ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cantero, J., et al. (2023). Strong Constraints on Jet Quenching in Centrality-Dependent p plus Pb Collisions at 5.02 TeV from ATLAS. Phys. Rev. Lett., 131(7), 072301–21pp.
Abstract: Jet quenching is the process of color-charged partons losing energy via interactions with quark-gluon plasma droplets created in heavy-ion collisions. The collective expansion of such droplets is well described by viscous hydrodynamics. Similar evidence of collectivity is consistently observed in smaller collision systems, including pp and p+ Pb collisions. In contrast, while jet quenching is observed in Pb + Pb collisions, no evidence has been found in these small systems to date, raising fundamental questions about the nature of the system created in these collisions. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has measured the yield of charged hadrons correlated with reconstructed jets in 0.36 nb-1 of p+ Pb and 3.6 pb-1 of pp collisions at 5.02 TeV. The yields of charged hadrons with p(T)(ch) > 0.5 GeV near and opposite in azimuth to jets with p(t)(je) T > 30 or 60 GeV, and the ratios of these yields between p+ Pb and pp collisions, IpPb, are reported. The collision centrality of p+ Pb events is categorized by the energy deposited by forward neutrons from the struck nucleus. The IpPb values are consistent with unity within a few percent for hadrons with p(T )(ch)> 4 GeV at all centralities. These data provide new, strong constraints that preclude almost any parton energy loss in central p+ Pb collisions.
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Figueroa, D. G., Lizarraga, J., Urio, A., & Urrestilla, J. (2023). Strong Backreaction Regime in Axion Inflation. Phys. Rev. Lett., 131(15), 151003–7pp.
Abstract: We study the nonlinear dynamics of axion inflation, capturing for the first time the inhomogeneity and full dynamical range during strong backreaction, till the end of inflation. Accounting for inhomogeneous effects leads to a number of new relevant results, compared to spatially homogeneous studies: (i) the number of extra efoldings beyond slow-roll inflation increases very rapidly with the coupling, (ii) oscillations of the inflaton velocity are attenuated, (iii) the tachyonic gauge field helicity spectrum is smoothed out (i.e., the spectral oscillatory features disappear), broadened, and shifted to smaller scales, and (iv) the nontachyonic helicity is excited, reducing the chiral asymmetry, now scale dependent. Our results are expected to impact strongly on the phenomenology and observability of axion inflation, including gravitational wave generation and primordial black hole production.
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Helling, C. et al, Bernabeu, J., Lacasta, C., & Solaz, C. (2020). Strip sensor performance in prototype modules built for ATLAS ITk. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 978, 164402–6pp.
Abstract: ATLAS experiment is preparing an upgrade of its detector for High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) operation. The upgrade involves installation of the new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). In the context of the ITk preparations, more than 80 strip modules were built with prototype barrel sensors. They were tested with electrical readout on a per-channel basis. In general, an excellent performance was observed, consistent with previous ASIC-level and sensor-level tests. However, the lessons learned included two phenomena important for the future phases of the project. First was the need to store and test the modules in a dry environment due to humidity sensitivity of the sensors. The second was an observation of high noise regions for 2 modules. The high noise regions were tested further in several ways, including monitoring the performance as a function of time and bias voltage. Additionally, direct sensor-level tests were performed on the affected channels. The inter-strip resistance and bias resistance tests showed low values, indicating a temporary loss of the inter-strip isolation. A subsequent recovery of the noise performance was observed. We present the test details, an analysis of how the inter-strip isolation affects the module noise, and the relationship with sensor-level quality control tests.
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Sanchis-Lozano, M. A. (2022). Stringy Signals from Large-Angle Correlations in the Cosmic Microwave Background? Universe, 8(8), 396–13pp.
Abstract: We interpret the lack of large-angle temperature correlations and the even-odd parity imbalance observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by COBE, WMAP and Planck satellite missions as a possible stringy signal ultimately stemming from a composite inflaton field (e.g., a fermionic condensate). Based on causality arguments and a Fourier analysis of the angular two-point correlation function, two infrared cutoffs k(min)(even,odd) (satisfying k(min)(even) similar or equal to 2k(min)(odd)) are introduced to the CMB power spectrum associated, respectively, with periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions of the fermionic constituents (echoing the Neveu-Schwarz-Ramond model in superstring theory), without resorting to any particular model.
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Campanario, F., Figy, T. M., Platzer, S., Rauch, M., Schichtel, P., & Sjodahl, M. (2018). Stress testing the vector-boson-fusion approximation in multijet final states. Phys. Rev. D, 98(3), 033003–7pp.
Abstract: We consider electroweak Higgs plus three jets production at NLO QCD beyond strict VBF acceptance cuts. We investigate, for the first time, how accurate the VBF approximation is in these regions and within perturbative uncertainties by a detailed comparison of full and approximate calculations. We find that a rapidity gap between the tagging jets guarantees a good approximation, while an invariant mass cut alone is not sufficient, which needs to be confronted with experimental choices. We also find that a significant part of the QCD corrections can be attributed to Higgs-Strahlungs-type topologies.
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Yang, Z., Cao, X., Guo, F. K., Nieves, J., & Pavon Valderrama, M. (2021). Strange molecular partners of the Z(c)(3900) and Z(c)(4020). Phys. Rev. D, 103(7), 074029–8pp.
