LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2018). Evidence for the Rare Decay Sigma(+) -> p mu(+)mu(-). Phys. Rev. Lett., 120(22), 221803–10pp.
Abstract: A search for the rare decay Sigma(+) -> p mu(+)mu(-) is performed using pp collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies root s = 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). An excess of events is observed with respect to the background expectation, with a signal significance of 4.1 standard deviations. No significant structure is observed in the dimuon invariant mass distribution, in contrast with a previous result from the HyperCP experiment. The measured Sigma(+) -> p mu(+)mu(-) branching fraction is (2.2(-1.3)(+1.8)) x 10(-8), where statistical and systematic uncertainties are included, which is consistent with the standard model prediction.
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Aguilar, A. C., Binosi, D., Figueiredo, C. T., & Papavassiliou, J. (2018). Evidence of ghost suppression in gluon mass scale dynamics. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(3), 181–15pp.
Abstract: In this work we study the impact that the ghost sector of pure Yang-Mills theories may have on the generation of a dynamical gauge boson mass scale, which hinges on the appearance of massless poles in the fundamental vertices of the theory, and the subsequent realization of the well-known Schwinger mechanism. The process responsible for the formation of such structures is itself dynamical in nature, and is governed by a set of Bethe-Salpeter type of integral equations. While in previous studies the presence of massless poles was assumed to be exclusively associated with the background-gauge three-gluon vertex, in the present analysis we allow them to appear also in the corresponding ghost-gluon vertex. The full analysis of the resulting Bethe-Salpeter system reveals that the contribution of the poles associated with the ghost-gluon vertex are particularly suppressed, their sole discernible effect being a slight modification in the running of the gluon mass scale, for momenta larger than a few GeV. In addition, we examine the behavior of the (background-gauge) ghost-gluon vertex in the limit of vanishing ghost momentum, and derive the corresponding version of Taylor's theorem. These considerations, together with a suitable Ansatz, permit us the full reconstruction of the pole sector of the two vertices involved.
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IDS Collaboration(Lica, R. et al), & Morales, A. I. (2018). Evolution of deformation in neutron-rich Ba isotopes up to A=150. Phys. Rev. C, 97(2), 024305–12pp.
Abstract: The occurrence of octupolar shapes in the Ba isotopic chain was recently established experimentally up to N = 90. To further extend the systematics, the evolution of shapes in the most neutron-rich members of the Z = 56 isotopic chain accessible at present, Ba-148,Ba-150, has been studied via beta decay at the ISOLDE Decay Station. This paper reports on the first measurement of the positive-and negative-parity low-spin excited states of 150Ba and presents an extension of the beta-decay scheme of Cs-148. Employing the fast timing technique, half-lives for the 2(1)(+) level in both nuclei have been determined, resulting in T-1/2 = 1.51(1) ns for Ba-148 and T-1/2 = 3.4(2) ns for Ba-150. The systematics of low-spin states, together with the experimental determination of the B(E2 : 2(+) -> 0(+)) transition probabilities, indicate an increasing collectivity in Ba148-150, towards prolate deformed shapes. The experimental data are compared to symmetry conserving configuration mixing (SCCM) calculations, confirming an evolution of increasingly quadrupole deformed shapes with a definite octupolar character.
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n_TOF Collaboration(Barbagallo, M. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., & Tain, J. L. (2018). Experimental setup and procedure for the measurement of the Be-7(n,p)Li-7 reaction at n_TOF. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 887, 27–33.
Abstract: Following the completion of the second neutron beam line and the related experimental area (EAR2) at the n_TOF spallation neutron source at CERN, several experiments were planned and performed. The high instantaneous neutron flux available in EAR2 allows to investigate neutron induced reactions with charged particles in the exit channel even employing targets made out of small amounts of short-lived radioactive isotopes. After the successful measurement of the Be-7(n,alpha)alpha cross section, the Be-7(n,p)Li-7 reaction was studied in order to provide still missing cross section data of relevance for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), in an attempt to find a solution to the cosmological Lithium abundance problem. This paper describes the experimental setup employed in such a measurement and its characterization.
