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At least 1,063 records · Page 59
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DOE OSTI2024

Dark fluxes from electromagnetic cascades

We study dark sector production in electromagnetic (EM) cascades. This problem requires accurate simulations of Standard Model (SM) and dark sector processes, both of which impact angular and energy distributions of emitted particles that ultimately determine flux predictions in a downstream detector. We describe the minimal set of QED processes which must be included to faithfully reproduce a SM cascade, and identify a universal algorithm to generate a dark sector flux given a Monte-Carlo simulation of a SM shower. We provide a new tool, "Image missing", which simulates EM cascades with associated dark vector production, and compare it against existing literature and “off the shelf” tools. The signal predictions at downstream detectors can strongly depend on the nontrivial interplay (and modelling) of SM and dark sector processes, in particular multiple Coulomb scattering and positron annihilation. We comment on potential impacts of these effects for realistic experimental setups.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Light Scalars at FASER

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is a currently operating experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that can detect light long-lived particles produced in the forward region of the LHC interacting point. In this paper, we study the prospect of detecting light CP-even and CP-odd scalars at FASER and FASER 2. Considering a model-independent framework describing the most general interactions between a CP-even or CP-odd scalar and SM particles using the notation of coupling modifiers in the effective Lagrangian, we develop the general formalism for the scalar production and decay. We then analyze the FASER and FASER 2 reaches of light scalars in the large tan β region of the Type-I two Higgs double model as a case study, in which light scalars with relatively long lifetime could be accommodated. In the two benchmark scenarios we considered, the light (pseudo)scalar decay length varies in (10 –8 , 10 5 ) meters. Both FASER and FASER 2 can probe a large part of the parameter space in the large tan β region up to 10 7 , extending beyond the constraints of the other existing experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

PAIReD jet: A multi-pronged resonance tagging strategy across all Lorentz boosts

We propose a new approach of jet-based event reconstruction that aims to optimally exploit correlations between the products of a hadronic multi-pronged decay across all Lorentz boost regimes. The new approach utilizes clustered small-radius jets as seeds to define unconventional jets, referred to as PAIReD jets. The constituents of these jets are subsequently used as inputs to machine learning-based algorithms to identify the flavor content of the jet. We demonstrate that this approach achieves higher efficiencies in the reconstruction of signal events containing heavy-flavor jets compared to other event reconstruction strategies at all Lorentz boost regimes. Classifiers trained on PAIReD jets also have significantly better background rejections compared to those based on traditional event reconstruction approaches using small-radius jets at low Lorentz boost regimes. The combined effect of a higher signal reconstruction efficiency and better classification performance results in a two to four times stronger rejection of light-flavor jets compared to conventional strategies at low Lorentz-boosts, and rejection rates similar to classifiers based on large-radius multi-pronged jets at high Lorentz-boost regimes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Neutrinoless double beta decay rates in the presence of light sterile neutrinos

We investigate neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) in minimal extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics where gauge-singlet right-handed neutrinos give rise to Dirac and Majorana neutrino mass terms. We argue that the standard treatment of these scenarios, based on mass-dependent nuclear matrix elements, is missing important contributions to the 0νββ amplitude. First, new effects arise from the exchange of neutrinos with very small (ultrasoft) momenta, for which we compute the associated nuclear matrix elements for the decays of 76 Ge and 136 Xe. These contributions can dominate the 0νββ rate in cases with light sterile neutrinos. The ultrasoft terms are also relevant in the more standard scenario of just three light Majorana neutrinos where they lead to a 10% reduction of the total 0νββ amplitude. Secondly, we highlight the importance of short-range terms associated with medium-heavy sterile neutrinos and provide explicit formulae that can be used in phenomenological analyses. As examples we discuss impact of these new effects in several explicit scenarios, including a realistic 3 + 2 model with two right-handed gauge-singlet neutrinos.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dark matter raining on DUNE and other large volume detectors

