|
|
Di Molfetta, G., & Perez, A. (2016). Quantum walks as simulators of neutrino oscillations in a vacuum and matter. New J. Phys., 18, 103038–8pp.
Abstract: We analyze the simulation of Dirac neutrino oscillations using quantum walks, both in a vacuum and in matter. We show that this simulation, in the continuum limit, reproduces a set of coupled Dirac equations that describe neutrino flavor oscillations, and we make use of this to establish a connection with neutrino phenomenology, thus allowing one to fix the parameters of the simulation for a given neutrino experiment. We also analyze how matter effects for neutrino propagation can be simulated in the quantum walk. In this way, important features, such as the MSW effect, can be incorporated. Thus, the simulation of neutrino oscillations with the help of quantum walks might be useful to illustrate these effects in extreme conditions, such as the solar interior or supernovae.
|
|
|
|
Rinaldi, M., Scopetta, S., Traini, M., & Vento, V. (2016). Correlations in double parton distributions: perturbative and non-perturbative effects. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 063–36pp.
Abstract: The correct description of Double Parton Scattering (DPS), which represents a background in several channels for the search of new Physics at the LHC, requires the knowledge of double parton distribution functions (dPDFs). These quantities represent also a novel tool for the study of the three-dimensional nucleon structure, complementary to the possibilities offered by electromagnetic probes. In this paper we analyze dPDFs using Poincare covariant predictions obtained by using a Light-Front constituent quark model proposed in a recent paper, and QCD evolution. We study to what extent factorized expressions for dPDFs, which neglect, at least in part, two-parton correlations, can be used. We show that they fail in reproducing the calculated dPDFs, in particular in the valence region. Actually measurable processes at existing facilities occur at low longitudinal momenta of the interacting partons; to have contact with these processes we have analyzed correlations between pairs of partons of different kind, finding that, in some cases, they are strongly suppressed at low longitudinal momenta, while for other distributions they can be sizeable. For example, the effect of gluon-gluon correlations can be as large as 20 %. We have shown that these behaviors can be understood in terms of a delicate interference of non-perturbative correlations, generated by the dynamics of the model, and perturbative ones, generated by the model independent evolution procedure. Our analysis shows that at LHC kinematics two-parton correlations can be relevant in DPS, and therefore we address the possibility to study them experimentally.
|
|
|
|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., Ruiz Valls, P., et al. (2016). Measurement of forward W -> e nu production in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 030–29pp.
Abstract: A measurement of the cross-section for W -> e nu production in pp collisions is presented using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV. The electrons are required to have more than 20 GeV of transverse momentum and to lie between 2.00 and 4.25 in pseudorapidity. The inclusive W production cross-sections, where the W decays to e nu, are measured to be W-sigma(+)-> e(+)nu(e)= 1124.4 +/- 2.1 +/- 21.5 +/- 11.2 +/- 13.0 pb, W-sigma(-)-> e(-)(nu) over bar (e) = 809.0 +/- 1.9 +/- 18.1 +/- 7.0 +/- 9.4 pb, where the first uncertainties are statistical, the second are systematic, the third are due to the knowledge of the LHC beam energy and the fourth are due to the luminosity determination. Differential cross-sections as a function of the electron pseudorapidity are measured. The W+/W- cross-section ratio and production charge asymmetry are also reported. Results are compared with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Finally, in a precise test of lepton universality, the ratio of W boson branching fractions is determined to be B(W -> e nu)/B(W -> μnu) = 1.020 +/- 0.002 +/- 0.019, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.
|
|
|
|
Trbojevich, R. A., Fernandez, A., Watanabe, F., Mustafa, T., & Bryant, M. S. (2016). Comparative study of silver nanoparticle permeation using Side-Bi-Side and Franz diffusion cells. J. Nanopart. Res., 18(3), 55–12pp.
Abstract: Better understanding the mechanisms of nanoparticle permeation through membranes and packaging polymers has important implications for the evaluation of drug transdermal uptake, in food safety and the environmental implications of nanotechnology. In this study, permeation of 21 nm diameter silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was tested using Side-Bi-Side and Franz static diffusion cells through hydrophilic 0.1 and 0.05 lm pore diameter 125 μm thick synthetic cellulose membranes, and 16 and 120 μm thick low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films. Experiments performed with LDPE films discarded permeation of AgNPs or Ag ions over the investigated time-frame in both diffusion systems. But controlled release of AgNPs has been quantified using semipermeable hydrophilic membranes. The permeation followed a quasi-linear time-dependent model during the experimental time-frame, which represents surface reaction-limited permeation. Diffusive flux, diffusion coefficients, and membrane permeability were determined as a function of pore size and diffusion model. Concentration gradient and pore size were key to understand mass transfer phenomena in the diffusion systems.
|
|
|
|
n_TOF Collaboration(Gunsing, F. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., Tain, J. L., & Tarifeño-Saldivia, A. (2016). Nuclear data activities at the n_TOF facility at CERN. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 131(10), 371–13pp.
