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NEXT Collaboration(Ghosh, S. et al), Martin-Albo, J., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., Felkai, R., et al. (2020). Dependence of polytetrafluoroethylene reflectance on thickness at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths in air. J. Instrum., 15(11), P11031–16pp.
Abstract: Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is an excellent diffuse reflector widely used in light collection systems for particle physics experiments. However, the reflectance of PTFE is a function of its thickness. In this work, we investigate this dependence in air for light of wavelengths 260 nm and 450 nm using two complementary methods. We find that PTFE reflectance for thicknesses from 5 mm to 10 mm ranges from 92.5% to 94.5% at 450 nm, and from 90.0% to 92.0% at 260 nm We also see that the reflectance of PIFE of a given thickness can vary by as much as 2.7% within the same piece of material. Finally, we show that placing a specular reflector behind the PTFE can recover the loss of reflectance in the visible without introducing a specular component in the reflectance.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2020). Search for resonances decaying into a weak vector boson and a Higgs boson in the fully hadronic final state produced in proton – proton collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 102(11), 112008–27pp.
Abstract: A search for heavy resonances decaying into a W or Z boson and a Higgs boson produced in proton – proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at root s = 13 TeV is presented. The analysis utilizes the dominant W -> q (q) over bar' or Z -> q (q) over bar and H -> b (b) over bar decays with substructure techniques applied to large-radius jets. A sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector is analyzed and no significant excess of data is observed over the background prediction. The results are interpreted in the context of the heavy vector triplet model with spin-1 W' and Z' bosons. Upper limits on the cross section are set for resonances with mass between 1.5 and 5.0 TeV, ranging from 6.8 to 0.53 fb for W' -> WH and from 8.7 to 0.53 fb for Z' -> ZH at the 95% confidence level.
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Escudero, M., Lopez-Pavon, J., Rius, N., & Sandner, S. (2020). Relaxing cosmological neutrino mass bounds with unstable neutrinos. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 119–44pp.
Abstract: At present, cosmological observations set the most stringent bound on the neutrino mass scale. Within the standard cosmological model (Lambda CDM), the Planck collaboration reports Sigma m(v)< 0.12 eV at 95 % CL. This bound, taken at face value, excludes many neutrino mass models. However, unstable neutrinos, with lifetimes shorter than the age of the universe <tau>(nu) less than or similar to t(U), represent a particle physics avenue to relax this constraint. Motivated by this fact, we present a taxonomy of neutrino decay modes, categorizing them in terms of particle content and final decay products. Taking into account the relevant phenomenological bounds, our analysis shows that 2-body decaying neutrinos into BSM particles are a promising option to relax cosmological neutrino mass bounds. We then build a simple extension of the type I seesaw scenario by adding one sterile state nu (4) and a Goldstone boson phi, in which nu (i)-> nu (4)phi decays can loosen the neutrino mass bounds up to Sigma m(v) similar to 1 eV, without spoiling the light neutrino mass generation mechanism. Remarkably, this is possible for a large range of the right-handed neutrino masses, from the electroweak up to the GUT scale. We successfully implement this idea in the context of minimal neutrino mass models based on a U(1)(mu-tau) flavor symmetry, which are otherwise in tension with the current bound on Sigma m(v).
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LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., et al. (2020). First observation of the decay B-0 -> D-0(D)over-bar(0)K(+)pi(-). Phys. Rev. D, 102(5), 051102–11pp.
Abstract: The first observation of the decay B-0 -> D-0(D) over bar K-0(+)pi(-) is reported using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment in 2011, 2012 and 2016. The measurement is performed in the full kinematically allowed range of the decay outside of the D*(-) region. The ratio of the branching fraction relative to that of the control channel B-0 -> D-0<(DK+)-K-0 pi(-)+ is measured to be R = (14.2 +/- 1.1 +/- 1.0)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The absolute branching fraction of B-0 -> D-0(D) over bar K-0(+)pi(- )decays is thus determined to be B(B-0 -> D-0(D) over bar K-0(+)pi(-)) = (3.50 +/- 0.27 +/- 0.26 +/- 0.30) x 10(-4), where the third uncertainty is due to the branching fraction of the control channel. This decay mode is expected to provide insights to spectroscopy and the charm-loop contributions in rare semileptonic decays.
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Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2020). Junction conditions in Palatini f(R) gravity. Class. Quantum Gravity, 37(21), 215002–11pp.
Abstract: We work out the junction conditions for f(R) gravity formulated in metric-affine (Palatini) spaces using a tensor distributional approach. These conditions are needed for building consistent models of gravitating bodies with an interior and exterior regions matched at some hypersurface. Some of these conditions depart from the standard Darmois-Israel ones of general relativity and from their metric f(R) counterparts. In particular, we find that the trace of the stress-energy momentum tensor in the bulk must be continuous across the matching hypersurface, though its normal derivative need not to. We illustrate the relevance of these conditions by considering the properties of stellar surfaces in polytropic models, showing that the range of equations of state with potentially pathological effects is shifted beyond the domain of physical interest. This confirms, in particular, that neutron stars and white dwarfs can be safely modelled within the Palatini f(R) framework.
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