ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fassi, F., Ferrer, A., et al. (2014). Search for Invisible Decays of a Higgs Boson Produced in Association with a Z Boson in ATLAS. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112(20), 201802–19pp.
Abstract: A search for evidence of invisible-particle decay modes of a Higgs boson produced in association with a Z boson at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. No deviation from the standard model expectation is observed in 4.5 fb(-1) (20.3 fb(-1)) of 7 (8) TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment. Assuming the standard model rate for ZH production, an upper limit of 75%, at the 95% confidence level is set on the branching ratio to invisible-particle decay modes of the Higgs boson at a mass of 125.5 GeV. The limit on the branching ratio is also interpreted in terms of an upper limit on the allowed dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section within a Higgs-portal dark matter scenario. Within the constraints of such a scenario, the results presented in this Letter provide the strongest available limits for low-mass dark matter candidates. Limits are also set on an additional neutral Higgs boson, in the mass range 110 < m(H) < 400 GeV, produced in association with a Z boson and decaying to invisible particles.
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Brzezinski, K., Oliver, J. F., Gillam, J., & Rafecas, M. (2014). Study of a high-resolution PET system using a Silicon detector probe. Phys. Med. Biol., 59(20), 6117–6140.
Abstract: A high-resolution silicon detector probe, in coincidence with a conventional PET scanner, is expected to provide images of higher quality than those achievable using the scanner alone. Spatial resolution should improve due to the finer pixelization of the probe detector, while increased sensitivity in the probe vicinity is expected to decrease noise. A PET-probe prototype is being developed utilizing this principle. The system includes a probe consisting of ten layers of silicon detectors, each a 80 x 52 array of 1 x 1 x 1 mm(3) pixels, to be operated in coincidence with a modern clinical PET scanner. Detailed simulation studies of this system have been performed to assess the effect of the additional probe information on the quality of the reconstructed images. A grid of point sources was simulated to study the contribution of the probe to the system resolution at different locations over the field of view (FOV). A resolution phantom was used to demonstrate the effect on image resolution for two probe positions. A homogeneous source distribution with hot and cold regions was used to demonstrate that the localized improvement in resolution does not come at the expense of the overall quality of the image. Since the improvement is constrained to an area close to the probe, breast imaging is proposed as a potential application for the novel geometry. In this sense, a simplified breast phantom, adjacent to heart and torso compartments, was simulated and the effect of the probe on lesion detectability, through measurements of the local contrast recovery coefficient-to-noise ratio (CNR), was observed. The list-mode ML-EM algorithm was used for image reconstruction in all cases. As expected, the point spread function of the PET-probe system was found to be non-isotropic and vary with position, offering improvement in specific regions. Increase in resolution, of factors of up to 2, was observed in the region close to the probe. Images of the resolution phantom showed visible improvement in resolution when including the probe in the simulations. The image quality study demonstrated that contrast and spill-over ratio in other areas of the FOV were not sacrificed for this enhancement. The CNR study performed on the breast phantom indicates increased lesion detectability provided by the probe.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., & Villanueva-Perez, P. (2014). Search for a Dark Photon in e(+)e(-) Collisions at BABAR. Phys. Rev. Lett., 113(20), 201801–8pp.
Abstract: Dark sectors charged under a new Abelian interaction have recently received much attention in the context of dark matter models. These models introduce a light new mediator, the so-called dark photon (A'), connecting the dark sector to the standard model. We present a search for a dark photon in the reaction e(+)e(-) ->gamma A', A' -> e(+)e(-), mu(+) mu(-) using 514 fb(-1) of data collected with the BABAR detector. We observe no statistically significant deviations from the standard model predictions, and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the mixing strength between the photon and dark photon at the level of 10(-4) – 10(-3) for dark photon masses in the range 0.02-10.2 GeV. We further constrain the range of the parameter space favored by interpretations of the discrepancy between the calculated and measured anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., & Villanueva-Perez, P. (2014). Measurement of the B -> X(s)l(+)l(-) Branching Fraction and Search for Direct CP Violation from a Sum of Exclusive Final States. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112(21), 211802–8pp.
Abstract: We measure the total branching fraction of the flavor-changing neutral-current process B -> X(s)l(+)l(-), along with partial branching fractions in bins of dilepton and hadronic system (X-s) mass, using a sample of 471 x 10(6)Upsilon(4S) -> B (B) over bar events recorded with the BABAR detector. The admixture of charged and neutral B mesons produced at PEP-II2 are reconstructed by combining a dilepton pair with 10 different X-s final states. Extrapolating from a sum over these exclusive modes, we measure a lepton-flavor-averaged inclusive branching fraction B(B -> X(s)l(+)l(-)) = [6.73(-0.64)(+0.70)(stat)(-0.25)(+0.34)(exp syst) +/- 0.50(model syst)] x 10(-6) for m(l+l-)(2) > 0.1 GeV2/c(4). Restricting our analysis exclusively to final states from which a decaying B meson's flavor can be inferred, we additionally report measurements of the direct CP asymmetry A(CP) in bins of dilepton mass; over the full dilepton mass range, we find A(CP) = 0.04 +/- 0.11 +/- 0.01 for a leptonflavor-averaged sample.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2014). Measurement of the CP-Violating Phase phi(s) in (B)over-bar(s)(0) -> Ds+Ds- Decays. Phys. Rev. Lett., 113(21), 211801–9pp.
Abstract: We present a measurement of the CP-violating weak mixing phase phi(s) using the decay (B) over bar (0)(s) -> Ds+Ds- in a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. An analysis of the time evolution of the system, which does not use the constraint vertical bar lambda vertical bar = 1 to allow for the presence of CP violation in decay, yields phi(s) = 0.02 +/- 0.17(stat) +/- 0.02(syst) rad, vertical bar lambda vertical bar = 0.91(-0.15)(+0.18)(stat) +/- 0.02(syst). This result is consistent with the standard model expectation.
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