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Miranda, O. G., Pasquini, P., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2018). Exploring the potential of short-baseline physics at Fermilab. Phys. Rev. D, 97(9), 095026–9pp.
Abstract: We study the capabilities of the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab to probe the unitarity of the lepton mixing matrix. We find the sensitivity to be slightly better than the current one. Motivated by the future DUNE experiment, we have also analyzed the potential of an extra liquid Argon near detector in the LBNF beamline. Adding such a near detector to the DUNE setup will substantially improve the current sensitivity on nonunitarity. This would help to remove CP degeneracies due to the new complex phase present in the neutrino mixing matrix. We also study the sensitivity of our proposed setup to light sterile neutrinos for various configurations.
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Casas, J. A., Gomez Vargas, G. A., Moreno, J. M., Quilis, J., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2018). Extended Higgs-portal dark matter and the Fermi-LAT Galactic Center Excess. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 031–16pp.
Abstract: In the present work, we show that the Galactic Center Excess (GCE) emission, as recently updated by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration, could be explained by a mixture of Fermi bubbles-like emission plus dark matter (DM) annihilation, in the context of a scalar-singlet Higgs portal scenario (SHP). In fact, the standard SHP, where the DM particle, S, only has renormalizable interactions with the Higgs, is non-operational due to strong constraints, especially from DM direct detection limits. Thus we consider the most economical extension, called ESHP (for extended SHP), which consists solely in the addition of a second (more massive) scalar singlet in the dark sector. The second scalar can be integrated-out, leaving a standard SHP plus a dimension-6 operator. Mainly, this model has only two relevant parameters (the DM mass and the coupling of the dim-6 operator). DM annihilation occurs mainly into two Higgs bosons, SS -> hh. We demonstrate that, despite its economy, the ESHP model provides an excellent fit to the GCE (with p-value similar to 0.6-0.7) for very reasonable values of the parameters, in particular, ms similar or equal to 130 GeV. This agreement of the DM candidate to the GCE properties does not clash with other observables and keep the S – particle relic density at the accepted value for the DM content in the universe.
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Mandal, R. (2018). Fermionic dark matter in leptoquark portal. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(9), 726–6pp.
Abstract: We investigate a beyond standard model (SM) portal scenario for dark matter (DM) particle with leptoquark being the mediator field. Leptoquark, a colored particle having both baryon and lepton number, allows the DM to interact with the SM fields via renormalizable interaction. By focusing on a vector leptoquark portal with Majorana fermion DM candidate, we find the only unknown coupling in the model is sensitive to all three main features of a DM model namely, relic density, direct detection as well as indirect detection, while being consistent with collider data. We explore the parameter space of the portal with minimum of its field content and find that AMS-02 data for antiproton flux imposes stringent bound till date and excludes the DM mass up to 400 GeV. The LUX 2016 data for DM-neutron scattering cross section allows the region compatible with relic density, however the future sensitivity of LUX-ZEPLIN experiment can probe the model up to its perturbative limit.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2018). Few-body quark dynamics for doubly heavy baryons and tetraquarks. Phys. Rev. C, 97(3), 035211–10pp.
Abstract: We discuss the adequate treatment of the three- and four-body dynamics for the quark model picture of double-charm baryons and tetraquarks. We stress that the variational and Born-Oppenheimer approximations give energies very close to the exact ones, while the diquark approximation might be somewhat misleading. The Hall-Post inequalities also provide very useful lower bounds that exclude the possibility of stable tetraquarks for some mass ratios and some color wave functions.
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Caballero-Folch, R. et al, Agramunt, J., Tain, J. L., Algora, A., Domingo-Pardo, C., Guadilla, V., et al. (2018). First determination of beta-delayed multiple neutron emission beyond A=100 through direct neutron measurement: The P-2n value of Sb-136. Phys. Rev. C, 98(3), 034310–10pp.
