ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amoros, G., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Escobar, C., et al. (2011). Search for a Heavy Particle Decaying into an Electron and a Muon with the ATLAS Detector in sqrt(s)=7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC. Phys. Rev. Lett., 106(25), 251801–18pp.
Abstract: This Letter presents the first search for a heavy particle decaying into an e(+/-)mu(-/+) final state in root s = 7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector during 2010 and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 35 pb(-1). No excess above the standard model background expectation is observed. Exclusions at 95% confidence level are placed on two representative models. In an R-parity violating supersymmetric model, tau sneutrinos with a mass below 0.75 TeV are excluded, assuming all R-parity violating couplings are zero except lambda(311)' = 0.11 and lambda(312) = 0.07. In a lepton flavor violating model, a Z'-like vector boson with masses of 0.70-1.00 TeV and corresponding cross sections times branching ratios of 0.175-0.183 pb is excluded. These results extend to higher mass R-parity violating sneutrinos and lepton flavor violating Z's than previous constraints from the Tevatron.
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Xie, J. J., Martinez Torres, A., & Oset, E. (2011). Faddeev fixed-center approximation to the N K K(bar) system and the signature of a N*(1920)(1/2+) state. Phys. Rev. C, 83(6), 065207–8pp.
Abstract: We perform a calculation for the three-body N (K) over barK scattering amplitude by using the fixed-center approximation to the Faddeev equations, taking the interaction between N and (K) over bar, N and K, and (K) over bar and K from the chiral unitary approach. The resonant structures show up in the modulus squared of the three-body scattering amplitude and suggest that a N (K) over barK hadron state can be formed. Our results are in agreement with others obtained in previous theoretical works, which claim a new N* resonance around 1920 MeV with spin-parity J(P) = 1/2(+). The existence of these previous works allows us to test the accuracy of the fixed center approximation in the present problem and sets the grounds for possible application in similar problems, as an explorative tool to determine bound or quasibound three-hadron systems.
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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. (2011). Charged-particle multiplicities in pp interactions measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. New J. Phys., 13, 053033–68pp.
Abstract: Measurements are presented from proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of root s = 0.9, 2.36 and 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events were collected using a single-arm minimum-bias trigger. The charged-particle multiplicity, its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity and the relationship between the mean transverse momentum and charged-particle multiplicity are measured. Measurements in different regions of phase space are shown, providing diffraction-reduced measurements as well as more inclusive ones. The observed distributions are corrected to well-defined phase-space regions, using model-independent corrections. The results are compared to each other and to various Monte Carlo (MC) models, including a new AMBT1 pythia6 tune. In all the kinematic regions considered, the particle multiplicities are higher than predicted by the MC models. The central charged-particle multiplicity per event and unit of pseudorapidity, for tracks with p(T) > 100 MeV, is measured to be 3.483 +/- 0.009 (stat) +/- 0.106 (syst) at root s = 0.9 TeV and 5.630 +/- 0.003 (stat) +/- 0.169 (syst) at root s = 7 TeV.
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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. (2011). A search for new physics in dijet mass and angular distributions in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector. New J. Phys., 13, 053044–44pp.
Abstract: A search for new interactions and resonances produced in LHC proton-proton (pp) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy root s = 7 TeV was performed with the ATLAS detector. Using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 36 pb(-1), dijet mass and angular distributions were measured up to dijet masses of similar to 3.5 TeV and were found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions. This analysis sets limits at 95% CL on various models for new physics: an excited quark is excluded for mass between 0.60 and 2.64 TeV, an axigluon hypothesis is excluded for axigluon masses between 0.60 and 2.10 TeV and quantum black holes are excluded in models with six extra space-time dimensions for quantum gravity scales between 0.75 and 3.67 TeV. Production cross section limits as a function of dijet mass are set using a simplified Gaussian signal model to facilitate comparisons with other hypotheses. Analysis of the dijet angular distribution using a novel technique simultaneously employing the dijet mass excludes quark contact interactions with a compositeness scale 3 below 9.5 TeV.
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Giusarma, E., Corsi, M., Archidiacono, M., de Putter, R., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., et al. (2011). Constraints on massive sterile neutrino species from current and future cosmological data. Phys. Rev. D, 83(11), 115023–10pp.
Abstract: Sterile massive neutrinos are a natural extension of the standard model of elementary particles. The energy density of the extra sterile massive states affects cosmological measurements in an analogous way to that of active neutrino species. We perform here an analysis of current cosmological data and derive bounds on the masses of the active and the sterile neutrino states, as well as on the number of sterile states. The so-called (3 + 2) models, with three sub-eV active massive neutrinos plus two sub-eV massive sterile species, is well within the 95% CL allowed regions when considering cosmological data only. If the two extra sterile states have thermal abundances at decoupling, big bang nucleosynthesis bounds compromise the viability of (3 + 2) models. Forecasts from future cosmological data on the active and sterile neutrino parameters are also presented. Independent measurements of the neutrino mass from tritium beta-decay experiments and of the Hubble constant could shed light on sub-eV massive sterile neutrino scenarios.
