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Albertus, C., Hernandez, E., & Nieves, J. (2010). Hyperfine mixing in electromagnetic decay of doubly heavy bc baryons. Phys. Lett. B, 690(3), 265–271.
Abstract: We investigate the role of hyperfine mixing in the electromagnetic decay of ground state doubly heavy bc baryons. As in the case of a previous calculation on b -> c semileptonic decays of doubly heavy baryons, we find large corrections to the electromagnetic decay widths due to this mixing. Contrary to the weak case just mentioned, we find here that one cannot use electromagnetic width relations obtained in the infinite heavy quark mass limit to experimentally extract information on the admixtures in a model independent way.
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Bertone, G., Cerdeño, D. G., Fornasa, M., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Trotta, R. (2010). Identification of dark matter particles with LHC and direct detection data. Phys. Rev. D, 82(5), 055008–7pp.
Abstract: Dark matter (DM) is currently searched for with a variety of detection strategies. Accelerator searches are particularly promising, but even if weakly interacting massive particles are found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it will be difficult to prove that they constitute the bulk of the DM in the Universe Omega(DM). We show that a significantly better reconstruction of the DM properties can be obtained with a combined analysis of LHC and direct detection data, by making a simple Ansatz on the weakly interacting massive particles local density rho(0)((chi) over bar1), i.e., by assuming that the local density scales with the cosmological relic abundance, (rho(0)((chi) over bar1)/rho(DM)) = (Omega(0)((chi) over bar1)/Omega(DM)). We demonstrate this method in an explicit example in the context of a 24-parameter supersymmetric model, with a neutralino lightest supersymmetric particle in the stau coannihilation region. Our results show that future ton-scale direct detection experiments will allow to break degeneracies in the supersymmetric parameter space and achieve a significantly better reconstruction of the neutralino composition and its relic density than with LHC data alone.
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Pandolfi, S., Giusarma, E., Kolb, E. W., Lattanzi, M., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., et al. (2010). Impact of general reionization scenarios on extraction of inflationary parameters. Phys. Rev. D, 82(12), 123527–10pp.
Abstract: Determination of whether the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum for primordial scalar perturbations is consistent with observations is sensitive to assumptions about the reionization scenario. In light of this result, we revisit constraints on inflationary models using more general reionization scenarios. While the bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio are largely unmodified, when different reionization schemes are addressed, hybrid models are back into the inflationary game. In the general reionization picture, we reconstruct both the shape and amplitude of the inflaton potential. We discuss how relaxing the simple reionization restriction affects the reconstruction of the potential through the changes in the constraints on the spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the running of the spectral index. We also find that the inclusion of other Cosmic Microwave Background data in addition to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy probe data excludes the very flat potentials typical of models in which the inflationary evolution reaches a late-time attractor, as a consequence of the fact that the running of the spectral index is constrained to be different from zero at 99% confidence level.
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SciBooNE Collaboration(Kurimoto, Y. et al), Catala-Perez, J., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., & Sorel, M. (2010). Improved measurement of neutral current coherent pi(0) production on carbon in a few-GeV neutrino beam. Phys. Rev. D, 81(11), 111102–6pp.
Abstract: The SciBooNE Collaboration reports a measurement of neutral current coherent pi(0) production on carbon by a muon neutrino beam with average energy 0.8 GeV. The separation of coherent from inclusive pi(0) production has been improved by detecting recoil protons from resonant pi(0) production. We measure the ratio of the neutral current coherent pi(0) production to total charged current cross sections to be 1.16 +/- 0.24) x 10(-2). The ratio of charged current coherent pi(+) to neutral current coherent pi(0) production is calculated to be 0.14(-0.28)(+0.30), using our published charged current coherent pion measurement.
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CDF Collaboration(Aaltonen, T. et al), & Cabrera, S. (2010). Improved Search for a Higgs Boson Produced in Association with Z -> l(+)l(-) in p(p)over-bar Collisions at root s=1.96 TeV. Phys. Rev. Lett., 105(25), 251802–7pp.
Abstract: We search for the standard model Higgs boson produced with a Z boson in 4: 1 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector at the Tevatron. In events consistent with the decay of the Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair and the Z boson to electrons or muons, we set 95% credibility level upper limits on the ZH production cross section multiplied by the H -> b (b) over bar branching ratio. Improved analysis methods enhance signal sensitivity by 20% relative to previous searches. At a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV/c(2) we set a limit of 5.9 times the standard model cross section.
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Fernandez-Martinez, E., Li, T., Pascoli, S., & Mena, O. (2010). Improvement of the low energy neutrino factory. Phys. Rev. D, 81(7), 073010–13pp.
