|
|
ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2017). Determination of the strong coupling constant alpha(s) from transverse energy-energy correlations in multijet events at root s=8 TeV using the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(12), 872–34pp.
Abstract: Measurements of transverse energy-energy correlations and their associated asymmetries in multi-jet events using the ATLAS detector at the LHC are presented. The data used correspond to vs = 8 TeV proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb(-1). The results are presented in bins of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the two leading jets, unfolded to the particle level and compared to the predictions from Monte Carlo simulations. A comparison with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD is also performed, showing excellent agreement within the uncertainties. From this comparison, the value of the strong coupling constant is extracted for different energy regimes, thus testing the running of alpha(s)(mu) predicted in QCD up to scales over 1 TeV. A global fit to the transverse energy-energy correlation distributions yields alpha(s)(m(Z)) = 0.1162 +/- 0.0011 (exp.)(-0.0070)(+0.0084) (theo.), while a global fit to the asymmetry distributions yields a value of alpha(s)(m(Z)) = 0.1196 +/- 0.0013 (exp.)(-0.0045)(+0.0075) (theo.).
|
|
|
|
Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., & Mena, O. (2017). Can interacting dark energy solve the H-0 tension? Phys. Rev. D, 96(4), 043503–11pp.
Abstract: The answer is yes. We indeed find that interacting dark energy can alleviate the current tension on the value of the Hubble constant H-0 between the cosmic microwave background anisotropies constraints obtained from the Planck satellite and the recent direct measurements reported by Riess et al. 2016. The combination of these two data sets points toward a nonzero dark matter-dark energy coupling. at more than two standard deviations, with xi = -0.26(-0.12)(+0.16) at 95% C.L., i.e. with a moderate evidence for interacting dark energy with an odds ratio of 6:1 respect to a non interacting cosmological constant. However the H-0 tension is better solved when the equation of state of the interacting dark energy component is allowed to freely vary, with a phantomlike equation of state w = -1.185 +/- 0.064 (at 68% C.L.), ruling out the pure cosmological constant case, w = -1, again at more than two standard deviations. When Planck data are combined with external datasets, as BAO, JLA Supernovae Ia luminosity distances, cosmic shear or lensing data, we find perfect consistency with the cosmological constant scenario and no compelling evidence for a dark matter-dark energy coupling.
|
|
|
|
Gerbino, M., Freese, K., Vagnozzi, S., Lattanzi, M., Mena, O., Giusarma, E., et al. (2017). Impact of neutrino properties on the estimation of inflationary parameters from current and future observations. Phys. Rev. D, 95(4), 043512–22pp.
Abstract: We study the impact of assumptions about neutrino properties on the estimation of inflationary parameters from cosmological data, with a specific focus on the allowed contours in the n(s)/r plane, where n(s) is the scalar spectral index and r is the tensor-to-scalar ratio. We study the following neutrino properties: (i) the total neutrino mass M-i = Sigma(i)m(i) (where the index i = 1, 2, 3 runs over the three neutrino mass eigenstates); (ii) the number of relativistic degrees of freedom N-eff at the time of recombination; and (iii) the neutrino hierarchy. Whereas previous literature assumed three degenerate neutrino masses or two massless neutrino species (approximations that clearly do not match neutrino oscillation data), we study the cases of normal and inverted hierarchy. Our basic result is that these three neutrino properties induce < 1 sigma shift of the probability contours in the n(s)/r plane with both current or upcoming data. We find that the choice of neutrino hierarchy (normal, inverted, or degenerate) has a negligible impact. However, the minimal cutoff on the total neutrino mass M-v,M-min = 0 that accompanies previous works using the degenerate hierarchy does introduce biases in the n(s)/r plane and should be replaced by M-v,M-min = 0.059 eV as required by oscillation data. Using current cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from Planck and Bicep/Keck, marginalizing over the total neutrino mass M-v and over r can lead to a shift in the mean value of ns of similar to 0.3 sigma toward lower values. However, once baryon acoustic oscillation measurements are included, the standard contours in the n(s)/r plane are basically reproduced. Larger shifts of the contours in the n(s)/r plane (up to 0.8 sigma) arise for nonstandard values of N-eff. We also provide forecasts for the future CMB experiments Cosmic Origins Explorer (COrE, satellite) and Stage-IV (ground-based) and show that the incomplete knowledge of neutrino properties, taken into account by a marginalization over M-v, could induce a shift of similar to 0.4 sigma toward lower values in the determination of ns (or a similar to 0.8 sigma shift if one marginalizes over N-eff). Comparison to specific inflationary models is shown. Imperfect knowledge of neutrino properties must be taken into account properly, given the desired precision in determining whether or not inflationary models match the future data.
