Reig, M., Valle, J. W. F., Vaquera-Araujo, C. A., & Wilczek, F. (2017). A model of comprehensive unification. Phys. Lett. B, 774, 667–670.
Abstract: Comprehensive – that is, gauge and family – unification using spinors has many attractive features, but it has been challenged to explain chirality. Here, by combining an orbifold construction with more traditional ideas, we address that difficulty. Our candidate model features three chiral families and leads to an acceptable result for quantitative unification of couplings. A potential target for accelerator and astronomical searches emerges.
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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). Measurement of the inclusive jet cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 020–54pp.
Abstract: Inclusive jet production cross-sections are measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The total integrated luminosity of the analysed data set amounts to 20.2 fb(-1). Double-differential cross-sections are measured for jets defined by the anti-k(t) jet clustering algorithm with radius parameters of R = 0.4 and R = 0.6 and are presented as a function of the jet transverse momentum, in the range between 70 GeV and 2.5 TeV and in six bins of the absolute jet rapidity, between 0 and 3.0. The measured cross-sections are compared to predictions of quantum chromodynamics, calculated at next-to-leading order in perturbation theory, and corrected for non-perturbative and electroweak effects. The level of agreement with predictions, using a selection of different parton distribution functions for the proton, is quantified. Tensions between the data and the theory predictions are observed.
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Alvarez-Ruso, L. et al, & Nieves, J. (2018). NuSTEC White Paper: Status and challenges of neutrino-nucleus scattering. Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys., 100, 1–68.
Abstract: The precise measurement of neutrino properties is among the highest priorities in fundamental particle physics, involving many experiments worldwide. Since the experiments rely on the interactions of neutrinos with bound nucleons inside atomic nuclei, the planned advances in the scope and precision of these experiments require a commensurate effort in the understanding and modeling of the hadronic and nuclear physics of these interactions, which is incorporated as a nuclear model in neutrino event generators. This model is essential to every phase of experimental analyses and its theoretical uncertainties play an important role in interpreting every result. In this White Paper we discuss in detail the impact of neutrino-nucleus interactions, especially the nuclear effects, on the measurement of neutrino properties using the determination of oscillation parameters as a central example. After an Executive Summary and a concise Overview of the issues, we explain how the neutrino event generators work, what can be learned from electron-nucleus interactions and how each underlying physics process – from quasi-elastic to deep inelastic scattering – is understood today. We then emphasize how our understanding must improve to meet the demands of future experiments. With every topic we find that the challenges can be met only with the active support and collaboration among specialists in strong interactions and electroweak physics that include theorists and experimentalists from both the nuclear and high energy physics communities.
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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). Search for supersymmetry in final states with two same-sign or three leptons and jets using 36 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV pp collision data with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 084–45pp.
Abstract: A search for strongly produced supersymmetric particles using signatures involving multiple energetic jets and either two isolated same-sign leptons (e or mu), or at least three isolated leptons, is presented. The analysis relies on the identification of b-jets and high missing transverse momentum to achieve good sensitivity. A data sample of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), is used for the search. No significant excess over the Standard Model prediction is observed. The results are interpreted in several simplified supersymmetric models featuring R-parity conservation or R-parity violation, extending the exclusion limits from previous searches. In models considering gluino pair production, gluino masses are excluded up to 1.87 TeV at 95% confidence level. When bottom squarks are pair-produced and decay to a chargino and a top quark, models with bottom squark masses below 700 GeV and light neutralinos are excluded at 95% confidence level. In addition, model-independent limits are set on a possible contribution of new phenomena to the signal region yields.
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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). Search for dark matter in association with a Higgs boson decaying to two photons at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 96(11), 112004–31pp.
Abstract: A search for dark matter in association with a Higgs boson decaying to two photons is presented. This study is based on data collected with the ATLAS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess over the expected background is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the visible cross section for beyond the Standard Model physics processes, and the production cross section times branching fraction of the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in association with missing transverse momentum in three different benchmark models. Limits at 95% confidence level are also set on the observed signal in two-dimensional mass planes. Additionally, the results are interpreted in terms of 90% confidence-level limits on the dark-matternucleon scattering cross section, as a function of the dark-matter particle mass, for a spin-independent scenario.
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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). Search for direct top squark pair production in events with a Higgs or Z boson, and missing transverse momentum in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 006–46pp.
