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NEXT Collaboration, Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Felkai, R., Kekic, M., Lopez-March, N., et al. (2020). Mitigation of backgrounds from cosmogenic Xe-137 in xenon gas experiments using He-3 neutron capture. J. Phys. G, 47(7), 075001–17pp.
Abstract: Xe-136 is used as the target medium for many experiments searching for 0 nu beta beta. Despite underground operation, cosmic muons that reach the laboratory can produce spallation neutrons causing activation of detector materials. A potential background that is difficult to veto using muon tagging comes in the form of Xe-137 created by the capture of neutrons on Xe-136. This isotope decays via beta decay with a half-life of 3.8 min and a Q(beta) of similar to 4.16 MeV. This work proposes and explores the concept of adding a small percentage of He-3 to xenon as a means to capture thermal neutrons and reduce the number of activations in the detector volume. When using this technique we find the contamination from Xe-137 activation can be reduced to negligible levels in tonne and multi-tonne scale high pressure gas xenon neutrinoless double beta decay experiments running at any depth in an underground laboratory.
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Khosa, C. K., Mars, L., Richards, J., & Sanz, V. (2020). Convolutional neural networks for direct detection of dark matter. J. Phys. G, 47(9), 095201–20pp.
Abstract: The XENON1T experiment uses a time projection chamber (TPC) with liquid xenon to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a proposed dark matter particle, via direct detection. As this experiment relies on capturing rare events, the focus is on achieving a high recall of WIMP events. Hence the ability to distinguish between WIMP and the background is extremely important. To accomplish this, we suggest using convolutional neural networks (CNNs); a machine learning procedure mainly used in image recognition tasks. To explore this technique we use XENON collaboration open-source software to simulate the TPC graphical output of dark matter signals and main backgrounds. A CNN turns out to be a suitable tool for this purpose, as it can identify features in the images that differentiate the two types of events without the need to manipulate or remove data in order to focus on a particular region of the detector. We find that the CNN can distinguish between the dominant background events (ER) and 500 GeV WIMP events with a recall of 93.4%, precision of 81.2% and an accuracy of 87.2%.
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Alimena, J. et al, Hirsch, M., Mamuzic, J., Mitsou, V. A., & Santra, A. (2020). Searching for long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider. J. Phys. G, 47(9), 090501–226pp.
Abstract: Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton-proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments-as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER-to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the high-luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity 'dark showers', highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.
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Rinaldi, M., & Vento, V. (2020). Scalar spectrum in a graviton soft wall model. J. Phys. G, 47(12), 125003–16pp.
Abstract: In this study we present a unified phenomenological analysis of the scalar glueball and scalar meson spectra within an AdS/QCD framework in the bottom up approach. For this purpose we generalize the recently developed graviton soft-wall (GSW) model, which has shown an excellent agreement with the lattice QCD glueball spectrum, to a description of glueballs and mesons with a unique energy scale. In this scheme, dilatonic effects, are incorporated in the metric as a deformation of the AdS space. We apply the model also to the heavy meson spectra with success. We obtain quadratic mass equations for all scalar mesons while the glueballs satisfy an almost linear mass equation. Besides their spectra, we also discuss the mixing of scalar glueball and light scalar meson states within a unified framework: the GSW model. To this aim, the light-front (LF) holographic approach, which connects the mode functions of AdS/QCD to the LF wave functions, is applied. This relation provides the probabilistic interpretation required to properly investigate the mixing conditions.
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PANDA Collaboration(Singh, B. et al), & Diaz, J. (2019). Technical design report for the (P)over-barANDA Barrel DIRC detector. J. Phys. G, 46(4), 045001–155pp.
Abstract: The (P) over bar ANDA (anti-Proton ANnihiliation at DArmstadt) experiment will be one of the four flagship experiments at the new international accelerator complex FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany. (P) over bar ANDA will address fundamental questions of hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics using high-intensity cooled antiproton beams with momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c and a design luminosity of up to 2 x 10(32) cm(-2) S-1. Excellent particle identification (PID) is crucial to the success of the (P) over bar ANDA physics program. Hadronic PID in the barrel region of the target spectrometer will be performed by a fast and compact Cherenkov counter using the detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) technology. It is designed to cover the polar angle range from 22 degrees to 140 degrees and will provide at least 3 standard deviations (s.d.) pi/K separation up to 3.5 GeV/c, matching the expected upper limit of the final state kaon momentum distribution from simulation. This documents describes the technical design and the expected performance of the (P) over bar ANDA Barrel DIRC detector. The design is based on the successful BaBar DIRC with several key improvements. The performance and system cost were optimized in detailed detector simulations and validated with full system prototypes using particle beams at GSI and CERN. The final design meets or exceeds the PID goal of clean pi/K separation with at least 3 s.d. over the entire phase space of charged kaons in the Barrel DIRC.
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