|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Jaimes Elles, S. J., Jashal, B. K., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Rebollo De Miguel, M., et al. (2024). Amplitude Analysis of the B0 -> K*0 μ+μ- Decay. Phys. Rev. Lett., 132(13), 131801–13pp.
Abstract: An amplitude analysis of the B-0 -> K*(0) mu(+)mu(-) decay is presented using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) of pp collision data collected with the LHCb experiment. For the first time, the coefficients associated to short-distance physics effects, sensitive to processes beyond the standard model, are extracted directly from the data through a q(2)-unbinned amplitude analysis, where q(2) is the mu(+)mu(-) invariant mass squared. Long-distance contributions, which originate from nonfactorizable QCD processes, are systematically investigated, and the most accurate assessment to date of their impact on the physical observables is obtained. The pattern of measured corrections to the short-distance couplings is found to be consistent with previous analyses of b- to s-quark transitions, with the largest discrepancy from the standard model predictions found to be at the level of 1.8 standard deviations. The global significance of the observed differences in the decay is 1.4 standard deviations.
|
|
|
Servant, G., & Simakachorn, P. (2024). Ultrahigh frequency primordial gravitational waves beyond the kHz: The case of cosmic strings. Phys. Rev. D, 109(10), 103538–24pp.
Abstract: We investigate gravitational -wave backgrounds (GWBs) of primordial origin that would manifest only at ultrahigh frequencies, from kilohertz to 100 gigahertz, and leave no signal at LIGO, the Einstein Telescope, the Cosmic Explorer, LISA, or pulsar -timing arrays. We focus on GWBs produced by cosmic strings and make predictions for the GW spectra scanning over high-energy scale (beyond 10 10 GeV) particle physics parameters. Signals from local string networks can easily be as large as the big bang nucleosynthesis/ cosmic microwave background bounds, with a characteristic strain as high as 10 – 26 in the 10 kHz band, offering prospects to probe grand unification physics in the 10 14 -10 17 GeV energy range. In comparison, GWB from axionic strings is suppressed (with maximal characteristic strain similar to 10 – 31 ) due to the early matter era induced by the associated heavy axions. We estimate the needed reach of hypothetical futuristic GW detectors to probe such GWB and, therefore, the corresponding high-energy physics processes. Beyond the information of the symmetry -breaking scale, the high -frequency spectrum encodes the microscopic structure of the strings through the position of the UV cutoffs associated with cusps and kinks, as well as potential information about friction forces on the string. The IR slope, on the other hand, reflects the physics responsible for the decay of the string network. We discuss possible strategies for reconstructing the scalar potential, particularly the scalar self -coupling, from the measurement of the UV cutoff of the GW spectrum.
|
|
|
Forconi, M., Giare, W., Mena, O., Ruchika, Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., et al. (2024). A double take on early and interacting dark energy from JWST. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 097–37pp.
Abstract: The very first light captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revealed a population of galaxies at very high redshifts more massive than expected in the canonical Lambda CDM model of structure formation. Barring, among others, a systematic origin of the issue, in this paper, we test alternative cosmological perturbation histories. We argue that models with a larger matter component ohm m and/or a larger scalar spectral index n s can substantially improve the fit to JWST measurements. In this regard, phenomenological extensions related to the dark energy sector of the theory are appealing alternatives, with Early Dark Energy emerging as an excellent candidate to explain (at least in part) the unexpected JWST preference for larger stellar mass densities. Conversely, Interacting Dark Energy models, despite producing higher values of matter clustering parameters such as sigma 8 , are generally disfavored by JWST measurements. This is due to the energy -momentum flow from the dark matter to the dark energy sector, implying a smaller matter energy density. Upcoming observations may either strengthen the evidence or falsify some of these appealing phenomenological alternatives to the simplest Lambda CDM picture.
|
|
|
Bayar, M., Molina, R., Oset, E., Liu, M. Z., & Geng, L. S. (2024). Subtleties in triangle loops for Ds+ → ρ+ η → π+ π0 η in a0(980) production. Phys. Rev. D, 109(7), 076027–7pp.
