BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2018). Study of the reactions e(+)e(-) -> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0)pi(0)pi(0) and pi(+)pi(-) pi(0)pi(0)eta at center-of-mass energies from threshold to 4.35 GeV using initial-state radiation. Phys. Rev. D, 98(11), 112015–23pp.
Abstract: We study the processes e(+)e--> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0)pi(0)pi(0)gamma and pi(+)pi(-)pi(0)pi(0)eta gamma in which an energetic photon is radiated from the initial state. The data are collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. About 14 000 and 4700 events, respectively, are selected from a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 469 fb(-1). The invariant mass of the hadronic final state defines the effective e(+)e(-) center-of-mass energy. From the mass spectra, the first precise measurement of the e(+)e--> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0)pi(0)pi(0) cross section and the first measurement ever of the e(+)e--> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0)pi(0)pi(0)eta cross section are performed. The center-of-mass energies range from threshold to 4.35 GeV. The systematic uncertainty is typically between 10% and 13%. The contributions from omega pi(0)pi(0), eta pi(+)pi(-) and other intermediate states are presented. We observe the J/psi and psi(2S) in most of these final states and measure the corresponding branching fractions, many of them for the first time.
|
Agullo, I., del Rio, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2018). On the Electric-Magnetic Duality Symmetry: Quantum Anomaly, Optical Helicity, and Particle Creation. Symmetry-Basel, 10(12), 763–14pp.
Abstract: It is well known that not every symmetry of a classical field theory is also a symmetry of its quantum version. When this occurs, we speak of quantum anomalies. The existence of anomalies imply that some classical Noether charges are no longer conserved in the quantum theory. In this paper, we discuss a new example for quantum electromagnetic fields propagating in the presence of gravity. We argue that the symmetry under electric-magnetic duality rotations of the source-free Maxwell action is anomalous in curved spacetimes. The classical Noether charge associated with these transformations accounts for the net circular polarization or the optical helicity of the electromagnetic field. Therefore, our results describe the way the spacetime curvature changes the helicity of photons and opens the possibility of extracting information from strong gravitational fields through the observation of the polarization of photons. We also argue that the physical consequences of this anomaly can be understood in terms of the asymmetric quantum creation of photons by the gravitational field.
|
Alvarez, V., Herrero-Bosch, V., Esteve, R., Laing, A., Rodriguez, J., Querol, M., et al. (2019). The electronics of the energy plane of the NEXT-White detector. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 917, 68–76.
Abstract: This paper describes the electronics of NEXT-White (NEW) detector PMT plane, a high pressure xenon TPC with electroluminescent amplification (HPXe-EL) currently operating at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC) in Huesca, Spain. In NEXT-White the energy of the event is measured by a plane of photomultipliers (PMTs) located behind a transparent cathode. The PMTs are Hamamatsu R11410-10 chosen due to their low radioactivity. The electronics have been designed and implemented to fulfill strict requirements: an overall energy resolution below 1% and a radiopurity budget of 20 mBq unit(-1) in the chain of Bi-214. All the components and materials have been carefully screened to assure a low radioactivity level and at the same time meet the required front-end electronics specifications. In order to reduce low frequency noise effects and enhance detector safety a grounded cathode connection has been used for the PMTs. This implies an AC-coupled readout and baseline variations in the PMT signals. A detailed description of the electronics and a novel approach based on a digital baseline restoration to obtain a linear response and handle AC coupling effects is presented. The final PMT channel design has been characterized with linearity better than 0.4% and noise below 0.4 mV.
|
Soderstrom, P. A. et al, Agramunt, J., Egea, J., Gadea, A., & Huyuk, T. (2019). Neutron detection and gamma-ray suppression using artificial neural networks with the liquid scintillators BC-501A and BC-537. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 916, 238–245.
