Reig, M., Restrepo, D., Valle, J. W. F., & Zapata, O. (2019). Bound-state dark matter with Majorana neutrinos. Phys. Lett. B, 790, 303–307.
Abstract: We propose a simple scenario in which dark matter (DM) emerges as a stable neutral hadronic thermal relic, its stability following from an exact U(1)(D) symmetry. Neutrinos pick up radiatively induced Majorana masses from the exchange of colored DM constituents. There is a common origin for both dark matter and neutrino mass, with a lower bound for neutrinoless double beta decay. Direct DM searches at nuclear recoil experiments will test the proposal, which may also lead to other phenomenological signals at future hadron collider and lepton flavor violation experiments.
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Lazarides, G., Reig, M., Shafi, Q., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Spontaneous Breaking of Lepton Number and the Cosmological Domain Wall Problem. Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(15), 151301–5pp.
Abstract: We show that if global lepton number symmetry is spontaneously broken in a postinflation epoch, then it can lead to the formation of cosmological domain walls. This happens in the well-known “Majoron paradigm” for neutrino mass generation. We propose some realistic examples that allow spontaneous lepton number breaking to be safe from such domain walls.
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Ellis, J., Konoplich, R., Mavromatos, N. E., Nguyen, L., Sakharov, A. S., & Sarkisyan-Grinbaum, E. K. (2019). Robust constraint on Lorentz violation using Fermi-LAT gamma-ray burst data. Phys. Rev. D, 99(8), 083009–22pp.
Abstract: Models of quantum gravity suggest that the vacuum should be regarded as a medium with quantum structure that may have nontrivial effects on photon propagation, including the violation of Lorentz invariance. Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are sensitive probes of Lorentz invariance, via studies of energy-dependent timing shifts in their rapidly varying photon emissions. We analyze the Fermi-LAT measurements of high-energy gamma rays from GRBs with known redshifts, allowing for the possibility of energy-dependent variations in emission times at the sources as well as a possible nontrivial refractive index in vacuo for photons. We use statistical estimators based on the irregularity, kurtosis, and skewness of bursts that are relatively bright in the 100 MeV to multi-GeV energy band to constrain possible dispersion effects during propagation. We find that the energy scale characterizing a linear energy dependence of the refractive index should exceed a few x10(17) GeV, and we estimate the sensitivity attainable with additional future sources to be detected by Fermi-LAT.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2019). Search for Higgs boson decays into a pair of light bosons in the bb μμfinal state in pp collision at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 790, 1–21.
Abstract: A search for decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new spin-zero particles, H -> aa, where the a-bosons decay into a b-quark pair and a muon pair, is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. No significant deviation from the Standard Model prediction is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the branching ratio (sigma(H)/sigma(SM)) x B(H -> aa -> bb μmu), ranging from 1.2 x 10(-4) to 8.4 x 10(-4) in the a-boson mass range of 20-60 GeV. Model-independent limits are set on the visible production cross-section times the branching ratio to the bb μμfinal state for new physics, sigma(vis)(X) x B(X -> bb μmu), ranging from 0.1 fb to 0.73 fb for m(mu mu) between 18 and 62 GeV.
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CLICdp Collaboration(Abramowicz, H. et al.), Boronat, M., Fullana, E., Fuster, J., Garcia, I., Gomis Lopez, P., et al. (2019). Top-quark physics at the CLIC electron-positron linear collider. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 003–88pp.
Abstract: The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a proposed future high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider operating at three energy stages, with nominal centre-of-mass energies root s = 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV, and 3 TeV. Its aim is to explore the energy frontier, providing sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) and precision measurements of Standard Model processes with an emphasis on Higgs boson and top-quark physics. The opportunities for top-quark physics at CLIC are discussed in this paper. The initial stage of operation focuses on top-quark pair production measurements, as well as the search for rare flavour-changing neutral current (FCNC) top-quark decays. It also includes a top-quark pair production threshold scan around 350 GeV which provides a precise measurement of the top-quark mass in a well-defined theoretical framework. At the higher-energy stages, studies are made of top-quark pairs produced in association with other particles. A study of ttH production including the extraction of the top Yukawa coupling is presented as well as a study of vector boson fusion (VBF) production, which gives direct access to high-energy electroweak interactions. Operation above 1 TeV leads to more highly collimated jet environments where dedicated methods are used to analyse the jet constituents. These techniques enable studies of the top-quark pair production, and hence the sensitivity to BSM physics, to be extended to higher energies. This paper also includes phenomenological interpretations that may be performed using the results from the extensive top-quark physics programme at CLIC.
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Caputo, A., Hernandez, P., & Rius, N. (2019). Leptogenesis from oscillations and dark matter. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(7), 574–17pp.
