ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2015). Search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV using the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 75(8), 362–23pp.
Abstract: Asearch for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles is performed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Data collected in 2012 at root s = 8TeV from pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) are examined. Particles producing anomalously high ionisation, consistent with long-livedmassive particleswith electric charges from vertical bar q vertical bar = 2e to vertical bar q vertical bar = 6e are searched for. No signal candidate events are observed, and 95% confidence level crosssection upper limits are interpreted as lower mass limits for a Drell-Yan production model. The mass limits range between 660 and 785 GeV.
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Fonseca, R. M. (2015). On the chirality of the SM and the fermion content of GUTs. Nucl. Phys. B, 897, 757–780.
Abstract: The Standard Model (SM) is a chiral theory, where right- and left-handed fermion fields transform differently under the gauge group. Extra fermions, if they do exist, need to be heavy otherwise they would have already been observed. With no complex mechanisms at work, such as confining interactions or extra-dimensions, this can only be achieved if every extra right-handed fermion comes paired with a left-handed one transforming in the same way under the Standard Model gauge group, otherwise the new states would only get a mass after electroweak symmetry breaking, which would necessarily be small (similar to 100 GeV). Such a simple requirement severely constrains the fermion content of Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). It is known for example that three copies of the representations (5) over bar + 10 of SU(5) or three copies of the 16 of SO(10) can reproduce the Standard Model's chirality, but how unique are these arrangements? In a systematic way, this paper looks at the possibility of having non-standard mixtures of fermion GUT representations yielding the correct Standard Model chirality. Family unification is possible with large special unitary groups for example, the 171 representation of SU(19) may decompose as 3(16) + 120 + 3(1) under SO(10).
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NEXT Collaboration(Cebrian, S. et al), Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., et al. (2015). Accurate gamma and MeV-electron track reconstruction with an ultra-low diffusion Xenon/TMA TPC at 10 atm. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 804, 8–24.
Abstract: We report the performance of a 10 atm Xenon/trimethylamine time projection chamber (TPC) for the detection of X-rays (30 keV) and gamma-rays (0.511-1.275 MeV) in conjunction with the accurate tracking of the associated electrons. When operated at such a high pressure and in similar to 1%-admixtures, trimethylamine (TMA) endows Xenon with an extremely low electron diffusion (1.3 +/- 0.13 mm-sigma (longitudinal), 0.95 +/- 0.20 mm-sigma (transverse) along 1 m drift) besides forming a convenient Penning-Fluorescent' mixture. The TPC, that houses 1.1 kg of gas in its fiducial volume, operated continuously for 100 live-days in charge amplification mode. The readout was performed through the recently introduced microbulk Micromegas technology and the AFTER chip, providing a 3D voxelization of 8 mm x 8 mm x 1.2 mm for approximately 10 cm/MeV-long electron tracks. Resolution in energy (epsilon) at full width half maximum (R) inside the fiducial volume ranged from R = 14.6% (30 keV) to R = 4.6% (1.275 MeV). This work was developed as part of the R&D program of the NEXT collaboration for future detector upgrades in the search of the neutrino-less double beta decay (beta beta 0 nu) in Xe-136, specifically those based on novel gas mixtures. Therefore we ultimately focus on the calorimetric and topological properties of the reconstructed MeV-electron tracks. In particular, the obtained energy resolution has been decomposed in its various contributions and improvements towards achieving the R =1.4%root MeV/epsilon levels obtained in small sensors are discussed.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2015). Search for long-lived, weakly interacting particles that decay to displaced hadronic jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 92(1), 012010–28pp.
Abstract: A search for the decay of neutral, weakly interacting, long-lived particles using data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. This analysis uses the full data set recorded in 2012: 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV. The search employs techniques for reconstructing decay vertices of long-lived particles decaying to jets in the inner tracking detector and muon spectrometer. Signal events require at least two reconstructed vertices. No significant excess of events over the expected background is found, and limits as a function of proper lifetime are reported for the decay of the Higgs boson and other scalar bosons to long-lived particles and for Hidden Valley Z' and Stealth SUSY benchmark models. The first search results for displaced decays in Z' and Stealth SUSY models are presented. The upper bounds of the excluded proper lifetimes are the most stringent to date.
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Valle, J. W. F. (2015). Status and implications of neutrino masses: a brief panorama. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 30(13), 1530034–13pp.
Abstract: With the historic discovery of the Higgs boson our picutre of particle physics would have been complete were it nor for the neutrino sector and cosmology. I briefly discuss the role of neutrino masses and mixing upon gauge coupling unification, electroweak breaking and the flavor sector. Time is ripe for new discoveries such as leptonic CP violation, charged lepton flavor violation and neutrinoless double beta decay. Neutrinos could also play a role is elucidating the nature of dark matter and cosmic inflation.
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