Strege, C., Bertone, G., Cerdeño, D. G., Fornasa, M., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2012). Updated global fits of the cMSSM including the latest LHC SUSY and Higgs searches and XENON100 data. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 030–22pp.
Abstract: We present new global fits of the constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (cMSSM), including LHC 1/fb integrated luminosity SUSY exclusion limits, recent LHC 5/fb constraints on the mass of the Higgs boson and XENON100 direct detection data. Our analysis fully takes into account astrophysical and hadronic uncertainties that enter the analysis when translating direct detection limits into constraints on the cMSSM parameter space. We provide results for both a Bayesian and a Frequentist statistical analysis. We find that LHC 2011 constraints in combination with XENON100 data can rule out a significant portion of the cMSSM parameter space. Our results further emphasise the complementarity of collider experiments and direct detection searches in constraining extensions of Standard Model physics. The LHC 2011 exclusion limit strongly impacts on low-mass regions of cMSSM parameter space, such as the stau co-annihilation region, while direct detection data can rule out regions of high SUSY masses, such as the Focus-Point region, which is unreachable for the LHC in the near future. We show that, in addition to XENON100 data, the experimental constraint on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon plays a dominant role in disfavouring large scalar and gaugino masses. We find that, should the LHC 2011 excess hinting towards a Higgs boson at 126 GeV be confirmed, currently favoured regions of the cMSSM parameter space will be robustly ruled out from both a Bayesian and a profile likelihood statistical perspective.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amoros, G., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Escobar, C., et al. (2012). Measurement of the centrality dependence of the charged particle pseudorapidity distribution in lead-lead collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 710(3), 363–382.
Abstract: The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the centrality dependence of charged particle pseudorapidity distributions over vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2 in lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV. In order to include particles with transverse momentum as low as 30 MeV, the data were recorded with the central solenoid magnet off. Charged particles were reconstructed with two algorithms (2-point “tracklets” and full tracks) using information from the pixel detector only. The lead-lead collision centrality was characterized by the total transverse energy in the forward calorimeter in the range 3.2 < vertical bar eta vertical bar< 4.9. Measurements are presented of the per-event charged particle pseudorapidity distribution, dN(ch)/d eta, and the average charged particle multiplicity in the pseudorapidity interval vertical bar eta vertical bar < 0.5 in several intervals of collision centrality. The results are compared to previous mid-rapidity measurements at the LHC and RHIC. The variation of the mid-rapidity charged particle yield per colliding nucleon pair with the number of participants is consistent with lower root s(NN) results. The shape of the dN(ch)/d eta distribution is found to be independent of centrality within the systematic uncertainties of the measurement.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amoros, G., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the decay channel H -> ZZ((*)) -> 4l with 4.8 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s=7 TeV with ATLAS. Phys. Lett. B, 710(3), 383–402.
Abstract: This Letter presents a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the decay channel H -> ZZ((*)) -> l(+)l(-)l(-)+l(')-, where l,l' = e or mu, using proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb(-1). The four-lepton invariant mass distribution is compared with Standard Model background expectations to derive upper limits on the cross section of a Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass between 110 GeV and 600 GeV. The mass ranges 134-156 GeV, 182-233 GeV, 256-265 GeV and 268-415 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. The largest upward deviations from the background-only hypothesis are observed for Higgs boson masses of 125 GeV, 244 GeV and 500 GeV with local significances of 2.1, 2.2 and 2.1 standard deviations, respectively. Once the look-elsewhere effect is considered, none of these excesses are significant.
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Li, X. Q., Yang, Y. D., & Yuan, X. B. (2012). Anomalous tqZ coupling effects in rare B- and K-meson decays. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 018–22pp.
Abstract: As a top-factory, the LHC is performing a direct study of top-quark anomalous FCNC couplings, which are, however, correlated closely with the rare B- and K-meson decays. In this paper, we study the effects of anomalous tqZ (with q = u, c) couplings in the rare decays B-s,B-d -> mu(+)mu(-), B -> X-s nu(nu) over bar, B -> K(*)nu(nu) over bar, K+ -> pi(+)nu(nu) over bar, and K-L -> pi(0)nu(nu) over bar. With the up-to-date experimental bounds on the branching ratios of these channels, constraints on the left-handed anomalous couplings X-ct(L), and X-ut(L) are derived, respectively. With these low-energy constraints taken into account, we find that, for real couplings X-ct(L) and X-ut(L), the indirect upper bounds on B(t -> qZ) are much lower than that from the D0 collaboration, but are still compatible with the 5 sigma discovery potential of ATLAS with an integrated luminosity of 10 fb(-1). With refined measurements to be available at the LHCb, the future super-B factories, the NA62 at CERN, and the KOTO at J-PARC, closer correlations between the t -> qZ and the rare B- and K-meson decays are expected in the near future, which will be helpful for the searches of thu e top-quark FCNC decays at the LHC.
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Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abreu, P. et al), & Pastor, S. (2012). A search for anisotropy in the arrival directions of ultra high energy cosmic rays recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 040–21pp.
