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n_TOF Collaboration(Barbagallo, M. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., Tain, J. L., & Tarifeño-Saldivia, A. (2016). Be-7(n,alpha)He-4 Reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: Measurement of the Cross Section in a Wide Energy Range at n_TOF at CERN. Phys. Rev. Lett., 117(15), 152701–7pp.
Abstract: The energy-dependent cross section of the (7)Bed(n,alpha)He-4 reaction, of interest for the so-called cosmological lithium problem in big bang nucleosynthesis, has been measured for the first time from 10 meV to 10 keV neutron energy. The challenges posed by the short half-life of Be-7 and by the low reaction cross section have been overcome at nTOF thanks to an unprecedented combination of the extremely high luminosity and good resolution of the neutron beam in the new experimental area (EAR2) of the nTOF facility at CERN, the availability of a sufficient amount of chemically pure Be-7, and a specifically designed experimental setup. Coincidences between the two alpha particles have been recorded in two Si-Be-7-Si arrays placed directly in the neutron beam. The present results are consistent, at thermal neutron energy, with the only previous measurement performed in the 1960s at a nuclear reactor. The energy dependence reported here clearly indicates the inadequacy of the cross section estimates currently used in BBN calculations. Although new measurements at higher neutron energy may still be needed, the n_TOF results hint at a minor role of this reaction in BBN, leaving the long-standing cosmological lithium problem unsolved.
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Gonzalez, L., Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., & Kovalenko, S. G. (2016). Scalar-mediated double beta decay and LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 130–15pp.
Abstract: The decay rate of neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay could be dominated by Lepton Number Violating (LNV) short-range diagrams involving only heavy scalar intermediate particles, known as “topology-II” diagrams. Examples are diagrams with diquarks, leptoquarks or charged scalars. Here, we compare the LNV discovery potentials of the LHC and 0 nu beta beta-decay experiments, resorting to three example models, which cover the range of the optimistic-pessimistic cases for 0 nu beta beta decay. We use the LHC constraints from dijet as well as leptoquark searches and find that already with 20/fb the LHC will test interesting parts of the parameter space of these models, not excluded by the current limits on 0 nu beta beta-decay.
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FLAG Working Group(Aoki, S. et al), & Della Morte, M. (2017). Review of lattice results concerning low-energy particle physics. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(2), 112–228pp.
Abstract: We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D- and B-meson physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the particle-physics community. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor f(+)(0), arising in the semileptonic K -> pi transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio fK / f pi and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements V-us and V-ud. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of SU(2) L x SU(2) R and SU(3) L x SU(3) R Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the B-K parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four B parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the StandardModel. The latter quantities are an addition compared to the previous review. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for m(c) and m(b) (also new compared to the previous review), as well as those for D- and B-meson-decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. Finally, we review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant alpha(s).
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Bejarano, C., Lobo, F. S. N., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). Palatini wormholes and energy conditions from the prism of general relativity. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(11), 776–13pp.
Abstract: Wormholes are hypothetical shortcuts in space-time that in general relativity unavoidably violate all of the pointwise energy conditions. In this paper, we consider several wormhole spacetimes that, as opposed to the standard designer procedure frequently employed in the literature, arise directly from gravitational actions including additional terms resulting from contractions of the Ricci tensor with the metric, and which are formulated assuming independence between metric and connection (Palatini approach). We reinterpret such wormhole solutions under the prism of General Relativity and study the matter sources that thread them. We discuss the size of violation of the energy conditions in different cases and how this is related to the same spacetimes when viewed from the modified gravity side.
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Escudero, M., Rius, N., & Sanz, V. (2017). Sterile neutrino portal to Dark Matter II: exact dark symmetry. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(6), 397–11pp.
Abstract: We analyze a simple extension of the standard model (SM) with a dark sector composed of a scalar and a fermion, both singlets under the SM gauge group but charged under a dark sector symmetry group. Sterile neutrinos, which are singlets under both groups, mediate the interactions between the dark sector and the SM particles, and generate masses for the active neutrinos via the seesaw mechanism. We explore the parameter space region where the observed Dark Matter relic abundance is determined by the annihilation into sterile neutrinos, both for fermion and scalar Dark Matter particles. The scalar Dark Matter case provides an interesting alternative to the usual Higgs portal scenario. We also study the constraints from direct Dark Matter searches and the prospects for indirect detection via sterile neutrino decays to leptons, which may be able to rule out Dark Matter masses below and around 100 GeV.
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Simpson, F., Jimenez, R., Pena-Garay, C., & Verde, L. (2018). Dark energy from the motions of neutrinos. Phys. Dark Universe, 20, 72–77.
