Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., & Vagnozzi, S. (2020). Nonminimal dark sector physics and cosmological tensions. Phys. Rev. D, 101(6), 063502–20pp.
Abstract: We explore whether nonstandard dark sector physics might be required to solve the existing cosmological tensions. The properties we consider in combination are (a) an interaction between the dark matter and dark energy components and (b) a dark energy equation of state w different from that of the canonical cosmological constant w = -1. In principle, these two parameters are independent. In practice, to avoid early-time, superhorizon instabilities, their allowed parameter spaces are correlated. Moreover, a clear degeneracy exists between these two parameters in the case of cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. We analyze three classes of extended interacting dark energy models in light of the 2019 Planck CMB results and Cepheid-calibrated local distance ladder H-0 measurements of Riess et al. (R19), as well as recent baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) distance data. We find that in quintessence coupled dark energy models, where w > -1, the evidence for a nonzero coupling between the two dark sectors can surpass the 5 sigma significance. Moreover, for both Planck + BAO or Planck + SNeIa, we find a preference for w > -1 at about three standard deviations. Quintessence models are, therefore, in excellent agreement with current data when an interaction is considered. On the other hand, in phantom coupled dark energy models, there is no such preference for a nonzero dark sector coupling. All the models we consider significantly raise the value of the Hubble constant, easing the H-0 tension. In the interacting scenario, the disagreement between Planck thorn BAO and R19 is considerably reduced from 4.3 sigma in the case of the Lambda cold dark matter (Lambda CDM) model to about 2.5 sigma. The addition of low-redshift BAO and SNeIa measurements leaves, therefore, some residual tension with R19 but at a level that could be justified by a statistical fluctuation. Bayesian evidence considerations mildly disfavor both the coupled quintessence and phantom models, while mildly favoring a coupled vacuum scenario, even when late-time datasets are considered. We conclude that nonminimal dark energy cosmologies, such as coupled quintessence, phantom, or vacuum models, are still an interesting route toward softening existing cosmological tensions, even when low-redshift datasets and Bayesian evidence considerations are taken into account.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2020). Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 101(3), 032009–30pp.
Abstract: A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners of tau-leptons (staus) in final states with two hadronically decaying tau-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1), recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected Standard Model background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with each stau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and one tau-lepton in simplified models where the two stau mass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest neutralino.
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Ciemala, M. et al, Domingo-Pardo, C., & Perez-Vidal, R. M. (2020). Testing ab initio nuclear structure in neutron-rich nuclei: Lifetime measurements of second 2(+) state in C-16 and O-20. Phys. Rev. C, 101(2), 021303–7pp.
Abstract: To test the predictive power of ab initio nuclear structure theory, the lifetime of the second 2(+) state in neutron-rich O-20, tau(2(2)(+)) = 150(-30)(+80) fs, and an estimate for the lifetime of the second 2(+) state in C-16 have been obtained for the first time. The results were achieved via a novel Monte Carlo technique that allowed us to measure nuclear state lifetimes in the tens-to-hundreds of femtoseconds range by analyzing the Doppler-shifted gamma-transition line shapes of products of low-energy transfer and deep-inelastic processes in the reaction O-18 (7.0 MeV/u) + Ta-181. The requested sensitivity could only be reached owing to the excellent performances of the Advanced gamma-Tracking Array AGATA, coupled to the PARIS scintillator array and to the VAMOS++ magnetic spectrometer. The experimental lifetimes agree with predictions of ab initio calculations using two- and three-nucleon interactions, obtained with the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group for O-20 and with the no-core shell model for C-16. The present measurement shows the power of electromagnetic observables, determined with high-precision gamma spectroscopy, to assess the quality of first-principles nuclear structure calculations, complementing common benchmarks based on nuclear energies. The proposed experimental approach will be essential for short lifetime measurements in unexplored regions of the nuclear chart, including r-process nuclei, when intense beams, produced by Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) techniques, become available.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2020). Measurement of Azimuthal Anisotropy of Muons from Charm and Bottom Hadrons in pp Collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector. Phys. Rev. Lett., 124(8), 082301–20pp.
