ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Search for long-lived neutral particles produced in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV decaying into displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS inner detector and muon spectrometer. Phys. Rev. D, 101(5), 052013–29pp.
Abstract: A search is presented for pair production of long-lived neutral particles using 33 fb(-1) off root s = 13 TcV proton-proton collision data, collected during 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This search focuses on a topology in which one long-lived particle decays in the ATLAS inner detector and the other decays in the muon spectrometer. Special techniques are employed to reconstruct the displaced tracks and vertices in the inner detector and in the muon spectrometer. One event is observed that passes the full event selection, which is consistent with the estimated background. Limits are placed on scalar boson propagators with masses from 125 GeV to 1000 GeV decaying into pairs of long-lived hidden-sector scalars with masses from 8 GeV to 400 GeV. The limits placed on several low-mass scalars extend previous exclusion limits in the range of proper lifetimes c tau from 5 cm to 1 m.
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Hirsch, M., & Wang, Z. S. (2020). Heavy neutral leptons at ANUBIS. Phys. Rev. D, 101(5), 055034–9pp.
Abstract: Recently Bauer et al. [arXiv:1909.13022] proposed ANUBIS, an auxiliary detector to be installed in one of the shafts above the ATLAS or CMS interaction point, as a tool to search for long-lived particles. Here, we study the sensitivity of this proposal for long-lived heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) in both minimal and extended scenarios. We start with the minimal HNL model where both production and decay of the HNLs are mediated by active-sterile neutrino mixing, before studying the case of right-handed neutrinos in a leftright symmetric model. We then consider a U(1)(B-L) extension of the Standard Model (SM). In this model HNLs are produced from the decays of the mostly SM-like Higgs boson, via mixing in the scalar sector of the theory. In all cases, we fmd that ANUBIS has sensitivity reach comparable to the proposed MATHUSLA detector. For the minimal HNL scenario, the contributions from W's decaying to HNLs are more important at ANUBIS than at MATHUSLA, extending the sensitivity to slightly larger HNL masses at ANUBIS.
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Yang, W. Q., Di Valentino, E., Mena, O., Pan, S., & Nunes, R. C. (2020). All-inclusive interacting dark sector cosmologies. Phys. Rev. D, 101(8), 083509–15pp.
Abstract: In this paper we explore possible extensions of interacting dark energy cosmologies, where dark energy and dark matter interact nongravitationally with one another. In particular, we focus on the neutrino sector, analyzing the effect of both neutrino masses and the effective number of neutrino species. We consider the Planck 2018 legacy release data combined with several other cosmological probes, finding no evidence for new physics in the dark radiation sector. The current neutrino constraints from cosmology should therefore be regarded as robust, as they are not strongly dependent on the dark sector physics, once all the available observations are combined. Namely, we find a total neutrino mass g, < 0.15 eV and a number of effective relativistic degrees of freedom N-eff = 3.03(-0.33)(+0.33), both at 95% C.L., which are close to those obtained within the ACDM cosmology, M-v < 0.12 eV and N-eff = (+0.36)(-0.35), for the same data combination.
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Villanueva-Domingo, P., Mena, O., & Miralda-Escude, J. (2020). Maximum amplitude of the high-redshift 21-cm absorption feature. Phys. Rev. D, 101(8), 083502–8pp.
Abstract: We examine the maximum possible strength of the global 21-cm absorption dip on the cosmic background radiation at high-redshift caused by the atomic intergalactic medium, when the Lyman-alpha coupling is maximum, assuming no exotic cooling mechanisms from interactions with dark matter. This maximum absorption is limited by three inevitable factors that need to be accounted for: (a) heating by energy transferred from the cosmic background radiation to the hydrogen atoms via 21-cm transitions, dubbed as 21-cm heating; (b) Ly alpha heating by scatterings of Ly alpha photons from the first stars; (c) the impact of the expected density fluctuations in the intergalactic gas in standard cold dark matter theory, which reduces the mean 21-cm absorption signal. Inclusion of this third novel effect reduces the maximum global 21-cm absorption by similar to 10%. Overall, the three effects studied here reduce the 21-cm global absorption by similar to 20% at z similar or equal to 17.
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Belle II Collaboration(Adachi, I. et al), Gomis, P., & Marinas, C. (2020). Search for an Invisibly Decaying Z ' Boson at Belle II in e(+)e(-) -> mu(+)mu(-) (e(+/-)mu(-/+)) Plus Missing Energy Final States. Phys. Rev. Lett., 124(14), 141801–9pp.
Abstract: Theories beyond the standard model often predict the existence of an additional neutral boson, the Z'. Using data collected by the Belle II experiment during 2018 at the SuperKEKB collider, we perform the first searches for the invisible decay of a Z' in the process e(+)e(-) -> mu(+)mu(-) Z' and of a lepton-flavor-violating Z' in e(+) e(-) -> e(+/-)mu(-/+)Z'. We do not find any excess of events and set 90% credibility level upper limits on the cross sections of these processes. We translate the former, in the framework of an L, – L, theory, into upper limits on the Z' coupling constant at the level of 5 x 10(-2) – 1 for M-z' <= 6 GeV/c(2).
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