Abstract: Background: beta-delayed multiple neutron emission has been observed for some nuclei with A <= 100 being the Rb-100 the heaviest beta 2n emitter measured to date. So far only 25 P-2n values have been determined for the approximate to 300 nuclei that may decay in this way. Accordingly it is of interest to measure P-2n values for the other possible multiple neutron emitters throughout the chart of the nuclides. It is of particular interest to make such a measurement for nuclei with A > 100 to test the predictions of theoretical models and simulation tools for the decays of heavy nuclei in the region of very neutron-rich nuclei. In addition the decay properties of these nuclei are fundamental for the understanding of astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes such as the r-process and safety inputs for nuclear reactors. Purpose: To determine for the first time the two-neutron branching ratio the P-2n value for Sb-136 through a direct neutron measurement and to provide precise P-1n values for Sb-136 and Te-136. Method: A pure beam of each isotope of interest was provided by the JYFLTRAP Penning trap at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility of the University of Jyvaskyla Finland. The purified ions were implanted into a moving tape at the end of the beam line. The detection setup consisted of a plastic scintillator placed right behind the implantation point after the tape to register the beta decays and the BELEN detector based on neutron counters embedded in a polyethylene matrix. The analysis was based on the study of the beta- and neutron-growth-and-decay curves and the beta-one-neutron and beta-two-neutron time correlations which allowed us the determination of the neutron branching ratios. Results: The P-2n value of Sb-136 was found to be 0.14(3)% and the measured P-1n values for Sb-136 and Te-136 were found to be 32.2(15)% and 1.47(6)% respectively. Conclusions: The measured P-2n value is a factor 44 smaller than predicted by the finite-range droplet model plus the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (FRDM+QRPA) model used for r-process calculations.
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BABAR and Belle Collaborations(Adachi, I. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2018). First Evidence for cos 2 beta > 0 and Resolution of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Quark-Mixing Unitarity Triangle Ambiguity. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121(26), 261801–11pp.
Abstract: We present first evidence that the cosine of the CP-violating weak phase 2 beta is positive, and hence exclude trigonometric multifold solutions of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) Unitarity Triangle using a time-dependent Dalitz plot analysis of B-0 -> D-(*) h(0) with D -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) decays, where h(0) is an element of {pi(0), eta, omega} denotes a light unflavored and neutral hadron. The measurement is performed combining the final data sets of the BABAR and Belle experiments collected at the (sic)(4S) resonance at the asymmetric-energy B factories PEP-II at SLAC and KEKB at KEK, respectively. The data samples contain (471 +/- 3) x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs recorded by the BABAR detector and (772 +/- 11) x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs recorded by the Belle detector. The results of the measurement are sin 2 beta = 0.80 +/- 0.14 (stat) +/- 0.06 (syst) +/- 0.03 (model) and cos 2 beta = 0.91 +/- 0.22(stat) +/- 0.09 (syst) +/- 0.07(model). The result for the direct measurement of the angle beta of the CKM Unitarity Triangle is beta = [22.5 +/- 4.4 (stat) +/- 1.2 (syst) +/- 0.6(model)]degrees. The measurement assumes no direct CP violation in B-0 -> D-(*) h(0) decays. The quoted model uncertainties are due to the composition of the D-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) decay amplitude model, which is newly established by performing a Dalitz plot amplitude analysis using a high-statistics e(+)e(-) -> c (c) over bar data sample. CP violation is observed in B-0 -> D-(*) h(0) decays at the level of 5.1 standard deviations. The significance for cos 2 beta > 0 is 3.7 standard deviations. The trigonometric multifold solution pi/2 – beta = (68.1 +/- 0.7)degrees is excluded at the level of 7.3 standard deviations. The measurement resolves an ambiguity in the determination of the apex of the CKM Unitarity Triangle.
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