Giusarma, E., Gerbino, M., Mena, O., Vagnozzi, S., Ho, S., & Freese, K. (2016). Improvement of cosmological neutrino mass bounds. Phys. Rev. D, 94(8), 083522–8pp.
Abstract: The most recent measurements of the temperature and low-multipole polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background from the Planck satellite, when combined with galaxy clustering data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey in the form of the full shape of the power spectrum, and with baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, provide a 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper bound on the sum of the three active neutrinos Sigma m(nu) < 0.183 eV, among the tightest neutrino mass bounds in the literature, to date, when the same data sets are taken into account. This very same data combination is able to set, at similar to 70% C.L., an upper limit on Sigma m(nu) of 0.0968 eV, a value that approximately corresponds to the minimal mass expected in the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy scenario. If high-multipole polarization data from Planck is also considered, the 95% C.L. upper bound is tightened to Sigma m(nu) < 0.176 eV. Further improvements are obtained by considering recent measurements of the Hubble parameter. These limits are obtained assuming a specific nondegenerate neutrino mass spectrum; they slightly worsen when considering other degenerate neutrino mass schemes. Low-redshift quantities, such as the Hubble constant or the reionization optical depth, play a very important role when setting the neutrino mass constraints. We also comment on the eventual shifts in the cosmological bounds on Sigma m(nu) when possible variations in the former two quantities are addressed.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2016). Search for pair production of gluinos decaying via stop and sbottom in events with b-jets and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 032003–32pp.
Abstract: A search for supersymmetry involving the pair production of gluinos decaying via third-generation squarks to the lightest neutralino (chi) over tilde (0)(1) is reported. It uses an LHC proton-proton data set at a center-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector in 2015. The signal is searched for in events containing several energetic jets, of which at least three must be identified as b jets, large missing transverse momentum, and, potentially, isolated electrons or muons. Large-radius jets with a high mass are also used to identify highly boosted top quarks. No excess is found above the predicted background. For (chi) over tilde (0)(1) masses below approximately 700 GeV, gluino masses of less than 1.78 TeVand 1.76 TeV are excluded at the 95% C. L. in simplified models of the pair production of gluinos decaying via sbottom and stop, respectively. These results significantly extend the exclusion limits obtained with the root s = 8 TeV data set.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2016). Measurement of the B-0 -> D*(-)pi(+)pi(-)pi(+) branching fraction. Phys. Rev. D, 94(9), 091101–7pp.
Abstract: Using a sample of (470.9 +/- 2.8) x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs, we measure the decay branching fraction B(B-0 -> D*(-)pi(+)pi(-)pi(-)) = (7.26 +/- 0.11 +/- 0.31) x 10(-3), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. Our measurement will be helpful in studies of lepton universality by measuring B(B-0 -> D*(-)tau(+)nu(tau)) using tau(+) -> pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)(nu) over bar (tau) decays, normalized to B(B-0 -> D*(-)pi(+)pi(-)pi(-)).
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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. (2016). Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 032005–32pp.
Abstract: Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1) at root s = 13 TeV collected in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are required to have at least one jet with a transverse momentum above 250 GeV and no leptons. Several signal regions are considered with increasing missing-transverse-momentum requirements between E-T(miss) > 250 GeV and E-T(miss) > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model predictions. The results are translated into exclusion limits in models with large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark-matter candidates, and the production of supersymmetric particles in several compressed scenarios.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2016). Measurements of the charge asymmetry in top-quark pair production in the dilepton final state at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 032006–31pp.
Abstract: Measurements of the top-antitop quark pair production charge asymmetry in the dilepton channel, characterized by two high-p(T) leptons (electrons or muons), are presented using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) from pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy root s = 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Inclusive and differential measurements as a function of the invariant mass, transverse momentum, and longitudinal boost of the tt system arc performed both in the full phase space and in a fiducial phase space closely matching the detector acceptance. Two observables are studied: A(c)(ll) based on the selected leptons and A(c)(tt) based on the reconstructed tt final state. The inclusive asymmetries are measured in the full phase space to be A(c)(ll)= 0.008 +/- 0.006 and A(c)(tt)= 0.021 +/- 0.016, which are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions of A(c)(ll)= 0.0064 +/- 0.0003 and A(c)(tt)= 0.0111 +/- 0.0004.
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de Salas, P. F., Lineros, R. A., & Tortola, M. (2016). Neutrino propagation in the Galactic dark matter halo. Phys. Rev. D, 94(12), 123001–14pp.
