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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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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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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Figueroa, D. G., Raatikainen, S., Rasanen, S., & Tomberg, E. (2022). Implications of stochastic effects for primordial black hole production in ultra-slow-roll inflation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 027–48pp.
Abstract: We study the impact of stochastic noise on the generation of primordial black hole (PBH) seeds in ultra-slow-roll (USR) inflation with numerical simulations. We consider the non-linearity of the system by consistently taking into account the noise dependence on the inflaton perturbations, while evolving the perturbations on the coarse-grained background affected by the noise. We capture in this way the non-Markovian nature of the dynamics, and demonstrate that non-Markovian effects are subleading. Using the Delta N formalism, we find the probability distribution P(R) of the comoving curvature perturbation R. We consider inflationary potentials that fit the CMB and lead to PBH dark matter with i) asteroid, ii) solar, or iii) Planck mass, as well as iv) PBHs that form the seeds of supermassive black holes. We find that stochastic effects enhance the PBH abundance by a factor of O(10)-O(10(8)), depending on the PBH mass. We also show that the usual approximation, where stochastic kicks depend only on the Hubble rate, either underestimates or overestimates the abundance by orders of magnitude, depending on the potential. We evaluate the gauge dependence of the results, discuss the quantum-to-classical transition, and highlight open issues of the application of the stochastic formalism to USR inflation.
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Boudet, S., Bombacigno, F., Olmo, G. J., & Porfirio, P. (2022). Quasinormal modes of Schwarzschild black holes in projective invariant Chern-Simons modified gravity. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 032–29pp.
Abstract: We generalize the Chern-Simons modified gravity to the metric-affine case and impose projective invariance by supplementing the Pontryagin density with homothetic curvature terms which do not spoil topologicity. The latter is then broken by promoting the coupling of the Chern-Simons term to a (pseudo)-scalar field. The solutions for torsion and nonmetricity are derived perturbatively, showing that they can be iteratively obtained from the background fields. This allows us to describe the dynamics for the metric and the scalar field perturbations in a self-consistent way, and we apply the formalism to the study of quasi normal modes in a Schwarzschild black hole background. Unlike in the metric formulation of this theory, we show that the scalar field is endowed with dynamics even in the absence of its kinetic term in the action. Finally, using numerical methods we compute the quasinormal frequencies and characterize the late-time power law tails for scalar and metric perturbations, comparing the results with the outcomes of the purely metric approach.
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Barenboim, G. (2022). Some Aspects About Pushing the CPT and Lorentz Invariance Frontier With Neutrinos. Front. Physics, 10, 813753–7pp.
Abstract: The CPT symmetry, which combines Charge Conjugation, Parity, and Time Reversal, is a cornerstone of our model-building method, and its probable violation will endanger the most extended tool we presently utilize to explain physics, namely local relativistic quantum fields. However, the kaon system's conservation constraints appear to be rather severe. We will show in this paper that neutrino oscillation experiments can enhance this limit by many orders of magnitude, making them an excellent instrument for investigating the basis of our understanding of Nature. As a result, verifying CPT invariance does not evaluate a specific model, but rather the entire paradigm. Therefore, as the CPT's status in the neutrino sector, linked or not to Lorentz invariance violation, will be assessed at an unprecedented level by current and future long baseline experiments, distinguishing it from comparable experimental fingerprints coming from non-standard interactions is critical. Whether the entire paradigm or simply the conventional model of neutrinos is at jeopardy is significantly dependent on this.
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Alioli, S., Fuster, J., Garzelli, M. V., Gavardi, A., Irles, A., Melini, D., et al. (2022). Phenomenology of t(t)over-barj plus X production at the LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 146–63pp.
Abstract: We present phenomenological results for t (t) over barj + X production at the Large Hadron Collider, of interest for designing forthcoming experimental analyses of this process. We focus on those cases where the t (t) over barj + X process is considered as a signal. We discuss present theoretical uncertainties and the dependence on relevant input parameters entering the computation. For the R. distribution, which depends on the invariant mass of the t (t) over barj-system, we present reference predictions in the on-shell, (MS) over bar and MSR top-quark mass renormalization schemes, applying the latter scheme to this process for the first time. Our conclusions are particularly interesting for those analyses aiming at extracting the topquark mass from cross-section measurements.
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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). Determination of the parton distribution functions of the proton using diverse ATLAS data from pp collisions at root s=7, 8 and 13 TeV. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(5), 438–70pp.
Abstract: This paper presents an analysis at next-to-next-to-leading order in the theory of quantum chromodynamics for the determination of a new set of proton parton distribution functions using diverse measurements in pp collisions at root s = 7, 8 and 13 TeV, performed by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, together with deep inelastic scattering data from ep collisions at the HERA collider. The ATLAS data sets considered are differential cross-section measurements of inclusive W-+/- and Z/gamma* boson production, W-+/- and Z boson production in association with jets, t (t) over bar production, inclusive jet production and direct photon production. In the analysis, particular attention is paid to the correlation of systematic uncertainties within and between the various ATLAS data sets and to the impact of model, theoretical and parameterisation uncertainties. The resulting set of parton distribution functions is called ATLASpdf21.
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Camarda, S., Cieri, L., Ferrera, G., & Urtasun-Elizari, J. (2022). Higgs boson production at the LHC: fast and precise predictions in QCD at higher orders. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(5), 492–8pp.
Abstract: We present a new numerical program, HTurbo, which provides fast and numerically precise predictions for Higgs boson production cross sections. The present version of the code implements the perturbative QCD expansion up to the next-to-next-to-leading order also combined with the resummation of the large logarithmic corrections at small transverse momenta up to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and it includes the Higgs boson production through gluon fusion and decay in two photons with the full dependence on the final-state kinematics. Arbitrary kinematical cuts can be applied to the final states in order to obtain fiducial cross sections and associated kinematical distributions. We present a benchmark comparison with the predictions obtained with the numerical programs HRes and HNNLO programs for which HTurbo represents an improved reimplementation.
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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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