Abstract: The direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) of frequencies above MHz has recently received considerable attention. In this work, we present a precise study of the reach of a cubic cavity resonator to GWs in the microwave range, using for the first time tools allowing to perform realistic simulations. Concretely, the boundary integral -resonant mode expansion (BI-RME) 3D method, which allows us to obtain not only the detected power but also the detected voltage (magnitude and phase), is used here. After analyzing three cubic cavities for different frequencies and working simultaneously with three different degenerate modes at each cavity, we conclude that the sensitivity of the experiment is strongly dependent on the polarization and incidence angle of the GW. The presented experiment can reach sensitivities up to 1 x 10 – 19 at 100 MHz, 2 x 10 – 20 at 1 GHz, and 6 x 10 – 19 at 10 GHz for optimal angles and polarizations, and where in all cases we assumed an integration time of Delta t 1 / 4 1 ms. These results provide a strong case for further developing the use of cavities to detect GWs. Moreover, the possibility of analyzing the detected voltage (magnitude and phase) opens a new interferometric detection scheme based on the combination of the detected signals from multiple cavities.

Abstract: Metalenses are composed of nanostructures for focusing light and have been widely explored in many exciting applications. However, their expanding dimensions pose simulation challenges. We propose a method to simulate metalenses in a timely manner using vectorial wave and ray tracing models. We sample the metalens's radial phase gradient and locally approximate the phase profile by a linear phase response. Each sampling point is modeled as a binary blazed grating, employing the chosen nanostructure, to build a transfer function set. The metalens transmission or reflection is then obtained by applying the corresponding transfer function to the incoming field on the regions surrounding each sampling point. Fourier optics is used to calculate the scattered fields under arbitrary illumination for the vectorial wave method, and a Monte Carlo algorithm is used in the ray tracing formalism. We validated our method against finite -difference time domain simulations at 632 nm, and we were able to simulate metalenses larger than 3000 wavelengths in diameter on a personal computer.

Abstract: The MoEDAL's Apparatus for Penetrating Particles (MAPP) Experiment is designed to expand the search for new physics at the LHC, significantly extending the physics program of the baseline MoEDAL Experiment. The Phase-1 MAPP detector (MAPP-1) is currently undergoing installation at the LHC's UA83 gallery adjacent to the LHCb/MoEDAL region at Interaction Point 8 and will begin data-taking in early 2024. The focus of the MAPP experiment is on the quest for new feebly interacting particles – avatars of new physics with extremely small Standard Model couplings, such as minicharged particles (mCPs). In this study, we present the results of a comprehensive analysis of MAPP-1's sensitivity to mCPs arising in the canonical model involving the kinetic mixing of a massless dark U(1) gauge field with the Standard Model hypercharge gauge field. We focus on several dominant production mechanisms of mCPs at the LHC across the mass-mixing parameter space of interest to MAPP: Drell-Yan pair production, direct decays of heavy quarkonia and light vector mesons, and single Dalitz decays of pseudoscalar mesons. The 95% confidence level background-free sensitivity of MAPP-1 for mCPs produced at the LHC's Run 3 and the HL-LHC through these mechanisms, along with projected constraints on the minicharged strongly interacting dark matter window, are reported. Our results indicate that MAPP-1 exhibits sensitivity to sizable regions of unconstrained parameter space and can probe effective charges as low as 8 x 10 -4 e and 6 x 10 -4 e for Run 3 and the HL-LHC, respectively.

Abstract: Asearch for the associated production of a heavy resonance with a top-quark or a top-antitop-quark pair, and decaying into a t (t) over bar pair is presented. The search uses the vdata recorded by the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider during the years 2015-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). Events containing exactly one electron ormuon are selected. The two hadronically decaying top quarks from the resonance decay are reconstructed using jets clustered with a large radius parameter of R = 1. The invariant mass spectrum of the two top quark candidates is used to search for a resonance signal in the range of 1.0 TeV to 3.2 TeV. The presence of a signal is examined using an approach with minimal model dependence followed by a model-dependent interpretation. No significant excess is observed over the background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio at 95% confidence level are provided for a heavy Z' boson based on a simplified model, for Z' mass between 1.0 TeV and 3.0 TeV. The observed (expected) limits range from 21 (14) fb to 119 (86) fb depending on the choice of model parameters.

Abstract: A search for pair production of squarks or gluinos decaying via sleptons or weak bosons is reported. The search targets a final state with exactly two leptons with same-sign electric charge or at least three leptons without any charge requirement. The analysed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Multiple signal regions are defined, targeting several SUSY simplified models yielding the desired final states. A single control region is used to constrain the normalisation of the WZ + jets background. No significant excess of events over the Standard Model expectation is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of several supersymmetric models featuring R-parity conservation or R-parity violation, yielding exclusion limits surpassing those from previous searches. In models considering gluino (squark) pair production, gluino (squark) masses up to 2.2 (1.7) TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.