BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2011). Measurements of branching fractions and CP asymmetries and studies of angular distributions for B -> phi phi K decays. Phys. Rev. D, 84(1), 012001–13pp.
Abstract: We present branching fraction and CP asymmetry measurements as well as angular studies of B -> phi phi K decays using 464 x 10(6) B (B) over bar events collected by the BABAR experiment. The branching fractions are measured in the phi phi invariant mass range below the eta(c) resonance (m(phi phi) < 2.85 GeV). We find B(B(+) -> phi phi K(+)) = (5.6 +/- 0.5 +/- 0.3) x 10(-6) and B(B(0) -> phi phi K(0)) = (4.5 +/- 0.8 +/- 0.3) x 10(-6), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measured direct CP asymmetries for the B(+/-) decays are A(CP) = -0.10 +/- 0.08 +/- 0: 02 below the eta(c) threshold (m(phi phi) < 2.85 GeV) and A(CP) = 0.09 +/- 0.10 +/- 0.02 in the eta(c) resonance region (m(phi phi) in [2.94, 3.02] GeV). Angular distributions are consistent with J(P) = 0(-) in the eta(c) resonance region and favor J(P) = 0(+) below the eta(c) resonance.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2012). Cross sections for the reactions e(+)e(-) -> K+K-pi(+)pi(-), K+K-pi(0)pi(0), and K+K-K+K- measured using initial-state radiation events. Phys. Rev. D, 86(1), 012008–34pp.
Abstract: We study the processes e(+)e(-) -> K+K-pi(+)pi(-)gamma, K+K-pi(0)pi(0)gamma, and K+K-K+K-gamma, where the photon is radiated from the initial state. About 84000, 8000, and 4200 fully reconstructed events, respectively, are selected from 454 fb(-1) of BABAR data. The invariantmass of the hadronic final state defines the e(+)e(-) center-of- mass energy, so that the K+K-pi(+)pi(-)gamma data can be compared with direct measurements of the e(+)e(-) -> K+K-pi(+)pi(-) reaction. No directmeasurements exist for the e(+)e(-) -> K+K-pi(0)pi(0) or e(+)e(-) -> K+K-K+K- reactions, andwe present an update of our previous result based on a data sample that is twice as large. Studying the structure of these events, we find contributions froma number of intermediate states and extract their cross sections. In particular, we perform a more detailed study of the e(+)e(-) -> phi(1020)pi pi gamma reaction and confirm the presence of the Y(2175) resonance in the phi(1020)integral(0)(980) and K+K-integral(0)(980) modes. In the charmonium region, we observe the J/psi in all three final states and in several intermediate states, as well as the psi(2S) in some modes, and measure the corresponding products of branching fraction and electron width.
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NEXT Collaboration(Ferrario, P. et al), Laing, A., Lopez-March, N., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., et al. (2016). First proof of topological signature in the high pressure xenon gas TPC with electroluminescence amplification for the NEXT experiment. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 104–18pp.
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims to observe the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 in a high-pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescence (EL) to amplify the signal from ionization. One of the main advantages of this technology is the possibility to reconstruct the topology of events with energies close to Q(beta beta). This paper presents the first demonstration that the topology provides extra handles to reject background events using data obtained with the NEXT-DEMO prototype. Single electrons resulting from the interactions of Na-22 1275 keV gammas and electron-positron pairs produced by conversions of gammas from the Th-228 decay chain were used to represent the background and the signal in a double beta decay. These data were used to develop algorithms for the reconstruction of tracks and the identification of the energy deposited at the end-points, providing an extra background rejection factor of 24.3 +/- 1.4 (stat.)%, while maintaining an efficiency of 66.7 +/- 1.% for signal events.
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NEXT Collaboration(Henriques, C. A. O. et al), Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., et al. (2019). Electroluminescence TPCs at the thermal diffusion limit. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 027–23pp.
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims at searching for the hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay from the Xe-136 isotope using a high-purity xenon TPC. Efficient discrimination of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionisation tracks is a major requirement for the experiment. However, it is limited by the diffusion of electrons. It is known that the addition of a small fraction of a molecular gas to xenon reduces electron diffusion. On the other hand, the electroluminescence (EL) yield drops and the achievable energy resolution may be compromised. We have studied the effect of adding several molecular gases to xenon (CO2, CH4 and CF4) on the EL yield and energy resolution obtained in a small prototype of driftless gas proportional scintillation counter. We have compared our results on the scintillation characteristics (EL yield and energy resolution) with a microscopic simulation, obtaining the diffusion coefficients in those conditions as well. Accordingly, electron diffusion may be reduced from about 10 for pure xenon down to 2.5 using additive concentrations of about 0.05%, 0.2% and 0.02% for CO2, CH4 and CF4, respectively. Our results show that CF4 admixtures present the highest EL yield in those conditions, but very poor energy resolution as a result of huge fluctuations observed in the EL formation. CH4 presents the best energy resolution despite the EL yield being the lowest. The results obtained with xenon admixtures are extrapolated to the operational conditions of the NEXT-100 TPC. CO2 and CH4 show potential as molecular additives in a large xenon TPC. While CO2 has some operational constraints, making it difficult to be used in a large TPC, CH4 shows the best performance and stability as molecular additive to be used in the NEXT-100 TPC, with an extrapolated energy resolution of 0.4% at 2.45 MeV for concentrations below 0.4%, which is only slightly worse than the one obtained for pure xenon. We demonstrate the possibility to have an electroluminescence TPC operating very close to the thermal diffusion limit without jeopardizing the TPC performance, if CO2 or CH4 are chosen as additives.
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NEXT Collaboration(Kekic, M. et al), Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., Felkai, R., et al. (2021). Demonstration of background rejection using deep convolutional neural networks in the NEXT experiment. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 189–22pp.
Abstract: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are widely used state-of-the-art computer vision tools that are becoming increasingly popular in high-energy physics. In this paper, we attempt to understand the potential of CNNs for event classification in the NEXT experiment, which will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in Xe-136. To do so, we demonstrate the usage of CNNs for the identification of electron-positron pair production events, which exhibit a topology similar to that of a neutrinoless double-beta decay event. These events were produced in the NEXT-White high-pressure xenon TPC using 2.6 MeV gamma rays from a Th-228 calibration source. We train a network on Monte Carlo-simulated events and show that, by applying on-the-fly data augmentation, the network can be made robust against differences between simulation and data. The use of CNNs offers significant improvement in signal efficiency and background rejection when compared to previous non-CNN-based analyses.
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