Abstract: Ordinarily, a scalar field may only play the role of dark energy if it possesses a potential that is either extraordinarily flat or extremely fine-tuned. Here we demonstrate that these restrictions are lifted when the scalar field undergoes persistent energy exchange with another fluid. In this scenario, the field is prevented from reversing its direction of motion, and instead may come to rest while displaced from the local minimum of its potential. Therefore almost any scalar potential is capable of initiating a prolonged phase of cosmic acceleration. If the rate of energy transfer is modulated via a derivative coupling, the field undergoes a rapid process of freezing, after which the field's equation of state mimicks that of a cosmological constant. We present a physically motivated realisation in the form of a neutrino-majoron coupling, which avoids the dynamical instabilities associated with mass-varying neutrino models. Finally we discuss possible means by which this model could be experimentally verified.
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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. (2016). Search for squarks and gluinos in events with hadronically decaying tau leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(12), 683–33pp.
Abstract: A search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton has been performed using 3.2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015. Two exclusive final states are considered, with either exactly one or at least two tau leptons. No excess over the Standard Model prediction is observed in the data. Results are interpreted in the context of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking and a simplified model of gluino pair production with tau-rich cascade decays, substantially improving on previous limits. In the GMSB model considered, supersymmetry-breaking scale (Alpha) values below 92 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, corresponding to gluino masses below 2000 GeV. For large values of tan beta, values of Alpha up to 107 TeV and gluino masses up to 2300 GeV are excluded. In the simplified model, gluino masses are excluded up to 1570 GeV for neutralino masses around 100 GeV. Neutralino masses below 700 GeV are excluded for all gluino masses between 800 and 1500 GeV, while the strongest exclusion of 750 GeV is achieved for gluino masses around 1450 GeV.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., Ruiz Valls, P., & Sanchez Mayordomo, C. (2017). Observation of eta(c)(2S) -> p(p)over-bar and search for X(3872) -> p(p)over-bar decays. Phys. Lett. B, 769, 305–313.
Abstract: The first observation of the decay eta(c)(2S) -> p (p) over bar is reported using proton -proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) recorded by the LHCb experiment at centre -of -mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The eta c(2S) resonance is produced in the decay B+ [c (c) over bar ]K+. The product of branching fractions normalised to that for the intermediate state, R-eta c,(2s), is measured to be R-eta c,(2s) equivalent to B(B+-> eta c (2S)K+) x B(eta c(2s)(2S) -> p<<(p)over bar> )/B(B+ -> J/psi k(+)) x B(J/psi -> p<<(p)over bar> ) = (1.58 +/- 0.33 +/- 0.09) x 10(-2), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. No signals for the decays B+ -> X(3872)(-> p (p) over bar )K+ and B+ psi(3770)(-> p (p) over bar )K+ are seen, and the 95% confidence level upper limits on their relative branching ratios are found to be R-x(3872) < 0.25 x 10(-2) and R-psi(3770) < 0.10. In addition, the mass differences between the nc(1S) and the J/psi states, between the eta(c)(2S) and the eta(c)(2S) states, and the natural width of the psi(1S) are measured as M-J/psi – M-eta c(7s)= 110.2 +/- 0.5 +/- 0.9 MeV, M psi(2S) – M-eta c (2S) = 52.5 +/- 1.7 +/- 0.6 MeV, Gamma(eta c) (1s) = 34.0 +/- 1.9 +/- 1.3 MeV.
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Das, D., Lopez-Ibañez, M. L., Jay Perez, M., & Vives, O. (2017). Effective theories of flavor and the nonuniversal MSSM. Phys. Rev. D, 95(3), 035001–16pp.
Abstract: Flavor symmetries a la Froggatt-Nielsen provide a compelling way to explain the hierarchies of fermionic masses and mixing angles in the Yukawa sector. In supersymmetric (SUSY) extensions of the Standard Model where the mediation of SUSY breaking occurs at scales larger than the breaking of flavor, this symmetry must be respected not only by the Yukawas of the superpotential but also by the soft-breaking masses and trilinear terms. In this work we show that contrary to naive expectations, even starting with completely flavor blind soft breaking in the full theory at high scales, the low-energy sfermion mass matrices and trilinear terms of the effective theory, obtained upon integrating out the heavy mediator fields, are strongly nonuniversal. We explore the phenomenology of these SUSY flavor models after the latest LHC searches for new physics.
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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. (2016). Measurement of top quark pair differential cross sections in the dilepton channel in pp collisions at root s=7 and 8 TeV with ATLAS. Phys. Rev. D, 94(9), 092003–33pp.
Abstract: Measurements of normalized differential cross sections of top quark pair (t (t) over bar) production are presented as a function of the mass, the transverse momentum and the rapidity of the t (t) over bar system in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of root s = 7 and 8 TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1) at 7 TeV and 20.2 fb(-1) at 8 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with top quark pair signatures are selected in the dilepton final state, requiring exactly two charged leptons and at least two jets with at least one of the jets identified as likely to contain a b hadron. The measured distributions are corrected for detector effects and selection efficiency to cross sections at the parton level. The differential cross sections are compared with different Monte Carlo generators and theoretical calculations of t (t) over bar production. The results are consistent with the majority of predictions in a wide kinematic range.
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