Abstract: In this work we present a comparison between the two liquid scintillators BC-501A and BC-537 in terms of their performance regarding the pulse-shape discrimination between neutrons and gamma rays. Special emphasis is put on the application of artificial neural networks. The results show a systematically higher gamma-ray rejection ratio for BC-501A compared to BC-537 applying the commonly used charge comparison method. Using the artificial neural network approach the discrimination quality was improved to more than 95% rejection efficiency of gamma rays over the energy range 150 to 1000 keV for both BC-501A and BC-537. However, due to the larger light output of BC-501A compared to BC-537, neutrons could be identified in BC-501A using artificial neural networks down to a recoil proton energy of 800 keV compared to a recoil deuteron energy of 1200 keV for BC-537. We conclude that using artificial neural networks it is possible to obtain the same gamma-ray rejection quality from both BC-501A and BC-537 for neutrons above a low-energy threshold. This threshold is, however, lower for BC-501A, which is important for nuclear structure spectroscopy experiments of rare reaction channels where low-energy interactions dominates.
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2019). Measurement of the Charm-Mixing Parameter y(CP). Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(1), 011802–10pp.
Abstract: A measurement of the charm-mixing parameter Y-CP using D-0 -> K+K-, D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-), and D-0 -> K-pi(+)decays is reported. The D-0 mesons are required to originate from semimuonic decays of B- and (B) over bar (0)mesons. These decays are partially reconstructed in a data set of proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV collected with the LHCb experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). The y c p parameter is measured to be (0.57 +/- 0.13(stat) +/- 0.09(syst))%, in agreement with, and as precise as, the current world-average value.
|
Ilner, A., Blair, J., Cabrera, D., Markert, C., & Bratkovskaya, E. (2019). Probing hot and dense nuclear matter with K*, (K)over-bar* vector mesons. Phys. Rev. C, 99(2), 024914–22pp.
Abstract: We investigate the possibility of probing the hot and dense nuclear matter-created in relativistic heavyion collisions (HICs)-with strange vector mesons (K*, (K) over bar*). Our analysis is based on the nonequilibrium parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which incorporates partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom and describes the full dynamics of HIC on a microscopic level-starting from the primary nucleon-nucleon collisions to the formation of the strongly interacting quark gluon plasma (QGP), followed by dynamical hadronization of (anti)quarks as well as final hadronic elastic and inelastic interactions. This allows us to study the K* and (K) over bar* meson formation from the QGP as well as the in-medium effects related to the modification of their spectral properties during the propagation through the dense and hot hadronic environment in the expansion phase. We employ relativistic Breit-Wigner spectral functions for the K*, (K) over bar* mesons with self-energies obtained from a self-consistent coupled-channel G-matrix approach to study the role of in-medium effects on the K* and (K) over bar* meson dynamics in heavy-ion collisions from FAIR/NICA to LHC energies. According to our analysis most of the final K* /(K) over bar*'s, that can be observed experimentally by reconstruction of the invariant mass of pi + K((K) over bar) pairs, are produced during the late hadronic phase and originate dominantly from the K((K) over bar) + pi -> K*( (K) over bar*) formation channel. The amount of K*/ (K) over bar*'s, originating from the QGP channel is comparatively small even at LHC energies and those K* /(K) over bar*'s can hardly be reconstructed experimentally due to the rescattering of final pions and (anti)kaons. This mirrors the results from our previous study on the strange vector-meson production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies. We demonstrate that K* /(K) over bar* in-medium effects should be visible at FAIR/NICA and BES RHIC energies, where the production of K* /(K) over bar*'s occurs at larger net-baryon densities. Finally, we present the experimental procedures to extract the information on the resonance masses and widths by fitting the final mass spectra at LHC energies.
|
BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2019). Observation of the Decay D-0 -> K- pi(+) e(+) e(-). Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(8), 081802–8pp.
