Abstract: Using the spectral functions measured in tau decays, we investigate the actual numerical impact of duality violations on the extraction of the strong coupling. These effects are tiny in the standard alpha(s)(m(tau)(2)) determinations from integrated distributions of the hadronic spectrum with pinched weights, or from the total tau hadronic width. The pinched-weight factors suppress very efficiently the violations of duality, making their numerical effects negligible in comparison with the larger perturbative uncertainties. However, combined fits of alpha(s) and duality-violation parameters, performed with non-protected weights, are subject to large systematic errors associated with the assumed modelling of duality-violation effects. These uncertainties have not been taken into account in the published analyses, based on specific models of quark-hadron duality.

Abstract: A coherent study of e(+)e(-) annihilation into two (pi(+)pi(-), K+K-) and three (pi(+)pi(-)pi(0), pi(+)pi(-)eta) pseudoscalar meson production is carried out within the framework of resonance chiral theory in energy region E less than or similar to 2 GeV. The work of [L.Y. Dai, J. Portoles, and O. Shekhovtsova, Phys. Rev. D88 (2013) 056001] is revisited with the latest experimental data and a joint analysis of two pseudoscalar meson production. Hence, we evaluate the lowest order hadronic vacuum polarization contributions of those two and three pseudoscalar processes to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We also estimate some higher-order additions led by the same hadronic vacuum polarization. Combined with the other contributions from the standard model, the theoretical prediction differs still by (21.6 +/- 7.4) x 10(-10) (2.9 sigma) from the experimental value.

Abstract: In dark-matter annihilation channels to hadronic final states, stable particles – such as positrons, photons, antiprotons, and antineutrinos – are produced via complex sequences of phenomena including QED/QCD radiation, hadronisation, and hadron decays. These processes are normally modelled by Monte Carlo (MC) event generators whose limited accuracy imply intrinsic QCD uncertainties on the predictions for indirect-detection experiments like Fermi-LAT, Pamela, IceCube or Ams-02. In this article, we perform a comprehensive analysis of QCD uncertainties, meaning both perturbative and nonperturbative sources of uncertainty are included – estimated via variations of MC renormalization-scale and fragmentation-function parameters, respectively – in antimatter spectra from dark-matter annihilation, based on parametric variations of the Pythia 8 event generator. After performing several retunings of light-quark fragmentation functions, we define a set of variations that span a conservative estimate of the QCD uncertainties. We estimate the effects on antimatter spectra for various annihilation channels and final-state particle species, and discuss their impact on fitted values for the dark-matter mass and thermally-averaged annihilation cross section. We find dramatic impacts which can go up to O(10%) for the annihilation cross section. We provide the spectra in tabulated form including QCD uncertainties and code snippets to perform fast dark-matter fits, in this github repository.

Abstract: The nature of the three narrow hidden-charm pentaquark P-c states, i.e., P-c (4312), P-c (4440) and P-c (4457), is under intense discussion since their discovery from the updated analysis of the process Lambda(0)(b) -> I ) J/psi pK(-) by LHCb. In this work we extend our previous coupled-channel approach [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 072001 (2020)], in which the Pc states are treated as Sigma(()(c)*()) (D) over bar (()*()) molecules, by including the Lambda(c)(D) over bar (()*()) and eta(c)p as explicit inelastic channels in addition to the J/psi p, as required by unitarity and heavy quark spin symmetry (HQSS), respectively. Since inelastic parameters are very badly constrained by the current data, three calculation schemes are considered: (a) scheme I with pure contact interactions between the elastic, i.e., Sigma(()(c)*()) (D) over bar (()*()), and inelastic channels and without the Lambda(c)(D) over bar (()*()) interactions, (b) scheme II, where the one-pion exchange (OPE) is added to scheme I, and (c) scheme III, where the Lambda(c)(D) over bar (()*()) interactions are included in addition. It is shown that to obtain cutoff independent results, OPE in the multichannel system is to be supplemented with S-wave-to-D-wave mixing contact terms. As a result, in line with our previous analysis, we demonstrate that the experimental data for the J/psi p invariant mass distribution are consistent with the interpretation of the P-c(4312) and P-c(4440)/P-c(4457) as Sigma(c)(D) over bar and Sigma(c)(D) over bar* hadronic molecules, respectively, and that the data show clear evidence for a new narrow state, P-c(4380), identified as a Sigma(c)*(D) over bar molecule, which should exist as a consequence of HQSS. While two statistically equally good solutions are found in scheme I, only one of these solutions with the quantum numbers of the P-c (4440) and P-c (4457) being J(P) = 3/2(-) and 1/2(-), respectively, survives the requirement of regulator independence once the OPE is included. Moreover, we predict the line shapes in the elastic and inelastic channels and demonstrate that those related to the P-c (4440) and the P-c (4457) in the Sigma(()(c)*())<(D)over ( )anf eta(c)p mass distributions from Lambda(0)(b) ->( )Sigma(()(c)*()) (D) over barK(-) and Lambda(0)(b) -> eta(c)pK(-) will shed light on the quantum numbers of those states, once the data are available. We also investigate possible pentaquark signals in the Lambda(c)(D) over bar (()*()) final states.

Abstract: We analyse the singular behaviour of one-loop integrals and scattering amplitudes in the framework of the loop-tree duality approach. We show that there is a partial cancellation of singularities at the loop integrand level among the different components of the corresponding dual representation that can be interpreted in terms of causality. The remaining threshold and infrared singularities are restricted to a finite region of the loop momentum space, which is of the size of the external momenta and can be mapped to the phase-space of real corrections to cancel the soft and collinear divergences.