ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2020). Search for the HH ->b bbar b bbar process via vector-boson fusion production using proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 108–37pp.
Abstract: A search for Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion (VBF) in the b bbar b bbar final state is carried out with the ATLAS experiment using 126 fb(-1) of proton- proton collision data delivered at root s = 13 TeV by the Large Hadron Collider. This search is sensitive to VBF production of additional heavy bosons that may decay into Higgs boson pairs, and in a non-resonant topology it can constrain the quartic coupling between the Higgs bosons and vector bosons. No significant excess relative to the Standard Model expectation is observed, and limits on the production cross-section are set at the 95% confidence level for a heavy scalar resonance in the context of an extended Higgs sector, and for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production. Interpretation in terms of the coupling between a Higgs boson pair and two vector bosons is also provided: coupling values normalised to the Standard Model expectation of kappa (2V)< -0.76 and <kappa>(2V)> 2.90 are excluded at the 95% confidence level in data.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of Drell-Yan lepton pairs in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 80(7), 616–28pp.
Abstract: This paper describes precision measurements of the transverse momentum p(T)(ll) (l = e, mu) and of the angular variable phi(eta)*. distributions of Drell-Yan lepton pairs in a mass range of 66-116 GeV. The analysis uses data from 36.1 fb(-1) ovf proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. Measurements in electron-pair and muon-pair final states are performed in the same fiducial volumes, corrected for detector effects, and combined. Compared to previous measurements in proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 and 8 TeV, these new measurements probe perturbative QCD at a higher centre-of-mass energy with a different composition of initial states. They reach a precision of 0.2% for the normalized spectra at low values of p(T)(ll). The data are compared with different QCD predictions, where it is found that predictions based on resummation approaches can describe the full spectrum within uncertainties.
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Olmo, G. J., Rubiera-Garcia, D., & Wojnar, A. (2020). Stellar structure models in modified theories of gravity: Lessons and challenges. Phys. Rep., 876, 1–75.
Abstract: The understanding of stellar structure represents the crossroads of our theories of the nuclear force and the gravitational interaction under the most extreme conditions observably accessible. It provides a powerful probe of the strong field regime of General Relativity, and opens fruitful avenues for the exploration of new gravitational physics. The latter can be captured via modified theories of gravity, which modify the Einstein-Hilbert action of General Relativity and/or some of its principles. These theories typically change the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations of stellar's hydrostatic equilibrium, thus having a large impact on the astrophysical properties of the corresponding stars and opening a new window to constrain these theories with present and future observations of different types of stars. For relativistic stars, such as neutron stars, the uncertainty on the equation of state of matter at supranuclear densities intertwines with the new parameters coming from the modified gravity side, providing a whole new phenomenology for the typical predictions of stellar structure models, such as mass-radius relations, maximum masses, or moment of inertia. For non-relativistic stars, such as white, brown and red dwarfs, the weakening/strengthening of the gravitational force inside astrophysical bodies via the modified Newtonian (Poisson) equation may induce changes on the star's mass, radius, central density or luminosity, having an impact, for instance, in the Chandrasekhar's limit for white dwarfs, or in the minimum mass for stable hydrogen burning in high-mass brown dwarfs. This work aims to provide a broad overview of the main such results achieved in the recent literature for many such modified theories of gravity, by combining the results and constraints obtained from the analysis of relativistic and non-relativistic stars in different scenarios. Moreover, we will build a bridge between the efforts of the community working on different theories, formulations, types of stars, theoretical modelings, and observational aspects, highlighting some of the most promising opportunities in the field.
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ANTARES and IceCube Collaborations(Albert, A. et al), Colomer, M., Gozzini, R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Khan-Chowdhury, N. R., et al. (2020). ANTARES and IceCube Combined Search for Neutrino Point-like and Extended Sources in the Southern Sky. Astrophys. J., 892(2), 92–12pp.
Abstract: A search for point-like and extended sources of cosmic neutrinos using data collected by the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes is presented. The data set consists of all the track-like and shower-like events pointing in the direction of the Southern Sky included in the nine-year ANTARES point-source analysis, combined with the throughgoing track-like events used in the seven-year IceCube point-source search. The advantageous field of view of ANTARES and the large size of IceCube are exploited to improve the sensitivity in the Southern Sky by a factor of similar to 2 compared to both individual analyses. In this work, the Southern Sky is scanned for possible excesses of spatial clustering, and the positions of preselected candidate sources are investigated. In addition, special focus is given to the region around the Galactic Center, whereby a dedicated search at the location of SgrA* is performed, and to the location of the supernova remnant RXJ 1713.7-3946. No significant evidence for cosmic neutrino sources is found, and upper limits on the flux from the various searches are presented.
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Bernard, V., Descotes-Genon, S., & Vale Silva, L. (2020). Constraining the gauge and scalar sectors of the doublet left-right symmetric model. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 088–64pp.
