Donini, A., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Salvado, J. (2019). Neutrino tomography of Earth. Nat. Phys., 15(1), 37–40.
Abstract: Cosmic-ray interactions with the atmosphere produce a flux of neutrinos in all directions with energies extending above the TeV scale(1). The Earth is not a fully transparent medium for neutrinos with energies above a few TeV, as the neutrinonucleon cross-section is large enough to make the absorption probability non-negligible(2). Since absorption depends on energy and distance travelled, studying the distribution of the TeV atmospheric neutrinos passing through the Earth offers an opportunity to infer its density profiles(3-7). This has never been done, however, due to the lack of relevant data. Here we perform a neutrino-based tomography of the Earth using actual data-one-year of through-going muon atmospheric neutrino data collected by the IceCube telescope(8). Using only weak interactions, in a way that is completely independent of gravitational measurements, we are able to determine the mass of the Earth and its core, its moment of inertia, and to establish that the core is denser than the mantle. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach to study the Earth's internal structure, which is complementary to traditional geophysics methods. Neutrino tomography could become more competitive as soon as more statistics is available, provided that the sources of systematic uncertainties are fully under control.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Search for heavy charged long-lived particles in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV using an ionisation measurement with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 96–116.
Abstract: This Letter presents a search for heavy charged long-lived particles produced in proton-proton collisions at root s= 13 TeV at the LHC using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2015 and 2016. These particles are expected to travel with a velocity significantly below the speed of light, and therefore have a specific ionisation higher than any high-momentum Standard Model particle of unit charge. The pixel subsystem of the ATLAS detector is used in this search to measure the ionisation energy loss of all reconstructed charged particles which traverse the pixel detector. Results are interpreted assuming the pair production of R-hadrons as composite colourless states of a long-lived gluino and Standard Model partons. No significant deviation from Standard Model background expectations is observed, and lifetime-dependent upper limits on R-hadron production cross-sections and gluino masses are set, assuming the gluino always decays to two quarks and a 100 GeV stable neutralino. R-hadrons with lifetimes above 1.0 ns are excluded at the 95% confidence level, with lower limits on the gluino mass ranging between 1290 GeV and 2060 GeV. In the case of stable R-hadrons, the lower limit on the gluino mass at the 95% confidence level is 1890 GeV.
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Barenboim, G., Masud, M., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2019). Exploring the intrinsic Lorentz-violating parameters at DUNE. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 308–315.
Abstract: Neutrinos can push our search for new physics to a whole new level. What makes them so hard to be detected, what allows them to travel humongous distances without being stopped or deflected allows to amplify Planck suppressed effects (or effects of comparable size) to a level that we can measure or bound in DUNE. In this work we analyze the sensitivity of DUNE to CPT and Lorentz-violating interactions in a framework that allows a straightforward extrapolation of the bounds obtained to any phenomenological modification of the dispersion relation of neutrinos.
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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. (2019). Search for light resonances decaying to boosted quark pairs and produced in association with a photon or a jet in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 316–335.
Abstract: This Letter presents a search for new light resonances decaying to pairs of quarks and produced in association with a high-p(T) photon or jet. The dataset consists of proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Resonance candidates are identified as massive large-radius jets with substructure consistent with a particle decaying into a quark pair. The mass spectrum of the candidates is examined for local excesses above background. No evidence of a new resonance is observed in the data, which are used to exclude the production of a lepto-phobic axial-vector Z' boson. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Search for vector-boson resonances decaying to a top quark and bottom quark in the lepton plus jets final state in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 347–370.
Abstract: A search for new charged massive gauge bosons, W', is performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). This analysis searches for W' bosons in the W'-> t ( b) over bar decay channel in final states with an electron or muon plus jets. The search covers resonance masses between 0.5 and 5.0 TeV and considers right-handed W' bosons. No significant deviation from the Standard Model (SM) expectation is observed and upper limits are set on theW'-> t ( b) over bar cross section times branching ratio and the W' boson effective couplings as a function of the W' boson mass. For right-handed W' bosons with coupling to the SM particles equal to the SM weak coupling constant, masses below 3.15 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. This search is also combined with a previously published ATLAS result for W'-> t ( b) over bar in the fully hadronic final state. Using the combined searches, right-handed W' bosons with masses below 3.25 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.
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NA48/2 Collaboration(Batley, J. R. et al), & Fiorini, L. (2019). First observation and study of the K-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(0)e(+)e(-) decay. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 552–561.
Abstract: The NA48/2 experiment at CERN reports the first observation of the K-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(0)e(+)e(-) decay from an exposure of 1.7 x 10(11) charged kaon decays recorded in 2003-2004. A sample of 4919 candidates with 4.9% background contamination allows the determination of the branching ratio in the full kinematic region, BR(K-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(0)e(+)e(-)) = (4.24 +/- 0.14) x 10(-6). The study of the kinematic space shows evidence for a structure dependent contribution in agreement with predictions based on chiral perturbation theory. Several P- and CP-violating asymmetries are also evaluated.
