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At least 847 records · Page 47

Muon capture on Li 6 , C 12 , and O 16 from ab initio nuclear theory

Muon capture on nuclei is one of the most promising probes of the nuclear electroweak current driving the yet-hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay. Both processes involve vector and axial-vector currents at finite momentum transfer, q ~ 100 MeV, as well as the induced pseu doscalar and weak-magnetism currents. Comparing measured muon-capture rates with reliable ab initio nuclear-theory predictions could help us validate these currents. To this end, we compute partial muon-capture rates for 6 Li, 12 C and 16 O, feeding the ground and excited states in 6 He, 12 B and 16 N, using ab initio no-core shell model with two- and three-nucleon chiral interactions. Here, we remove the spurious center-of-mass motion by introducing translationally invariant operators and approximate the effect of hadronic two-body currents by Fermi-gas model. We solve the bound-muon wave function from the Dirac wave equations in the Coulomb field created by a finite nucleus. We find that the computed rates to the low-lying states in the final nuclei are in good agreement with the measured counterparts. We highlight sensitivity of some of the transitions to the sub-leading three-nucleon interaction terms. We also compare summed rates to several tens of final states with the measured total capture rates and note that we slightly underestimate the total rate with this simple approach due to limited range of excitation energies

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Search for heavy neutral leptons decaying into muon-pion pairs in the MicroBooNE detector

We present upper limits on the production of heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) decaying to $\mu \pi$ pairs using data collected with the MicroBooNE liquid-argon time projection chamber (TPC) operating at Fermilab. This search is the first of its kind performed in a liquid-argon TPC. We use data collected in 2017 and 2018 corresponding to an exposure of $2.0 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam, which produces mainly muon neutrinos with an average energy of $\approx 800$ MeV. HNLs with higher mass are expected to have a longer time-of-flight to the liquid-argon TPC than Standard Model neutrinos. The data are therefore recorded with a dedicated trigger configured to detect HNL decays that occur after the neutrino spill reaches the detector. We set upper limits at the $90\%$ confidence level on the element $\lvert U_{\mu4}\rvert^2$ of the extended PMNS mixing matrix in the range $\lvert U_{\mu4}\rvert^2<(6.6$-$0.9)\times 10^{-7}$ for Dirac HNLs and $\lvert U_{\mu4}\rvert^2<(4.7$-$0.7)\times 10^{-7}$ for Majorana HNLs, assuming HNL masses between $260$ and $385$ MeV and $\lvert U_{e 4}\rvert^2 = \lvert U_{\tau 4}\rvert^2 = 0$.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Borexino and general neutrino interactions

We derive constraints on all possible general neutrino-electron interactions (scalar, vector, pseudo-scalar, axial-vector and tensor) using the recent real time Borexino event rate measurements of pp, pep and Be7 solar neutrinos. Some of the limits improve from TEXONO and CHARM-II for incoming electron and muon neutrinos while the rest remains weaker for Borexino and those for the tau flavor are the first ones. Future improvements by next-generation solar neutrino experiments are also studied. The limits extend the physics reach of solar neutrino measurements to TeV-scale physics. Finally, the different properties of the new interactions for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos are discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Anomaly-induced edge currents in hydrodynamics with parity anomaly

Here in this paper, we discuss relativistic hydrodynamics for a massless Dirac fermion in (2 + 1) dimensions, which has the parity anomaly—a global ’t Hooft anomaly between U(1) and parity symmetries. We investigate how hydrodynamics implements the party anomaly, particularly focusing on the transport phenomena at the boundary. Based on the parity anomaly matching and the second law of local thermodynamics, we find U(1) and entropy currents localized at the boundary, as well as the bulk anomalous current with vanishing divergence. These edge currents are similar to the ( 1 + 1)-dimensional chiral transports, but the coefficients are given by half of theirs. We also generalize our discussion to more general anomalies among multiple U(1) symmetries and single $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Surface stress tensor and junction conditions on a rotating null horizon