Abstract: Neutrino oscillations are a widely observed and well-established phenomenon. It is also well known that deviations with respect to flavor conversion probabilities in vacuum arise due to neutrino interactions with matter. In this work, we analyze the impact of new interactions between neutrinos and the dark matter present in the Milky Way on the neutrino oscillation pattern. The dark matter-neutrino interaction is modeled by using an effective coupling proportional to the Fermi constant GF with no further restrictions on its flavor structure. For the galactic dark matter profile we consider a homogeneous distribution as well as several density profiles, estimating in all cases the size of the interaction required to get an observable effect at different neutrino energies. Our discussion is mainly focused in the PeV neutrino energy range, to be explored in observatories like IceCube and KM3NeT. The obtained results may be interpreted in terms of a light O(sub-eV-keV) or weakly interacting massive particlelike dark matter particle or as a new interaction with a mediator of O(sub-eV-keV) mass.
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Fonseca, R. M., & Hirsch, M. (2016). Lepton number violation in 331 models. Phys. Rev. D, 94(11), 115003–16pp.
Abstract: Different models based on the extended SU(3)(C) x SU(3)(L) x U(1)(X) (331) gauge group have been proposed over the past four decades. Yet, despite being an active research topic, the status of lepton number in 331 models has not been fully addressed in the literature, and furthermore many of the original proposals can not explain the observed neutrino masses. In this paper we review the basic features of various 331 models, focusing on potential sources of lepton number violation. We then describe different modifications which can be made to the original models in order to accommodate neutrino (and charged lepton) masses.
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Podolyak, Z. (2016). Role of the Delta Resonance in the Population of a Four-Nucleon State in the Fe-56 -> Fe-54 Reaction at Relativistic Energies. Phys. Rev. Lett., 117(22), 222302–6pp.
Abstract: The Fe-54 nucleus was populated from a Fe-56 beam impinging on a Be target with an energy of E/A = 500 MeV. The internal decay via gamma-ray emission of the 10(+) metastable state was observed. As the structure of this isomeric state has to involve at least four unpaired nucleons, it cannot be populated in a simple two-neutron removal reaction from the Fe-56 ground state. The isomeric state was produced in the low-momentum (-energy) tail of the parallel momentum (energy) distribution of Fe-54, suggesting that it was populated via the decay of the Delta(0) resonance into a proton. This process allows the population of fournucleon states, such as the observed isomer. Therefore, it is concluded that the observation of this 10(+) metastable state in Fe-54 is a consequence of the quark structure of the nucleons.
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Arbelaez, C., Gonzalez, M., Hirsch, M., & Kovalenko, S. G. (2016). QCD corrections and long-range mechanisms of neutrinoless double beta decay. Phys. Rev. D, 94(9), 096014–5pp.
Abstract: Recently it has been demonstrated that QCD corrections are numerically important for short-range mechanisms (SRM) of neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) mediated by heavy particle exchange. This is due to the effect of color mismatch for certain effective operators, which leads to mixing between different operators with vastly different nuclear matrix elements (NMEs). In this note we analyze the QCD corrections for long-range mechanisms (LRM), due to diagrams with light-neutrino exchange between a Standard Model (V-A)chi(V-A) and a beyond the SM lepton number violating vertex. We argue that in contrast to the SRM in the LRM case, there is no operator mixing from color-mismatched operators. This is due to a combined effect of the nuclear short-range correlations and color invariance. As a result, the QCD corrections to the LRM amount to an effect no more than 60%, depending on the operator in question. Although less crucial, taken into account QCD running makes theoretical predictions for 0 nu beta beta-decay more robust also for LRM diagrams. We derive the current experimental constraints on the Wilson coefficients for all LRM effective operators.
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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. (2016). Search for pair production of Higgs bosons in the bbbb final state using proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 94(5), 052002–29pp.
Abstract: A search for Higgs-boson pair production in the bbbb final state is carried out with 3.2 fb(-1) of protonproton collision data collected at root s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. The data are consistent with the estimated background and are used to set upper limits on the production cross section of Higgs-boson pairs times branching ratio to bbbb for both nonresonant and resonant production. In the case of resonant production of Kaluza-Klein gravitons within the Randall-Sundrum model, upper limits in the 24 to 91 fb range are obtained for masses between 600 and 3000 GeV, at the 95% confidence level. The production cross section times branching ratio for nonresonant Higgs-boson pairs is also constrained to be less than 1.22 pb, at the 95% confidence level.
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