Huang, G. Y., Lindner, M., Martinez-Mirave, P., & Sen, M. (2022). Cosmology-friendly time-varying neutrino masses via the sterile neutrino portal. Phys. Rev. D, 106(3), 033004–18pp.
Abstract: We investigate a consistent scenario of time-varying neutrino masses, and discuss its impact on cosmology, beta decay, and neutrino oscillation experiments. Such time-varying masses are assumed to be generated by the coupling between a sterile neutrino and an ultralight scalar field, which in turn affects the light neutrinos by mixing. We demonstrate how various cosmological bounds, such as those coming from big bang nucleosynthesis, the cosmic microwave background, as well as large scale structures, can be evaded in this model. This scenario can be further constrained using multiple terrestrial experiments. In particular, for beta-decay experiments like KATRIN, nontrivial distortions to the electron spectrum can be induced, even when time-variation is fast and it gets averaged. Furthermore, the presence of time-varying masses of sterile neutrinos will alter the interpretation of light sterile neutrino parameter space in the context of the reactor and gallium anomalies. In addition, we also study the impact of such time-varying neutrino masses on results from the BEST collaboration, which have recently strengthened the gallium anomaly. If confirmed, we find that the time-varying neutrino mass hypothesis could give a better fit to the recent BEST data.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2022). Measurements of jet observables sensitive to b-quark fragmentation in (tt)over-bar events at the LHC with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 106(3), 032008–33pp.
Abstract: Several observables sensitive to the fragmentation of b quarks into b hadrons are measured using 36 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Jets containing b hadrons are obtained from a sample of dileptonic (tt) over bar events, and the associated set of charged-particle tracks is separated into those from the primary pp interaction vertex and those from the displaced b-decay secondary vertex. This division is used to construct observables that characterize the longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions of the b hadron within the jet. The measurements have been corrected for detector effects and provide a test of heavy-quark-fragmentation modeling at the LHC in a system where the top-quark decay products are color connected to the proton beam remnants. The unfolded distributions are compared with the predictions of several modern Monte Carlo parton-shower generators and generator tunes, and a wide range of agreement with the data is observed, with p values varying from 5 x 10(-4) to 0.98. These measurements complement similar measurements from e(+)e(-) collider experiments in which the b quarks originate from a color singlet Z/gamma*.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., et al. (2022). Search for events with a pair of displaced vertices from long-lived neutral particles decaying into hadronic jets in the ATLAS muon spectrometer in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV. Phys. Rev. D, 106(3), 032005–28pp.
Abstract: A search for events with two displaced vertices from long-lived particle (LLP) pairs using data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. This analysis uses 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s=13 TeV recorded in 2015-2018. The search employs techniques for reconstructing vertices of LLPs decaying to jets in the muon spectrometer displaced between 3 and 14 m with respect to the primary interaction vertex. The observed numbers of events are consistent with the expected background and limits for several benchmark signals are determined. For the Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV, the paper reports the first exclusion limits for branching fractions into neutral long-lived particles below 0.1%, while branching fractions above 10% are excluded at 95% confidence level for LLP proper lifetimes ranging from 4 cm to 72.4 m. In addition, the paper present the first results for the decay of LLPs into (tt) over bar in the ATLAS muon spectrometer.
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Pompa, F., Capozzi, F., Mena, O., & Sorel, M. (2022). Absolute nu Mass Measurement with the DUNE Experiment. Phys. Rev. Lett., 129(12), 121802–6pp.
Abstract: Time of flight delay in the supernova neutrino signal offers a unique tool to set model-independent constraints on the absolute neutrino mass. The presence of a sharp time structure during a first emission phase, the so-called neutronization burst in the electron neutrino flavor time distribution, makes this channel a very powerful one. Large liquid argon underground detectors will provide precision measurements of the time dependence of the electron neutrino fluxes. We derive here a new v mass sensitivity attainable at the future DUNE far detector from a future supernova collapse in our galactic neighborhood, finding a sub-eV reach under favorable scenarios. These values are competitive with those expected for laboratory direct neutrino mass searches.
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Figueroa, D. G., Florio, A., Loayza, N., & Pieroni, M. (2022). Spectroscopy of particle couplings with gravitational waves. Phys. Rev. D, 106(6), 063522–8pp.
Abstract: We discuss the possibility to measure particle couplings with stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (SGWBs). Under certain circumstances a sequence of peaks of different amplitude and frequency-a stairway-emerges in a SGWB spectrum, with each peak probing a different coupling. The detection of such signature opens the possibility to reconstruct couplings (spectroscopy) of particle species involved in high energy phenomena generating SGWBs. Stairwaylike signatures may arise in causally produced backgrounds in the early Universe, e.g., from preheating or first order phase transitions. As a proof of principle we study a preheating scenario with an inflaton 0 coupled to multiple daughter fields f chi jg with different coupling strengths. As a clear stairway signature is imprinted in the SGWB spectrum, we reconstruct the relevant couplings with various detectors.
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Moreno, O., Sarriguren, P., Algora, A., Fraile, L. M., & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2022). Bulk and decay properties of neutron-deficient odd-mass Hg isotopes near A=185. Phys. Rev. C, 106(3), 034317–11pp.