Abstract: We address a general problem in the evaluation of triangle loops stemming from the consideration of the range of the interaction involved in some of the vertices, as well as the energy dependence of the width of some unstable particles in the loop. We find sizeable corrections from both effects. We apply that to a loop relevant to the D + s -> pi + pi 0 eta decay, and find reductions of about a factor of 4 in the mass distribution of invariant mass of the pi eta in the region of the a 0 ( 980 ) . The method used is based on the explicit analytical evaluation of the q 0 integration in the d 4 q loop integration, using Cauchy 's residues method, which at the same time offers an insight on the convergence of the integrals and the effect of form factors and cutoffs.
|
|
|
Super-Kamiokande Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), & Molina Sedgwick, S. (2024). Solar neutrino measurements using the full data period of Super-Kamiokande-IV. Phys. Rev. D, 109(9), 092001–44pp.
Abstract: An analysis of solar neutrino data from the fourth phase of Super-Kamiokande (SK-IV) from October 2008 to May 2018 is performed and the results are presented. The observation time of the dataset of SK- IV corresponds to 2970 days and the total live time for all four phases is 5805 days. For more precise solar neutrino measurements, several improvements are applied in this analysis: lowering the data acquisition threshold in May 2015, further reduction of the spallation background using neutron clustering events, precise energy reconstruction considering the time variation of the PMT gain. The observed number of solar neutrino events in 3.49-19.49 MeV electron kinetic energy region during SK-IV is 65, 443(-388)(+390) (stat.) +/- 925(syst.) events. Corresponding B-8 solar neutrino flux is (2.314 +/- 0.014(stat.) +/- 0.040(syst.)) x 106 cm(-2) s(-1), assuming a pure electron-neutrino flavor component without neutrino oscillations. The flux combined with all SK phases up to SK-IV is (2.336 +/- 0.011(stat.) +/- 0.043(syst.)) x 106 cm(-2) s(-1). Based on the neutrino oscillation analysis from all solar experiments, including the SK 5805 days dataset, the best-fit neutrino oscillation parameters are sin(2)theta(12,solar) = 0.306 +/- 0.013 and Delta m(21,solar)(2) = (6.10(-0.81)(+0.95)) x 10(-5) eV(2), with a deviation of about 1.5 sigma from the Delta m(21)(2) parameter obtained by KamLAND. The best-fit neutrino oscillation parameters obtained from all solar experiments and KamLAND are sin(2)theta(12, global) = 0.307 +/- 0.012 and Delta m(21,) (2)(global) = (7.50(-0.18)(+0.19)) x 10(-5) eV(2).
|
|
|
Giarnetti, A., Herrero-Garcia, J., Marciano, S., Meloni, D., & Vatsyayan, D. (2024). Neutrino masses from new Weinberg-like operators: phenomenology of TeV scalar multiplets. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 055–37pp.
Abstract: The unique dimension-5 effective operator, LLHH, known as the Weinberg operator, generates tiny Majorana masses for neutrinos after electroweak spontaneous symmetry breaking. If there are new scalar multiplets that take vacuum expectation values (VEVs), they should not be far from the electroweak scale. Consequently, they may generate new dimension-5 Weinberg-like operators which in turn also contribute to Majorana neutrino masses. In this study, we consider scenarios with one or two new scalars up to quintuplet SU(2) representations. We analyse the scalar potentials, studying whether the new VEVs can be induced and therefore are naturally suppressed, as well as the potential existence of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons. Additionally, we also obtain general limits on the new scalar multiplets from direct searches at colliders, loop corrections to electroweak precision tests and the W-boson mass.
|
|
|
Bas i Beneito, A., Gargalionis, J., Herrero-Garcia, J., Santamaria, A., & Schmidt, M. A. (2024). An EFT approach to baryon number violation: lower limits on the new physics scale and correlations between nucleon decay modes. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 004–37pp.
