Dias, A. G., Leite, J., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2020). Reloading the axion in a 3-3-1 setup. Phys. Lett. B, 810, 135829–12pp.
Abstract: We generalize the idea of the axion to an extended electroweak gauge symmetry setup. We propose a minimal axion extension of the Singer-Valle-Schechter (SVS) theory, in which the standard model fits in SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X), the number of families results from anomaly cancellation, and the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) solution to the strong-CP problem is implemented. Neutrino masses arise from a type-I Dirac seesaw mechanism, suppressed by the ratio of SVS and PQ scales, suggesting the existence of new physics at a moderate SVS scale. Novel features include an enhanced axion coupling to photons when compared to the DFSZ axion, as well as flavor-changing axion couplings to quarks.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2020). A search for the Z gamma decay mode of the Higgs boson in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 809, 135754–21pp.
Abstract: A search for the Z gamma decay of the Higgs boson, with Z boson decays into pairs of electrons or muons is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are consistent with the expected background with a p-value of 1.3%. An upper limit at 95% confidence level on the production cross-section times the branching ratio for pp -> H -> Z gamma is set at 3.6 times the Standard Model prediction while 2.6 times is expected in the presence of the Standard Model Higgs boson. The best-fit value for the signal yield normalised to the Standard Model prediction is 2.0(-0.9)(+1.0) where the statistical component of the uncertainty is dominant.
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Carcamo Hernandez, A. E., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2020). Simple theory for scotogenic dark matter with residual matter-parity. Phys. Lett. B, 809, 135757–10pp.
Abstract: Dark matter stability can result from a residual matter-parity symmetry surviving spontaneous breaking of an extended gauge symmetry. We propose the simplest scotogenic dark matter completion of the original SVS theory [1], in which the “dark sector” particles as well as matter-parity find a natural theoretical origin within the model. We briefly comment on its main features.
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Aristizabal Sierra, D., De Romeri, V., Flores, L. J., & Papoulias, D. K. (2020). Light vector mediators facing XENON1T data. Phys. Lett. B, 809, 135681–5pp.
Abstract: Recently the XENON1T collaboration has released new results on searches for new physics in low-energy electronic recoils. The data shows an excess over background in the low-energy tail, particularly pronounced at about 2-3 keV. With an exposure of 0.65 tonne-year, large detection efficiency and energy resolution, the detector is sensitive as well to solar neutrino backgrounds, with the most prominent contribution given by pp neutrinos. We investigate whether such signal can be explained in terms of new neutrino interactions with leptons mediated by a light vector particle. We find that the excess is consistent with this interpretation for vector masses below less than or similar to 0.1 MeV. The region of parameter space probed by the XENON1T data is competitive with constraints from laboratory experiments, in particular GEMMA, Borexino and TEXONO. However we point out a severe tension with astrophysical bounds and cosmological observations.
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Miranda, O. G., Papoulias, D. K., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2020). XENON1T signal from transition neutrino magnetic moments. Phys. Lett. B, 808, 135685–5pp.
Abstract: The recent puzzling results of the XENONIT collaboration at few keV electronic recoils could be due to the scattering of solar neutrinos endowed with finite Majorana transition magnetic moments (TMMs). Within such general formalism, we find that the observed excess in the XENONIT data agrees well with this interpretation. The required TMM strengths lie within the limits set by current experiments, such as Borexino, specially when one takes into account a possible tritium contamination.
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Agramunt, J. et al, Tain, J. L., Albiol, F., Algora, A., Domingo-Pardo, C., Jordan, M. D., et al. (2016). Characterization of a neutron-beta counting system with beta-delayed neutron emitters. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 807, 69–78.
Abstract: A new detection system for the measurement of beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities has been characterized using fission products with well known beta-delayed neutron emission properties. The setup consists of BELEN-20, a 4 pi-neutron counter with twenty He-3 proportional tubes arranged inside a large polyethylene neutron moderator, a thin Si detector for beta counting and a self-triggering digital data acquisition system. The use of delayed-neutron precursors with different neutron emission windows allowed the study of the effect of energy dependency on neutron, beta and beta-neutron rates. The observed effect is well reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations. The impact of this dependency on the accuracy of neutron emission probabilities is discussed. A new accurate value of the neutron emission probability for the important delayed-neutron precursor I-137 was obtained, P-n = 7.76(14)%.