Direct detection is a powerful means of searching for particle physics evidence of dark matter (DM) heavier than about a GeV with o(kiloton) volume, low-threshold detectors. In many scenarios, some fraction of the DM may be boosted to large velocities enhancing and generally modifying possible detection signatures. We investigate the scenario where 100% of the DM is boosted at the Earth due to new attractive long-range forces. This leads to two main improvements in detection capabilities: (1) the large boost allows for detectable signatures of DM well below a GeV at large-volume neutrino detectors, such as DUNE, Super-K, Hyper-K, and JUNO, as possible DM detectors, and (2) the flux at the Earth’s surface is enhanced by a focusing effect. In addition, the model leads to a significant anisotropy in the signal with the DM flowing dominantly vertically at the Earth’s surface instead of the typical approximately isotropic DM signal. We develop the theory behind this model and also calculate realistic constraints using a detailed GENIE simulation of the signal inside detectors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Forecasting dark showers at Belle II

Dark showers from strongly interacting dark sectors that confine at the GeV scale can give rise to novel signatures at e + e - colliders. In this work, we study the sensitivity of B factory experiments to dark showers produced through an effective interaction arising from a heavy off-shell mediator. We show that a prospective search for displaced vertices from GeV-scale long-lived particles at Belle II can improve the sensitivity to dark showers substantially compared to an existing search at BaBar. We compare the sensitivity of searches for displaced signals to searches for promptly produced resonances at BaBar and KLOE and calculate sensitivity projections for a single-photon search at Belle II to invisible dark showers produced through an effective interaction. The underlying structure of the effective interaction can be resolved at higher-energy experiments, where the mediator can be produced on-shell. To study the resulting constraints, we update electroweak precision bounds on kinetically mixed Z' bosons and reinterpret a search for low-mass di-muon resonances at LHCb in terms of dark showers. We find that LHCb and Belle II are most sensitive to different particle decay lengths, underscoring the complementarity of LHC and intensity frontier experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Gravity as a portal to reheating, leptogenesis and dark matter

We show that a minimal scenario, utilizing only the graviton as an intermediate messenger between the inflaton, the dark sector and the Standard Model (SM), is able to generate simultaneously the observed relic density of dark matter (DM), the baryon asymmetry through leptogenesis, as well as a sufficiently hot thermal bath after inflation. We assume an inflaton potential of the form V(Φ) ∝ Φ k about the minimum at the end of inflation. The possibility of reheating via minimal gravitational interactions has been excluded by constraints on dark radiation for excessive gravitational waves produced from inflation. We thus extend the minimal model in several ways: i) we consider non-minimal gravitational couplings — this points to the parameter range of DM masses M N 1 ≃ 2–10 PeV, and right-handed neutrino masses M N 2 ≃ (5–20) × 10 11 GeV, and T RH ≲ 3 × 10 5 GeV (for k ≤ 20); ii) we propose an explanation for the PeV excess observed by IceCube when the DM has a direct but small Yukawa coupling to the SM; and iii) we also propose a novel scenario, where the gravitational production of DM is a two-step process, first through the production of two scalars, which then decay to fermionic DM final states. In this case, the absence of a helicity suppression enhances the production of DM and baryon asymmetry, and allows a great range for the parameters including a dark matter mass below an MeV where dark matter warmness can be observable by cosmic 21-cm lines, even when gravitational interactions are responsible for reheating. We also show that detectable primordial gravitational wave signals provide the opportunity to probe this scenario for T RH ≲ 5 × 10 6 GeV in future experiments, such as BBO, DECIGO, CE and ET.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hadronic uncertainties versus new physics for the W boson mass and Muon g – 2 anomalies

There are now two single measurements of precision observables that have major anomalies in the Standard Model: the recent CDF measurement of the W mass shows a 7σ deviation and the Muon g – 2 experiment at FNAL confirmed a long-standing anomaly, implying a 4.2σ deviation. Doubts regarding new physics interpretations of these anomalies could stem from uncertainties in the common hadronic contributions. We demonstrate that these two anomalies pull the hadronic contributions in opposite directions by performing electroweak fits in which the hadronic contribution was allowed to float. The fits show that including the g – 2 measurement worsens the tension with the CDF measurement and conversely that adjustments that alleviate the CDF tension worsen the g – 2 tension beyond 5σ. This means that if we adopt the CDF W mass measurement, the case for new physics in either the W mass or muon g – 2 is inescapable regardless of the size of the SM hadronic contributions. Lastly, we demonstrate that a mixed scalar leptoquark extension of the Standard Model could explain both anomalies simultaneously.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Evolution of the age-included nearest pair distribution in disperse multiphase flows