Abstract: Baryon number is an accidental symmetry of the Standard Model at the Lagrangian level. Its violation is arguably one of the most compelling phenomena predicted by physics beyond the Standard Model. Furthermore, there is a large experimental effort to search for it including the Hyper-K, DUNE, JUNO, and THEIA experiments. Therefore, an agnostic, model-independent, analysis of baryon number violation using the power of Effective Field Theory is very timely. In particular, in this work we study the contribution of dimension six and seven effective operators to |triangle(B – L)| = 0, 2 nucleon decays taking into account the effects of Renormalisation Group Evolution. We obtain lower limits on the energy scale of each operator and study the correlations between different decay modes. We find that for some operators the effect of running is very significant.
|
|
|
Baeza-Ballesteros, J., Donini, A., Molina-Terriza, G., Monrabal, F., & Simon, A. (2024). Towards a realistic setup for a dynamical measurement of deviations from Newton's 1/r2 law: the impact of air viscosity. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(6), 596–20pp.
Abstract: A novel experimental setup to measure deviations from the 1/r(2) distance dependence of Newtonian gravity was proposed in Donini and Marimon (Eur Phys J C 76:696, 2016). The underlying theoretical idea was to study the orbits of a microscopically-sized planetary system composed of a “Satellite”, with mass m(S) similar to O(10-9) g, and a “Planet”, with mass M-P similar to O(10-5) g at an initial distance of hundreds of microns. The detection of precession of the orbit in this system would be an unambiguous indication of a central potential with terms that scale with the distance differently from 1/r. This is a huge advantage with respect to the measurement of the absolute strength of the attraction between two bodies, as most electrically-induced background potentials do indeed scale as 1/r. Detection of orbit precession is unaffected by these effects, allowing for better sensitivities. In Baeza-Ballesteros et al. (Eur Phys J C 82:154, 2022), the impact of other subleading backgrounds that may induce orbit precession, such as, e.g., the electrical Casimir force or general relativity, was studied in detail. It was found that the proposed setup could test Yukawa-like corrections, alpha x exp(-r/lambda), to the 1/r potential with couplings as low as alpha similar to 10(-2) for distances as small as lambda similar to 10 μm, improving by roughly an order of magnitude present bounds. In this paper, we start to move from a theoretical study of the proposal to a more realistic implementation of the experimental setup. As a first step, we study the impact of air viscosity on the proposed setup and see how the setup should be modified in order to preserve the theoretical sensitivity achieved in Donini and Marimon (2016) and Baeza-Ballesteros et al. (2022).
|
|
|
Gorkavenko, V., Jashal, B. K., Kholoimov, V., Kyselov, Y., Mendoza, D., Ovchynnikov, M., et al. (2024). LHCb potential to discover long-lived new physics particles with lifetimes above 100 ps. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(6), 608–15pp.
Abstract: For years, it has been believed that the main LHC detectors can play only a limited role of a lifetime frontier experiment exploring the parameter space of long-lived particles (LLPs)-hypothetical particles with tiny couplings to the Standard Model. This paper demonstrates that the LHCb experiment may become a powerful lifetime frontier experiment if it uses the new Downstream algorithm reconstructing tracks that do not allow hits in the LHCb vertex tracker. In particular, for many LLP scenarios, LHCb may be as sensitive as the proposed experiments beyond the main LHC detectors for various LLP models, including heavy neutral leptons, dark scalars, dark photons, and axion-like particles.
|
|
|
Giarnetti, A., Herrero-Garcia, J., Marciano, S., Meloni, D., & Vatsyayan, D. (2024). Neutrino masses from new seesaw models: low-scale variants and phenomenological implications. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(8), 803–19pp.
Abstract: With just the Standard Model Higgs doublet, there are only three types of seesaw models that generate light Majorana neutrino masses at tree level after electroweak spontaneous symmetry breaking. However, if there exist additional TeV scalars acquiring vacuum expectation values, coupled with heavier fermionic multiplets, several new seesaw models become possible. These new seesaws are the primary focus of this study and correspond to the tree-level ultraviolet completions of the effective operators studied in a companion publication. We are interested in the genuine cases, in which the standard seesaw contributions are absent. In addition to the tree-level generation of neutrino masses, we also consider the one-loop contributions. Furthermore, we construct low-energy versions that exhibit a very rich phenomenology. Specifically, we scrutinise the generation of dimension-6 operators and explore their implications, including non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix, non-universal Z-boson interactions, and lepton flavor violation. Finally, we provide (Generalised) Scotogenic-like variants that incorporate viable dark matter candidates.
|
|