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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). Measurement of azimuthal anisotropy of muons from charm and bottom hadrons Pb plus Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 807, 135595–23pp.
Abstract: Azimuthal anisotropies of muons from charm and bottom hadron decays are measured in Pb+Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2018 with integrated luminosities of 0.5 nb(-1) and 1.4 nb(-1), respectively. The kinematic selection for heavy-flavor muons requires transverse momentum 4 < p(T) < 30 GeV and pseudorapidity vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.0. The dominant sources of muons in this p -r range are semi-leptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons. These heavy-flavor muons are separated from light-hadron decay muons and punch-through hadrons using the momentum imbalance between the measurements in the tracking detector and in the muon spectrometers. Azimuthal anisotropies, quantified by flow coefficients, are measured via the eventplane method for inclusive heavy-flavor muons as a function of the muon p(T) and in intervals of Pb+Pb collision centrality. Heavy-flavor muons are separated into contributions from charm and bottom hadron decays using the muon transverse impact parameter with respect to the event primary vertex. Non-zero elliptic (v(2)) and triangular (v(3)) flow coefficients are extracted for charm and bottom muons, with the charm muon coefficients larger than those for bottom muons for all Pb+Pb collision centralities. The results indicate substantial modification to the charm and bottom quark angular distributions through interactions in the quark-gluon plasma produced in these Pb+Pb collisions, with smaller modifications for the bottom quarks as expected theoretically due to their larger mass.
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Addazi, A., Marciano, A., Morais, A. P., Pasechnik, R., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2020). Gravitational footprints of massive neutrinos and lepton number breaking. Phys. Lett. B, 807, 135577–8pp.
Abstract: We investigate the production of primordial Gravitational Waves (GWs) arising from First Order Phase Transitions (FOPTs) associated to neutrino mass generation in the context of type-I and inverse seesaw schemes. We examine both “high-scale” as well as “low-scale” variants, with either explicit or spontaneously broken lepton number symmetry U(1)(L), in the neutrino sector. In the latter case, a pseudo-Goldstone majoron-like boson may provide a candidate for cosmological dark matter. We find that schemes with softly-broken U(1)(L), and with single Higgs-doublet scalar sector lead to either no FOPTs or too weak FOPTs, precluding the detestability of GWs in present or near future measurements. Nevertheless, we found that, in the majoron-like seesaw scheme with spontaneously broken U(1)(L), at finite temperatures, one can have strong FOPTs and non-trivial primordial GW spectra which can fall well within the frequency and amplitude sensitivity of upcoming experiments, including LISA, BBO and u-DECIGO. However, GWs observability clashes with invisible Higgs decay constraints from the LHC. A simple and consistent fix is to assume the majoron-like mass to lie above the Higgs-decay kinematical threshold. We also found that the majoron-like variant of the low-scale seesaw mechanism implies a different GW spectrum than the one expected in the high-scale seesaw. This feature will be testable in future experiments. Our analysis shows that GWs can provide a new and complementary portal to test the neutrino mass generation mechanism.
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NA62 Collaboration(Cortina Gil, E. et al), & Husek, T. (2020). Search for heavy neutral lepton production in K+ decays to positrons. Phys. Lett. B, 807, 135599–9pp.
Abstract: A search for heavy neutral lepton (N) production in K+ -> e(+)N decays using the data sample collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2017-2018 is reported. Upper limits of the extended neutrino mixing matrix element vertical bar U-e4 vertical bar(2) are established at the level of 10(-9) over most of the accessible heavy neutral lepton mass range 144-462 MeV/c(2), with the assumption that the lifetime exceeds 50 ns. These limits improve significantly upon those of previous production and decay searches. The vertical bar U-e4 vertical bar(2) range favoured by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is excluded up to a mass of about 340 MeV/c(2).
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Leite, J., Morales, A., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2020). Scotogenic dark matter and Dirac neutrinos from unbroken gauged B – L symmetry. Phys. Lett. B, 807, 135537–5pp.
Abstract: We propose a simple extension of the standard model where neutrinos get naturally small “scotogenic” Dirac masses from an unbroken gauged B – L symmetry, ensuring dark matter stability. The associated gauge boson gets mass through the Stueckelberg mechanism. Two scenarios are identified, and the resulting phenomenology briefly sketched.
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