Abstract: We report the observation of the rare charm decay D-0 -> K-pi(+)e(+)e(-), based on 468 fb(-1) of e(+)e(-) annihilation data collected at or close to the center-of-mass energy of the (sic)(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We find the branching fraction in the invariant mass range 0.675 < m(e(+)e(-)) < 0.875 GeV/c(2) of the electron-positron pair to be B(D-0 -> K-pi(+)e(+)e(-)) = (4.0 +/- 0.5 +/- 0.2 +/- 0.1) x 10(-6), where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, and the third due to the uncertainty in the branching fraction of the decay D-0 -> K-pi(+)pi(+)pi(-) used as a normalization mode. The significance of the observation corresponds to 9.7 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties. This result is consistent with the recently reported D-0 -> K-pi(+)mu(+)mu(-) branching fraction, measured in the same invariant mass range, and with the value expected in the standard model. In a set of regions of m(e(+)e(-)), where long-distance effects are potentially small, we determine a 90% confidence level upper limit on the branching fraction B(D-0 -> K-pi(+)e(+)e(-)) < 3.1 x 10(-6).
|
NEXT Collaboration(Henriques, C. A. O. et al), Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., et al. (2019). Electroluminescence TPCs at the thermal diffusion limit. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 027–23pp.
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims at searching for the hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay from the Xe-136 isotope using a high-purity xenon TPC. Efficient discrimination of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionisation tracks is a major requirement for the experiment. However, it is limited by the diffusion of electrons. It is known that the addition of a small fraction of a molecular gas to xenon reduces electron diffusion. On the other hand, the electroluminescence (EL) yield drops and the achievable energy resolution may be compromised. We have studied the effect of adding several molecular gases to xenon (CO2, CH4 and CF4) on the EL yield and energy resolution obtained in a small prototype of driftless gas proportional scintillation counter. We have compared our results on the scintillation characteristics (EL yield and energy resolution) with a microscopic simulation, obtaining the diffusion coefficients in those conditions as well. Accordingly, electron diffusion may be reduced from about 10 for pure xenon down to 2.5 using additive concentrations of about 0.05%, 0.2% and 0.02% for CO2, CH4 and CF4, respectively. Our results show that CF4 admixtures present the highest EL yield in those conditions, but very poor energy resolution as a result of huge fluctuations observed in the EL formation. CH4 presents the best energy resolution despite the EL yield being the lowest. The results obtained with xenon admixtures are extrapolated to the operational conditions of the NEXT-100 TPC. CO2 and CH4 show potential as molecular additives in a large xenon TPC. While CO2 has some operational constraints, making it difficult to be used in a large TPC, CH4 shows the best performance and stability as molecular additive to be used in the NEXT-100 TPC, with an extrapolated energy resolution of 0.4% at 2.45 MeV for concentrations below 0.4%, which is only slightly worse than the one obtained for pure xenon. We demonstrate the possibility to have an electroluminescence TPC operating very close to the thermal diffusion limit without jeopardizing the TPC performance, if CO2 or CH4 are chosen as additives.
|
Carames, T. F., Vijande, J., & Valcarce, A. (2019). Exotic bc(q)over-bar(q)over-bar four-quark states. Phys. Rev. D, 99(1), 014006–9pp.
Abstract: We carry out a systematic study of exotic QQ'(q) over bar(q) over bar four-quark states containing distinguishable heavy flavors, b and c. Different generic constituent models are explored in an attempt to extract general conclusions. The results are robust, predicting the same sets of quantum numbers as the best candidates to lodge bound states independently of the model used, the isoscalar J(P) = 0(+) and J(P) = 1(+) states. The first state would be strong and electromagnetic-interaction stable, while the second would decay electromagnetically to (B) over barD gamma. Isovector states are found to be unbound, preventing the existence of charged partners. The interest on exotic heavy-light tetraquarks with nonidentical heavy flavors comes reinforced by the recent estimation of the production rate of the isoscalar bc (u) over bar(d) over bar J(P) = 1(+) state, 2 orders of magnitude larger than that of the bb (u) over bar(d) over bar analogous state.
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2019). Observation of Two Resonances in the Lambda(0)(b)pi(+/-) Systems and Precise Measurement of Sigma(+/-)(b) and Sigma(*+/-)(b) Properties. Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(1), 012001–9pp.
Abstract: The first observation of two structures consistent with resonances in the final states Lambda(0)(b)pi(-) and Lambda(0)(b)pi(+) thorn is reported using samples of pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at root s = 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). The ground states Sigma(+/-)(b) and Sigma(*+/-)(b) are also confirmed and their masses and widths are precisely measured.
|
