ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2017). Evidence for light-by-light scattering in heavy-ion collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Nat. Phys., 13(9), 852–858.
Abstract: Light-by-light scattering (gamma gamma -> gamma gamma) is a quantum-mechanical process that is forbidden in the classical theory of electrodynamics. This reaction is accessible at the Large Hadron Collider thanks to the large electromagnetic field strengths generated by ultra-relativistic colliding lead ions. Using 480 μb(-1) of lead-lead collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV by the ATLAS detector, here we report evidence for light-by-light scattering. A total of 13 candidate events were observed with an expected background of 2.6 +/- 0.7 events. After background subtraction and analysis corrections, the fiducial cross-section of the process Pb + Pb (gamma gamma) -> Pb-(center dot) + Pb-(center dot) gamma gamma, for photon transverse energy E-T > 3 GeV, photon absolute pseudorapidity vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.4, diphoton invariant mass greater than 6 GeV, diphoton transverse momentum lower than 2 GeV and diphoton acoplanarity below 0.01, is measured to be 70 +/- 24 (stat.) +/- 17 (syst.) nb, which is in agreement with the standard model predictions.
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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. (2017). Identification and rejection of pile-up jets at high pseudorapidity with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(9), 580–32pp.
Abstract: The rejection of forward jets originating from additional proton-proton interactions (pile-up) is crucial for a variety of physics analyses at the LHC, including Standard Model measurements and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. The identification of such jets is challenging due to the lack of track and vertex information in the pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta vertical bar > 2.5. This paper presents a novel strategy for forward pile-up jet tagging that exploits jet shapes and topological jet correlations in pile-up interactions. Measurements of the per-jet tagging efficiency are presented using a data set of 3.2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector. The fraction of pile-up jets rejected in the range 2.5 < vertical bar eta vertical bar < 4.5 is estimated in simulated events with an average of 22 interactions per bunch-crossing. It increases with jet transverse momentum and, for jets with transverse momentum between 20 and 50 GeV, it ranges between 49% and 67% with an efficiency of 85% for selecting hard-scatter jets. A case study is performed in Higgs boson production via the vector-boson fusion process, showing that these techniques mitigate the background growth due to additional proton-proton interactions, thus enhancing the reach for such signatures.
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Alves, J. M., Botella, F. J., Branco, G. C., Cornet-Gomez, F., & Nebot, M. (2017). Controlled flavour changing neutral couplings in two Higgs Doublet models. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(9), 585–18pp.
Abstract: We propose a class of two Higgs doublet models where there are flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) at tree level, but under control due to the introduction of a discrete symmetry in the full Lagrangian. It is shown that in this class of models, one can have simultaneously FCNC in the up and down sectors, in contrast to the situation encountered in the renormalisable and minimal flavour violating 2HDM models put forward by Branco et al. (Phys Lett B 380: 119, 1996). The intensity of FCNC is analysed and it is shown that in this class of models one can respect all the strong constraints from experiment without unnatural fine-tuning. It is pointed out that the additional sources of flavour and CP violation are such that they can enhance significantly the generation of the Bbaryon asymmetry of the Universe, with respect to the standard model.
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Barenboim, G., Kinney, W. H., & Park, W. I. (2017). Flavor versus mass eigenstates in neutrino asymmetries: implications for cosmology. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(9), 590–7pp.
Abstract: We show that, if they exist, lepton number asymmetries (L-alpha) of neutrino flavors should be distinguished from the ones (L-i) of mass eigenstates, since Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) bounds on the flavor eigenstates cannot be directly applied to the mass eigenstates. Similarly, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) constraints on the mass eigenstates do not directly constrain flavor asymmetries. Due to the difference of mass and flavor eigenstates, the cosmological constraint on the asymmetries of neutrino flavors can be much stronger than the conventional expectation, but they are not uniquely determined unless at least the asymmetry of the heaviest neutrino is well constrained. The cosmological constraint on L-i for a specific case is presented as an illustration.
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Pavao, R. P., Sakai, S., & Oset, E. (2017). Triangle singularities in B- -> D*(0)pi(-)pi(0)eta and B- -> D*(0)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-). Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(9), 599–8pp.
Abstract: The possible role of the triangle mechanism in the B- decay into D*(0)pi(-)pi(0)eta and D*(0)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) is investigated. In this process, the triangle singularity appears from the decay of B- into D*K-0(-) K*(0) followed by the decay of K-*0 into pi(-) K+ and the fusion of the K+ K-, which forms the a(0)(980) or f(0)(980), which finally decay into pi(0)eta or pi(+)pi(-), respectively. The triangle mechanism from the (K) over bar * K (K) over bar loop generates a peak around 1420 MeV in the invariant mass of pi(-) a(0) or pi(-) f(0), and it gives sizable branching fractions, Br(B- -> D*(0)pi(-) a(0); a(0) -> pi(0)eta) = (1.66 +/- 0.45) x 10(-6) and Br(B- -> D*(0)pi(-) f(0); f(0) -> pi(+)pi(-)) = (2.82 +/- 0.75) x 10(-6).
