Abstract: New phenomena involving pseudorapidity and azimuthal correlations among final-state particles in pp collisions at the LHC can hint at the existence of hidden sectors beyond the Standard Model. In this paper we rely on a correlated-cluster picture of multiparticle production, which was shown to account for the ridge effect, to assess the effect of a hidden sector on three-particle correlations concluding that there is a potential signature of new physics that can be directly tested by experiments using well-known techniques.

Abstract: Sterile neutrinos could provide a link between the Standard Model particles and a dark sector, besides generating active neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism type I. We show that, if dark matter annihilation into sterile neutrinos determines its observed relic abundance, it is possible to explain the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess reported by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration as due to an astrophysical component plus dark matter annihilations. We observe that sterile neutrino portal to dark matter provides an impressively good fit, with a p-value of 0.78 in the best fit point, to the Galactic Center gamma-ray flux, for DM masses in the range (40-80) GeV and sterile neutrino masses 20 GeV less than or similar to M-N < M-DM. Such values are compatible with the limits from Fermi-LAT observations of the dwarfs spheroidal galaxies in the Milky Way halo, which rule out dark matter masses below similar to 50 GeV ( 90 GeV), for sterile neutrino masses M-N less than or similar to MDM ( M-N << M-DM). We also estimate the impact of AMS-02 anti-proton data on this scenario.

Abstract: TORCH is a novel time-of-flight detector that has been developed to provide charged-particle identification between 2 and 10 GeV/c momentum. TORCH combines arrival times from multiple Cherenkov photons produced within a 10 mm-thick quartz radiator plate, to achieve a 15 ps time-of-flight resolution per incident particle. A customised Micro-Channel Plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) and associated readout system utilises an innovative charge-sharing technique between adjacent pixels to obtain the necessary 70 ps time resolution of each Cherenkov photon. A five-year R&D programme has been undertaken, culminating in the construction of a small-scale prototype TORCH module. In testbeams at CERN, this prototype operated successfully with customised electronics and readout system. A full analysis chain has been developed to reconstruct the data and to calibrate the detector. Results are compared to those using a commercial Planacon MCP-PMT, and single photon resolutions approaching 80 ps have been achieved. The photon counting efficiency was found to be in reasonable agreement with a GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation of the detector. The small-scale demonstrator is a precursor to a full-scale TORCH module (with a radiator plate of 660 x 1250 x 10 mm(3)), which is currently under construction.

Abstract: The NEXT experiment aims at searching for the hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay from the Xe-136 isotope using a high-purity xenon TPC. Efficient discrimination of the events through pattern recognition of the topology of primary ionisation tracks is a major requirement for the experiment. However, it is limited by the diffusion of electrons. It is known that the addition of a small fraction of a molecular gas to xenon reduces electron diffusion. On the other hand, the electroluminescence (EL) yield drops and the achievable energy resolution may be compromised. We have studied the effect of adding several molecular gases to xenon (CO2, CH4 and CF4) on the EL yield and energy resolution obtained in a small prototype of driftless gas proportional scintillation counter. We have compared our results on the scintillation characteristics (EL yield and energy resolution) with a microscopic simulation, obtaining the diffusion coefficients in those conditions as well. Accordingly, electron diffusion may be reduced from about 10 for pure xenon down to 2.5 using additive concentrations of about 0.05%, 0.2% and 0.02% for CO2, CH4 and CF4, respectively. Our results show that CF4 admixtures present the highest EL yield in those conditions, but very poor energy resolution as a result of huge fluctuations observed in the EL formation. CH4 presents the best energy resolution despite the EL yield being the lowest. The results obtained with xenon admixtures are extrapolated to the operational conditions of the NEXT-100 TPC. CO2 and CH4 show potential as molecular additives in a large xenon TPC. While CO2 has some operational constraints, making it difficult to be used in a large TPC, CH4 shows the best performance and stability as molecular additive to be used in the NEXT-100 TPC, with an extrapolated energy resolution of 0.4% at 2.45 MeV for concentrations below 0.4%, which is only slightly worse than the one obtained for pure xenon. We demonstrate the possibility to have an electroluminescence TPC operating very close to the thermal diffusion limit without jeopardizing the TPC performance, if CO2 or CH4 are chosen as additives.

Abstract: In the past decade, a new class of bright transient radio sources with millisecond duration has been discovered. The origin of these so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) is still a mystery, despite the growing observational efforts made by various multiwavelength and multimessenger facilities. To date, many models have been proposed to explain FRBs, but neither the progenitors nor the radiative and the particle acceleration processes at work have been clearly identified. In this paper, we assess whether hadronic processes may occur in the vicinity of the FRB source. If they do, FRBs may contribute to the high-energy cosmic-ray and neutrino fluxes. A search for these hadronic signatures was carried out using the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The analysis consists in looking for high-energy neutrinos, in the TeV-PeV regime, that are spatially and temporally coincident with the detected FRBs. Most of the FRBs discovered in the period 2013-2017 were in the field of view of the ANTARES detector, which is sensitive mostly to events originating from the Southern hemisphere. From this period, 12 FRBs were selected and no coincident neutrino candidate was observed. Upper limits on the per-burst neutrino fluence were derived using a power-law spectrum, dN/DE nu proportional to E-nu(-gamma), for the incoming neutrino flux, assuming spectral indexes gamma = 1.0, 2.0, 2.5. Finally, the neutrino energy was constrained by computing the total energy radiated in neutrinos, assuming different distances for the FRBs. Constraints on the neutrino fluence and on the energy released were derived from the associated null results.