Abstract: Nuclear data in general, and neutron-induced reaction cross sections in particular, are important for a wide variety of research fields. They play a key role in the safety and criticality assessment of nuclear technology, not only for existing power reactors but also for radiation dosimetry, medical applications, the transmutation of nuclear waste, accelerator-driven systems, fuel cycle investigations and future reactor systems as in Generation IV. Applications of nuclear data are also related to research fields as the study of nuclear level densities and stellar nucleosynthesis. Simulations and calculations of nuclear technology applications largely rely on evaluated nuclear data libraries. The evaluations in these libraries are based both on experimental data and theoretical models. Experimental nuclear reaction data are compiled on a worldwide basis by the international network of Nuclear Reaction Data Centres (NRDC) in the EXFOR database. The EXFOR database forms an important link between nuclear data measurements and the evaluated data libraries. CERN's neutron time-of-flight facility nTOF has produced a considerable amount of experimental data since it has become fully operational with the start of the scientific measurement programme in 2001. While for a long period a single measurement station (EAR1) located at 185 m from the neutron production target was available, the construction of a second beam line at 20 m (EAR2) in 2014 has substantially increased the measurement capabilities of the facility. An outline of the experimental nuclear data activities at CERN's neutron time-of-flight facility nTOF will be presented.
|
|
|
|
ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., Costa, M. J., et al. (2016). Measurement of the differential cross-section of highly boosted top quarks as a function of their transverse momentum in root s=8 TeV proton-proton collisions using the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 93(3), 032009–34pp.
Abstract: The differential cross-section for pair production of top quarks with high transverse momentum is measured in 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The measurement is performed for t (t) over bar events in the lepton + jets channel. The cross-section is reported as a function of the hadronically decaying top quark transverse momentum for values above 300 GeV. The hadronically decaying top quark is reconstructed as an anti-k(t) jet with radius parameter R = 1.0 and identified with jet substructure techniques. The observed yield is corrected for detector effects to obtain a cross-section at particle level in a fiducial region close to the event selection. A parton-level cross-section extrapolated to the full phase space is also reported for top quarks with transverse momentum above 300 GeV. The predictions of a majority of next-to-leading-order and leading-order matrix-element Monte Carlo generators are found to agree with the measured cross-sections.
|
|
|
|
Alekhin, S. et al, & Hernandez, P. (2016). A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case. Rep. Prog. Phys., 79(12), 124201–137pp.
Abstract: This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, tau -> 3 μand to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals-scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.
|
|
|
|
Sborlini, G. F. R., Driencourt-Mangin, F., & Rodrigo, G. (2016). Four-dimensional unsubtraction with massive particles. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 162–34pp.
Abstract: We extend the four-dimensional unsubtraction method, which is based on the loop-tree duality (LTD), to deal with processes involving heavy particles. The method allows to perform the summation over degenerate IR configurations directly at integrand level in such a way that NLO corrections can be implemented directly in four space-time dimensions. We define a general momentum mapping between the real and virtual kinematics that accounts properly for the quasi-collinear configurations, and leads to an smooth massless limit. We illustrate the method first with a scalar toy example, and then analyse the case of the decay of a scalar or vector boson into a pair of massive quarks. The results presented in this paper are suitable for the application of the method to any multipartonic process.
|
|
|
|
Bayar, M., Aceti, F., Guo, F. K., & Oset, E. (2016). Discussion on triangle singularities in the Lambda(b) -> J/psi K(-)p reaction. Phys. Rev. D, 94(7), 074039–10pp.
Abstract: We have analyzed the singularities of a triangle loop integral in detail and derived a formula for an easy evaluation of the triangle singularity on the physical boundary. It is applied to the Lambda(b) -> J/psi K(-)p process via Lambda*-charmonium-proton intermediate states. Although the evaluation of absolute rates is not possible, we identify the chi(c1) and the psi(2S)as the relatively most relevant states among all possible charmonia up to the psi(2S). The Lambda(1890)chi(c1)p loop is very special, as its normal threshold and triangle singularities merge at about 4.45 GeV, generating a narrow and prominent peak in the amplitude in the case that the chi(c1)p is in an S wave. We also see that loops with the same charmonium and other Lambda* hyperons produce less dramatic peaks from the threshold singularity alone. For the case of chi(c1)p -> J/psi p and quantum numbers 3/2(-) or 5/2(+), one needs P and D waves, respectively, in the chi(c1)p, which drastically reduce the strength of the contribution and smooth the threshold peak. In this case, we conclude that the singularities cannot account for the observed narrow peak. In the case of 1/2(+), 3/2(-) quantum numbers, where chi(c1)p -> J/psi p can proceed in an S wave, the Lambda(1890)chi(c1)p triangle diagram could play an important role, though neither can assert their strength without further input from experiments and lattice QCD calculations.
|
|
|
|
Giusarma, E., Gerbino, M., Mena, O., Vagnozzi, S., Ho, S., & Freese, K. (2016). Improvement of cosmological neutrino mass bounds. Phys. Rev. D, 94(8), 083522–8pp.
Abstract: The most recent measurements of the temperature and low-multipole polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background from the Planck satellite, when combined with galaxy clustering data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey in the form of the full shape of the power spectrum, and with baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, provide a 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper bound on the sum of the three active neutrinos Sigma m(nu) < 0.183 eV, among the tightest neutrino mass bounds in the literature, to date, when the same data sets are taken into account. This very same data combination is able to set, at similar to 70% C.L., an upper limit on Sigma m(nu) of 0.0968 eV, a value that approximately corresponds to the minimal mass expected in the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy scenario. If high-multipole polarization data from Planck is also considered, the 95% C.L. upper bound is tightened to Sigma m(nu) < 0.176 eV. Further improvements are obtained by considering recent measurements of the Hubble parameter. These limits are obtained assuming a specific nondegenerate neutrino mass spectrum; they slightly worsen when considering other degenerate neutrino mass schemes. Low-redshift quantities, such as the Hubble constant or the reionization optical depth, play a very important role when setting the neutrino mass constraints. We also comment on the eventual shifts in the cosmological bounds on Sigma m(nu) when possible variations in the former two quantities are addressed.
|
|
