Abstract: Massive neutrinos demand to ask whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles. Majorana neutrinos are an irrefutable proof of physics beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinoless double electron capture is not a process but a virtual Delta L = 2 mixing between a parent (A)Z atom and a daughter (A)(Z – 2) excited atom with two electron holes. As a mixing between two neutral atoms and the observable signal in terms of emitted two-hole X-rays, the strategy, experimental signature and background are different from neutrinoless double beta decay. The mixing is resonantly enhanced for almost degeneracy and, under these conditions, there is no irreducible background from the standard two-neutrino channel. We reconstruct the natural time history of a nominally stable parent atom since its production either by nature or in the laboratory. After the time periods of atom oscillations and the decay of the short-lived daughter atom, at observable times the relevant 'stationary" states are the mixed metastable long-lived state and the non-orthogonal short-lived excited state, as well as the ground state of the daughter atom. We find that they have a natural population inversion which is most appropriate for exploiting the bosonic nature of the observed atomic transitions radiation. Among different observables of the atom Majorana mixing, we include the enhanced rate of stimulated X-ray emission from the long-lived metastable state by a high-intensity X-ray beam: a gain factor of 100 can be envisaged at current XFEL facilities. On the other hand, the historical population of the daughter atom ground state can be probed by exciting it with a current pulsed optical laser, showing the characteristic absorption lines: the whole population can be excited in a shorter time than typical pulse duration.

Abstract: A search is performed for new phenomena in events having a photon with high transverse momentum and a jet collected in 36.7 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The invariant mass distribution of the leading photon and jet is examined to look for the resonant production of new particles or the presence of new high-mass states beyond the Standard Model. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed and cross-section limits for generic Gaussian-shaped resonances are extracted. Excited quarks hypothesized in quark compositeness models and high-mass states predicted in quantum black hole models with extra dimensions are also examined in the analysis. The observed data exclude, at 95% confidence level, the mass range below 5.3 TeV for excited quarks and 7.1 TeV (4.4 TeV) for quantum black holes in the Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Dvali (Randall-Sundrum) model with six (one) extra dimensions.

Abstract: We discuss leptogenesis in a model with heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos propagating in a constant but otherwise generic CPT-violating axial time-like background (motivated by string theory). At temperatures much higher than the temperature of the electroweak phase transition, we solve approximately, but analytically (using Pade approximants), the corresponding Boltzmann equations, which describe the generation of lepton asymmetry from the tree-level decays of heavy neutrinos into Standard Model leptons. At such temperatures these leptons are effectively massless. The current work completes in a rigorous way a preliminary treatment of the same system, by some of the present authors. In this earlier work, lepton asymmetry was crudely estimated considering the decay of a righthanded neutrino at rest. Our present analysis includes thermal momentum modes for the heavy neutrino and this leads to a total lepton asymmetry which is bigger by a factor of two as compared to the previous estimate. Nevertheless, our current and preliminary results for the freezeout are found to be in agreement (within a similar to 12.5% uncertainty). Our analysis depends on a novel use of Pade approximants to solve the Boltzmann equations and may be more widely useful in cosmology.

Abstract: In this paper we study the performance in e(+)e(-) collisions of classical e(+)e(-) jet reconstruction algorithms, longitudinally invariant algorithms and the recently proposed Valencia algorithm. The study includes a comparison of perturbative and non-perturbative jet energy corrections and the response under realistic background conditions. Several algorithms are benchmarked with a detailed detector simulation at root s = 3 TeV. We find that the classical e(+)e(-) algorithms, with or without beam jets, have the best response, but they are inadequate in environments with non-negligible background. The Valencia algorithm and longitudinally invariant k(t) algorithms have a much more robust performance, with a slight advantage for the former.

Abstract: We study the potential of future lepton colliders to probe violation of the CP symmetry in the top quark sector. In certain extensions of the Standard Model, such as the two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM), sizeable anomalous top quark dipole moments can arise, which may be revealed by a precise measurement of top quark pair production. We present results from detailed Monte Carlo studies for the ILC at 500 GeV and CLIC at 380 GeV and use parton-level simulations to explore the potential of high-energy operation. We find that precise measurements in e(+)e(-) -> t (t) over bar production with subsequent decay to lepton plus jets final states can provide sufficient sensitivity to detect Higgs-boson-induced CP violation in a viable two-Higgs-doublet model. The potential of a linear e(+)e(-) collider to detect CP-violating electric and weak dipole form factors of the top quark exceeds the prospects of the HL-LHC by over an order of magnitude.