Abstract: A search for direct top squark pair production resulting in events with either a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair with invariant mass compatible with a Z boson or a pair of jets compatible with a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson (h) is presented. Requirements on the missing transverse momentum, together with additional selections on leptons, jets, jets identified as originating from b-quarks are imposed to target the other decay products of the top squark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 20152016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). No excess is observed in the data with respect to the SM predictions. The results are interpreted in two sets of models. In the first set, direct production of pairs of lighter top squarks ((t) over tilde (1)) with long decay chains involving Z or Higgs bosons is considered. The second set includes direct pair production of the heavier top squark pairs ((t) over tilde (2)) decaying via (t) over tilde (2) -> Z (t) over tilde (1) or (t) over tilde (2) -> h (t) over tilde (1). The results exclude at 95% confidence level (t) over tilde (2) and (t) over tilde (1) masses up to about 800 GeV, extending the exclusion region of supersymmetric parameter space covered by previous LHC searches.
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T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., & Novella, P. (2017). Measurement of (nu)over-bar(mu) and nu(mu) charged current inclusive cross sections and their ratio with the T2K off-axis near detector. Phys. Rev. D, 96(5), 052001–15pp.
Abstract: We report a measurement of cross section sigma(nu(mu) + nucleus. -> mu(-) + X) and the first measurements of the cross section sigma((sigma) over bar (mu) + nucleus -> mu(+) + X) and their ratio R(sigma((nu) over bar)sigma(nu)) at (anti) neutrino energies below 1.5 GeV. We determine the single momentum bin cross section measurements, averaged over the T2K (nu) over bar/nu-flux, for the detector target material (mainly carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and copper) with phase space restricted laboratory frame kinematics of theta(mu) < 32 degrees and p(mu) > 500 MeV/c. The results are sigma((nu) over bar) = (0.900 +/- 0.029d (stat) +/- 0.088(syst) x 10(-39) and sigma(nu) = (2.41 +/- 0.022(stat) +/- 0.231(syst)) x 10(-39) in units of cm(2)/nucleon and R(sigma((nu) over bar)/sigma(nu) = 0.373 +/- 0.012(stat) +/- 0.015(syst).
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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. (2018). Search for a new heavy gauge-boson resonance decaying into a lepton and missing transverse momentum in 36 fb(-1) of pp collisions root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(5), 401–23pp.
Abstract: The results of a search for new heavy W' bosons decaying to an electron or muon and a neutrino using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV are presented. The dataset was collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). As no excess of events above the Standard Model prediction is observed, the results are used to set upper limits on the W' boson cross-section times branching ratio to an electron or muon and a neutrino as a function of the W' mass. Assuming a W' boson with the same couplings as the Standard Model W boson, W' masses below 5.1 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.
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Sanchis-Lozano, M. A., & Sarkisyan-Grinbaum, E. (2017). Ridge effect and three-particle correlations. Phys. Rev. D, 96(7), 074012–13pp.
Abstract: Pseudorapidity and azimuthal three-particle correlations are studied based on a correlated-cluster model of multiparticle production. The model provides a common framework for correlations in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions allowing easy comparison with the measurements. It is shown that azimuthal cluster correlations are definitely required in order to understand three-particle correlations in the near-side ridge effect. This is similar to the explanation of the ridge phenomenon found in our previous analysis of two-particle correlations and generalizes the model to higher-order correlations.
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Bhattacharya, A., Esmaili, A., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Sarcevic, I. (2017). Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 027–36pp.
Abstract: After the first four years of data taking, the IceCube neutrino telescope has observed 54 high-energy starting events (HESE) with deposited energies between 20TeV and 2PeV. The background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos is expected to be of about 20 events, all below 100TeV, thus pointing towards the astrophysical origin of about 8 events per year in that data set. However, their precise origin remains unknown. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of this event sample (considering simultaneously the energy, hemisphere and topology of the events) by assuming two contributions for the signal events: an isotropic power-law flux and a flux from decaying heavy dark matter. We fit the mass and lifetime of the dark matter and the normalization and spectral index of an isotropic power-law flux, for various decay channels of dark matter. We find that a significant contribution from dark matter decay is always slightly favored, either to explain the excess below 100TeV, as in the case of decays to quarks or, as in the case of neutrino channels, to explain the three multi-PeV events. Also, we consider the possibility to interpret all the data by dark matter decays only, considering various combinations of two decay channels. We show that the decaying dark matter scenario provides a better fit to HESE data than the isotropic power-law flux.
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