The general form of the surface stress tensor of an infinitesimally thin shell located on a rotating null horizon is derived, when different interior and exterior geometries are joined there. Even though the induced metric on the surface must be the same approached from either side, the first derivatives of the metric need not be. Such discontinuities lead to a Dirac δ-distribution in the Einstein tensor localized on the horizon. For a general stationary axisymmetric geometry the surface stress tensor can be expressed in terms of two geometric invariants that characterize the surface, namely the discontinuities [κ] and [J] of the surface gravity κ and angular momentum density J. The Komar energy and angular momentum are given in coordinates adapted to the Killing symmetries, and the surface contributions to each determined in terms of [κ] and [J] . Guided by these, a simple modification of the original Israel junction conditions is verified directly from the Einstein tensor density to give the correct finite result for the surface stress, when the normal n to the surface is allowed to tend continuously to a null vector. The relation to Israel’s original junction conditions, which fail on null surfaces, is given. The modified junction conditions are suitable to the matching of a rotating “black hole” exterior to any interior geometry joined at the Kerr null horizon surface, even when the surface normal is itself discontinuous and the Barrabès-Israel formalism is also inapplicable. This joining on a rotating null horizon is purely of the matter shell type and does not contain a propagating gravitational shock wave.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Cosmological constraints on light but massive relics

Many scenarios of physics beyond the standard model predict new light, weakly coupled degrees of freedom, populated in the early universe and remaining as cosmic relics today. Due to their high abundances, these relics can significantly affect the evolution of the universe. For instance, massless relics produce a shift ΔN eff to the cosmic expectation of the effective number of active neutrinos. Massive relics, on the other hand, additionally become part of the cosmological dark matter in the later universe, though their light nature allows them to freely stream out of potential wells. This produces novel signatures in the large-scale structure (LSS) of the universe, suppressing matter fluctuations at small scales. Here, we present the first general search for such light (but massive) relics (LiMRs) with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and LSS data, scanning the 2D parameter space of their masses m X and temperatures $T^{(0)}_{X}$ today. In the conservative minimum-temperature ($T^{(0)}_{X}$ = 0.91 K) scenario, we rule out Weyl (and higher-spin) fermions -- such as the gravitino -- with m X ≥ 2.26 eV at 95% C.L., and set analogous limits of m X ≤ 11.2,1.06,1.56 eV for scalar, vector, and Dirac-fermion relics. This is the first search for LiMRs with joint CMB, weak-lensing, and full-shape galaxy data; we demonstrate that weak-lensing data is critical for breaking parameter degeneracies, while full-shape information presents a significant boost in constraining power relative to analyses with only baryon acoustic oscillation parameters. Under the combined strength of these datasets, our constraints are the tightest and most comprehensive to date.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Kinetically driven ekpyrosis

We explore the possibility of a scalar field driving ekpyrotic contraction through a noncanonical kinetic energy density rather than a negative potential. We find that this kinetically driven ekpyrosis (“k-ekpyrosis”) can be achieved in a variety of models, including scalar field theories with power-law, polynomial, or Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI-)like kinetic terms in the action. Of these examples, the ekpyrotic phase is best sustained in power-law models, which can generate large and constant equation-of-state parameters, followed by DBI-like models, which can exhibit dynamical attractors toward similarly large equations of state. Here we show that for a broad class of theories including these examples, phases of k-ekpyrosis are accompanied by preceding or concurrent phases of superluminality.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Solar neutrinos and ν 2 visible decays to ν 1

Experimental bounds on the neutrino lifetime depend on the nature of the neutrinos and the details of the potentially new physics responsible for neutrino decay. In the case where the decays involve active neutrinos in the final state, the neutrino masses also qualitatively impact how these manifest themselves experimentally. In order to further understand the impact of nonzero neutrino masses, we explore how observations of solar neutrinos constrain a very simple toy model. We assume that neutrinos are Dirac fermions and there is a new massless scalar that couples to neutrinos such that a heavy neutrino— ν 2 with mass m 2 —can decay into a lighter neutrino— ν 1 with mass m 1 —and a massless scalar. We find that the constraints on the new physics coupling depend, sometimes significantly, on the ratio of the daughter-to-parent neutrino masses and that, for large-enough values of the new physics coupling, the “dark side” of the solar neutrino parameter space— sin 2 θ 12 ∼ 0.7 —provides a reasonable fit to solar neutrino data, if only B 8 or Be 7 neutrino data alone are considered, but no allowed region is found in the combined analysis. Our results generalize to other neutrino-decay scenarios, including those that mediate ν 2 → ν 1 ν ¯ 3 ν 3 when the neutrino mass ordering is inverted mass and m 2 > m 1 ≫ m 3 , the mass of ν 3 . Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Finite naturalness and quark-lepton unification

