ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., Fiorini, L., et al. (2015). Search for pair-produced long-lived neutral particles decaying to jets in the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV. Phys. Lett. B, 743, 15–34.
Abstract: The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is used to search for the decay of a scalar boson to a pair of long-lived particles, neutral under the Standard Model gauge group, in 20.3 fb(-1) of data collected in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV. This search is sensitive to long-lived particles that decay to Standard Model particles producing jets at the outer edge of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter or inside the hadronic calorimeter. No significant excess of events is observed. Limits are reported on the product of the scalar boson production cross section times branching ratio into long-lived neutral particles as a function of the proper lifetime of the particles. Limits are reported for boson masses from 100 GeV to 900 GeV, and a long-lived neutral particle mass from 10 GeV to 150 GeV.
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NEXT Collaboration(Cebrian, S. et al), Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., et al. (2015). Radiopurity assessment of the tracking readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment. J. Instrum., 10, P05006–16pp.
Abstract: The “Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber” (NEXT) is intended to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136, which requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds; therefore, an extensive screening and selection process is underway to control the radiopurity levels of the materials to be used in the experimental set-up of NEXT. The detector design combines the measurement of the topological signature of the event for background discrimination with the energy resolution optimization. Separate energy and tracking readout planes are based on different sensors: photomultiplier tubes for calorimetry and silicon multi-pixel photon counters for tracking. The design of a radiopure tracking plane, in direct contact with the gas detector medium, was specially challenging since the needed components like printed circuit boards, connectors, sensors or capacitors have typically, according to available information in databases and in the literature, activities too large for experiments requiring ultra-low background conditions. Here, the radiopurity assessment of tracking readout components based on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (Spain) is described. According to the obtained results, radiopure enough printed circuit boards made of kapton and copper, silicon photomultipliers and other required components, fulfilling the requirement of an overall background level in the region of interest of at most 8 x 10(-4) counts keV(-1) kg(-1) y(-1), have been identified.
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Papoulias, D. K., & Kosmas, T. S. (2015). Neutrino transition magnetic moments within the non-standard neutrino-nucleus interactions. Phys. Lett. B, 747, 454–459.
Abstract: Tensorial non-standard neutrino interactions are studied through a combined analysis of nuclear structure calculations and a sensitivity chi(2)-type of neutrino events expected to be measured at the COHERENT experiment, recently planned to operate at the Spallation Neutron Source (Oak Ridge). Potential sizeable predictions on transition neutrino magnetic moments and other electromagnetic parameters, such as neutrino milli-charges, are also addressed. The non-standard neutrino-nucleus processes, explored from nuclear physics perspectives within the context of quasi-particle random phase approximation, are exploited in order to estimate the expected number of events originating from vector and tensor exotic interactions for the case of reactor neutrinos, studied with TEXONO and GEMMA neutrino detectors.
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Rinaldi, M., Scopetta, S., Traini, M., & Vento, V. (2016). Double parton scattering: A study of the effective cross section within a Light-Front quark model. Phys. Lett. B, 752, 40–45.
Abstract: We present a calculation of the effective cross section sigma(eff), an important ingredient in the description of double parton scattering in proton-proton collisions. Our theoretical approach makes use of a Light-Front quark model as a framework to calculate the double parton distribution functions at low-resolution scale. QCD evolution is implemented to reach the experimental scale. The obtained values of sigma(eff) in the valence region are consistent with the present experimental scenario, in particular with the sets of data which include the same kinematical range. However the result of the complete calculation shows a dependence of sigma(eff) on x(i), a feature not easily seen in the available data, probably because of their low accuracy. Measurements of sigma(eff) in restricted x(i) regions are addressed to obtain indications on double parton correlations, a novel and interesting aspect of the three dimensional structure of the nucleon.
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Renner, J., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Hernando, J. A., Izmaylov, A., Monrabal, F., Muñoz, J., et al. (2015). Improved background rejection in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments using a magnetic field in a high pressure xenon TPC. J. Instrum., 10, P12020–19pp.
Abstract: We demonstrate that the application of an external magnetic field could lead to an improved background rejection in neutrinoless double-beta (0 nu beta beta) decay experiments using a high-pressure xenon (HPXe) TPC. HPXe chambers are capable of imaging electron tracks, a feature that enhances the separation between signal events (the two electrons emitted in the 0 nu beta beta decay of Xe-136) and background events, arising chiefly from single electrons of kinetic energy compatible with the end-point of the 0 nu beta beta decay (Q(beta beta)). Applying an external magnetic field of sufficiently high intensity (in the range of 0.5-1 Tesla for operating pressures in the range of 5-15 atmospheres) causes the electrons to produce helical tracks. Assuming the tracks can be properly reconstructed, the sign of the curvature can be determined at several points along these tracks, and such information can be used to separate signal (0 nu beta beta) events containing two electrons producing a track with two different directions of curvature from background (single-electron) events producing a track that should spiral in a single direction. Due to electron multiple scattering, this strategy is not perfectly efficient on an event-by-event basis, but a statistical estimator can be constructed which can be used to reject background events by one order of magnitude at a moderate cost (about 30%) in signal efficiency. Combining this estimator with the excellent energy resolution and topological signature identification characteristic of the HPXe TPC, it is possible to reach a background rate of less than one count per ton-year of exposure. Such a low background rate is an essential feature of the next generation of 0 nu beta beta experiments, aiming to fully explore the inverse hierarchy of neutrino masses.
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