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). Measurement of prompt D+ and Ds+ production in pPb collisions at √s_NN=5.02 TeV. J. High Energy Phys., 01(1), 070–43pp.
Abstract: The production of prompt D+ and D-s(+) mesons is studied in proton-lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s(NN) = 5.02TeV. The data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of (1.58 +/- 0.02)nb(-1) is collected by the LHCb experiment at the LHC. The differential production cross-sections are measured using D+ and D-s(+) candidates with transverse momentum in the range of 0 < p(T) < 14 GeV/c and rapidities in the ranges of 1.5 < y* < 4.0 and -5.0 < y* < -2.5 in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass system. For both particles, the nuclear modification factor and the forward-backward production ratio are determined. These results are compared with theoretical models that include initial-state nuclear effects. In addition, measurements of the cross-section ratios between D+, D-s(+) and D-0 mesons are presented, providing a baseline for studying the charm hadronization in lead-lead collisions at LHC energies.
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Donini, A., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., & Meloni, D. (2011). The tau-contamination of the golden muon sample at the Neutrino Factory. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 095–16pp.
Abstract: We study the contribution of nu(e) -> nu(tau) -> tau -> μtransitions to the wrong-sign muon sample of the golden channel of the Neutrino Factory. Muons from tau decays are not really a background, since they contain information from the oscillation signal, and represent a small fraction of the sample. However, if not properly handled they introduce serious systematic error, in particular if the detector/analysis are sensitive to muons of low energy. This systematic effect is particularly troublesome for large theta(13) >= 1 degrees and prevents the use of the Neutrino Factory as a precision facility for large theta(13). Such a systematic error disappears if the tau contribution to the golden muon sample is taken into account. The fact that the fluxes of the Neutrino Factory are exactly calculable permits the knowledge of the tau sample due to the nu(e) -> nu(tau) oscillation. We then compute the contribution to the muon sample arising from this sample in terms of the apparent muon energy. This requires the computation of a migration matrix M-ij which describes the contributions of the tau neutrinos of a given energy E-i, to the muon neutrinos of an apparent energy E-j. We demonstrate that applying M-ij to the data permits the full correction of the otherwise intolerable systematic error.
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Mena, O., Razzaque, S., & Villaescusa-Navarro, F. (2011). Signatures of photon and axion-like particle mixing in the gamma-ray burst jet. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 030–16pp.
Abstract: Photons couple to Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) or more generally to any pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson in the presence of an external electromagnetic field. Mixing between photons and ALPs in the strong magnetic field of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) jet during the prompt emission phase can leave observable imprints on the gamma-ray polarization and spectrum. Mixing in the intergalactic medium is not expected to modify these signatures for ALP mass > 10(-14) eV and/or for < nG magnetic field. We show that the depletion of photons due to conversion to ALPs changes the linear degree of polarization from the values predicted by the synchrotron model of gamma ray emission. We also show that when the magnetic field orientation in the propagation region is perpendicular to the field orientation in the production region, the observed synchrotron spectrum becomes steeper than the theoretical prediction and as detected in a sizable fraction of GRB sample. Detection of the correlated polarization and spectral signatures from these steep-spectrum GRBs by gamma-ray polarimeters can be a very powerful probe to discover ALPs. Measurement of gamma-ray polarization from GRBs in general, with high statistics, can also be useful to search for ALPs.
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Ellis, J., Hodgkinson, R. N., Lee, J. S., & Pilaftsis, A. (2010). Flavour geometry and effective Yukawa couplings in the MSSM. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 016–35pp.
Abstract: We present a new geometric approach to the flavour decomposition of an arbitrary soft supersymmetry-breaking sector in the MSSM. Our approach is based on the geometry that results from the quark and lepton Yukawa couplings, and enables us to derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for a linearly-independent basis of matrices related to the completeness of the internal [SU(3) circle times U(1)](5) flavour space. In a second step, we calculate the effective Yukawa couplings that are enhanced at large values of tan beta for general soft supersymmetry-breaking mass parameters. We highlight the contributions due to non-universal terms in the flavour decompositions of the sfermion mass matrices. We present numerical examples illustrating how such terms are induced by renormalization-group evolution starting from universal input boundary conditions, and demonstrate their importance for the flavour-violating effective Yukawa couplings of quarks.
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Ferrario, P., & Rodrigo, G. (2010). Heavy colored resonances in t(t)over-bar + jet at the LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 051–13pp.
Abstract: The LHC is the perfect environment for the study of new physics in the top quark sector. We study the possibility of detecting signals of heavy color-octet vector resonances, through the charge asymmetry, in t (t) over bar + jet events. Besides contributions with the t (t) over bar pair in a color-singlet state, the asymmetry gets also contributions which are proportional to the color factor f(abc)(2). This process is particularly interesting for extra-dimensional models, where the inclusive charge asymmetry generated by Kaluza-Klein excitations of the gluon vanishes at the tree level. We find that the statistical significance for the measurement of such an asymmetry is sizable for different values of the coupling constants and already at low energies.