Abstract: Observations of cosmic rays arrival directions made with the Pierre Auger Observatory have previously provided evidence of anisotropy at the 99% CL using the correlation of ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) with objects drawn from the Veron-Cetty Veron catalog. In this paper we report on the use of three catalog independent methods to search for anisotropy. The 2pt-L, 2pt+ and 3pt methods, each giving a different measure of self-clustering in arrival directions, were tested on mock cosmic ray data sets to study the impacts of sample size and magnetic smearing on their results, accounting for both angular and energy resolutions. If the sources of UHECRs follow the same large scale structure as ordinary galaxies in the local Universe and if UHECRs are deflected no more than a few degrees, a study of mock maps suggests that these three method can efficiently respond to the resulting anisotropy with a P-value = 1.0% or smaller with data sets as few as 100 events. using data taken from January 1, 2004 to July 31, 2010 we examined the 20, 30, ... , 110 highest energy events with a corresponding minimum energy threshold of about 49.3 EeV. The minimum P-values found were 13.5% using the 2pt-L method, 1.0% using the 2pt+ method and 1.1% using the 3pt method for the highest 100 energy events. In view of the multiple (correlated) scans performed on the data set, these catalog-independent methods do not yield strong evidence of anisotropy in the highest energy cosmic rays.
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de Putter, R., Wagner, C., Mena, O., Verde, L., & Percival, W. J. (2012). Thinking outside the box: effects of modes larger than the survey on matter power spectrum covariance. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 019–31pp.
Abstract: Accurate power spectrum (or correlation function) covariance matrices are a crucial requirement for cosmological parameter estimation from large scale structure surveys. In order to minimize reliance on computationally expensive mock catalogs, it is important to have a solid analytic understanding of the different components that make up a covariance matrix. Considering the matter power spectrum covariance matrix, it has recently been found that there is a potentially dominant effect on mildly non-linear scales due to power in modes of size equal to and larger than the survey volume. This beat coupling effect has been derived analytically in perturbation theory and while it has been tested with simulations, some questions remain unanswered. Moreover, there is an additional effect of these large modes, which has so far not been included in analytic studies, namely the effect on the estimated average density which enters the power spectrum estimate. In this article, we work out analytic, perturbation theory based expressions including both the beat coupling and this local average effect and we show that while, when isolated, beat coupling indeed causes large excess covariance in agreement with the literature, in a realistic scenario this is compensated almost entirely by the local average effect, leaving only similar to 10% of the excess. We test our analytic expressions by comparison to a suite of large N-body simulations, using both full simulation boxes and subboxes thereof to study cases without beat coupling, with beat coupling and with both beat coupling and the local average effect. For the variances, we find excellent agreement with the analytic expressions for k < 0.2 hMpc(-1) at z = 0.5, while the correlation coefficients agree to beyond k = 0.4 hMpc(-1). As expected, the range of agreement increases towards higher redshift and decreases slightly towards z = 0. We finish by including the large-mode effects in a full covariance matrix description for arbitrary survey geometry and confirming its validity using simulations. This may be useful as a stepping stone towards building an actual galaxy (or other tracer's) power spectrum covariance matrix.
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Altheimer, A. et al, Villaplana Perez, M., & Vos, M. (2012). Jet substructure at the Tevatron and LHC: new results, new tools, new benchmarks. J. Phys. G, 39(6), 063001–44pp.
Abstract: In this paper, we review recent theoretical progress and the latest experimental results in jet substructure from the Tevatron and the LHC. We review the status of and outlook for calculation and simulation tools for studying jet substructure. Following up on the report of the Boost 2010 workshop, we present a new set of benchmark comparisons of substructure techniques, focusing on the set of variables and grooming methods that are collectively known as 'top taggers'. To facilitate further exploration, we have attempted to collect, harmonize and publish software implementations of these techniques.
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Dorame, L., Meloni, D., Morisi, S., Peinado, E., & Valle, J. W. F. (2012). Constraining neutrinoless double beta decay. Nucl. Phys. B, 861(3), 259–270.
Abstract: A class of discrete flavor-symmetry-based models predicts constrained neutrino mass matrix schemes that lead to specific neutrino mass sum-rules (MSR). We show how these theories may constrain the absolute scale of neutrino mass, leading in most of the cases to a lower bound on the neutrinoless double beta decay effective amplitude.
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Cappuzzello, F., Rea, C., Bonaccorso, A., Bondi, M., Carbone, D., Cavallaro, M., et al. (2012). New structures in the continuum of C-15 populated by two-neutron transfer. Phys. Lett. B, 711(5), 347–352.
Abstract: The C-13(O-18,O-16)C-15 reaction has been studied at 84 MeV incident energy. The ejectiles have been detected at forward angles and C-15 excitation energy spectra have been obtained up to about 20 MeV. Several known bound and resonant states of C-15 have been identified together with two unknown structures at 10.5 MeV (FWHM = 2.5 MeV) and 13.6 MeV (FWHM = 2.5 MeV). Calculations based Oil the removal of two uncorrelated neutrons from the projectile describe a significant part of the continuum observed in the energy spectra. In particular the structure at 10.5 MeV is dominated by a resonance of C-15 near the C-13 + n + n threshold. Similar structures are found in nearby nuclei such as C-14 and Be-11.
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Bayar, M., & Oset, E. (2012). Improved fixed center approximation of the Faddeev equations for the (K)over-bar N N system with S=0. Nucl. Phys. A, 883, 57–68.
Abstract: We extend the Fixed Center Approximation (FCA) to the Faddeev equations for the (K) over bar N N system with S = 0, including the charge exchange mechanisms in the (K) over bar rescattering which have been ignored in former works within the FCA. We obtain similar results to those found before, but the binding is reduced by 6 MeV. At the same time we also evaluate the explicit contribution the pi N Sigma intermediate state in the three body system and find that it produces and additional small decrease in the binding of about 3 MeV. The system appears bound by about 35 MeV and the width omitting two body absorption, is about 50 MeV.
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