The age of the nearest particle pair is introduced as the difference between the current time and the most recent time when the nearest particle pair was formed. The evolution equation for the age-included nearest pair distribution function is derived. With the assumption of random destruction of the nearest particle pairs, the evolution equation predicts the exponential probability distribution of the ages of the nearest particle pairs. Particle-resolved numerical simulations with moving particles are performed to verify this prediction. The equation is then used to derive the evolution equation for the particle–fluid–particle (PFP) stress, which is known to be related to hyperbolicity of the two-fluid equations. It is found that the relaxation time of the age probability distribution is also the relaxation time for the PFP stress. Guided by the closure terms in the PFP stress evolution equation, we study kinematics of the nearest particle pairs in the particle-resolved simulations for flows caused by sedimentation of the particles with initially isotropic and homogeneous particle distributions. At the steady states, the particle Reynolds numbers are around 20. Anisotropy and inhomogeneity of particle distributions are seen to develop in these flows. The mean distances to the nearest particles and evolution of the distribution of the Voronoi cell volumes are studied. We also found the PFP stress is closely related to the changes in these inter-particle scale quantities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Building a ship in a bottle for neutrino science

In a former gold mine in South Dakota, an international particle-physics experiment will delve into the unexplained matter–antimatter imbalance that gave rise to the universe--discussed here.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Measurement of the bulk radioactive contamination of detector-grade silicon with DAMIC at SNOLAB

We present measurements of bulk radiocontaminants in the high-resistivity silicon CCDs from the DAMIC experiment at SNOLAB. We utilize the exquisite spatial resolution of CCDs to discriminate between α and β decays, and to search with high efficiency for the spatially-correlated decays of various radioisotope sequences. Using spatially-correlated β decays, we measure a bulk radioactive contamination of 32 Si in the CCDs of 140 ± 30 μBq/kg, and place an upper limit on bulk 210 Pb of < 160 μBq/kg. Using similar analyses of spatially-correlated α and β decays, we set upper limits of < 11 μBq/kg (0.9 ppt) on 238 U and < 7.3 μBq/kg (1.8 ppt) on 232 Th in the bulk silicon. The ability of DAMIC CCDs to identify and reject spatially-coincident backgrounds, particularly from 32 Si, has significant implications for the next generation of silicon-based dark matter experiments, where β's from 32 Si decay will likely be a dominant background.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Neutron tagging following atmospheric neutrino events in a water Cherenkov detector

We present the development of neutron-tagging techniques in Super-Kamiokande IV using a neural network analysis. The detection efficiency of neutron capture on hydrogen is estimated to be 26%, with a mis-tag rate of 0.016 per neutrino event. The uncertainty of the tagging efficiency is estimated to be 9.0%. Measurement of the tagging efficiency with data from an Americium-Beryllium calibration agrees with this value within 10%. The tagging procedure was performed on 3,244.4 days of SK-IV atmospheric neutrino data, identifying 18,091 neutrons in 26,473 neutrino events. The fitted neutron capture lifetime was measured as 218±9 μs.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Superconducting radio frequency linear collider HELEN

This article discusses a proposed Higgs-Energy LEptoN (HELEN) $e^+e^-$ linear collider based on advanced traveling wave superconducting radio frequency technology. Here, the proposed collider offers cost and AC power savings, smaller footprint (relative to the ILC), and could be built at Fermilab. After the initial physics run at 250 GeV, the collider could be upgraded either to higher luminosity or to higher, up to 500 GeV, energies.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider: a description of the detector configuration for Run 3