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Bordes, J., Hong-Mo, C., & Tsun, T. S. (2018). Generation patterns, modified gamma – Z mixing, and hidden sector with dark matter candidates as framed standard model results. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 33(36), 1830034–23pp.
Abstract: A descriptive summary is given of the results to-date from the framed standard model (FSM) which: Assigns geometric meaning to the Higgs field and to fermion generations, hence offering an explanation for the observed mass and mixing patterns of quarks and leptons, reproducing near-quantitatively 17 of SM parameters with only 7. Predicts a new vector boson G which mixes with gamma and Z, leading to deviations from the SM mixing scheme. For m(G) > 1 TeV, these deviations are within present experimental errors but should soon be detectable at LHC when experimental accuracy is further improved. Suggests the existence of a hidden sector of particles as yet unknown to experiment which interact but little with the known particles. The lowest members of the hidden sector of mass around 17 MeV, being electrically neutral and stable, may figure as dark matter constituents. The idea is to retrace the steps leading to the above results unencumbered by details already worked out and reported elsewhere. This has helped to clarify the logic, tighten some arguments and dispense with one major assumption previously thought necessary, thus strengthening earlier results in opening up possibly a new and exciting vista for further exploration.
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Rojas, N., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Simplest scoto-seesaw mechanism. Phys. Lett. B, 789, 132–136.
Abstract: By combining the simplest (3,1) version of the seesaw mechanism containing a single heavy “right-handed” neutrino with the minimal scotogenic approach to dark matter, we propose a theory for neutrino oscillations. The “atmospheric” mass scale arises at tree level from the seesaw, while the “solar” oscillation scale emerges radiatively, through a loop involving the “dark sector” exchange. Such simple setup gives a clear interpretation of the neutrino oscillation lengths, has a viable WIMP dark matter candidate, and implies a lower bound on the neutrinoless double beta decay rate.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Measurement of photon-jet transverse momentum correlations in 5.02 TeV Pb + Pb and pp collisions with ATLAS. Phys. Lett. B, 789, 167–190.
Abstract: Jets created in association with a photon can be used as a calibrated probe to study energy loss in the medium created in nuclear collisions. Measurements of the transverse momentum balance between isolated photons and inclusive jets are presented using integrated luminosities of 0.49 nb(-1) of Pb + Pb collision data at root(NN)-N-s = 5.02 TeV and 25 pb(-1) of pp collision data at. root s= 5.02 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Photons with transverse momentum 63.1 < p(T)(gamma) < 200 GeV and vertical bar eta(gamma vertical bar) < 2.37 are paired with all jets in the event that have p(T)(jet) > 31.6 GeV and pseudorapidity vertical bar eta(Jet)vertical bar < 2.8. The transverse momentum balance given by the jet-to-photon p(T) ratio, x(j gamma), is measured for pairs with azimuthal opening angle Delta phi > 7 pi/8. Distributions of the per-photon jet yield as a function of x(j gamma), (1/N-gamma)(dN/dx(j gamma)), are corrected for detector effects via a two-dimensional unfolding procedure and reported at the particle level. In pp collisions, the distributions are well described by Monte Carlo event generators. In Pb + Pb collisions, the x(j gamma) distribution is modified from that observed in pp collisions with increasing centrality, consistent with the picture of parton energy loss in the hot nuclear medium. The data are compared with a suite of energy-loss models and calculations.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Correlated long-range mixed-harmonic fluctuations measured in pp, p plus Pb and low-multiplicity Pb plus Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 789, 444–471.
Abstract: Correlations of two flow harmonics v(n) and v(m) via three- and four-particle cumulants are measured in 13 TeV pp, 5.02 TeV p+Pb, and 2.76 TeV peripheral Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The goal is to understand the multi-particle nature of the long-range collective phenomenon in these collision systems. The large non-flow background from dijet production present in the standard cumulant method is suppressed using a method of subevent cumulants involving two, three and four subevents separated in pseudorapidity. The results show a negative correlation between v(2) and v(3) and a positive correlation between v(2) and v(4) for all collision systems and over the full multiplicity range. However, the magnitudes of the correlations are found to depend on the event multiplicity, the choice of transverse momentum range and collision system. The relative correlation strength, obtained by normalisation of the cumulants with the < v(n)(2)> from a two-particle correlation analysis, is similar in the three collision systems and depends weakly on the event multiplicity and transverse momentum. These results based on the subevent methods provide strong evidence of a similar long-range multi-particle collectivity in pp, p+Pb and peripheral Pb+Pb collisions.
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