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Bas i Beneito, A., Gargalionis, J., Herrero-Garcia, J., Santamaria, A., & Schmidt, M. A. (2024). An EFT approach to baryon number violation: lower limits on the new physics scale and correlations between nucleon decay modes. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 004–37pp.
Abstract: Baryon number is an accidental symmetry of the Standard Model at the Lagrangian level. Its violation is arguably one of the most compelling phenomena predicted by physics beyond the Standard Model. Furthermore, there is a large experimental effort to search for it including the Hyper-K, DUNE, JUNO, and THEIA experiments. Therefore, an agnostic, model-independent, analysis of baryon number violation using the power of Effective Field Theory is very timely. In particular, in this work we study the contribution of dimension six and seven effective operators to |triangle(B – L)| = 0, 2 nucleon decays taking into account the effects of Renormalisation Group Evolution. We obtain lower limits on the energy scale of each operator and study the correlations between different decay modes. We find that for some operators the effect of running is very significant.
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De Romeri, V., Papoulias, D. K., & Ternes, C. A. (2024). Light vector mediators at direct detection experiments. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 165–22pp.
Abstract: Solar neutrinos induce elastic neutrino-electron scattering in dark matter direct detection experiments, resulting in detectable event rates at current facilities. We analyze recent data from the XENONnT, LUX-ZEPLIN, and PandaX-4T experiments and we derive stringent constraints on several U(1) ' extensions of the Standard Model, accommodating new neutrino-electron interactions. We provide bounds on the relevant coupling and mass of light vector mediators for a variety of models, including the anomaly-free B – L model, lepton flavor-dependent interactions like L alpha – L beta , B – 2L e – L mu,tau , B – 3L alpha , and B + 2L μ+ 2L tau models. We compare our results with other limits obtained in the literature from both terrestrial and astrophysical experiments. Finally, we present forecasts for improving current bounds with a future experiment like DARWIN.
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Kalliokoski, M., Mitsou, V. A., de Montigny, M., Mukhopadhyay, A., Ouimet, P. P. A., Pinfold, J., et al. (2024). Searching for minicharged particles at the energy frontier with the MoEDAL-MAPP experiment at the LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 137–22pp.
Abstract: The MoEDAL's Apparatus for Penetrating Particles (MAPP) Experiment is designed to expand the search for new physics at the LHC, significantly extending the physics program of the baseline MoEDAL Experiment. The Phase-1 MAPP detector (MAPP-1) is currently undergoing installation at the LHC's UA83 gallery adjacent to the LHCb/MoEDAL region at Interaction Point 8 and will begin data-taking in early 2024. The focus of the MAPP experiment is on the quest for new feebly interacting particles – avatars of new physics with extremely small Standard Model couplings, such as minicharged particles (mCPs). In this study, we present the results of a comprehensive analysis of MAPP-1's sensitivity to mCPs arising in the canonical model involving the kinetic mixing of a massless dark U(1) gauge field with the Standard Model hypercharge gauge field. We focus on several dominant production mechanisms of mCPs at the LHC across the mass-mixing parameter space of interest to MAPP: Drell-Yan pair production, direct decays of heavy quarkonia and light vector mesons, and single Dalitz decays of pseudoscalar mesons. The 95% confidence level background-free sensitivity of MAPP-1 for mCPs produced at the LHC's Run 3 and the HL-LHC through these mechanisms, along with projected constraints on the minicharged strongly interacting dark matter window, are reported. Our results indicate that MAPP-1 exhibits sensitivity to sizable regions of unconstrained parameter space and can probe effective charges as low as 8 x 10 -4 e and 6 x 10 -4 e for Run 3 and the HL-LHC, respectively.
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Chu, X. Y., Garani, R., Garcia-Cely, C., & Hambye, T. (2024). Dark matter bound-state formation in the Sun. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 045–32pp.
Abstract: The Sun may capture asymmetric dark matter (DM), which can subsequently form bound-states through the radiative emission of a sub-GeV scalar. This process enables generation of scalars without requiring DM annihilation. In addition to DM capture on nucleons, the DM-scalar coupling responsible for bound-state formation also induces capture from self-scatterings of ambient DM particles with DM particles already captured, as well as with DM bound-states formed in-situ within the Sun. This scenario is studied in detail by solving Boltzmann equations numerically and analytically. In particular, we take into consideration that the DM self-capture rates require a treatment beyond the conventional Born approximation. We show that, thanks to DM scatterings on bound-states, the number of DM particles captured increases exponentially, leading to enhanced emission of relativistic scalars through bound-state formation, whose final decay products could be observable. We explore phenomenological signatures with the example that the scalar mediator decays to neutrinos. We find that the neutrino flux emitted can be comparable to atmospheric neutrino fluxes within the range of energies below one hundred MeV. Future facilities like Hyper-K, and direct DM detection experiments can further test such scenario.
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Centelles Chulia, S., Herrero-Brocal, A., & Vicente, A. (2024). The Type-I Seesaw family. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 060–35pp.
Abstract: We provide a comprehensive analysis of the Type-I Seesaw family of neutrino mass models, including the conventional type-I seesaw and its low-scale variants, namely the linear and inverse seesaws. We establish that all these models essentially correspond to a particular form of the type-I seesaw in the context of explicit lepton number violation. We then focus into the more interesting scenario of spontaneous lepton number violation, systematically categorizing all inequivalent minimal models. Furthermore, we identify and flesh out specific models that feature a rich majoron phenomenology and discuss some scenarios which, despite having heavy mediators and being invisible in processes such as μ-> e gamma, predict sizable rates for decays including the majoron in the final state.
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