Abstract: A search for cosmic neutrino sources using the data collected with the ANTARES neutrino telescope between early 2007 and the end of 2015 is performed. For the first time, all neutrino interactions-charged and neutral-current interactions of all flavors-are considered in a search for point-like sources with the ANTARES detector. In previous analyses, only muon neutrino charged-current interactions were used. This is achieved by using a novel reconstruction algorithm for shower-like events in addition to the standard muon track reconstruction. The shower channel contributes about 23% of all signal events for an E-2 energy spectrum. No significant excess over background is found. The most signal-like cluster of events is located at (alpha, delta) = (343.8 degrees, 23.5 degrees) with a significance of 1.9 sigma. The neutrino flux sensitivity of the search is about E(2)d Phi/dE = 6 x 10(-9) GeV cm(-2) s(-1) for declinations from -90 degrees up to -42 degrees, and below 10(-8) GeV cm(-2) s(-1) for declinations up to 5 degrees. The directions of 106 source candidates and 13 muon track events from the IceCube high-energy sample events are investigated for a possible neutrino signal and upper limits on the signal flux are determined.

Abstract: The radiative capture cross section of a highly pure (99.999%), 6.125(2) grams and 9.56(5) x 10(-4) atoms/barn areal density U-238 sample has been measured with the Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) in the 185 m flight path at the CERN neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF. This measurement is in response to the NEA High Priority Request list, which demands an accuracy in this cross section of less than 3% below 25 keV. These data have undergone careful background subtraction, with special care being given to the background originating from neutrons scattered by the 238U sample. Pileup and dead-time effects have been corrected for. The measured cross section covers an energy range between 0.2 eV and 80 keV, with an accuracy that varies with neutron energy, being better than 4% below 25 keV and reaching at most 6% at higher energies.

Abstract: We calculate the nucleon axial form factor up to the leading one-loop order in a covariant chiral effective field theory with the Delta(1232) resonance as an explicit degree of freedom. We fit the axial form factor to the latest lattice QCD data and pin down the relevant low-energy constants. The lattice QCD data, for various pion masses below 400 MeV, can be well described up to a momentum transfer of similar to 0.6 GeV. The Delta(1232) loops contribute significantly to this agreement. Furthermore, we extract the axial charge and radius based on the fitted values of the low-energy constants. The results are g(A) = 1.237(74) and < r(A)(2)> = 0.263(38) fm(2). The obtained coupling g(A) is consistent with the experimental value if the uncertainty is taken into account. The axial radius is below but in agreement with the recent extraction from neutrino quasielastic scattering data on deuterium, which has large error bars. Up to our current working accuracy, r(A) is predicted only at leading order, i.e., the one-loop level. A more precise determination might need terms of O(p(5)).

Abstract: The spent fuel of current nuclear reactors contains fissile plutonium isotopes that can be combined with uranium to make mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. In this way the Pu from spent fuel is used in a new reactor cycle, contributing to the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy. However, an extensive use of MOX fuels, in particular in fast reactors, requires more accurate capture and fission cross sections for some Pu isotopes. In the case of Pu-242 there are sizable discrepancies among the existing capture cross-section measurements included in the evaluations (all from the 1970s) resulting in an uncertainty as high as 35% in the fast energy region. Moreover, postirradiation experiments evaluated with JEFF-3.1 indicate an overestimation of 14% in the capture cross section in the fast neutron energy region. In this context, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) requested an accuracy of 8% in this cross section in the energy region between 500 meV and 500 keV. This paper presents a new time-of-flight capture measurement on Pu-242 carried out at nTOF-EAR1 (CERN), focusing on the analysis and statistical properties of the resonance region, below 4 keV. The Pu-242(n, gamma) reaction on a sample containing 95(4) mg enriched to 99.959% was measured with an array of four C6D6 detectors and applying the total energy detection technique. The high neutron energy resolution of nTOF-EAR1 and the good statistics accumulated have allowed us to extend the resonance analysis up to 4 keV, obtaining new individual and average resonance parameters from a capture cross section featuring a systematic uncertainty of 5%, fulfilling the request of the NEA.

Abstract: Though the one-loop amplitudes of the Higgs boson to massless gauge bosons are finite because there is no direct interaction at tree level in the Standard Model, a well-defined regularization scheme is still required for their correct evaluation. We reanalyze these amplitudes in the framework of the four-dimensional unsubtraction and the loop-tree duality (EDU/LTD), and show how a local renormalization solves potential regularization ambiguities. The Higgs boson interactions are also used to illustrate new additional advantages of this formalism. We show that LTD naturally leads to very compact integrand expressions in four space-time dimensions of the one-loop amplitude with virtual electroweak gauge bosons. They exhibit the same functional form as the amplitudes with top quarks and charged scalars, thus opening further possibilities for simplifications in higher-order computations. Another outstanding application is the straightforward implementation of asymptotic expansions by using dual amplitudes. One of the main benefits of the LTD representation is that it is supported in a Euclidean space. This characteristic feature naturally leads to simpler asymptotic expansions.