Alvarez, V., Herrero-Bosch, V., Esteve, R., Laing, A., Rodriguez, J., Querol, M., et al. (2019). The electronics of the energy plane of the NEXT-White detector. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 917, 68–76.
Abstract: This paper describes the electronics of NEXT-White (NEW) detector PMT plane, a high pressure xenon TPC with electroluminescent amplification (HPXe-EL) currently operating at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC) in Huesca, Spain. In NEXT-White the energy of the event is measured by a plane of photomultipliers (PMTs) located behind a transparent cathode. The PMTs are Hamamatsu R11410-10 chosen due to their low radioactivity. The electronics have been designed and implemented to fulfill strict requirements: an overall energy resolution below 1% and a radiopurity budget of 20 mBq unit(-1) in the chain of Bi-214. All the components and materials have been carefully screened to assure a low radioactivity level and at the same time meet the required front-end electronics specifications. In order to reduce low frequency noise effects and enhance detector safety a grounded cathode connection has been used for the PMTs. This implies an AC-coupled readout and baseline variations in the PMT signals. A detailed description of the electronics and a novel approach based on a digital baseline restoration to obtain a linear response and handle AC coupling effects is presented. The final PMT channel design has been characterized with linearity better than 0.4% and noise below 0.4 mV.
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Soderstrom, P. A. et al, Agramunt, J., Egea, J., Gadea, A., & Huyuk, T. (2019). Neutron detection and gamma-ray suppression using artificial neural networks with the liquid scintillators BC-501A and BC-537. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 916, 238–245.
Abstract: In this work we present a comparison between the two liquid scintillators BC-501A and BC-537 in terms of their performance regarding the pulse-shape discrimination between neutrons and gamma rays. Special emphasis is put on the application of artificial neural networks. The results show a systematically higher gamma-ray rejection ratio for BC-501A compared to BC-537 applying the commonly used charge comparison method. Using the artificial neural network approach the discrimination quality was improved to more than 95% rejection efficiency of gamma rays over the energy range 150 to 1000 keV for both BC-501A and BC-537. However, due to the larger light output of BC-501A compared to BC-537, neutrons could be identified in BC-501A using artificial neural networks down to a recoil proton energy of 800 keV compared to a recoil deuteron energy of 1200 keV for BC-537. We conclude that using artificial neural networks it is possible to obtain the same gamma-ray rejection quality from both BC-501A and BC-537 for neutrons above a low-energy threshold. This threshold is, however, lower for BC-501A, which is important for nuclear structure spectroscopy experiments of rare reaction channels where low-energy interactions dominates.
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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. (2019). Search for heavy charged long-lived particles in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV using an ionisation measurement with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 96–116.
Abstract: This Letter presents a search for heavy charged long-lived particles produced in proton-proton collisions at root s= 13 TeV at the LHC using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2015 and 2016. These particles are expected to travel with a velocity significantly below the speed of light, and therefore have a specific ionisation higher than any high-momentum Standard Model particle of unit charge. The pixel subsystem of the ATLAS detector is used in this search to measure the ionisation energy loss of all reconstructed charged particles which traverse the pixel detector. Results are interpreted assuming the pair production of R-hadrons as composite colourless states of a long-lived gluino and Standard Model partons. No significant deviation from Standard Model background expectations is observed, and lifetime-dependent upper limits on R-hadron production cross-sections and gluino masses are set, assuming the gluino always decays to two quarks and a 100 GeV stable neutralino. R-hadrons with lifetimes above 1.0 ns are excluded at the 95% confidence level, with lower limits on the gluino mass ranging between 1290 GeV and 2060 GeV. In the case of stable R-hadrons, the lower limit on the gluino mass at the 95% confidence level is 1890 GeV.
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Barenboim, G., Masud, M., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2019). Exploring the intrinsic Lorentz-violating parameters at DUNE. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 308–315.
Abstract: Neutrinos can push our search for new physics to a whole new level. What makes them so hard to be detected, what allows them to travel humongous distances without being stopped or deflected allows to amplify Planck suppressed effects (or effects of comparable size) to a level that we can measure or bound in DUNE. In this work we analyze the sensitivity of DUNE to CPT and Lorentz-violating interactions in a framework that allows a straightforward extrapolation of the bounds obtained to any phenomenological modification of the dispersion relation of neutrinos.
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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. (2019). Search for light resonances decaying to boosted quark pairs and produced in association with a photon or a jet in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 316–335.
