NEXT Collaboration(Henriques, C. A. O. et al), Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., et al. (2019). Electroluminescence TPCs at the thermal diffusion limit. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 027–23pp.
Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims at searching for the hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay from the Xe-136 isotope using a high-purity xenon TPC. Efficient discrimination of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionisation tracks is a major requirement for the experiment. However, it is limited by the diffusion of electrons. It is known that the addition of a small fraction of a molecular gas to xenon reduces electron diffusion. On the other hand, the electroluminescence (EL) yield drops and the achievable energy resolution may be compromised. We have studied the effect of adding several molecular gases to xenon (CO2, CH4 and CF4) on the EL yield and energy resolution obtained in a small prototype of driftless gas proportional scintillation counter. We have compared our results on the scintillation characteristics (EL yield and energy resolution) with a microscopic simulation, obtaining the diffusion coefficients in those conditions as well. Accordingly, electron diffusion may be reduced from about 10 for pure xenon down to 2.5 using additive concentrations of about 0.05%, 0.2% and 0.02% for CO2, CH4 and CF4, respectively. Our results show that CF4 admixtures present the highest EL yield in those conditions, but very poor energy resolution as a result of huge fluctuations observed in the EL formation. CH4 presents the best energy resolution despite the EL yield being the lowest. The results obtained with xenon admixtures are extrapolated to the operational conditions of the NEXT-100 TPC. CO2 and CH4 show potential as molecular additives in a large xenon TPC. While CO2 has some operational constraints, making it difficult to be used in a large TPC, CH4 shows the best performance and stability as molecular additive to be used in the NEXT-100 TPC, with an extrapolated energy resolution of 0.4% at 2.45 MeV for concentrations below 0.4%, which is only slightly worse than the one obtained for pure xenon. We demonstrate the possibility to have an electroluminescence TPC operating very close to the thermal diffusion limit without jeopardizing the TPC performance, if CO2 or CH4 are chosen as additives.
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Barenboim, G., Masud, M., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2019). Exploring the intrinsic Lorentz-violating parameters at DUNE. Phys. Lett. B, 788, 308–315.
Abstract: Neutrinos can push our search for new physics to a whole new level. What makes them so hard to be detected, what allows them to travel humongous distances without being stopped or deflected allows to amplify Planck suppressed effects (or effects of comparable size) to a level that we can measure or bound in DUNE. In this work we analyze the sensitivity of DUNE to CPT and Lorentz-violating interactions in a framework that allows a straightforward extrapolation of the bounds obtained to any phenomenological modification of the dispersion relation of neutrinos.
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ANTARES, I. C., LIGO and Virgo Collaborations(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., et al. (2019). Search for Multimessenger Sources of Gravitational Waves and High-energy Neutrinos with Advanced LIGO during Its First Observing Run, ANTARES, and IceCube. Astrophys. J., 870(2), 134–16pp.
Abstract: Astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, such as binary neutron star and black hole mergers or core-collapse supernovae, can drive relativistic outflows, giving rise to non-thermal high-energy emission. High-energy neutrinos are signatures of such outflows. The detection of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from common sources could help establish the connection between the dynamics of the progenitor and the properties of the outflow. We searched for associated emission of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical transients with minimal assumptions using data from Advanced LIGO from its first observing run O1, and data from the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino observatories from the same time period. We focused on candidate events whose astrophysical origins could not be determined from a single messenger. We found no significant coincident candidate, which we used to constrain the rate density of astrophysical sources dependent on their gravitational-wave and neutrino emission processes.
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Xie, J. J., Liang, W. H., & Oset, E. (2019). eta-He-4 interaction from the dd->eta He-4 reaction near threshold. Eur. Phys. J. A, 55(1), 6–8pp.
Abstract: .We analyze the data on the total cross sections for the dd4 He reaction close to threshold and look for possible 4 He bound states. We develop a framework in which the 4 He optical potential is the key ingredient, rather than parameterizing the scattering matrix, as is usually done. The strength of this potential, together with some production parameters, are fitted to the available experimental data. The relationship of the scattering matrix to the optical potential is established using the Bethe-Salpeter equation and the 4 He loop function incorporates the range of the interaction given by the experimental He-4 density. However, when we look for poles of the scattering matrix, we get poles in the bound region, poles in the positive energy region or no poles at all. If we further restrict the results with constraints from a theoretical model with all its uncertainties the bound states are not allowed. However, we find a bump structure in |T|2 of the 4 He 4 He scattering amplitude below threshold for the remaining solutions.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2019). Search for pairs of highly collimated photon-jets in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 99(1), 012008–29pp.
Abstract: Results of a search for the pair production of photon-jets-collimated groupings of photons-in the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. Highly collimated photon-jets can arise from the decay of new, highly boosted particles that can decay to multiple photons collimated enough to be identified in the electromagnetic calorimeter as a single, photonlike energy cluster. Data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.7 fb(-1), were collected in 2015 and 2016. Candidate photon-jet pair production events are selected from those containing two reconstructed photons using a set of identification criteria much less stringent than that typically used for the selection of photons, with additional criteria applied to provide improved sensitivity to photon-jets. Narrow excesses in the reconstructed diphoton mass spectra are searched for. The observed mass spectra are consistent with the Standard Model background expectation. The results are interpreted in the context of a model containing a new, high-mass scalar particle with narrow width, X, that decays into pairs of photon-jets via new, light particles, a. Upper limits are placed on the cross section times the product of branching ratios sigma x B(X -> aa) x B(a -> gamma gamma)(2) for 200 GeV < m(X) < 2 TeV and for ranges of m(a) from a lower mass of 100 MeV up to between 2 and 10 GeV, depending upon m(X). Upper limits are also placed on sigma x B(X -> aa) x B(a -> 3 pi(0))(2) for the same range of m(X) and for ranges of m(a) from a lower mass of 500 MeV up to between 2 and 10 GeV.
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