NEXT Collaboration(Novella, P. et al), Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., Martin-Albo, J., Martinez, A., et al. (2022). Measurement of the Xe-136 two-neutrino double-beta-decay half-life via direct background subtraction in NEXT. Phys. Rev. C, 105(5), 055501–8pp.
Abstract: We report a measurement of the half-life of the Xe-136 two-neutrino double-beta decay performed with a novel direct-background-subtraction technique. The analysis relies on the data collected with the NEXT-White detector operated with Xe-136-enriched and Xe-136-depleted xenon, as well as on the topology of double-electron tracks. With a fiducial mass of only 3.5 kg of Xe, a half-life of 2.34(-0.46)(+0.80) (stat)(-0.17)(+0.30) (sys) x 10(21) yr is derived from the background-subtracted energy spectrum. The presented technique demonstrates the feasibility of unique background-model-independent neutrinoless double-beta-decay searches.
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Dai, L. R., Oset, E., & Geng, L. S. (2022). The D-s(+)->pi(+KSKS0)-K-0 reaction and the I=1 partner of the f(0)(1710) state. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(3), 225–9pp.
Abstract: We have identified the decay modes of the D-s(+)-> pi K+*K+*(-),pi+K*(0)(K) over bar*(0) reactions producing a pion and two vector mesons. The posterior vector-vector interaction generates two resonances that we associate to the f(0)(1710) and the a(0)(1710) recently claimed, and they decay to the observed K+K- or (KSKS0)-K-0 pair, leading to the reactions D-s(+)->pi+K+K-,pi(+KSKS0)-K-0. The results depend on two parameters related to external and internal emission. We determine a narrow region of the parameters consistent with the large N-c limit within uncertainties which gives rise to decay widths in agreement with experiment. With this scenario we make predictions for the branching ratio of the a(0)(1710) contribution to the D-s(+)->pi(K+KS0)-K-0 reaction, finding values within the range of (1.3 +/- 0.4)x10(-3). Comparison of these predictions with coming experimental results on that latter reaction will be most useful to deepen our understanding on the nature of these two resonances.
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., & Ruiz Vidal, J. (2022). Measurement of the photon polarization in Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda gamma decays. Phys. Rev. D, 105(5), L051104–11pp.
Abstract: The photon polarization in b -> s gamma transitions is measured for the first time in radiative b -baryon decays exploiting the unique spin structure of Lambda(0)(b)-> Lambda(gamma) decays. A data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is used. The photon polarization is measured to be alpha(gamma) = 0.82(-0.26-0.)(13)(+)(0.17+0.04), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. This result is in agreement with the Standard Model prediction and previous measurements in b-meson decays. Charge-parity breaking effects are studied for the first time in this observable and found to be consistent with CP symmetry.
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Guevara, A., Lopez Castro, G., & Roig, P. (2022). Improved description of dilepton production in tau(-) -> nu(tau)P(- )decays. Phys. Rev. D, 105(7), 076007–15pp.
Abstract: Recently, the Belle Collaboration reported the first measurements of the tau(-) -> nu(tau)pi(-) e(+) e(-) branching fraction and the spectrum of the pion-dielectron system. In an analysis previous to Belle's results, we evaluated this branching fraction which turned out to be compatible with that reported by Belle, although with a large uncertainty. This is the motivation to seek for improvement on our previous evaluation of tau(-) -> nu(tau)pi(-) l(+) l(-) decays (l = e, mu). In this paper we improve our calculation of the WP-gamma* vertex by including flavor-symmetry breaking effects in the framework of the resonance chiral theory. We impose QCD short-distance behavior to constrain most parameters and data on the pi(-) e(+) e(-) spectrum reported by the Belle Collaboration to fix the remaining free ones. As a result, improved predictions for the branching ratios and hadronic/leptonic spectra are reported, which are in good agreement with observations. Analogous calculations for the strangeness-changing tau(-) -> nu(tau) K- l(+) l(-) transitions are reported for the first time. Albeit one expects the m(pi mu+ mu- )spectrum to be measured in Belle-II and the observables with l = e can be improved, it is rather unlikely that the K channels can be measured due to the suppression factor vertical bar V-ud/V-us vertical bar(2) = 0.05.
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Flavour Lattice Averaging Group(Aoki, Y. et al), Hernandez, P., & Ramos, A. (2022). FLAG Review 2021. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(10), 869–296pp.
Abstract: We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D-meson, B-meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. 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 Alf, 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 Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for m(c) and m(b) as well as those for the decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters of charmed and bottom mesons and baryons. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant alpha(s). We consider nucleon matrix elements, and review the determinations of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal. Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing determinations of scale-setting quantities.
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Aguilar, A. C., Ferreira, M. N., & Papavassiliou, J. (2022). Exploring smoking-gun signals of the Schwinger mechanism in QCD. Phys. Rev. D, 105(1), 014030–26pp.