Abstract: Ground and isomeric states of the neutron-deficient odd-A isotopes 183Hg, 185Hg, and 187Hg are described from a microscopic calculation based on a self-consistent, axially deformed Hartree-Fock mean field with the Skyrme functional and pairing within BCS approximation. For each equilibrium shape and different odd-neutron states, results on mean-square charge radii and magnetic dipole moments are given and analyzed in the context of their sensitivity to the nuclear deformation and to the spin and parity. Spin-isospin correlations within proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation are then introduced in the nuclear states to obtain the distributions of Gamow-Teller strength and the beta+/EC half-lives of these isotopes, whose measurements are planned at ISOLDE-CERN using total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy techniques.
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AGATA Collaboration(Liu, X. et al), Gadea, A., Jurado, M., Domingo-Pardo, C., Huyuk, T., & Perez-Vidal, R. M. (2022). Evidence for spherical-oblate shape coexistence in Tc-87. Phys. Rev. C, 106(3), 034304–6pp.
Abstract: Excited states in the neutron-deficient nucleus Tc-87 have been studied via the fusion-evaporation reaction 54Fe(36Ar, 2n1p) Tc-87 at 115 MeV beam energy. The AGATA gamma-ray spectrometer coupled to the DIAMANT, NEDA, and Neutron Wall detector arrays for light-particle detection was used to measure the prompt coincidence of gamma rays and light particles. Six transitions from the deexcitation of excited states belonging to a new band in Tc-87 were identified by comparing gamma-ray intensities in the spectra gated under different reaction channel selection conditions. The constructed level structure was compared with the shell model and total Routhian surface calculations. The results indicate that the new band structure in 87Tc is built on a spherical configuration, which is different from that assigned to the previously identified oblate yrast rotational band.
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Perez-Vidal, R. M. et al, Gadea, A., Jurado, M., Domingo-Pardo, C., & Huyuk, T. (2022). Evidence of Partial Seniority Conservation in the pi g9/2 Shell for the N=50 Isotones. Phys. Rev. Lett., 129(11), 112501–7pp.
Abstract: The reduced transition probabilities for the 4+1 -2+1 and 2+1 -0+1 transitions in 92Mo and 94Ru and for the 4+1 -2+1 and 6+1 -4+1 transitions in 90Zr have been determined in this experiment making use of a multinucleon transfer reaction. These results have been interpreted on the basis of realistic shell-model calculations in the f5=2, p3=2, p1=2, and g9=2 proton valence space. Only the combination of extensive lifetime information and large scale shell-model calculations allowed the extent of the seniority conservation in the N = 50 g9=2 orbital to be understood. The conclusion is that seniority is largely conserved in the first 71g9=2 orbital.
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Di Valentino, E., Gariazzo, S., & Mena, O. (2022). Model marginalized constraints on neutrino properties from cosmology. Phys. Rev. D, 106(4), 043540–9pp.
Abstract: We present robust, model-marginalized limits on both the total neutrino mass (E m1,) and abundances (Neff) to minimize the role of parametrizations, priors and models when extracting neutrino properties from cosmology. The cosmological observations we consider are cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuation and polarization measurements, supernovae Ia luminosity distances, baryon acoustic oscillation observations and determinations of the growth rate parameter from the Data Release 16 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV. The degenerate neutrino mass spectrum (which implies the prior sigma m(1), > 0) is weakly or moderately preferred over the normal and inverted hierarchy possibilities, which imply the priors sigma m(1), > 0.06 and sigma m(1), > 0.1 eV respectively. Concerning the underlying cosmological model, the ACDM minimal scenario is almost always strongly preferred over the possible extensions explored here. The most constraining 95% CL bound on the total neutrino mass in the ACDM + sigma m(1), picture is sigma m(1), < 0.087 eV. The parameter N-eff is restricted to 3.08 +/- 0.17 (68% CL) in the ACDM + Neff model. These limits barely change when considering the ACDM + sigma m(1), + Neff scenario. Given the robustness and the strong constraining power of the cosmological measurements employed here, the model -marginalized posteriors obtained considering a large spectra of nonminimal cosmologies are very close to the previous bounds, obtained within the ACDM framework in the degenerate neutrino mass spectrum. Future cosmological measurements may improve the current Bayesian evidence favoring the degenerate neutrino mass spectra, challenging therefore the consistency between cosmological neutrino mass bounds and oscillation neutrino measurements, and potentially suggesting a more complicated cosmological model and/or neutrino sector.
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NA64 Collaboration(Andreev, Y. M. et al), & Molina Bueno, L. (2022). Search for a light Z' in the L-mu – L-tau scenario with the NA64-e experiment at CERN. Phys. Rev. D, 106(3), 032015–12pp.
Abstract: The extension of Standard Model made by inclusion of additional U(1) gauge L-mu – L-tau symmetry can explain the difference between the measured and the predicted value of the muon magnetic moment and solve the tension in B meson decays. This model predicts the existence of a new, light Z' vector boson, predominantly coupled to second and third generation leptons, whose interaction with electrons is due to a loop mechanism involving muons and taus. In this work, we present a rigorous evaluation of the upper limits in the Z' parameter space, obtained from the analysis of the data collected by the NA64-e experiment at CERN SPS, that performed a search for light dark matter with 2.84 x 10(11) electrons impinging with 100 GeV on an active thick target. The resulting limits touch the muon g – 2 preferred band for values of the Z' mass of order of 1 MeV, while the sensitivity projections for the future high-statistics NA64-e runs demonstrate the power of the electrons/positron beam approach in this theoretical scenario.
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