Abstract: The low energy neutrino factory has been proposed as a very sensitive setup for future searches for CP violation and matter effects. Here we study how its performance is affected when the experimental specifications of the setup are varied. Most notably, we have considered the addition of the “platinum'' nu(mu) -> nu(e) channel. We find that, while theoretically the extra channel provides very useful complementary information and helps to lift degeneracies, its practical usefulness is lost when considering realistic background levels. Conversely, an increase in statistics in the ”golden'' nu(mu) -> nu(e) channel and, to some extent, an improvement in the energy resolution, lead to an important increase in the performance of the facility, given the rich energy dependence of the "golden'' channel at these energies. We show that a low energy neutrino factory with a baseline of 1300 km, muon energy of 4.5 GeV, and either a 20 kton totally active scintillating detector or 100 kton liquid argon detector, can have outstanding sensitivity to the neutrino oscillation parameters theta(13), delta, and the mass hierarchy. For our estimated exposure of 2: 8 x 10(23) kton x decays per muon polarity, the low energy neutrino factory has sensitivity to theta(13) and delta for sin(2)(2 theta(13)) > 10(-4) and to the mass hierarchy for sin(2)(2 theta(13)) > 10(-3)
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Oliver, J. F., & Rafecas, M. (2010). Improving the singles rate method for modeling accidental coincidences in high-resolution PET. Phys. Med. Biol., 55(22), 6951–6971.
Abstract: Random coincidences ('randoms') are one of the main sources of image degradation in PET imaging. In order to correct for this effect, an accurate method to estimate the contribution of random events is necessary. This aspect becomes especially relevant for high-resolution PET scanners where the highest image quality is sought and accurate quantitative analysis is undertaken. One common approach to estimate randoms is the so-called singles rate method (SR) widely used because of its good statistical properties. SR is based on the measurement of the singles rate in each detector element. However, recent studies suggest that SR systematically overestimates the correct random rate. This overestimation can be particularly marked for low energy thresholds, below 250 keV used in some applications and could entail a significant image degradation. In this work, we investigate the performance of SR as a function of the activity, geometry of the source and energy acceptance window used. We also investigate the performance of an alternative method, which we call 'singles trues' (ST) that improves SR by properly modeling the presence of true coincidences in the sample. Nevertheless, in any real data acquisition the knowledge of which singles are members of a true coincidence is lost. Therefore, we propose an iterative method, STi, that provides an estimation based on ST but which only requires the knowledge of measurable quantities: prompts and singles. Due to inter-crystal scatter, for wide energy windows ST only partially corrects SR overestimations. While SR deviations are in the range 86-300% (depending on the source geometry), the ST deviations are systematically smaller and contained in the range 4-60%. STi fails to reproduce the ST results, although for not too high activities the deviation with respect to ST is only a few percent. For conventional energy windows, i.e. those without inter-crystal scatter, the ST method corrects the SR overestimations, and deviations from the true random rate are of the order of 1% or less. In addition, in the case of conventional energy window STi results reproduce ST results and therefore the former can be used to obtain the true random rate.
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HADES Collaboration(Agakishiev, G. et al), Diaz, J., & Gil, A. (2010). In-medium effects on K-0 mesons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Phys. Rev. C, 82(4), 044907–9pp.
Abstract: We present the transverse momentum spectra and rapidity distributions of pi(-) and K-S(0) in Ar + KCl reactions at a beam kinetic energy of 1.756 A GeV measured with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES). The reconstructed K-S(0) sample is characterized by good event statistics for a wide range in momentum and rapidity. We compare the experimental pi(-) and K-S(0) distributions to predictions by the Isospin Quantum Molecular Dynamics (IQMD) model. The model calculations show that K-S(0) at low transverse momenta constitute a particularly well-suited tool to investigate the kaon in-medium potential. Our K-S(0) data suggest a strong repulsive in-medium K-0 potential of about 40 MeV strength.
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CDF Collaboration(Aaltonen, T. et al), & Cabrera, S. (2010). Inclusive Search for Standard Model Higgs Boson Production in the WW Decay Channel Using the CDF II Detector. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104(6), 061803–8pp.
Abstract: We present a search for standard model (SM) Higgs boson production using p (p) over bar collision data at root s = 1. 96 TeV, collected with the CDF II detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4. 8 fb(-1). We search for Higgs bosons produced in all processes with a significant production rate and decaying to two W bosons. We find no evidence for SM Higgs boson production and place upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the SM production cross section (sigma(H)) for values of the Higgs boson mass (m(H)) in the range from 110 to 200 GeV. These limits are the most stringent for m(H) > 130 GeV and are 1.29 above the predicted value of sigma(H) for m(H) 165 GeV.
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Cervantes-Cota, J. L., de Putter, R., & Linder, E. V. (2010). Induced gravity and the attractor dynamics of dark energy/dark matter. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 019–20pp.
Abstract: Attractor solutions that give dynamical reasons for dark energy to act like the cosmological constant, or behavior close to it, are interesting possibilities to explain cosmic acceleration. Coupling the scalar field to matter or to gravity enlarges the dynamical behavior; we consider both couplings together, which can ameliorate some problems for each individually. Such theories have also been proposed in a Higgs-like fashion to induce gravity and unify dark energy and dark matter origins. We explore restrictions on such theories due to their dynamical behavior compared to observations of the cosmic expansion. Quartic potentials in particular have viable stability properties and asymptotically approach general relativity.
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