Iocco, F., Taoso, M., Leclercq, F., & Meynet, G. (2012). Main Sequence Stars with Asymmetric Dark Matter. Phys. Rev. Lett., 108(6), 061301–5pp.
Abstract: We study the effects of feebly or nonannihilating weakly interacting dark matter (DM) particles on stars that live in DM environments denser than that of our Sun. We find that the energy transport mechanism induced by DM particles can produce unusual conditions in the cores of main sequence stars, with effects which can potentially be used to probe DM properties. We find that solar mass stars placed in DM densities of rho(chi) >= 10(2) GeV/cm(3) are sensitive to spin-dependent scattering cross section sigma(SD) >= 10(-37) cm(2) and a DM particle mass as low as m(chi) = 5 GeV, accessing a parameter range weakly constrained by current direct detection experiments.
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Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abreu, P. et al), & Pastor, S. (2012). Measurement of the Proton-Air Cross Section at root s=57 TeV with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Phys. Rev. Lett., 109(6), 062002–9pp.
Abstract: We report a measurement of the proton-air cross section for particle production at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon of 57 TeV. This is derived from the distribution of the depths of shower maxima observed with the Pierre Auger Observatory: systematic uncertainties are studied in detail. Analyzing the tail of the distribution of the shower maxima, a proton-air cross section of [505 +/- 22(stat)(-36)(+28)(syst)] mb is found.
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Izmaylov, A., Monfregola, L., et al. (2014). Observation of Electron Neutrino Appearance in a Muon Neutrino Beam. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112(6), 061802–8pp.
Abstract: The T2K experiment has observed electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam produced 295 km from the Super-Kamiokande detector with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV. A total of 28 electron neutrino events were detected with an energy distribution consistent with an appearance signal, corresponding to a significance of 7.3 sigma when compared to 4.92 +/- 0.55 expected background events. In the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing model, the electron neutrino appearance signal depends on several parameters including three mixing angles theta(12), theta(23), theta(13), a mass difference vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar and a CP violating phase delta(CP). In this neutrino oscillation scenario, assuming vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar = 2.4 x 10(-3) eV(2), sin theta(2)(23) = 0.5, and vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar > 0 (vertical bar Delta m(32)(2)vertical bar < 0), a best- fit value of sin2 theta(2)(13) = 0.140(- 0.032)(+0.038) (0.170(-0.037)(+0.045)) is obtained at delta(CP) = 0. When combining the result with the current best knowledge of oscillation parameters including the world average value of theta(13) from reactor experiments, some values of delta(CP) are disfavored at the 90% C. L.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2015). Observation of Two New Xi(-)(b) Baryon Resonances. Phys. Rev. Lett., 114(6), 062004–9pp.
Abstract: Two structures are observed close to the kinematic threshold in the Xi(0)(b)pi(-) mass spectrum in a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), recorded by the LEICb experiment. In the quark model, two baryonic resonances with quark content bds are expected in this mass region: the spin-parity J(P) = (1/2)(+) and J(P) = (3/2)(+) states, denoted Xi'(-)(b) and Xi*(-)(b). Interpreting the structures as these resonances, we measure the mass differences and the width of the heavier state to be m(Xi'(-)(b)) – m(Xi(0)(b)) – m(pi(-))=3.653 +/- 0.018 +/- 0.006 MeV/c(2), m(Xi*(-)(b)) – m(Xi(0)(b)) – m(pi(-)) = 23.96 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.06 MeV/e(2), Gamma(Xi*(-)(b)) = 1.65 +/- 0.31 +/- 0.10 MeV, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The width of the lighter state is consistent with zero, and we place an upper limit of Gamma(Xi'(-)(b)) < 0.08 MeV at 95% confidence level. Relative production rates of these states are also reported.
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Tain, J. L. et al, Valencia, E., Algora, A., Agramunt, J., Rubio, B., Estevez, E., et al. (2015). Enhanced gamma-Ray Emission from Neutron Unbound States Populated in beta Decay. Phys. Rev. Lett., 115(6), 062502–5pp.
Abstract: Total absorption spectroscopy is used to investigate the beta-decay intensity to states above the neutron separation energy followed by gamma-ray emission in Br-87,Br-88 and Rb-94. Accurate results are obtained thanks to a careful control of systematic errors. An unexpectedly large. intensity is observed in all three cases extending well beyond the excitation energy region where neutron penetration is hindered by low neutron energy. The gamma branching as a function of excitation energy is compared to Hauser-Feshbach model calculations. For Br-87 and Br-88 the gamma branching reaches 57% and 20%, respectively, and could be explained as a nuclear structure effect. Some of the states populated in the daughter can only decay through the emission of a large orbital angular momentum neutron with a strongly reduced barrier penetrability. In the case of neutron-rich Rb-94 the observed 4.5% branching is much larger than the calculations performed with standard nuclear statistical model parameters, even after proper correction for fluctuation effects on individual transition widths. The difference can be reconciled by introducing an enhancement of 1 order of magnitude in the photon strength to neutron strength ratio. An increase in the photon strength function of such magnitude for very neutron-rich nuclei, if it proves to be correct, leads to a similar increase in the (n, gamma) cross section that would have an impact on r process abundance calculations.
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