Abstract: An extension of the Standard Model with Majorana singlet fermions in the 1-100GeV range can explain the light neutrino masses and give rise to a baryon asymmetry at freeze-in of the heavy states, via their CP-violating oscillations. In this paper we consider extending this scenario to also explain dark matter. We find that a very weakly coupled B-L gauge boson, an invisible QCD axion model, and the singlet majoron model can simultaneously account for dark matter and the baryon asymmetry.
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Arnault, P., Perez, A., Arrighi, P., & Farrelly, T. (2019). Discrete-time quantum walks as fermions of lattice gauge theory. Phys. Rev. A, 99(3), 032110–16pp.
Abstract: It is shown that discrete-time quantum walks can be used to digitize, i.e., to time discretize fermionic models of continuous-time lattice gauge theory. The resulting discrete-time dynamics is thus not only manifestly unitary, but also ultralocal, i.e., the particle's speed is upper bounded, as in standard relativistic quantum field theories. The lattice chiral symmetry of staggered fermions, which corresponds to a translational invariance, is lost after the requirement of ultralocality of the evolution; this fact is an instance of Meyer's 1996 no-go results stating that no nontrivial scalar quantum cellular automaton can be translationally invariant [D. A. Meyer, J. Stat. Phys. 85, 551 (1996); Phys. Lett. A 223, 337 (1996)]. All results are presented in a single-particle framework and for a (1+1)-dimensional space-time.
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Stadler, J., Boehm, C., & Mena, O. (2020). Is it mixed dark matter or neutrino masses? J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 039–18pp.
Abstract: In this paper, we explore a scenario where the dark matter is a mixture of interacting and non interacting species. Assuming dark matter-photon interactions for the interacting species, we find that the suppression of the matter power spectrum in this scenario can mimic that expected in the case of massive neutrinos. Our numerical studies include present limits from Planck Cosmic Microwave Background data, which render the strength of the dark matter photon interaction unconstrained when the fraction of interacting dark matter is small. Despite the large entangling between mixed dark matter and neutrino masses, we show that future measurements from the Dark Energy Instrument (DESI) could help in establishing the dark matter and the neutrino properties simultaneously, provided that the interaction rate is very close to its current limits and the fraction of interacting dark matter is at least of O (10%). However, for that region of parameter space where a small fraction of interacting DM coincides with a comparatively large interaction rate, our analysis highlights a considerable degeneracy between the mixed dark matter parameters and the neutrino mass scale.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2019). Measurement of the relative B- -> D-0 / D*(0) / D**(0)mu(-)(nu)over-bar(mu) branching fractions using B- mesons from (B)over-bar(S)(2)*(0) decays. Phys. Rev. D, 99(9), 092009–16pp.
Abstract: The decay of the narrow resonance (B) over bar (s2)*(0 )-> B(-)K(+)can be used to determine the B- momentum in partially reconstructed decays without any assumptions on the decay products of the r meson. This technique is employed for the first time to distinguish contributions from D-0, D*(0), and higher-mass charmed states (D(0)) in semileptonic B- decays by using the missing-mass distribution. The measurement is performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) collected with the LHCb detector in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The resulting branching fractions relative to the inclusive B- -> (DX)-X-0 mu(-)(nu) over bar (mu )are f(D)(0)= B(B- -> D-0 mu(-)(nu) over bar mu/B(B- ->(DX)-D- -X-0 mu(-)(nu) over bar (mu))( )= 0.25( )+/- 0.06, f( D)(0 )= B(B- -> (D(0) -> (DX)-X-0)mu(-)(nu) over bar (mu))/B(B--> (DX)-X-0 mu(-)(nu) over bar (mu)) = 0.21 +/- 0.07, with f(D)*(0) = 1 – f(D)(0) – f(D)(0) making up the remainder.
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Nebot, M., Botella, F. J., & Branco, G. C. (2019). Vacuum induced CP violation generating a complex CKM matrix with controlled scalar FCNC. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(8), 711–23pp.
Abstract: We propose. a viable minimal model with spontaneous CP violation in the framework of a two Higgs doublet model. The model is based on a generalised Branco-Grimus-Lavoura model with a flavoured Z(2) symmetry, under which two of the quark families are even and the third one is odd. The lagrangian respects CP invariance, but the vacuum has a CP violating phase, which is able to generate a complex CKM matrix, with the rephasing invariant strength of CP violation compatible with experiment. The question of scalar mediated flavour changing neutral couplings is carefully studied. In particular we point out a deep connection between the generation of a complex CKM matrix from a vacuum phase and the appearance of scalar FCNC. The scalar sector is presented in detail, showing that the new scalars are necessarily lighter than 1 TeV. A complete analysis of the model including the most relevant constraints is performed, showing that it is viable and that it has definite implications for the observation of New Physics signals in, for example, flavour changing Higgs decays or the discovery of the new scalars at the LHC. We give special emphasis to processes like t -> hc, hu, as well as h -> bs, bd, which are relevant for the LHC and the ILC.
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