Abstract: Quantum chromodynamics presents a series of exact and approximate symmetries which can be exploited to predict new hadrons from previously known ones. The Z(c)(3900) and Z(c)(4020), which have been theorized to be isovector D*(D) over bar and D*(D) over bar* molecules [I-G(J(PC)) = 1(-)(1)(+-))], are no exception. Here we argue that from SU(3)-flavor symmetry, we should expect the existence of strange partners of the Z(c)'s with hadronic molecular configurations D*(D) over bar (s) – D (D) over bar*(s) and D*(D) over bar*(s) (or, equivalently, quark content c (c) over bars (q) over bar, with q = u, d). The quantum numbers of these Z(cs) and Z(cs)* structures would be I(J(P)) = 1/2 (1(+)). The predicted masses of these partners depend on the details of the theoretical scheme used, but they should be around the D*(D) over bar (s) – D (D) over bar*(s) and D*(D) over bar*(s) thresholds, respectively. Moreover, any of these states could be either a virtual pole or a resonance. We show that, together with a possible triangle singularity contribution, such a picture nicely agrees with the very recent BESIII data of the e(+)e(-) -> K+((Ds-D*0) + D*D--(s)0).
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Babak, S., Caprini, C., Figueroa, D. G., Karnesis, N., Marcoccia, P., Nardini, G., et al. (2023). Stochastic gravitational wave background from stellar origin binary black holes in LISA. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 034–37pp.
Abstract: We use the latest constraints on the population of stellar origin binary black holes (SOBBH) from LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) observations, to estimate the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) they generate in the frequency band of LISA. In order to account for the faint and distant binaries, which contribute the most to the SGWB, we extend the merger rate at high redshift assuming that it tracks the star formation rate. We adopt different methods to compute the SGWB signal: we perform an analytical evaluation, we use Monte Carlo sums over the SOBBH population realisations, and we account for the role of the detector by simulating LISA data and iteratively removing the resolvable signals until only the confusion noise is left. The last method allows the extraction of both the expected SGWB and the number of resolvable SOBBHs. Since the latter are few for signal-to-noise ratio thresholds larger than five, we confirm that the spectral shape of the SGWB in the LISA band agrees with the analytical prediction of a single power law. We infer the probability distribution of the SGWB amplitude from the LVK GWTC-3 posterior of the binary population model: at the reference frequency of 0.003 Hz it has an interquartile range of h2ΩGW(f = 3 × 10-3 Hz) ∈ [5.65, 11.5] × 10-13, in agreement with most previous estimates. We then perform a MC analysis to assess LISA's capability to detect and characterise this signal. Accounting for both the instrumental noise and the galactic binaries foreground, with four years of data, LISA will be able to detect the SOBBH SGWB with percent accuracy, narrowing down the uncertainty on the amplitude by one order of magnitude with respect to the range of possible amplitudes inferred from the population model. A measurement of this signal by LISA will help to break the degeneracy among some of the population parameters, and provide interesting constraints, in particular on the redshift evolution of the SOBBH merger rate.
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Bernabeu, J., & Segarra, A. (2018). Stimulated transitions in resonant atom Majorana mixing. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 017–16pp.
Abstract: Massive neutrinos demand to ask whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles. Majorana neutrinos are an irrefutable proof of physics beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinoless double electron capture is not a process but a virtual Delta L = 2 mixing between a parent (A)Z atom and a daughter (A)(Z – 2) excited atom with two electron holes. As a mixing between two neutral atoms and the observable signal in terms of emitted two-hole X-rays, the strategy, experimental signature and background are different from neutrinoless double beta decay. The mixing is resonantly enhanced for almost degeneracy and, under these conditions, there is no irreducible background from the standard two-neutrino channel. We reconstruct the natural time history of a nominally stable parent atom since its production either by nature or in the laboratory. After the time periods of atom oscillations and the decay of the short-lived daughter atom, at observable times the relevant 'stationary" states are the mixed metastable long-lived state and the non-orthogonal short-lived excited state, as well as the ground state of the daughter atom. We find that they have a natural population inversion which is most appropriate for exploiting the bosonic nature of the observed atomic transitions radiation. Among different observables of the atom Majorana mixing, we include the enhanced rate of stimulated X-ray emission from the long-lived metastable state by a high-intensity X-ray beam: a gain factor of 100 can be envisaged at current XFEL facilities. On the other hand, the historical population of the daughter atom ground state can be probed by exciting it with a current pulsed optical laser, showing the characteristic absorption lines: the whole population can be excited in a shorter time than typical pulse duration.
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Barenboim, G., & Hill, C. T. (2021). Sterile neutrinos, black hole vacuum and holographic principle. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(2), 150–9pp.
Abstract: We construct an effective field theory (EFT) model that describes matter field interactions with Schwarzschild mini-black-holes (SBH's), treated as a scalar field, B0(x). Fermion interactions with SBH's require a complex spurion field, theta ij, which we interpret as the EFT description of “holographic information,” which is correlated with the SBH as a composite system. We consider Hawking's virtual black hole vacuum (VBH) as a Higgs phase, B0=V. Integrating sterile neutrino loops, the information field theta ij is promoted to a dynamical field, necessarily developing a tachyonic instability and acquiring a VEV of order the Planck scale. For N sterile neutrinos this breaks the vacuum to SU(N)xU(1)/SO(N) with N degenerate Majorana masses, and <mml:mfrac>12</mml:mfrac>N(N+1) Nambu-Goldstone neutrino-Majorons. The model suggests many scalars fields, corresponding to all fermion bilinears, may exist bound nonperturbatively by gravity.
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Barenboim, G., Martinez-Mirave, P., Ternes, C. A., & Tortola, M. (2020). Sterile neutrinos with altered dispersion relations revisited. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 070–18pp.
Abstract: In this paper we investigate neutrino oscillations with altered dispersion relations in the presence of sterile neutrinos. Modified dispersion relations represent an agnostic way to parameterize new physics. Models of this type have been suggested to explain global neutrino oscillation data, including deviations from the standard three-neutrino paradigm as observed by a few experiments. We show that, unfortunately, in this type of models new tensions arise turning them incompatible with global data.
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