We study the implications of finite naturalness in Pati-Salam models where SU⁢(3)C is embedded in SU(4). For the minimal realization at low scale of quark-lepton unification, which employs the inverse seesaw for neutrino masses, we find that radiative corrections to the Higgs boson mass are at least δm$^{2}_{ℎ}$/m$^{2}_{ℎ}$ ~O⁡(104). The one-loop contributions to the Higgs mass are suppressed by four powers of the hypercharge gauge coupling. We find that for the vector leptoquarks the naively leading part of the two-loop corrections cancel. We assume the Dirac Yukawa couplings for neutrinos are equal to the up-type quark Yukawa couplings as predicted in the minimal theory for quark-lepton unification. Despite these findings, the two-loop corrections still dominate the finite naturalness bound. We mention a way to relax the lower bound on the vector leptoquark mass and have δm$^{2}_{ℎ}$/m$^{2}_{ℎ}$ ~O⁡(10 2 ).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Toward UV models of kinetic mixing and portal matter. V. Indirect probes of the new physics scale

Kinetic mixing of the dark photon, the gauge boson of a hidden U ( 1 ) D , with the Standard Model (SM) gauge fields to induce an interaction between ordinary matter and dark matter (DM) at 1-loop requires the existence of portal matter (PM) fields having both dark and SM charges. As discussed in earlier work, these same PM fields can also lead to other loop-level mechanisms besides kinetic mixing that can generate significant interactions between SM fermions and the dark photon in a manner analogous to those that can be generated between a Dirac neutrino and a SM photon, i.e., dark moments. In either case, there are reasons to believe, e.g., due to the renormalization group equation running of the U ( 1 ) D gauge coupling, that PM fields may have ∼ TeV -scale masses that lie at or above those directly accessible to the HL-LHC. If they lie above the reach of the HL-LHC, then the only way to possibly explore the physics at this high scale in the short term is via indirect measurements made at lower energies, e.g., at lepton colliders operating in the m Z to 1 TeV range. In particular, processes such as e + e − → γ + DM or e + e − → f ¯ f , where f is a SM fermion, may be most useful in this regard. Here we explore these possibilities within the framework of a simple toy PM model, introduced in earlier work, based on a non-Abelian dark gauge group completion operating at the PM scale. In the kinetic mixing setup, we show these efforts fail due to the inherently tiny cross sections in the face of substantial SM backgrounds. However, in the case of interactions via induced dark moments, since they necessarily take the form of higher dimensional operators whose influence grows with energy, we show that access to PM-scale information may become possible for certain ranges of the toy model parameters for both of these e + e − processes at a 1 TeV collider. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Equivalence of EFTs and timelike extra dimensions

A flat 3-brane probing a five-dimensional anti–de Sitter space has the same symmetries and symmetry breaking pattern as one probing a five-dimensional de Sitter space with two time directions. Despite the seemingly different physical setups, we show that the effective field theory of the brane bending mode is identical in both cases. In particular, despite “wrong” signs in the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action for the two-time de Sitter case, the theories have the same S -matrix. This is consistent with the expectation that effective field theories are determined solely by their degrees of freedom and pattern of symmetry breaking, even in the case of spacetime symmetries. We comment further on the equivalence between the Weyl/dilaton and DBI representations of the EFT of broken conformal symmetry. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

General approach to neutrino mass mechanisms with sterile neutrinos

We present a mathematical framework for constructing the most general neutrino mass matrices that yield the observed spectrum of light active neutrino masses in conjunction with arbitrarily many heavy sterile neutrinos, without the need to assume a hierarchy between Dirac and Majorana mass terms. The seesaw mechanism is a byproduct of the formalism, along with many other possibilities for generating tiny neutrino masses. We comment on phenomenological applications of this approach, in particular deriving a mechanism to address the long-standing ( g − 2 ) μ anomaly in the context of the left-right symmetric model. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Threshold photoproduction of η c and η b using holographic QCD

We discuss the possibility that threshold photoproduction of η c , b may be sensitive to the pseudovector 1 + − glueball exchange. We use the holographic construction to identify the pseudovector glueball with the Kalb-Ramond field, minimally coupled to bulk Dirac fermions. We derive the holographic C-odd form factor and its respective charge radius. Using the pertinent Witten diagrams, we derive and analyze the differential photoproduction cross section for η c , b in the threshold regime, including the interference from the dual bulk photon exchange with manifest vector dominance. The possibility of measuring this process at current and future electron facilities is discussed. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Hadronic structure on the light front. VIII. Light scalar and vector mesons