Abstract: The elliptic flow of muons from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons is measured in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 150 pb(-1) recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The muons from heavy-flavor decay are separated from light-hadron decay muons using momentum imbalance between the tracking and muon spectrometers. The heavy-flavor decay muons are further separated into those from charm decay and those from bottom decay using the distance-of-closest-approach to the collision vertex. The measurement is performed for muons in the transverse momentum range 4-7 GeV and pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.4. A significant nonzero elliptic anisotropy coefficient nu(2) is observed for muons from charm decays, while the nu(2) value for muons from bottom decays is consistent with zero within uncertainties.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2020). First Observation of Excited Omega(-)(b) States. Phys. Rev. Lett., 124(8), 082002–12pp.
Abstract: We report four narrow peaks in the Xi K-0(b)- mass spectrum obtained using pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb(-1) recorded by the LHCb experiment. Referring to these states by their mass, the mass values are m[Omega(b)(6316)(-)] = 6315.64 +/- 0.31 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.50 MeV, m[Omega(b)(6330)(-)] = 6330.30 +/- 0.28 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.50 MeV, m[Omega(b)(6340)(-)] = 6339.71 +/- 0.26 +/- 0.05 +/- 0.50 MeV, m[Omega(b)(6350)(-)] = 6349.88 +/- 0.35 +/- 0.05 +/- 0.50 MeV, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and the last is due to the knowledge of the Xi(0)(b) mass. The natural widths of the three lower mass states are consistent with zero, and the 90% confidence-level upper limits are determined to be Gamma[Omega(b)(6316)(-)] < 2.8 MeV, Gamma[Omega(b)(6330)(-)] < 3.1 MeV and Gamma[Omega(b)(6340)-] < 1.5 MeV. The natural width of the Omega(b)(6350)(-) peak is 1.4(-0.8)(+1.0) +/- 0.1 MeV, which is 2.5 sigma from zero and corresponds to an upper limit of 2.8 MeV. The peaks have local significances ranging from 3.6 sigma to 7.2 sigma. After accounting for the look-elsewhere effect, the significances of the Omega(b)(6316)(-) and Omega(b)(6330)(-) peaks are reduced to 2.1 sigma and 2.6 sigma, respectively, while the two higher mass peaks exceed 5 sigma. The observed peaks are consistent with expectations for excited Omega(-)(b) resonances.
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Aguilar, A. C., De Soto, F., Ferreira, M. N., Papavassiliou, J., Rodriguez-Quintero, J., & Zafeiropoulos, S. (2020). Gluon propagator and three-gluon vertex with dynamical quarks. Eur. Phys. J. C, 80(2), 154–17pp.
Abstract: We present a detailed analysis of the kinetic and mass terms associated with the Landau gauge gluon propagator in the presence of dynamical quarks, and a comprehensive dynamical study of certain special kinematic limits of the three-gluon vertex. Our approach capitalizes on results from recent lattice simulations with (2+1) domain wall fermions, a novel nonlinear treatment of the gluon mass equation, and the nonperturbative reconstruction of the longitudinal three-gluon vertex from its fundamental Slavnov-Taylor identities. Particular emphasis is placed on the persistence of the suppression displayed by certain combinations of the vertex form factors at intermediate and low momenta, already known from numerous pure Yang-Mills studies. One of our central findings is that the inclusion of dynamical quarks moderates the intensity of this phenomenon only mildly, leaving the asymptotic low-momentum behavior unaltered, but displaces the characteristic “zero crossing” deeper into the infrared region. In addition, the effect of the three-gluon vertex is explored at the level of the effective gauge coupling, whose size is considerably reduced with respect to its counterpart obtained from the ghost-gluon vertex. The main upshot of the above considerations is the further confirmation of the tightly interwoven dynamics between the two- and three-point sectors of QCD.
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Blas, D., Caputo, A., Ivanov, M. M., & Sberna, L. (2020). No chiral light bending by clumps of axion-like particles. Phys. Dark Universe, 27, 100428–4pp.