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Marco-Hernandez, R., Bau, M., Ferrari, M., Ferrari, V., Pedersen, F., & Soby, L. (2017). A Low-Noise Charge Amplifier for the ELENA Trajectory, Orbit, and Intensity Measurement System. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 64(9), 2465–2473.
Abstract: A low-noise head amplifier has been developed for the extra low energy antiproton ring beam trajectory, orbit, and intensity measurement system at CERN. This system is based on 24 double-electrode electrostatic beam position monitors installed around the ring. A head amplifier is placed close to each beam position monitor to amplify the electrode signals and generate a difference and a sum signal. These signals are sent to the digital acquisition system, about 50 m away from the ring, where they are digitized and further processed. The beam position can be measured by dividing the difference signal by the sum signal while the sum signal gives information relative to the beam intensity. The head amplifier consists of two discrete charge preamplifiers with junction field effect transistor (JFET) inputs, a sum and a difference stage, and two cable drivers. Special attention has been paid to the amplifier printed circuit board design to minimize the parasitic capacitances and inductances at the charge amplifier stages to meet the gain and noise requirements. The measurements carried out on the head amplifier showed a gain of 40.5 and 46.5 dB for the sum and difference outputs with a bandwidth from 200 Hz to 75 MHz and an input voltage noise density lower than 400 pV/v Hz. Twenty head amplifiers have been already installed in the ring and they have been used to detect the first beam signals during the first commissioning stage in November 2016.
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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. (2017). Measurement of the inclusive jet cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 020–54pp.
Abstract: Inclusive jet production cross-sections are measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The total integrated luminosity of the analysed data set amounts to 20.2 fb(-1). Double-differential cross-sections are measured for jets defined by the anti-k(t) jet clustering algorithm with radius parameters of R = 0.4 and R = 0.6 and are presented as a function of the jet transverse momentum, in the range between 70 GeV and 2.5 TeV and in six bins of the absolute jet rapidity, between 0 and 3.0. The measured cross-sections are compared to predictions of quantum chromodynamics, calculated at next-to-leading order in perturbation theory, and corrected for non-perturbative and electroweak effects. The level of agreement with predictions, using a selection of different parton distribution functions for the proton, is quantified. Tensions between the data and the theory predictions are observed.
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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. (2017). Search for new phenomena in a lepton plus high jet multiplicity final state the ATLAS experiment using root S=13 TeV proton-proton collision data. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 088–50pp.
Abstract: A search for new phenomena in final states characterized by high jet multiplicity, an isolated lepton ( electron or muon) and either zero or at least three b-tagged jets is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb(-1) of root s = 13TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. The dominant sources of background are estimated using parameterized extrapolations, based on observables at medium jet multiplicity, to predict the b-tagged jet multiplicity distribution at the higher jet multiplicities used in the search. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed and 95% confidence-level limits are extracted constraining four simplified models of R-parity-violating supersymmetry that feature either gluino or top-squark pair production. The exclusion limits reach as high as 2.1TeV in gluino mass and 1.2TeV in top-squark mass in the models considered. In addition, an upper limit is set on the cross-section for Standard Model t (t) over bart (t) over bar production of 60 fb (6.5 x the Standard Model prediction) at 95% confidence level. Finally, model-independent limits are set on the contribution from new phenomena to the signal-region yields.
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Vento, V. (2017). AdS gravity and the scalar glueball spectrum. Eur. Phys. J. A, 53(9), 185–4pp.
Abstract: The scalar glueball spectrum has attracted much attention since the formulation of Quantum Chromodynamics. Different approaches give very different results for the glueball masses. We revisit the problem from the perspective of the AdS/CFT correspondence.
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de Salas, P. F., Gariazzo, S., Lesgourgues, J., & Pastor, S. (2017). Calculation of the local density of relic neutrinos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 09(9), 034–24pp.
Abstract: Nonzero neutrino masses are required by the existence of flavour oscillations, with values of the order of at least 50 meV. We consider the gravitational clustering of relic neutrinos within the Milky Way, and used the N – one-body simulation technique to compute their density enhancement factor in the neighbourhood of the Earth with respect to the average cosmic density. Compared to previous similar studies, we pushed the simulation down to smaller neutrino masses, and included an improved treatment of the baryonic and dark matter distributions in the Milky Way. Our results are important for future experiments aiming at detecting the cosmic neutrino background, such as the Princeton Tritium Observatory for Light, Early-universe, Massive-neutrino Yield (PTOLEMY) proposal. We calculate the impact of neutrino clustering in the Milky Way on the expected event rate for a PTOLEMY-like experiment. We find that the effect of clustering remains negligible for the minimal normal hierarchy scenario, while it enhances the event rate by 10 to 20% (resp. a factor 1.7 to 2.5) for the minimal inverted hierarchy scenario (resp. a degenerate scenario with 150 meV masses). Finally we compute the impact on the event rate of a possible fourth sterile neutrino with a mass of 1.3 eV.
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