Abstract: This Letter presents a search for new light resonances decaying to pairs of quarks and produced in association with a high-p(T) photon or jet. The dataset consists of proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Resonance candidates are identified as massive large-radius jets with substructure consistent with a particle decaying into a quark pair. The mass spectrum of the candidates is examined for local excesses above background. No evidence of a new resonance is observed in the data, which are used to exclude the production of a lepto-phobic axial-vector Z' boson. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.
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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. (2019). Search for vector-boson resonances decaying to a top quark and bottom quark in the lepton plus jets final state in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 347–370.
Abstract: A search for new charged massive gauge bosons, W', is performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). This analysis searches for W' bosons in the W'-> t ( b) over bar decay channel in final states with an electron or muon plus jets. The search covers resonance masses between 0.5 and 5.0 TeV and considers right-handed W' bosons. No significant deviation from the Standard Model (SM) expectation is observed and upper limits are set on theW'-> t ( b) over bar cross section times branching ratio and the W' boson effective couplings as a function of the W' boson mass. For right-handed W' bosons with coupling to the SM particles equal to the SM weak coupling constant, masses below 3.15 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. This search is also combined with a previously published ATLAS result for W'-> t ( b) over bar in the fully hadronic final state. Using the combined searches, right-handed W' bosons with masses below 3.25 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.
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Bandyopadhyay, P., Chun, E. J., Mandal, R., & Queiroz, F. S. (2019). Scrutinizing right-handed neutrino portal dark matter with Yukawa effect. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 530–534.
Abstract: Analyzing the neutrino Yukawa effect in the freeze-out process of a generic dark matter candidate with right-handed neutrino portal, we identify the parameter regions satisfying the observed dark matter relic density as well as the current Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. limits and the future CTA reach on gamma-ray signals. In this scenario the dark matter couples to the Higgs boson at one-loop level and thus could be detected by spin-independent nucleonic scattering for a reasonable range of the relevant parameters.
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NA48/2 Collaboration(Batley, J. R. et al), & Fiorini, L. (2019). First observation and study of the K-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(0)e(+)e(-) decay. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 552–561.
Abstract: The NA48/2 experiment at CERN reports the first observation of the K-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(0)e(+)e(-) decay from an exposure of 1.7 x 10(11) charged kaon decays recorded in 2003-2004. A sample of 4919 candidates with 4.9% background contamination allows the determination of the branching ratio in the full kinematic region, BR(K-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(0)e(+)e(-)) = (4.24 +/- 0.14) x 10(-6). The study of the kinematic space shows evidence for a structure dependent contribution in agreement with predictions based on chiral perturbation theory. Several P- and CP-violating asymmetries are also evaluated.
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Masud, M., Bishai, M., & Mehta, P. (2019). Extricating New Physics Scenarios at DUNE with Higher Energy Beams. Sci Rep, 9, 352–9pp.
Abstract: The proposed Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) utilizes a wide-band on-axis tunable muon-(anti) neutrino beam with a baseline of 1300 km to search for CP violation with high precision. Given the long baseline, DUNE is also sensitive to effects due to matter induced non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) which can interfere with the standard three-flavor oscillation paradigm. Hence it is desirable to design strategies to disentangle effects due to NSI from standard oscillations. In this article, we exploit the tunability of the DUNE neutrino beam over a wide-range of energies to devise an experimental strategy for separating oscillation effects due to NSI from the standard three-flavor oscillation scenario. Using chi(2) analysis, we obtain an optimal combination of beam tunes and distribution of run times in neutrino and anti-neutrino modes that would enable DUNE to isolate new physics scenarios from the standard. We can distinguish scenarios at 3 sigma (5 sigma) level for almost all (similar to 50%) values of delta. To the best of our knowledge, our strategy is entirely new and has not been reported elsewhere.
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Rojas, N., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Simplest scoto-seesaw mechanism. Phys. Lett. B, 789, 132–136.
Abstract: By combining the simplest (3,1) version of the seesaw mechanism containing a single heavy “right-handed” neutrino with the minimal scotogenic approach to dark matter, we propose a theory for neutrino oscillations. The “atmospheric” mass scale arises at tree level from the seesaw, while the “solar” oscillation scale emerges radiatively, through a loop involving the “dark sector” exchange. Such simple setup gives a clear interpretation of the neutrino oscillation lengths, has a viable WIMP dark matter candidate, and implies a lower bound on the neutrinoless double beta decay rate.
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