PTOLEMY Collaboration(Betti, M. G. et al), Gariazzo, S., & Pastor, S. (2019). Neutrino physics with the PTOLEMY project: active neutrino properties and the light sterile case. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 047–31pp.
Abstract: The PTOLEMY project aims to develop a scalable design for a Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) detector, the first of its kind and the only one conceived that can look directly at the image of the Universe encoded in neutrino background produced in the first second after the Big Bang. The scope of the work for the next three years is to complete the conceptual design of this detector and to validate with direct measurements that the non-neutrino backgrounds are below the expected cosmological signal. In this paper we discuss in details the theoretical aspects of the experiment and its physics goals. In particular, we mainly address three issues. First we discuss the sensitivity of PTOLEMY to the standard neutrino mass scale. We then study the perspectives of the experiment to detect the CNB via neutrino capture on tritium as a function of the neutrino mass scale and the energy resolution of the apparatus. Finally, we consider an extra sterile neutrino with mass in the eV range, coupled to the active states via oscillations, which has been advocated in view of neutrino oscillation anomalies. This extra state would contribute to the tritium decay spectrum, and its properties, mass and mixing angle, could be studied by analyzing the features in the beta decay electron spectrum.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2019). Precision measurement of the Lambda(+)(c), Xi(+)(c), and Xi(0)(c) baryon lifetimes. Phys. Rev. D, 100(3), 032001–12pp.
Abstract: We report measurements of the lifetimes of the Lambda(+)(c), Xi(+)(c) and Xi(0)(c) charm baryons using proton- proton collision data at center- of- mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment. The charm baryons are reconstructed through the decays Lambda(+)(c) -> pK(-)pi(+),. Xi(+)(c) -> pK(-) pi(+) and Xi(0)(c) -> pK(-) K- pi(+), and originate from semimuonic decays of beauty baryons. The lifetimes are measured relative to that of the D+ meson, and are determined to be tau Lambda(+)(c) = 203.5 +/- 1.0 +/- 1.3 +/- 1.4 fs; tau Xi(+)(c) = 456.8 +/- 3.5 +/- 2.9 +/- 3.1 fs; tau Xi(0)(c) = 154.5 +/- 1.7 +/- 1.6 +/- 1.0 fs; where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the uncertainty in the D+ lifetime. The measurements are approximately 3- 4 times more precise than the current world average values. The. +c and Xi(+)(c) lifetimes are in agreement with previous measurements; however, the Xi(0)(c) baryon lifetime is approximately 3.3 standard deviations larger than the world average value.
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Rafi Alam, M., & Ruiz Simo, I. (2019). Weak production of strange Xi baryons off the nucleon. Phys. Rev. D, 100(3), 033001–10pp.
Abstract: The charged current Cabibbo-suppressed associated K Xi production off the nucleon induced by antineutrinos is studied at low and intermediate energies. The nonresonant terms are obtained using a microscopical model based on the SU( 3) chiral Lagrangian. The basic parameters of the model are f(pi), the pion decay constant, Cabibbo's angle, the proton and neutron magnetic moments, and the axial vector coupling constants for the baryons octet, D and F, that are obtained from the analysis of the semileptonic decays of neutron and hyperons. In addition, we also consider Sigma(*)(1385) resonance, which can decay in K Xi final state when this channel is open. The studied mechanism is the prime source of Xi production at antineutrino energies around 2 GeV and the calculated cross sections at these energies can be measured at the current and future neutrino experiments.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Observation of Light-by-Light Scattering in Ultraperipheral Pb plus Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector. Phys. Rev. Lett., 123(5), 052001–21pp.
Abstract: This Letter describes the observation of the light-by-light scattering process, gamma gamma -> gamma gamma, in Pb + Pb collisions at root S-NN = 5.02 TeV. The analysis is conducted using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.73 nb(-1), collected in November 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Light-by-light scattering candidates are selected in events with two photons produced exclusively, each with transverse energy E-T(gamma) > 3 GeV and pseudorapidity vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar < 2.4, diphoton invariant mass above 6 GeV, and small diphoton transverse momentum and acoplanarity. After applying all selection criteria, 59 candidate events are observed for a background expectation of 12 +/- 3 events. The observed excess of events over the expected background has a significance of 8.2 standard deviations. The measured fiducial cross section is 78 +/- 13(stat) +/- 7(syst) +/- 3(lumi) nb.
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Beltran Jimenez, J., & Delhom, A. (2019). Ghosts in metric-affine higher order curvature gravity. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(8), 656–7pp.
Abstract: We disprove the widespread belief that higher order curvature theories of gravity in the metric-affine formalism are generally ghost-free. This is clarified by considering a sub-class of theories constructed only with the Ricci tensor and showing that the non-projectively invariant sector propagates ghost-like degrees of freedom. We also explain how these pathologies can be avoided either by imposing a projective symmetry or additional constraints in the gravity sector. Our results put forward that higher order curvature gravity theories generally remain pathological in the metric-affine (and hybrid) formalisms and highlight the key importance of the projective symmetry and/or additional constraints for their physical viability and, by extension, of general metric-affine theories.
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