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Donini, A., Hernandez, P., Pena, C., & Romero-Lopez, F. (2020). Dissecting the Delta I=1/2 rule at large N-c. Eur. Phys. J. C, 80(7), 638–12pp.
Abstract: We study the scaling of kaon decay amplitudes with the number of colours, N-c, in a theory with four degenerate flavours, N-f = 4. In this scenario, two current-current operators, Q(+/-), mediate Delta S = 1 transitions, such as the two isospin amplitudes of non-leptonic kaon decays for K -> (pi pi)(I=0,2), A(0) and A(2.) In particular, we concentrate on the simpler K -> pi amplitudes, A(+/-), mediated by these two operators. A diagrammatic analysis of the large-N-c scaling of these observables is presented, which demonstrates the anticorrelation of the leading O(1/N-c) and O(N-f/N-c(2)) corrections in both amplitudes. Using our new N-f = 4 and previous quenched data, we confirm this expectation and show that these corrections are naturally large and may be at the origin of the Delta I = 1/2 rule. The evidence for the latter is indirect, based on the matching of the amplitudes to their prediction in Chiral Perturbation Theory, from which the LO low-energy couplings of the chiral weak Hamiltonian, g(+/-), can be determined. A NLO estimate of the K -> (pi pi)(I=0,2) isospin amplitudes can then be derived, which is in good agreement with the experimental value.
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Albandea, D., Hernandez, P., Ramos, A., & Romero-Lopez, F. (2021). Topological sampling through windings. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(10), 873–12pp.
Abstract: We propose a modification of the Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) algorithm that overcomes the topological freezing of a two-dimensional U(1) gauge theory with and without fermion content. This algorithm includes reversible jumps between topological sectors – winding steps – combined with standard HMC steps. The full algorithm is referred to as winding HMC (wHMC), and it shows an improved behaviour of the autocorrelation time towards the continuum limit. We find excellent agreement between the wHMC estimates of the plaquette and topological susceptibility and the analytical predictions in the U(1) pure gauge theory, which are known even at finite beta. We also study the expectation values in fixed topological sectors using both HMC and wHMC, with and without fermions. Even when topology is frozen in HMC – leading to significant deviations in topological as well as non-topological quantities – the two algorithms agree on the fixed-topology averages. Finally, we briefly compare the wHMC algorithm results to those obtained with master-field simulations of size L similar to 8 x 10(3).
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Agrawal, P. et al, Hernandez, P., & Lopez-Pavon, J. (2021). Feebly-interacting particles: FIPs 2020 workshop report. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(11), 1015–137pp.
Abstract: With the establishment and maturation of the experimental programs searching for new physics with sizeable couplings at the LHC, there is an increasing interest in the broader particle and astrophysics community for exploring the physics of light and feebly-interacting particles as a paradigm complementary to a New Physics sector at the TeV scale and beyond. FIPs 2020 has been the first workshop fully dedicated to the physics of feebly-interacting particles and was held virtually from 31 August to 4 September 2020. The workshop has gathered together experts from collider, beam dump, fixed target experiments, as well as from astrophysics, axions/ALPs searches, current/future neutrino experiments, and dark matter direct detection communities to discuss progress in experimental searches and underlying theory models for FIPs physics, and to enhance the cross-fertilisation across different fields. FIPs 2020 has been complemented by the topical workshop “Physics Beyond Colliders meets theory”, held at CERN from 7 June to 9 June 2020. This document presents the summary of the talks presented at the workshops and the outcome of the subsequent discussions held immediately after. It aims to provide a clear picture of this blooming field and proposes a few recommendations for the next round of experimental results.
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Flavour Lattice Averaging Group(Aoki, Y. et al), Hernandez, P., & Ramos, A. (2022). FLAG Review 2021. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(10), 869–296pp.
Abstract: We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D-meson, B-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor f(+) (0) arising in the semileptonic K -> pi transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio Alf, and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements V-us and V-ud. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of SU(2)(L) x SU(2)(R) and SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the B-K parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four B parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for m(c) and m(b) as well as those for the decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters of charmed and bottom mesons and baryons. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant alpha(s). We consider nucleon matrix elements, and review the determinations of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal. Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing determinations of scale-setting quantities.
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Albandea, D., Del Debbio, L., Hernandez, P., Kenway, R., Marsh Rossney, J., & Ramos, A. (2023). Learning trivializing flows. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(7), 676–14pp.
