Gao, F., & Oldengott, I. M. (2022). Cosmology Meets Functional QCD: First-Order Cosmic QCD Transition Induced by Large Lepton Asymmetries. Phys. Rev. Lett., 128(13), 131301–6pp.
Abstract: The lepton flavor asymmetries of the Universe are observationally almost unconstrained before the onset of neutrino oscillations. We calculate the cosmic trajectory during the cosmic QCD epoch in the presence of large lepton flavor asymmetries. By including QCD thermodynamic quantities derived from functional QCD methods in our calculation, our work reveals for the first time the possibility of a first-order cosmic QCD transition. We specify the required values of the lepton flavor asymmetries for which a first-order transition occurs for a number of different benchmark scenarios.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., & Ruiz Vidal, J. (2022). Measurement of the Nuclear Modification Factor and Prompt Charged Particle Production in p-Pb and pp Collisions at root s(NN )=5 TeV. Phys. Rev. Lett., 128(14), 142004–12pp.
Abstract: The production of prompt charged particles in proton-lead collisions and in proton-proton collisions at the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy root s(NN) = 5 TeV is studied at LHCb as a function of pseudorapidity (eta) and transverse momentum (p(T) ) with respect to the proton beam direction. The nuclear modification factor for charged particles is determined as a function of eta between -4.8 < eta < -2.5 (backward region) and 2.0 < eta < 4.8 (forward region), and p(T) between 0.2 < p(T) < 8.0 GeV/c. The results show a suppression of charged particle production in proton-lead collisions relative to proton-proton collisions in the forward region and an enhancement in the backward region for p(T) larger than 1.5 GeV/c. This measurement constrains nuclear PDFs and saturation models at previously unexplored values of the parton momentum fraction down to 10(-6).
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Garcia Soto, A., Zhelnin, P., Safa, I., & Arguelles, C. A. (2022). Tau Appearance from High-Energy Neutrino Interactions. Phys. Rev. Lett., 128(17), 171101–7pp.
Abstract: High-energy muon and electron neutrinos yield a non-negligible flux of tau neutrinos as they propagate through Earth. In this Letter, we address the impact of this additional component in the PeV and EeV energy regimes for the first time. Above 300 TeV, this contribution is predicted to be significantly larger than the atmospheric background, and it alters current and future neutrino telescopes' capabilities to discover a cosmic tau-neutrino flux. Further, we demonstrate that Earth-skimming neutrino experiments, designed to observe tau neutrinos, will be sensitive to cosmogenic neutrinos even in extreme scenarios without a primary tau-neutrino component.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., & Ruiz Vidal, J. (2022). Observation of two new excited Ξ0b states decaying to Λ0bK−π+. Phys. Rev. Lett., 128(16), 162001–12pp.
Abstract: Two narrow resonant states are observed in the Λ0bK−π+ mass spectrum using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6 fb−1. The minimal quark content of the Λ0bK−π+ system indicates that these are excited Ξ0b baryons. The masses of the Ξb(6327)0 and Ξb(6333)0 states are m(Ξb(6327)0)=6327.28+0.23−0.21±0.12±0.24 MeV and m(Ξb(6333)0)=6332.69+0.17−0.18±0.03±0.22 MeV, respectively, with a mass splitting of Δm=5.41+0.26−0.27±0.12 MeV, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic and due to the Λ0b mass measurement. The measured natural widths of these states are consistent with zero, with upper limits of Γ(Ξb(6327)0)<2.20 (2.56) MeV and Γ(Ξb(6333)0)<1.60 (1.92) MeV at a 90% (95%) credibility level. The significance of the two-peak hypothesis is larger than nine (five) Gaussian standard deviations compared to the no-peak (one-peak) hypothesis. The masses, widths and resonant structure of the new states are in good agreement with the expectations for a doublet of 1D Ξ0b resonances.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2022). Search for an Axionlike Particle in B Meson Decays. Phys. Rev. Lett., 128(13), 131802–8pp.
Abstract: Axionlike particles (ALPs) are predicted in many extensions of the standard model, and their masses can naturally be well below the electroweak scale. In the presence of couplings to electroweak bosons, these particles could be emitted in flavor-changing B meson decays. We report herein a search for an ALP, a, in the reaction B-+/- -> K(+/-)a, a -> gamma gamma using data collected by the BABAR experiment at SLAC. No significant signal is observed, and 90% confidence level upper limits on the ALP coupling to electroweak bosons are derived as a function of ALP mass, improving current constraints by several orders of magnitude in the range 0.175 GeV < m(a) < 4.78 GeV.
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