T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Antonova, M., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Izmaylov, A., & Novella, P. (2018). Characterization of nuclear effects in muon-neutrino scattering on hydrocarbon with a measurement of final-state kinematics and correlations in charged-current pionless interactions at T2K. Phys. Rev. D, 98(3), 032003–46pp.
Abstract: This paper reports measurements of final-state proton multiplicity, muon and proton kinematics, and their correlations in charged-current pionless neutrino interactions, measured by the T2K ND280 near detector in its plastic scintillator (C8H8) target. The data were taken between years 2010 and 2013, corresponding to approximately 6 x 10(20) protons on target. Thanks to their exploration of the proton kinematics and of imbalances between the proton and muon kinematics, the results offer a novel probe of the nuclear-medium effects most pertinent to the (sub-)GeV neutrino-nucleus interactions that are used in accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino oscillation measurements. These results are compared to many neutrino-nucleus interaction models which all fail to describe at least part of the observed phase space. In case of events without a proton above a detection threshold in the final state, a fully consistent implementation of the local Fermi gas model with multinucleon interactions gives the best description of the data. In the case of at least one proton in the final state, the spectral function model agrees well with the data, most notably when measuring the kinematic imbalance between the muon and the proton in the plane transverse to the incoming neutrino. Within the models considered, only the existence of multinucleon interactions are able to describe the extracted cross section within regions of high transverse kinematic imbalance. The effect of final-state interactions is also discussed.
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LHCb Collaboration, Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2018). Observation of a New Xi(-)(b) Resonance. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121(7), 072002–12pp.
Abstract: From samples of pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at root s = 7, 8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.0, 2.0 and 1.5 fb(-1), respectively, a peak in both the Lambda(0)(b) K- and Xi(0)(b)pi(-) invariant mass spectra is observed. In the quark model, radially and orbitally excited Xi(-)(b) resonances with quark content bds are expected. Referring to this peak as Xi(b)(6227)(-), the mass and natural width are measured to be m(Xi b(6227))(-) = 6226.9 +/- 2.0 +/- 0.3 +/- 0.2 MeV/c(2) and Gamma(Xi b(6227))- = 18.1 +/- 5.4 +/- 1.8 MeV/c(2), where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third, on m(Xi b(6227))(-), is due to the knowledge of the Lambda(0)(b) baryon mass. Relative production rates of the Xi(b)(6227)(-) -> Lambda K-0(b)- and Xi(b)(6227)(-) -> Xi(0)(b)pi(-) decays are also reported.
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Aebischer, J., Brivio, I., Celis, A., Evans, J. A., Jiang, Y., Kumar, J., et al. (2018). WCxf : An exchange format for Wilson coefficients beyond the Standard Model. Comput. Phys. Commun., 232, 71–83.
Abstract: We define a data exchange format for numerical values of Wilson coefficients of local operators parameterising low-energy effects of physics beyond the Standard Model. The format facilitates interfacing model-specific Wilson coefficient calculators, renormalisation group (RG) runners, and observable calculators. It is designed to be unambiguous (defining a non-redundant set of operators with fixed normalisation in each basis), extensible (allowing the addition of new EFTs or bases by the user), and robust (being based on industry standard file formats with parsers implemented in many programming languages). We have implemented the format for the Standard Model EFT (SMEFT) and for the weak effective theory (WET) below the electroweak scale and have added interfaces to a number of public codes dealing with SMEFT or WET. We also provide command-line utilities and a Python module for convenient manipulation of WCxf files, including translation between different bases and matching from SMEFT to WET. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Cermeño, M., Perez-Garcia, M. A., & Lineros, R. A. (2018). Enhanced neutrino emissivities in pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter annihilation in neutron stars. Astrophys. J., 863(2), 157–9pp.
Abstract: We calculate neutrino emissivities from self-annihilating dark matter (DM) (chi) in the dense and hot stellar interior of a (proto)neutron star. Using a model where DM interacts with nucleons in the stellar core through a pseudoscalar boson (a) we find that the neutrino production rates from the dominant reaction channels chi -> nu(nu) over bar or chi chi -> aa, with subsequent decay of the mediator a -> nu(nu) over bar, could locally match and even surpass those of the standard neutrinos from the modified nuclear URCA processes at early ages. We find that the emitting region can be localized in a tiny fraction of the star (less than a few percent of the core volume) and the process can last its entire lifetime for some cases under study. We discuss the possible consequences of our results for stellar cooling in light of existing DM constraints.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., et al. (2018). The search for neutrinos from TXS 0506+056 with the ANTARES telescope. Astrophys. J. Lett., 863(2), L30–6pp.
