ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2016). Dark matter interpretations of ATLAS searches for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in root s=8 TeV proton-proton collisions. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 175–44pp.
Abstract: A selection of searches by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC for the electroweak production of SUSY particles are used to study their impact on the constraints on dark matter candidates. The searches use 20 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV. A likelihood-driven scan of a five-dimensional effective model focusing on the gaugino-higgsino and Higgs sector of the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric Standard Model is performed. This scan uses data from direct dark matter detection experiments, the relic dark matter density and precision flavour physics results. Further constraints from the ATLAS Higgs mass measurement and SUSY searches at LEP are also applied. A subset of models selected from this scan are used to assess the impact of the selected ATLAS searches in this five-dimensional parameter space. These ATLAS searches substantially impact those models for which the mass m((chi) over tilde (0)(1)) of the lightest neutralino is less than 65 GeV, excluding 86% of such models. The searches have limited impact on models with larger m((chi) over tilde (0)(1)) due to either heavy electroweakinos or compressed mass spectra where the mass splittings between the produced particles and the lightest supersymmetric particle is small.
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Gomez, M. E., Lola, S., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Shafi, Q. (2018). Dark matter, sparticle spectroscopy and muon (g-2) in SU(4)(c) x SU(2)(L) x SU(2)(R). J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 062–24pp.
Abstract: We explore the sparticle mass spectra including LSP dark matter within the framework of supersymmetric SU(4)(c) x SU(2)(L) x SU(2)(R) (422) models, taking into account the constraints from extensive LHC and cold dark matter searches. The soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters at M-GUT can be non-universal, but consistent with the 422 symmetry. We identify a variety of coannihilation scenarios compatible with LSP dark matter, and study the implications for future supersymmetry searches and the ongoing muon g-2 experiment.
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Witte, S. J., Rosauro-Alcaraz, S., McDermott, S. D., & Poulin, V. (2020). Dark photon dark matter in the presence of inhomogeneous structure. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 35pp.
Abstract: Dark photon dark matter will resonantly convert into visible photons when the dark photon mass is equal to the plasma frequency of the ambient medium. In cosmological contexts, this transition leads to an extremely efficient, albeit short-lived, heating of the surrounding gas. Existing work in this field has been predominantly focused on understanding the implications of these resonant transitions in the limit that the plasma frequency of the Universe can be treated as being perfectly homogeneous, i.e. neglecting inhomogeneities in the electron number density. In this work we focus on the implications of heating from dark photon dark matter in the presence of inhomogeneous structure (which is particularly relevant for dark photons with masses in the range 10(-15) eV less than or similar to m(A ') less than or similar to 10(-12) eV), emphasizing both the importance of inhomogeneous energy injection, as well as the sensitivity of cosmological observations to the inhomogeneities themselves. More specifically, we derive modified constraints on dark photon dark matter from the Ly-alpha forest, and show that the presence of inhomogeneities allows one to extend constraints to masses outside of the range that would be obtainable in the homogeneous limit, while only slightly relaxing their strength. We then project sensitivity for near-future cosmological surveys that are hoping to measure the 21cm transition in neutral hydrogen prior to reionization, and demonstrate that these experiments will be extremely useful in improving sensitivity to masses near similar to 10(-14) eV, potentially by several orders of magnitude. Finally, we discuss implications for reionization, early star formation, and late-time y-type spectral distortions, and show that probes which are inherently sensitive to the inhomogeneous state of the Universe could resolve signatures unique to the light dark photon dark matter scenario, and thus offer a fantastic potential for a positive detection.
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Hansen, M. T., Romero-Lopez, F., & Sharpe, S. R. (2021). Decay amplitudes to three hadrons from finite-volume matrix elements. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 113–44pp.
Abstract: We derive relations between finite-volume matrix elements and infinite-volume decay amplitudes, for processes with three spinless, degenerate and either identical or non-identical particles in the final state. This generalizes the Lellouch-Luscher relation for two-particle decays and provides a strategy for extracting three-hadron decay amplitudes using lattice QCD. Unlike for two particles, even in the simplest approximation, one must solve integral equations to obtain the physical decay amplitude, a consequence of the nontrivial finite-state interactions. We first derive the result in a simplified theory with three identical particles, and then present the generalizations needed to study phenomenologically relevant three-pion decays. The specific processes we discuss are the CP-violating K -> 3 pi weak decay, the isospin-breaking eta -> 3 pi QCD transition, and the electromagnetic gamma (*) -> 3 pi amplitudes that enter the calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to muonic g – 2.
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NEXT Collaboration(Kekic, M. et al), Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., Felkai, R., et al. (2021). Demonstration of background rejection using deep convolutional neural networks in the NEXT experiment. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 189–22pp.
Abstract: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are widely used state-of-the-art computer vision tools that are becoming increasingly popular in high-energy physics. In this paper, we attempt to understand the potential of CNNs for event classification in the NEXT experiment, which will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in Xe-136. To do so, we demonstrate the usage of CNNs for the identification of electron-positron pair production events, which exhibit a topology similar to that of a neutrinoless double-beta decay event. These events were produced in the NEXT-White high-pressure xenon TPC using 2.6 MeV gamma rays from a Th-228 calibration source. We train a network on Monte Carlo-simulated events and show that, by applying on-the-fly data augmentation, the network can be made robust against differences between simulation and data. The use of CNNs offers significant improvement in signal efficiency and background rejection when compared to previous non-CNN-based analyses.
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