We use the QCD instanton vacuum model to discuss the emergence of the light scalar and vector mesons on the light front. We take into account both the instanton and anti-instanton single and molecular interactions on the light quarks, in the form of nonlocal effective interactions. Although the molecular induced interactions are suppressed by a power of the packing fraction, they are still sufficient to bind the vector mesons, while keeping most of the scalar spectrum relatively unchanged. We explicitly derive the light front distribution amplitudes and partonic functions for the scalar and vector mesons, and compare them after pertinent QCD evolution, to the available empirical and lattice measured counterparts. The Dirac electric form factors for both the pion and ρ meson are derived, and shown to compare well with current data. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Galaxy bispectrum in the spherical Fourier-Bessel basis

The bispectrum, the three-point correlation in Fourier space, is a crucial statistic for studying many effects targeted by the next-generation galaxy surveys, such as primordial non-Gaussianity (PNG) and general relativistic (GR) effects on large scales. In this work we develop a formalism for the bispectrum in the spherical Fourier-Bessel (SFB) basis—a natural basis for computing correlation functions on the curved sky, as it diagonalizes the Laplacian operator in spherical coordinates. Working in the SFB basis allows for line-of-sight effects such as redshift space distortions and GR to be accounted for exactly, i.e., without having to resort to perturbative expansions to go beyond the plane-parallel approximation. Only analytic results for the SFB bispectrum exist in the literature given the intensive computations needed. We numerically calculate the SFB bispectrum for the first time, enabled by a few techniques: We implement a template decomposition of the redshift-space kernel Z 2 into Legendre polynomials, and separately treat the PNG and velocity-divergence terms. We derive an identity to integrate a product of three spherical harmonics connected by a Dirac delta function as a simple sum and use it to investigate the limit of a homogeneous and isotropic Universe. Furthermore, we present a formalism for convolving the signal with separable window functions and use a toy spherically symmetric window to demonstrate the computation and give insights into the properties of the observed bispectrum signal. While our implementation remains computationally challenging, it is a step toward a feasible full extraction of information on large scales via a SFB bispectrum analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Fermions, quantum gravity, and holography in two dimensions

We study a model comprising N flavors of Kähler Dirac fermion propagating on a triangulated two-dimensional disk which is constrained to have a negative average bulk curvature. Dirichlet boundary conditions are chosen for the fermions. Quantum fluctuations of the geometry are included by summing over all possible triangulations consistent with these constraints. We show in the limit N → ∞ that the partition function is dominated by a regular triangulation of two-dimensional hyperbolic space. We use strong coupling expansions and Monte Carlo simulation to show that in this limit boundary correlators of the fermions have a power law dependence on boundary separation as one expects from holography. However, we argue that this behavior breaks down for any finite number of massive fields in the thermodynamic limit and quantum fluctuations of the bulk geometry drive the theory into a nonholographic phase. In contrast, for massless fermions, we find evidence that the boundary is conformal even for finite N . This is consistent with theoretical results in quantum Liouville theory. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Renormalization of asymmetric staple-shaped Wilson-line operators in lattice and continuum perturbation theory

In this work, we study the renormalization of nonlocal quark bilinear operators containing an asymmetric staple-shaped Wilson line at the one-loop level in both lattice and continuum perturbation theory. These operators enter the first-principle calculation of transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution functions (TMDPDFs) in lattice QCD using the formulation of large momentum effective theory. We provide appropriate RI ′ -type conditions that address the power and logarithmic divergences, as well as the mixing among staple operators of different Dirac structures, using a number of different possible projectors. A variant of RI ′ , including calculations of rectangular Wilson loops, which cancel the pinch-pole singularities of the staple operators at infinite length and reduce residual power divergences, is also employed. We calculate at one-loop order the conversion matrix, which relates the quasi-TMDPDFs in the RI ′ -type schemes to the reference scheme MS ¯ for arbitrary values of the renormalization momentum scale and of the dimensions of the staple. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

B → K ν ν ¯ , MiniBooNE and muon g − 2 anomalies from a dark sector

Belle II has reported the first evidence for B + → K + ν ν ¯ with a branching ratio 2.7 σ higher than the standard model expectation. We explain this and the MiniBooNE and muon anomalous magnetic moment anomalies in a model with a dark scalar that couples to a slightly heavier sterile Dirac neutrino and that communicates with the visible sector via a Higgs portal. We make predictions for rare kaon and other B meson decays. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