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Mayoral, C., Fabbri, A., & Rinaldi, M. (2011). Steplike discontinuities in Bose-Einstein condensates and Hawking radiation: Dispersion effects. Phys. Rev. D, 83(12), 124047–22pp.
Abstract: In this paper we extend the hydrodynamic results of {A. Fabbri and C. Mayoral, Phys. Rev. D 83, 124016 (2011).} and study, analytically, the propagation of Bogoliubov phonons on top of Bose-Einstein condensates with steplike discontinuities in the speed of sound by taking into account dispersion effects. We focus on the Hawking signal in the density-density correlations in the formation of acoustic blackhole-like configurations.
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Schwetz, T., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2011). Global neutrino data and recent reactor fluxes: the status of three-flavour oscillation parameters. New J. Phys., 13, 063004–15pp.
Abstract: We present the results of a global neutrino oscillation data analysis within the three-flavour framework. We include the latest results from the MINOS long-baseline experiment (including electron neutrino appearance and anti-neutrino data), updating all relevant solar (Super-Kamiokande (SK) II + III), atmospheric (SK I + II + III) and reactor (KamLAND) data. Furthermore, we include a recent re-calculation of the anti-neutrino fluxes emitted from nuclear reactors. These results have important consequences for the analysis of reactor experiments and in particular for the status of the mixing angle theta(13). In our recommended default analysis, we find from the global fit that the hint for nonzero theta(13) remains weak, at 1.8 sigma for both neutrino mass hierarchy schemes. However, we discuss in detail the dependence of these results on assumptions regarding the reactor neutrino analysis.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2011). Amplitude analysis of B0 -> K+ pi- pi0 and evidence of direct CP violation in B -> K * pi decays. Phys. Rev. D, 83(11), 112010–21pp.
Abstract: We analyze the decay B-0 -> K+ pi(-) pi(0) with a sample of 4.54 x 10(8) B (B) over bar events collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory at SLAC, and extract the complex amplitudes of seven interfering resonances over the Dalitz plot. These results are combined with amplitudes measured in B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) decays to construct isospin amplitudes from B-0 -> K* pi and B-0 -> rho K decays. We measure the phase of the isospin amplitude Phi(3/2), useful in constraining the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle angle gamma and evaluate a CP rate asymmetry sum rule sensitive to the presence of new physics operators. We measure direct CP violation in B-0 -> K*(+) pi(-) decays at the level of 3 sigma when measurements from both B-0 -> K+ pi(-) pi(0) and B-0 -> K-S(0) pi(+) pi(-) decays are combined.
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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. (2011). Search for contact interactions in dimuon events from pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 84(1), 011101–18pp.
Abstract: A search for contact interactions has been performed using dimuon events recorded with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 42 pb(-1). No significant deviation from the standard model is observed in the dimuon mass spectrum, allowing the following 95% C. L. limits to be set on the energy scale of contact interactions: Lambda > 4: 9 TeV (4.5 TeV) for constructive (destructive) interference in the left-left isoscalar compositeness model. These limits are the most stringent to date for μμqq contact interactions.
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Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Martin-Albo, J., Sorel, M., Ferrario, P., Monrabal, F., Muñoz, J., et al. (2011). Sense and sensitivity of double beta decay experiments. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 007–30pp.
Abstract: The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is a very active field in which the number of proposals for next-generation experiments has proliferated. In this paper we attempt to address both the sense and the sensitivity of such proposals. Sensitivity comes first, by means of proposing a simple and unambiguous statistical recipe to derive the sensitivity to a putative Majorana neutrino mass, m(beta beta). In order to make sense of how the different experimental approaches compare, we apply this recipe to a selection of proposals, comparing the resulting sensitivities. We also propose a “physics-motivated range” (PMR) of the nuclear matrix elements as a unifying criterium between the different nuclear models. The expected performance of the proposals is parametrized in terms of only four numbers: energy resolution, background rate (per unit time, isotope mass and energy), detection efficiency, and beta beta isotope mass. For each proposal, both a reference and an optimistic scenario for the experimental performance are studied. In the reference scenario we find that all the proposals will be able to partially explore the degenerate spectrum, without fully covering it, although four of them (KamLAND-Zen, CUORE, NEXT and EXO) will approach the 50 meV boundary. In the optimistic scenario, we find that CUORE and the xenon-based proposals (KamLAND-Zen, EXO and NEXT) will explore a significant fraction of the inverse hierarchy, with NEXT covering it almost fully. For the long term future, we argue that Xe-136-based experiments may provide the best case for a 1-ton scale experiment, given the potentially very low backgrounds achievable and the expected scalability to large isotope masses.
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