The ATLAS detector is installed in its experimental cavern at Point 1 of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. During Run 2 of the LHC, a luminosity of ℒ = 2 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 was routinely achieved at the start of fills, twice the design luminosity. For Run 3, accelerator improvements, notably luminosity levelling, allow sustained running at an instantaneous luminosity of ℒ = 2 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 , with an average of up to 60 interactions per bunch crossing. The ATLAS detector has been upgraded to recover Run 1 single-lepton trigger thresholds while operating comfortably under Run 3 sustained pileup conditions. A fourth pixel layer 3.3 cm from the beam axis was added before Run 2 to improve vertex reconstruction and b-tagging performance. New Liquid Argon Calorimeter digital trigger electronics, with corresponding upgrades to the Trigger and Data Acquisition system, take advantage of a factor of 10 finer granularity to improve triggering on electrons, photons, taus, and hadronic signatures through increased pileup rejection. The inner muon endcap wheels were replaced by New Small Wheels with Micromegas and small-strip Thin Gap Chamber detectors, providing both precision tracking and Level-1 Muon trigger functionality. Trigger coverage of the inner barrel muon layer near one endcap region was augmented with modules integrating new thin-gap resistive plate chambers and smaller-diameter drift-tube chambers. Tile Calorimeter scintillation counters were added to improve electron energy resolution and background rejection. Upgrades to Minimum Bias Trigger Scintillators and Forward Detectors improve luminosity monitoring and enable total proton-proton cross section, diffractive physics, and heavy ion measurements. These upgrades are all compatible with operation in the much harsher environment anticipated after the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC and are the first steps towards preparing ATLAS for the High-Luminosity upgrade of the LHC. This paper describes the Run 3 configuration of the ATLAS detector.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A detailed analysis of the dynamics of fast neutrino flavor conversions with scattering effects

We calculate the dynamics of fast neutrino flavor conversions with Boltzmann collisions of neutrino scatterings in a homogeneous system. We find the enhancement or suppression of the flavor conversions in various setups of the collision terms. We analyze the mechanism of fast flavor conversions based on the motion of polarization vectors in the cylindrical coordinate analogous to a pendulum motion. The phases of the all the polarization vectors synchronize in the linear evolution phase, and the phase deviation from the Hamiltonian governs the neutrino flavor conversions. In a non-linear regime of flavor conversions, the collision terms induce a spiral motion of the polarization vector and gradually make the phase space smaller. The collision terms align all of the polarization vectors, and the flavor conversions eventually settle into equilibrium when the distributions of neutrinos become isotropic. Though our current analysis does not fully clarify the non-linear phenomena of fast flavor conversions, the framework of the pendulum motion gives a new insight into this complicated phenomenon that will be helpful in further studies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Systematic Local Simulations of Fast Neutrino Flavor Conversions with Scattering Effects

We investigate the dynamics of fast neutrino flavor conversions (FFCs) in the one-dimensional (1D) and zero-dimensional (0D) models, in which spatial advection is considered and ignored, respectively. In this study, we employ snapshots obtained by our self-consistent, realistic Boltzmann-neutrino-radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. We show that the FFC growth rate is considerably larger in the 1D model than in the 0D model, as expected from the previous linear analysis results. We find that the momentum space dimension does not significantly influence the neutrino transition probability in 1D models. On the other hand, in the 0D model without collisions, the FFC depends on the momentum space, and the azimuthal angle dependence breaks the periodicity of the FFC. Our study demonstrates that collisional instability can lead to further flavor conversions on a long timescale in 1D models after the asymptotic state of FFC has been reached. Such an effect should be taken into consideration when the fast and collisional flavor instabilities coexist.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Observation of 𝑊⁢𝑍⁢𝛾 production and constraints on new physics scenarios in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ =13 TeV

A measurement of the 𝑊⁢𝑍⁢𝛾 triboson production cross section is presented. The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ =13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb −1 . The analysis focuses on the final state with three charged leptons, ℓ ± ⁢𝜈⁢ℓ + ⁢ℓ − , where ℓ = 𝑒 or 𝜇, accompanied by an additional photon. The observed (expected) significance of the 𝑊⁢𝑍⁢𝛾 signal is 5.4 (3.8) standard deviations. The cross section is measured in a fiducial region, where events with an ℓ originating from a tau lepton decay are excluded, to be 5.48 ± 1.11 fb, which is compatible with the prediction of 3.69 ± 0.24 fb at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics. Exclusion limits are set on anomalous quartic gauge couplings and on the production cross sections of massive axionlike particles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