Abstract: We study the propagation of light in the presence of a parity-violating coupling between photons and axion-like particles (ALPs). Naively, this interaction could lead to a split of light rays into two separate beams of different polarization chirality and with different refraction angles. However, by using the eikonal method we explicitly show that this is not the case and that ALP clumps do not produce any spatial birefringence. This happens due to non-trivial variations of the photon's frequency and wavevector, which absorb time-derivatives and gradients of the ALP field. We argue that these variations represent a new way to probe the ALP-photon coupling with precision frequency measurements.
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Bueno Rogerio, R. J., Lima, R. D., Duarte, L., Hoff da Silva, J. M., Dias, M., & Senise, C. R. (2019). Mass-dimension-one fermions and their gravitational interaction. EPL, 128(2), 20004–6pp.
Abstract: We investigate in detail the interaction between the spin-(1/2) field endowed with mass dimension one and the graviton. We obtain an interaction vertex that combines the characteristics of scalar-graviton and Dirac's fermion-graviton vertices, due to the scalar-dynamic attribute and the fermionic structure of the mass-dimension-one field. It is shown that this vertex obeys the Ward-Takahashi identity, ensuring the gauge invariance for the interaction. In the contribution of the mass-dimension-one fermion to the graviton propagator at one-loop level, we found the conditions for the cancellation of the tadpole term by a cosmological counterterm. We calculate the scattering process for arbitrary momentum. For low energies, the result reveals that only the scalar sector present in the vertex contributes to the gravitational potential. Finally, we evaluate the non-relativistic limit of the gravitational interaction and obtain an attractive Newtonian potential, as required for a dark-matter candidate.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Searches for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles with compressed mass spectra in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 101(5), 052005–46pp.
Abstract: This paper presents results of searches for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in models with compressed mass spectra. The searches use 139 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with missing transverse momentum and two same-flavor, oppositely charged, low-transverse-momentum leptons are selected, and are further categorized by the presence of hadronic activity from initial-state radiation or a topology compatible with vector-boson fusion processes. The data are found to be consistent with predictions from the Standard Model. The results are interpreted using simplified models of R-parity-conserving supersymmetry in which the lightest supersymmetric partner is a neutralino with a mass similar to the lightest chargino, the second-to-lightest neutralino, or the slepton. Lower limits on the masses of charginos in different simplified models range from 193 to 240 GeV for moderate mass splittings, and extend down to mass splittings of 1.5 to 2.4 GeV at the LEP chargino bounds (92.4 GeV). Similar lower limits on degenerate light-flavor sleptons extend up to masses of 251 GeV and down to mass splittings of 550 MeV. Constraints on vector-boson fusion production of electroweak SUSY states are also presented.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2020). Measurement of psi (2S) production cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at v s=7 and 13 TeV. Eur. Phys. J. C, 80(3), 185–23pp.
Abstract: The cross-sections of.(2S) meson production in proton-proton collisions at v s = 13 TeV are measured with a data sample collected by the LHCb detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 275 pb-1. The production cross-sections for prompt.(2S) mesons and those for.(2S) mesons from b-hadron decays (.(2S)-from-b) are determined as functions of the transverse momentum, pT, and the rapidity, y, of the.(2S) meson in the kinematic range 2 < pT < 20 GeV/c and 2.0 < y < 4.5. The production cross-sections integrated over this kinematic region are s(prompt.(2S), 13 TeV) = 1.430 +/- 0.005 (stat) +/- 0.099 (syst) μb, s(.(2S)-from-b, 13 TeV) = 0.426 +/- 0.002 (stat) +/- 0.030 (syst) μb. A new measurement of.(2S) production cross-sections in pp collisions at v s = 7 TeV is also performed using data collected in 2011, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 614 pb-1. The integrated production cross-sections in the kinematic range 3.5 < pT < 14 GeV/c and 2.0 < y < 4.5 are s(prompt.(2S), 7 TeV) = 0.471 +/- 0.001 (stat) +/- 0.025 (syst) μb, s(.(2S)-from-b, 7 TeV) = 0.126 +/- 0.001 (stat) +/- 0.008 (syst) μb. All results show reasonable agreement with theoretical calculations.
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