10(-38) cm(2) with a 68% confidence interval of (1.22, 2.20) x 10(-38) cm(2) at a median neutrino energy of 630 MeV, compared with the theoretical prediction of 2.01 x 10(-38) cm(2).
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., Fiorini, L., et al. (2014). Search for the lepton flavor violating decay Z -> e μin pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 90(7), 072010–19pp.
Abstract: The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for the lepton flavor violating process Z -> e μin pp collisions using 20.3 fb(-1) of data collected at root s = 8 TeV. An enhancement in the e μinvariant mass spectrum is searched for at the Z-boson mass. The number of Z bosons produced in the data sample is estimated using events of similar topology, Z -> ee and μmu, significantly reducing the systematic uncertainty in the measurement. There is no evidence of an enhancement at the Z-boson mass, resulting in an upper limit on the branching fraction, B(Z -> e mu) < 7.5 x 10(-7) at the 95% confidence level.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2014). Measurements of normalized differential cross sections for t(t)over-bar production in pp collisions at root(s)=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 90(7), 072004–42pp.
Abstract: Measurements of normalized differential cross sections for top-quark pair production are presented as a function of the top-quark transverse momentum, and of the mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity of the t (t) over bar system, in proton proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1), recorded in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in the lepton jets channel, requiring exactly one lepton and at least four jets with at least one of the jets tagged as originating from a b-quark. The measured spectra are corrected for detector efficiency and resolution effects and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations and theory calculations. The results are in fair agreement with the predictions in a wide kinematic range. Nevertheless, data distributions are softer than predicted for higher values of the mass of the t (t) over bar system and of the top-quark transverse momentum. The measurements can also discriminate among different sets of parton distribution functions.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2014). Dalitz plot analysis of B-s(0) -> (D)over-bar(0)K(-)pi(+) decays. Phys. Rev. D, 90(7), 072003–29pp.
Abstract: The resonant substructure of B-s(0) -> (D) over bar K-0(-)pi(+) decays is studied with the Dalitz plot analysis technique. The study is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) of pp collision data recorded by LHCb. A structure at m((D) over bar K-0(-)) approximate to 2.86 GeV/c(2) is found to be an admixture of spin-1 and spin-3 resonances. The masses and widths of these states and of the D-s2*(2573)(-) meson are measured, as are the complex amplitudes and fit fractions for all the (D) over bar K-0(-) and K-pi(-) components included in the amplitude model. In addition, the D-s2*(2573)(-) resonance is confirmed to be spin 2.
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Adey, D. et al, Cervera-Villanueva, A., Donini, A., Ghosh, T., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Hernandez, P., et al. (2014). Light sterile neutrino sensitivity at the nuSTORM facility. Phys. Rev. D, 89(7), 071301–7pp.
Abstract: A facility that can deliver beams of electron and muon neutrinos from the decay of a stored muon beam has the potential to unambiguously resolve the issue of the evidence for light sterile neutrinos that arises in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and from estimates of the effective number of neutrino flavors from fits to cosmological data. In this paper, we show that the nuSTORM facility, with stored muons of 3.8 GeV/c +/- 10%, will be able to carry out a conclusive muon neutrino appearance search for sterile neutrinos and test the LSND and MiniBooNE experimental signals with 10 sigma sensitivity, even assuming conservative estimates for the systematic uncertainties. This experiment would add greatly to our knowledge of the contribution of light sterile neutrinos to the number of effective neutrino flavors from the abundance of primordial helium production and from constraints on neutrino energy density from the cosmic microwave background. The appearance search is complemented by a simultaneous muon neutrino disappearance analysis that will facilitate tests of various sterile neutrino models.
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