Abstract: The results of three different searches for neutrino candidates, associated with the IceCube-170922A event or from the direction of TXS 0506+056, by the ANTARES neutrino telescope, are presented. The first search refers to the online follow-up of the IceCube alert; the second is based on the standard time-integrated method employed by the Collaboration to search for point-like neutrino sources; the third uses information from the IceCube time-dependent analysis that reported bursting activity centered on 2014 December 13, as input for an ANTARES time-dependent analysis. The online follow-up and the time-dependent analysis yield no events related to the source. The time-integrated study performed over a period from 2007 to 2017 fits 1.03 signal events, which corresponds to a p-value of 3.4% (not considering trial factors). Only for two other astrophysical objects in our candidate list has a smaller p-value been found. When considering that 107 sources have been investigated, the post-trial p-value for TXS 0506+056 corresponds to 87%.
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Sarriguren, P., Algora, A., & Kiss, G. (2018). beta-decay properties of neutron-rich Ca, Ti, and Cr isotopes. Phys. Rev. C, 98(2), 024311–10pp.
Abstract: beta-decay properties of neutron-rich Ca, Ti, and Cr isotopes are studied within a deformed proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation. The underlying mean field is described self-consistently from deformed Skyrme Hartree-Fock calculations with pairing correlations. Residual spin-isospin interactions in the particle-hole and particle-particle channels are also included in the formalism. The energy distributions of the Gamow-Teller strength, the beta-decay feedings, the beta-decay half-lives, and the beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities are discussed and compared with other theoretical results, as well as with the available experimental information. The evolution of these nuclear beta-decay properties is investigated in isotopic chains in a search for structural changes. A reliable estimate of the beta-decay properties in this mass region is valuable information for evaluating decay rates in astrophysical scenarios.
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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. (2018). Search for supersymmetry in events with four or more leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with ATLAS. Phys. Rev. D, 98(3), 032009–31pp.
Abstract: Results from a search for supersymmetry in events with four or more charged leptons (electrons, muons and taus) are presented. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider at root s = 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Four-lepton signal regions with up to two hadronically decaying taus are designed to target a range of supersymmetric scenarios that can be either enriched in or depleted of events involving the production and decay of a Z boson. Data yields are consistent with Standard Model expectations and results are used to set upper limits on the event yields from processes beyond the Standard Model. Exclusion limits are set at the 95% confidence level in simplified models of general gauge mediated supersymmetry, where Higgsino masses are excluded up to 295 GeV. In R-parity-violating simplified models with decays of the lightest supersymmetric particle to charged leptons, lower limits of 1.46, 1.06, and 2.25 TeV are placed on wino, slepton and gluino masses, respectively.
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Campanario, F., Figy, T. M., Platzer, S., Rauch, M., Schichtel, P., & Sjodahl, M. (2018). Stress testing the vector-boson-fusion approximation in multijet final states. Phys. Rev. D, 98(3), 033003–7pp.
Abstract: We consider electroweak Higgs plus three jets production at NLO QCD beyond strict VBF acceptance cuts. We investigate, for the first time, how accurate the VBF approximation is in these regions and within perturbative uncertainties by a detailed comparison of full and approximate calculations. We find that a rapidity gap between the tagging jets guarantees a good approximation, while an invariant mass cut alone is not sufficient, which needs to be confronted with experimental choices. We also find that a significant part of the QCD corrections can be attributed to Higgs-Strahlungs-type topologies.
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Fileviez Perez, P., Gross, A., & Murgui, C. (2018). Seesaw scale, unification, and proton decay. Phys. Rev. D, 98(3), 035032–10pp.
Abstract: We investigate a simple realistic grand unified theory based on the SU(5) gauge symmetry, which predicts an upper bound on the proton decay lifetime for the channels p -> K+(nu) over bar and p -> pi(+)(nu) over bar, i.e., tau (p -> K+(nu) over bar) less than or similar to 3.4 x 10(35) and tau(p -> pi(+)(nu) over bar) less than or similar to 1.7 x 10(34) years, respectively. In this context, the neutrino masses are generated through the type I and type III seesaw mechanisms, and one predicts that the field responsible for type III seesaw must be light with a mass below 500 TeV. We discuss the testability of this theory at current and future proton decay experiments.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., et al. (2018). Long-term monitoring of the ANTARES optical module efficiencies using K-40 decays in sea water. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(8), 669–8pp.
Abstract: Cherenkov light induced by radioactive decay products is one of the major sources of background light for deep-sea neutrino telescopes such as ANTARES. These decays are at the same time a powerful calibration source. Using data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope from mid 2008 to 2017, the time evolution of the photon detection efficiency of optical modules is studied. A modest loss of only 20% in 9 years is observed. The relative time calibration between adjacent modules is derived as well.
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