|
|
|
|
ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., Tönnis, C., et al. (2017). Search for high-energy neutrinos from bright GRBs with ANTARES. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 469(1), 906–915.
Abstract: Gamma-ray bursts are thought to be sites of hadronic acceleration, thus neutrinos are expected from the decay of charged particles, produced in p gamma interactions. The methods and results of a search for muon neutrinos in the data of the ANTARES neutrino telescope from four bright GRBs (GRB 080916C, GRB 110918A, GRB 130427A and GRB 130505A) observed between 2008 and 2013 are presented. Two scenarios of the fireball model have been investigated: the internal shock scenario, leading to the production of neutrinos with energies mainly above 100 TeV, and the photospheric scenario, characterized by a low-energy component in neutrino spectra due to the assumption of neutrino production closer to the central engine. Since no neutrino events have been detected in temporal and spatial coincidence with these bursts, upper limits at 90 per cent confidence level on the expected neutrino fluxes are derived. The non-detection allows for directly constraining the bulk Lorentz factor of the jet Gamma and the baryon loading f(p).
|
|
|
|
AGATA Collaboration(Clement, E. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., Gadea, A., Perez-Vidal, R. M., & Civera, J. V. (2017). Conceptual design of the AGATA 1 pi array at GANIL. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 855, 1–12.
Abstract: The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) has been installed at the GANIL facility, Caen-France. This setup exploits the stable and radioactive heavy-ions beams delivered by the cyclotron accelerator complex of GANIL. Additionally, it benefits from a large palette of ancillary detectors and spectrometers to address in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy of exotic nuclei. The set-up has been designed to couple AGATA with a magnetic spectrometer, charged-particle and neutron detectors, scintillators for the detection of high-energy gamma rays and other devices such as a plunger to measure nuclear lifetimes. In this paper, the design and the mechanical characteristics of the set-up are described. Based on simulations, expected performances of the AGATA l pi array are presented.
|
|
|
|
Beltran Jimenez, J., Heisenberg, L., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). On gravitational waves in Born-Infeld inspired non-singular cosmologies. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 029–23pp.
Abstract: We study the evolution of gravitational waves for non-singular cosmological solutions within the framework of Born-Infeld inspired gravity theories, with special emphasis on the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory. We review the existence of two types of non-singular cosmologies, namely bouncing and asymptotically Minkowski solutions, from a perspective that makes their features more apparent. We study in detail the propagation of gravitational waves near these non-singular solutions and carefully discuss the origin and severity of the instabilities and strong coupling problems that appear. We also investigate the role of the adiabatic sound speed of the matter sector in the regularisation of the gravitational waves evolution. We extend our analysis to more general Born-Infeld inspired theories where analogous solutions are found. As a general conclusion, we obtain that the bouncing solutions are generally more prone to instabilities, while the asymptotically Minkowski solutions can be rendered stable, making them appealing models for the early universe.
|
|
|
|
NEXT Collaboration(Renner, J. et al), Benlloch-Rodriguez, J., Botas, A., Ferrario, P., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., et al. (2017). Background rejection in NEXT using deep neural networks. J. Instrum., 12, T01004–21pp.