Abstract: The recent introduction of machine learning techniques, especially normalizing flows, for the sampling of lattice gauge theories has shed some hope on improving the sampling efficiency of the traditional hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) algorithm. In this work we study a modified HMC algorithm that draws on the seminal work on trivializing flows by L & uuml;scher. Autocorrelations are reduced by sampling from a simpler action that is related to the original action by an invertible mapping realised through Normalizing Flows models with a minimal set of training parameters. We test the algorithm in a f(4) theory in 2D where we observe reduced autocorrelation times compared with HMC, and demonstrate that the training can be done at small unphysical volumes and used in physical conditions. We also study the scaling of the algorithm towards the continuum limit under various assumptions on the network architecture.
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Vincent, A. C., Fernandez Martinez, E., Hernandez, P., Mena, O., & Lattanzi, M. (2015). Revisiting cosmological bounds on sterile neutrinos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 006–23pp.
Abstract: We employ state-of-the art cosmological observables including supernova surveys and BAO information to provide constraints on the mass and mixing angle of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino species, showing that cosmology can effectively rule out sterile neutrinos which decay between BBN and the present day. The decoupling of an additional heavy neutrino species can modify the time dependence of the Universe's expansion between BBN and recombination and, in extreme cases, lead to an additional matter-dominated period; while this could naively lead to a younger Universe with a larger Hubble parameter, it could later be compensated by the extra radiation expected in the form of neutrinos from sterile decay. However, recombination-era observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the shift parameter R-CMB and the sound horizon r(s) from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) severely constrain this scenario. We self-consistently include the full time-evolution of the coupled sterile neutrino and standard model sectors in an MCMC, showing that if decay occurs after BBN, the sterile neutrino is essentially bounded by the constraint sin(2) theta less than or similar to 0.026(m(s)/eV)(-2).
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Bernardoni, F., Garron, N., Hernandez, P., Necco, S., & Pena, C. (2011). Probing the chiral regime of N-f=2 QCD with mixed actions. Phys. Rev. D, 83(5), 054503–17pp.
Abstract: We report on our first experiences with a mixed action setup with overlap valence quarks and nonperturbatively O(a) improved Wilson sea quarks. For the latter we employ CLS N-f = 2 configurations with light sea-quark masses at small lattice spacings. Exact chiral symmetry allows to consider very light valence quarks and explore the matching to (partially-quenched) Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) in a mixed epsilon/p-regime. We compute the topological susceptibility and the low-lying spectrum of the massless Neuberger-Dirac operator for three values of the sea-quark mass, and compare the sea-quark mass dependence to NLO ChPT in the mixed regime. This provides two different determinations of the chiral condensate, as well as information about some NLOlow-energy couplings. Our results allow to test the consistency of the mixed-regime approach to ChPT, as well as of the mixed action framework.
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Bayes, R., Laing, A., Soler, F. J. P., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Hernandez, P., et al. (2012). Golden channel at a neutrino factory revisited: Improved sensitivities from a magnetized iron neutrino detector. Phys. Rev. D, 86(9), 093015–27pp.
Abstract: This paper describes the performance and sensitivity to neutrino mixing parameters of a Magnetised Iron Neutrino Detector at a Neutrino Factory with a neutrino beam created from the decay of 10 GeV muons. Specifically, it is concerned with the ability of such a detector to detect muons of the opposite sign to those stored (wrong-sign muons) while suppressing contamination of the signal from the interactions of other neutrino species in the beam. A new, more realistic simulation and analysis, which improves the efficiency of this detector at low energies, has been developed using the GENIE neutrino event generator and the GEANT4 simulation toolkit. Low-energy neutrino events down to 1 GeV were selected, while reducing backgrounds to the 10(-4) level. Signal efficiency plateaus of similar to 60% for nu(mu) and similar to 70% for (nu) over bar (mu) events were achieved starting at similar to 5 GeV. Contamination from the nu(mu) -> nu(tau) oscillation channel was studied for the first time and was found to be at the level between 1% and 4%. Full response matrices are supplied for all the signal and background channels from 1 GeV to 10 GeV. The sensitivity of an experiment involving a Magnetised Iron Neutrino Detector detector of 100 ktons at 2000 km from the Neutrino Factory is calculated for the case of sin(2)2 theta(13) similar to 10(-1). For this value of theta(13), the accuracy in the measurement of the CP-violating phase is estimated to be Delta delta(CP) similar to 3 degrees-5 degrees, depending on the value of delta(CP), the CP coverage at 5 sigma is 85% and the mass hierarchy would be determined with better than 5 sigma level for all values of delta(CP).
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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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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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