LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration(Akerib, D. S. et al), & Bailey, A. J. (2017). Identification of radiopure titanium for the LZ dark matter experiment and future rare event searches. Astropart Phys., 96, 1–10.
Abstract: The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment will search for dark matter particle interactions with a detector containing a total of 10 tonnes of liquid xenon within a double -vessel cryostat. The large mass and proximity of the cryostat to the active detector volume demand the use of material with extremely low intrinsic radioactivity. We report on the radioassay campaign conducted to identify suitable metals, the determination of factors limiting radiopure production, and the selection of titanium for construction of the LZ cryostat and other detector components. This titanium has been measured with activities of U-238(e) < 1.6 mBq/kg, U-238(I) < 0.09 mBq/kg, Th-232(e) = 0.28 +/- 0.03 mBq/kg, Th-232(I) = 0.25 +/- 0.02 mBq/kg, K-40 <0.54 mBq/kg, and (60) Co <0.02 mBq/kg (68% CL). Such low intrinsic activities, which are some of the lowest ever reported for titanium, enable its use for future dark matter and other rare event searches. Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to assess the expected background contribution from the LZ cryostat with this radioactivity. In 1,000 days of WIMP search exposure of a 5.6-tonne fiducial mass, the cryostat will contribute only a mean background of 0.160 +/- 0.001(stat) +/- 0.030(sys) counts.
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Garani, R., & Palomares-Ruiz, S. (2017). Dark matter in the Sun: scattering off electrons vs nucleons. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 007–41pp.
Abstract: The annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles accumulated in the Sun could produce a flux of neutrinos, which is potentially detectable with neutrino detectors/telescopes and the DM elastic scattering cross section can be constrained. Although the process of DM capture in astrophysical objects like the Sun is commonly assumed to be due to interactions only with nucleons, there are scenarios in which tree-level DM couplings to quarks are absent, and even if loop-induced interactions with nucleons are allowed, scatterings off electrons could be the dominant capture mechanism. We consider this possibility and study in detail all the ingredients necessary to compute the neutrino production rates from DM annihilationsin the Sun (capture, annihilation and evaporation rates) for velocity-independent and isotropic, velocity-dependent and isotropic and momentum-dependent scattering cross sections for DM interactions with electrons and compare them with the results obtained for the case of interactions with nucleons. Moreover, we improve the usual calculations in a number of ways and provide analytical expressions in three appendices. Interestingly, we find that the evaporation mass in the case of interactions with electrons could be below the GeV range, depending on the high-velocity tail of the DM distribution in the Sun, which would open a new mass window for searching for this type of scenarios.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2017). Fiducial, total and differential cross-section measurements of t-channel single top-quark production in pp collisions at 8 TeV using data collected by the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(8), 531–46pp.
Abstract: Detailed measurements of t-channel single top-quark production are presented. They use 20.2 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the LHC. Total, fiducial and differential cross-sections are measured for both top-quark and top-antiquark production. The fiducial cross-section is measured with a precision of 5.8% (top quark) and 7.8% (top antiquark), respectively. The total cross-sections are measured to be stot(tq) = 56.7(-3.8)(+4.3) pb for top-quark production and sigma(tot)((t) over barq) = 32.9(-2.7)(+3.0) pb for top-antiquark production, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. In addition, the ratio of top-quark to top-antiquark production cross-sections is determined to be R-t = 1.72 +/- 0.09. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity of both the top quark and the top antiquark are measured at both the parton and particle levels. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential cross-sections of the accompanying jet from the t-channel scattering are measured at particle level. All measurements are compared to various Monte Carlo predictions as well as to fixed-order QCD calculations where available.
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Chatterjee, S. S., Pasquini, P., & Valle, J. W. F. (2017). Probing atmospheric mixing and leptonic CP violation in current and future long baseline oscillation experiments. Phys. Lett. B, 771, 524–531.
Abstract: We perform realistic simulations of the current and future long baseline experiments such as T2K, NOvA, DUNE and T2HK in order to determine their ultimate potential in probing neutrino oscillation parameters. We quantify the potential of these experiments to underpin the octant of the atmospheric angle 023 as well as the value and sign of the CP phase delta(CP) We do this both in general, as well as within the predictive framework of a previously proposed [1] benchmark theory of neutrino oscillations which tightly correlates theta(23) and delta(CP).
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Aguilar-Saavedra, J. A., Boudreau, J., Escobar, C., & Mueller, J. (2017). The fully differential top decay distribution. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(3), 200–8pp.
Abstract: We write down the four-dimensional fully differential decay distribution for the top quark decay t -> Wb -> l nu b. We discuss how its eight physical parameters can be measured, either with a global fit or with the use of selected one-dimensional distributions and asymmetries. We give expressions for the top decay amplitudes for a general tbW interaction, and show how the untangled measurement of the two components of the fraction of longitudinal W bosons – those with b quark helicities of 1/2 and -1/2, respectively – could improve the precision of a global fit to the tbW vertex.
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