Abstract: We investigate the potential of using deep learning techniques to reject background events in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure xenon time projection chambers capable of detailed track reconstruction. The differences in the topological signatures of background and signal events can be learned by deep neural networks via training over many thousands of events. These networks can then be used to classify further events as signal or background, providing an additional background rejection factor at an acceptable loss of efficiency. The networks trained in this study performed better than previous methods developed based on the use of the same topological signatures by a factor of 1.2 to 1.6, and there is potential for further improvement.
|
|
|
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., Ruiz Valls, P., et al. (2017). Evidence for the two-body charmless baryonic decay B+ -> p(Lambda)over-bar. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 162–18pp.
Abstract: A search for the rare two-body charmless baryonic decay B+ -> p (Lambda) over bar is performed with pp collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. An excess of B+ -> p (Lambda) over bar candidates with respect to background expectations is seen with a statistical significance of 4.1 standard deviations, and constitutes the first evidence for this decay. The branching fraction, measured using the B+ -> K-S(0)pi(+) decay for normalisation, is B(B+ -> p (Lambda) over bar) = (2.4(-0.8)(+)(+1.0) +/- 0.3) x 10(-7), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.
|
|
|
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., Ruiz Valls, P., et al. (2017). Observation of the decay B-s(0) -> eta(c)phi and evidence for B-s(0) -> eta(c)pi(+)pi(-). J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 021–33pp.
Abstract: A study of B-s(0) -> eta(c)phi and B-s(0) -> eta(c)pi(+)pi(-) decays is performed using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), collected with the LHCb detector in Run 1 of the LHC. The observation of the decay B-s(0) -> eta(c)phi is reported, where the eta(c) meson is reconstructed in the p (p) over bar, K+K-pi(+)pi(-), pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)pi-and K+K-K+K-decay modes and the phi(1020) in the K+K-decay mode. The decay B-s(0) -> J/psi phi is used as a normalisation channel. Evidence is also reported for the decay B-s(0) -> eta(c)pi(+)pi(-), where the eta(c) meson is reconstructed in the p (p) over bar decay mode, using the decay B-s(0) -> J/psi phi pi(+)pi-as a normalisation channel. The measured branching fractions are B(B-s(0) -> eta(c)phi) = (5 : 01 +/- 0 : 53 +/- 0 : 27 +/- 0 : 63) x 10(-4), B(B-s(0) -> eta(c)pi(+)pi(-)) = (1 : 76 +/- 0 : 59 +/- 0 : 12 +/- 0 : 29) x 10(-4), where in each case the fi rst uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the external branching fractions.
|
|
|
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2017). Updated branching fraction measurements of B-(s)(0) -> K(S)(0)h(+)h'(-) decays. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 027–42pp.
Abstract: The charmless three-body decays B-(s)(0) -> K(S)(0)h(+)h '(-) (where h((')) – pi, K) are analysed using a sample of pp collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). The branching fractions are measured relative to that of the B-0 -> K-S(0) pi(+)pi(-) decay, and are determined to be: B(B-0 -> (KSK +/-)-K-0 pi(-/+))/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) = 0.123 +/- 0.009 (stat) +/- 0.015 (syst), B(B-0 -> (KSK+K-)-K-0)/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) = 0.549 +/- 0.018 (stat) +/- 0.033 (syst), B(B-S(0) -> K-S(0) pi(+)pi(-))/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-)) = 0.191 +/- 0.027 (stat) +/- 0.031 (syst) +/- 0.011 (f(s)/f(d)), B(B-0 -> (KSK +/-)-K-0 pi(-/+))/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) = 1.70 +/- 0.07 (stat) +/- 0.11 (syst) +/- 0.10 (f(s)/f(d)), B(B-0 -> (KSK+K-)-K-0)/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) is an element of [0.008 – 0.051] at 90% confidence level, where f(s)/f(d) represents the ratio of hadronisation fractions of the B-s(0) and B-0 mesons.
|
|