Abstract: We consider a left-right symmetric extension of the Standard Model where the spontaneous breakdown of the left-right symmetry is triggered by doublets. The electroweak rho parameter is protected from large corrections in this Doublet Left-Right Model (DLRM), contrary to the triplet case. This allows in principle for more diverse patterns of symmetry breaking. We consider several constraints on the gauge and scalar sectors of DLRM: the unitarity of scattering processes involving gauge bosons with longitudinal polarisations, the radiative corrections to the muon Delta r parameter and the electroweak precision observables measured at the Z pole and at low energies. Combining these constraints within the frequentist CKMfitter approach, we see that the fit pushes the scale of left-right symmetry breaking up to a few TeV, while favouring an electroweak symmetry breaking triggered not only by the SU (2)(L) x SU (2)(R) bi-doublet, which is the case most commonly considered in the literature, but also by the SU (2)(L) doublet.
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Coppola, M., Gomez Dumm, D., Noguera, S., & Scoccola, N. N. (2020). Magnetic field driven enhancement of the weak decay width of charged pions. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 058–19pp.
Abstract: We study the effect of a uniform magnetic field B on the decays pi- > l- nu_l bar, where l(-)=e(-), μ(-), carrying out a general analysis that includes four pi (-) decay constants. Taking the values of these constants from a chiral effective Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model, it is seen that the total decay rate gets strongly increased with respect to the B = 0 case, with an enhancement factor ranging from similar to 10 for eB = 0.1 GeV2 up to similar to 10(3) for eB = 1 GeV2. The ratio between electronic and muonic decays gets also enhanced, reaching a value of about 1 : 2 for eB = 1 GeV2. In addition, we find that for large B the angular distribution of outgoing antineutrinos shows a significant suppression in the direction of the magnetic field.
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Alimena, J. et al, Hirsch, M., Mamuzic, J., Mitsou, V. A., & Santra, A. (2020). Searching for long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider. J. Phys. G, 47(9), 090501–226pp.
Abstract: Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton-proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments-as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER-to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the high-luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity 'dark showers', highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Measurements of inclusive and differential cross-sections of combined t tbar gamma and t W gamma production in the e mu channel at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 049–48pp.
Abstract: Inclusive and differential cross-sections for the production of top quarks in association with a photon are measured with proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). The data were collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during Run 2 between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measurements are performed in a fiducial volume defined at parton level. Events with exactly one photon, one electron and one muon of opposite sign, and at least two jets, of which at least one is b-tagged, are selected. The fiducial cross-section is measured to be 39.6-2.3+2.7 fb. Differential cross-sections as functions of several observables are compared with state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulations and next-to-leading-order theoretical calculations. These include cross-sections as functions of photon kinematic variables, angular variables related to the photon and the leptons, and angular separations between the two leptons in the event. All measurements are in agreement with the predictions from the Standard Model.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2020). First observation of the decay B-0 -> D-0(D)over-bar(0)K(+)pi(-). Phys. Rev. D, 102(5), 051102–11pp.
Abstract: The first observation of the decay B-0 -> D-0(D) over bar K-0(+)pi(-) is reported using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment in 2011, 2012 and 2016. The measurement is performed in the full kinematically allowed range of the decay outside of the D*(-) region. The ratio of the branching fraction relative to that of the control channel B-0 -> D-0<(DK+)-K-0 pi(-)+ is measured to be R = (14.2 +/- 1.1 +/- 1.0)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The absolute branching fraction of B-0 -> D-0(D) over bar K-0(+)pi(- )decays is thus determined to be B(B-0 -> D-0(D) over bar K-0(+)pi(-)) = (3.50 +/- 0.27 +/- 0.26 +/- 0.30) x 10(-4), where the third uncertainty is due to the branching fraction of the control channel. This decay mode is expected to provide insights to spectroscopy and the charm-loop contributions in rare semileptonic decays.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Dijet Resonance Search with Weak Supervision Using root S=13 TeV pp Collisions in the ATLAS Detector. Phys. Rev. Lett., 125(13), 131801–23pp.
Abstract: This Letter describes a search for narrowly resonant new physics using a machine -learning anomaly detection procedure that does not rely on signal simulations for developing the analysis selection. Weakly supervised learning is used to train classifiers directly on data to enhance potential signals. The targeted topology is dijet events and the features used for machine learning are the masses of the two jets. The resulting analysis is essentially a three-dimensional search A -> BC, for m(A) similar to O(TeV), m(B), m(C) similar to O(100 GeV) and B, C are reconstructed as large-radius jets, without paying a penalty associated with a large trials factor in the scan of the masses of the two jets. The full run 2 root s = 13 TeV pp collision dataset of 139 fb(-1) recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used for the search. There is no significant evidence of a localized excess in the dijet invariant mass spectrum between 1.8 and 8.2 TeV, Cross-section limits for narrow -width A, B, and C particles vary with m(A), m(B), and m(C). For example, when m(A) = 3 TeV and m(B) greater than or similar to 200 GeV, a production cross section between 1 and 5 fb is excluded at 95% confidence level, depending on m(C). For certain masses, these limits are up to 10 times more sensitive than those obtained by the inclusive dijet search. These results are complementary to the dedicated searches for the case that B and C are standard model bosons.
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