Mena, O., Razzaque, S., & Villaescusa-Navarro, F. (2011). Signatures of photon and axion-like particle mixing in the gamma-ray burst jet. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 030–16pp.
Abstract: Photons couple to Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) or more generally to any pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson in the presence of an external electromagnetic field. Mixing between photons and ALPs in the strong magnetic field of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) jet during the prompt emission phase can leave observable imprints on the gamma-ray polarization and spectrum. Mixing in the intergalactic medium is not expected to modify these signatures for ALP mass > 10(-14) eV and/or for < nG magnetic field. We show that the depletion of photons due to conversion to ALPs changes the linear degree of polarization from the values predicted by the synchrotron model of gamma ray emission. We also show that when the magnetic field orientation in the propagation region is perpendicular to the field orientation in the production region, the observed synchrotron spectrum becomes steeper than the theoretical prediction and as detected in a sizable fraction of GRB sample. Detection of the correlated polarization and spectral signatures from these steep-spectrum GRBs by gamma-ray polarimeters can be a very powerful probe to discover ALPs. Measurement of gamma-ray polarization from GRBs in general, with high statistics, can also be useful to search for ALPs.
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Heinze, M., & Malinsky, M. (2011). Flavor structure of supersymmetric SO(10) GUTs with extended matter sector. Phys. Rev. D, 83(3), 035018–16pp.
Abstract: We discuss in detail the flavor structure of the supersymmetric SOd(10) grand unified models with the three traditional 16-dimensional matter spinors mixed with a set of extra ten-dimensional vector multiplets which can provide the desired sensitivity of the standard model matter spectrum to the grand unified theory symmetry breakdown at the renormalizable level. We put the qualitative argument that a successful fit of the quark and lepton data requires an active participation of more than a single vector matter multiplet on a firm, quantitative ground. We find that the strict no-go obtained for the fits of the charged-sector observables in case of a single active matter 10 is relaxed if a second vector multiplet is added to the matter sector and excellent, though nontrivial, fits can be devised. Exploiting the unique calculable part of the neutrino mass matrix governed by the SUd(2)(L) triplet in the 54-dimensional Higgs multiplet, a pair of genuine predictions of the current setting is identified: a nonzero value of the leptonic 1-3 mixing close to the current 90% C.L. limit and a small leptonic Dirac CP phase are strongly preferred by all solutions with the global-fit chi(2) values below 50.
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Bertone, G., Kong, K. C., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2011). Global fits of the minimal universal extra dimensions scenario. Phys. Rev. D, 83(3), 036008–15pp.
Abstract: In theories with universal extra dimensions (UED), the gamma(1) particle, first excited state of the hypercharge gauge boson, provides an excellent dark matter (DM) candidate. Here, we use a modified version of the SUPERBAYES code to perform a Bayesian analysis of the minimal UED scenario, in order to assess its detectability at accelerators and with DM experiments. We derive, in particular, the most probable range of mass and scattering cross sections off nucleons, keeping into account cosmological and electroweak precision constraints. The consequences for the detectability of the gamma(1) with direct and indirect experiments are dramatic. The spin-independent cross section probability distribution peaks at similar to 10(-11) pb, i.e. below the sensitivity of ton-scale experiments. The spin-dependent cross section drives the predicted neutrino flux from the center of the Sun below the reach of present and upcoming experiments. The only strategy that remains open appears to be direct detection with ton-scale experiments sensitive to spin-dependent cross sections. On the other hand, the LHC with 1 fb(-1) of data should be able to probe the current best-fit UED parameters.
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BABAR Collaboration(del Amo Sanchez, P. et al), Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., Milanes, D. A., & Oyanguren, A. (2011). Measurement of the B -> D(bar)(*) D(*) K branching fractions. Phys. Rev. D, 83(3), 032004–16pp.
Abstract: We present a measurement of the branching fractions of the 22 decay channels of the B-0 and B+ mesons to (D) over bar (()*()) D-(*()) K, where the D-(*()) and (D) over bar (()*()) mesons are fully reconstructed. Summing the 10 neutral modes and the 12 charged modes, the branching fractions are found to be B(B-0 -> (D) over bar (()*()) D-(*()) K) = (3.68 +/- 0.10 +/- 0.24)% and B(B+ -> (D) over bar (()*()) D-(*()) K) = (4.05 +/- 0.11 +/- 0.28)%, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The results are based on 429 fb(-1) of data containing 471 X 10(6)B (B) over bar pairs collected at the Y(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
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Bridges, M., Cranmer, K., Feroz, F., Hobson, M., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2011). A coverage study of the CMSSM based on ATLAS sensitivity using fast neural networks techniques. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 012–23pp.
Abstract: We assess the coverage properties of confidence and credible intervals on the CMSSM parameter space inferred from a Bayesian posterior and the profile likelihood based on an ATLAS sensitivity study. In order to make those calculations feasible, we introduce a new method based on neural networks to approximate the mapping between CMSSM parameters and weak-scale particle masses. Our method reduces the computational effort needed to sample the CMSSM parameter space by a factor of similar to 10(4) with respect to conventional techniques. We find that both the Bayesian posterior and the profile likelihood intervals can significantly over-cover and identify the origin of this effect to physical boundaries in the parameter space. Finally, we point out that the effects intrinsic to the statistical procedure are conflated with simplifications to the likelihood functions from the experiments themselves.
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