Abstract: In Quantum Chromodynamics, the Schwinger mechanism endows the gluons with an effective mass through the dynamical formation of massless bound-state poles that are longitudinally coupled. The presence of these poles affects profoundly the infrared properties of the interaction vertices, inducing crucial modifications to their fundamental Ward identities. Within this general framework, we present a detailed derivation of the non-Abelian Ward identity obeyed by the pole-free part of the three-gluon vertex in the softgluon limit, and determine the smoking-gun displacement that the onset of the Schwinger mechanism produces to the standard result. Quite importantly, the quantity that describes this distinctive feature coincides formally with the bound-state wave function that controls the massless pole formation. Consequently, this signal may be computed in two independent ways: by solving an approximate version of the pertinent BetheSalpeter integral equation, or by appropriately combining the elements that enter in the aforementioned Ward identity. For the implementation of both methods we employ two- and three-point correlation functions obtained from recent lattice simulations, and a partial derivative of the ghost-gluon kernel, which is computed from the corresponding Schwinger-Dyson equation. Our analysis reveals an excellent coincidence between the results obtained through either method, providing a highly nontrivial self-consistency check for the entire approach. When compared to the null hypothesis, where the Schwinger mechanism is assumed to be inactive, the statistical significance of the resulting signal is estimated to be 3 standard deviations.
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Gisbert, H., Miralles, V., & Ruiz Vidal, J. (2022). Electric dipole moments from colour-octet scalars. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 077–25pp.
Abstract: We present the contributions to electric dipole moments (EDMs) induced by the Yukawa couplings of an additional electroweak doublet of colour-octet scalars. The full set of one-loop diagrams and the enhanced higher-order effects from Barr-Zee diagrams are computed for the quark (chromo-)EDM, along with the two-loop contributions to the Weinberg operator. Using the stringent experimental upper limits on the neutron EDM, constraints on the parameter space of the Manohar-Wise model are derived.
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Villanueva-Domingo, P., Villaescusa-Navarro, F., Angles-Alcazar, D., Genel, S., Marinacci, F., Spergel, D. N., et al. (2022). Inferring Halo Masses with Graph Neural Networks. Astrophys. J., 935(1), 30–15pp.
Abstract: Understanding the halo-galaxy connection is fundamental in order to improve our knowledge on the nature and properties of dark matter. In this work, we build a model that infers the mass of a halo given the positions, velocities, stellar masses, and radii of the galaxies it hosts. In order to capture information from correlations among galaxy properties and their phase space, we use Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), which are designed to work with irregular and sparse data. We train our models on galaxies from more than 2000 state-of-the-art simulations from the Cosmology and Astrophysics with MachinE Learning Simulations project. Our model, which accounts for cosmological and astrophysical uncertainties, is able to constrain the masses of the halos with a similar to 0.2 dex accuracy. Furthermore, a GNN trained on a suite of simulations is able to preserve part of its accuracy when tested on simulations run with a different code that utilizes a distinct subgrid physics model, showing the robustness of our method. The PyTorch Geometric implementation of the GNN is publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/PabloVD/HaloGraphNet).
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Briz, J. A., Nerio, A. N., Ballesteros, C., Borge, M. J. G., Martinez, P., Perea, A., et al. (2022). Proton Radiographs Using Position-Sensitive Silicon Detectors and High-Resolution Scintillators. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 69(4), 696–702.
Abstract: Proton therapy is a cancer treatment technique currently in growth since it offers advantages with respect to conventional X-ray and gamma-ray radiotherapy. In particular, better control of the dose deposition allowing to reach higher conformity in the treatments causing less secondary effects. However, in order to take full advantage of its potential, improvements in treatment planning and dose verification are required. A new prototype of proton computed tomography scanner is proposed to design more accurate and precise treatment plans for proton therapy. Our prototype is formed by double-sided silicon strip detectors and scintillators of LaBr3(Ce) with high energy resolution and fast response. Here, the results obtained from an experiment performed using a 100-MeV proton beam are presented. Proton radiographs of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) samples of 50-mm thickness with spatial patterns in aluminum were taken. Their properties were studied, including reproduction of the dimensions, spatial resolution, and sensitivity to different materials. Structures of up to 2 mm are well resolved and the sensitivity of the system was enough to distinguish the thicknesses of 10 mm of aluminum or PMMA. The spatial resolution of the images was 0.3 line pairs per mm (MTF-10%). This constitutes the first step to validate the device as a proton radiography scanner.
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Chatterjee, S. S., Miranda, O. G., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2022). Nonunitarity of the lepton mixing matrix at the European Spallation Source. Phys. Rev. D, 106(7), 075016–16pp.
Abstract: If neutrinos get mass through the exchange of lepton mediators, as in seesaw schemes, the neutrino appearance probabilities in oscillation experiments are modified due to effective nonunitarity of the lepton mixing matrix. This also leads to new CP phases and an ambiguity in underpinning the “conventional” phase of the three-neutrino paradigm. We study the CP sensitivities of various setups based at the European Spallation Source neutrino super-beam (ESSnuSB) experiment in the presence of nonunitarity. We also examine its potential in constraining the associated new physics parameters. Moreover, we show how the combination of DUNE and ESSnuSB can help further improve the sensitivities on the nonunitarity parameters.
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