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Pich, A., Rosell, I., & Sanz-Cillero, J. J. (2011). The vector form factor at the next-to-leading order in 1/N-C: chiral couplings L-9(mu) and C-88(mu)-C-90(mu). J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 109–23pp.
Abstract: Using the Resonance Chiral Theory Lagrangian, we perform a calculation of the vector form factor of the pion at the next-to-leading order (NLO) in the 1/N-C expansion. Imposing the correct QCD short-distance constraints, one fixes the amplitude in terms of the pion decay constant F and resonance masses. Its low momentum expansion determines then the corresponding O(p(4)) and O(p(6)) low-energy chiral couplings at NLO, keeping control of their renormalization scale dependence. At mu(0) = 0.77 GeV, we obtain L-9(mu(0)) = (7.9 +/- 0.4).10(-3) and C-88(mu(0)) – C-90(mu(0)) = (-4.6 +/- 0.4).10(-5).
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Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Guinea, F., Fogler, M. M., Katsnelson, M. I., Martin-Albo, J., Monrabal, F., et al. (2012). GraXe, graphene and xenon for neutrinoless double beta decay searches. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 037–17pp.
Abstract: We propose a new detector concept, GraXe (to be pronounced as grace), to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in Xe-136. GraXe combines a popular detection medium in rare-event searches, liquid xenon, with a new, background-free material, grapheme. In our baseline design of GraXe, a sphere made of graphene-coated titanium mesh and filled with liquid xenon (LXe) enriched in the Xe-136 isotope is immersed in a large volume of natural LXe instrumented with photodetectors. Liquid xenon is an excellent scintillator, reasonably transparent to its own light. Graphene is transparent over a large frequency range, and impermeable to the xenon. Event position could be deduced from the light pattern detected in the photosensors. External backgrounds would be shielded by the buffer of natural LXe, leaving the ultra-radiopure internal volume virtually free of background. Industrial graphene can be manufactured at a competitive cost to produce the sphere. Enriching xenon in the isotope Xe-136 is easy and relatively cheap, and there is already near one ton of enriched xenon available in the world (currently being used by the EXO, KamLAND-Zen and NEXT experiments). All the cryogenic know-how is readily available from the numerous experiments using liquid xenon. An experiment using the GraXe concept appears realistic and affordable in a short time scale, and its physics potential is enormous.
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Arbelaez, C., Hirsch, M., & Reichert, L. (2012). Supersymmetric mass spectra and the seesaw type-I scale. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 112.
Abstract: We calculate supersymmetric mass spectra with cMSSM boundary conditions and a type-I seesaw mechanism added to explain current neutrino data. Using published, estimated errors on SUSY mass observables for a combined LHC+ILC analysis, we perform a theoretical chi(2) analysis to identify parameter regions where pure cMSSM and cMSSM plus seesaw type-I might be distinguishable with LHC+ILC data. The most important observables are determined to be the (left) smuon and selectron masses and the splitting between them, respectively. Splitting in the (left) smuon and selectrons is tiny in most of cMSSM parameter space, but can be quite sizeable for large values of the seesaw scale, m S S. Thus, for very roughly m(SS) >= 10(14) GeV hints for type-I seesaw might appear in SUSY mass measurements. Since our numerical results depend sensitively on forecasted error bars, we discuss in some detail the accuracies, which need to be achieved, before a realistic analysis searching for signs of type-I seesaw in SUSY spectra can be carried out.
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Hirsch, M., Malinsky, M., Porod, W., Reichert, L., & Staub, F. (2012). Hefty MSSM-like light Higgs in extended gauge models. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 084.
Abstract: It is well known that in the MSSM the lightest neutral Higgs h(0) must be, at the tree level, lighter than the Z boson and that the loop corrections shift this stringent upper bound up to about 130GeV. Extending the MSSM gauge group in a suitable way, the new Higgs sector dynamics can push the tree-level mass of h(0) well above the tree-level MSSM limit if it couples to the new gauge sector. This effect is further pronounced at the loop level and h(0) masses in the 140GeV ballpark can be reached easily. We exemplify this for a sample setting with a low-scale U(1)(R) x U(1)(B-L) gauge symmetry in which neutrino masses can be implemented via the inverse seesaw mechanism.
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Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abreu, P. et al), & Pastor, S. (2013). Interpretation of the depths of maximum of extensive air showers measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 026–20pp.
Abstract: To interpret the mean depth of cosmic ray air shower maximum and its dispersion, we parametrize those two observables as functions of the first two moments of the ln A distribution. We examine the goodness of this simple method through simulations of test mass distributions. The application of the parameterization to Pierre Auger Observatory data allows one to study the energy dependence of the mean ln A and of its variance under the assumption of selected hadronic interaction models. We discuss possible implications of these dependences in term of interaction models and astrophysical cosmic ray sources.
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