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At least 1,531 records · Page 85
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Test of lepton flavour universality in W-boson decays into electrons and τ-leptons using pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the ratio of the branching fractions, Rτ/e = B(W → τν)/B(W → eν), is performed using a sample of W bosons originating from top-quark decays to final states containing τ-leptons or electrons. This measurement uses pp collisions at s$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during Run 2, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The W → τντ (with τ → eνeντ) and W → eνe decays are distinguished using the differences in the impact parameter distributions and transverse momentum spectra of the electrons. The measured ratio of branching fractions Rτ/e = 0.975 ± 0.012 (stat.) ± 0.020 (syst.), is consistent with the Standard Model assumption of lepton flavour universality in W-boson decays.

Aad, G↗
DOE OSTI2025

Constraining non-standard neutrino interactions with neutral current events at long-baseline oscillation experiments

We explore, for the first time, neutral-curren t events at long-baseline experiments to constrain vector and axial-vector neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) with quarks. We leverage the flavor dependence of NSIs to perform an oscillation analysis in the neutral- current channel. We first introduce a framework to parametrize the effect of NSI on the cross section. Then, as an example, we analyze NOvA neutral-current data which provides significantly improved constraints on the axial-vector NSI parameters ${\varepsilon}_{\mu \mu}^A$, ${\varepsilon}_{\tau \tau}^A$ and ${\varepsilon}_{e\mu}^A$. This is highly complementary to constraints from SNO data, which, differently from long-baseline neutral current data, is not sensitive to isospin conserving NSIs ${\varepsilon}_u^A$ = ${\varepsilon}_d^A$. Additionally, we disfavor large values of the diagonal vectorial NSI ${\varepsilon}_{\mu \mu}^{VV}$ and ${\varepsilon}_{\tau \tau}^V$ which originate from the LMA-Dark solution. We also highlight the complementarity between NSI searches at oscillation experiments using charged current and neutral current channels.

neutrino interactions↗
DOE OSTI2025

An effective field theory for muon conversion and muon decay-in-orbit

Muon conversion is one of the best probes of charged lepton flavor violation. The experimental limit is soon expected to improve by four orders of magnitude, thus calling for precise predictions of the shape of the signal spectrum. Equally important are precise predictions for muon decay-in-orbit, the main background for muon conversion. While the calculation of electromagnetic corrections to the two processes above the nuclear scale does not involve significant challenges, it becomes substantially more complex below that scale due to multiple scales, bound-state effects and experimental setup. Here, we present a systematic framework that addresses these challenges by resorting to a series of effective field theories. Combining Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET), Non-Relativistic QED (NRQED), potential NRQED, Soft-Collinear Effective Theory I and II, and boosted HQET, we derive a factorization theorem and present the renormalization group equations. Our framework allows for the proper calculation of precise predictions for the rates of the two processes, with crucial implications for the upcoming muon conversion searches. We also provide the most accurate prediction of the signal shape for those searches.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Projection-to-Born-improved subtractions at NNLO

While the current frontier in fixed-order precision for collider observables is N 3 LO, important steps are necessary to consolidate NNLO cross-section predictions with improved stability and efficiency. Slicing methods have been successfully applied to obtain NNLO and N 3 LO predictions, but have shown poor performance in the presence of fiducial cuts due to large kinematical power corrections. In this paper we implement Projection-to-Born-improved q T (P2B q T ) and jettiness (P2Bτ 0 ) subtractions for a large class of color singlet processes in MCFM. This method allows for the efficient evaluation of fiducial power corrections in any non-local subtraction scheme using a Projection-to-Born subtraction. We demonstrate the significant numerical improvements of this method based on fiducial Drell-Yan and Higgs cross-sections. Moreover, with fiducial power corrections removed via this method, the leading-logarithmic power corrections that have only been calculated without fiducial cuts can be included, further improving the calculations. For di-photon production with photon isolation, we devise a novel method in combination with P2B-improved subtractions, which we name P2B γ τ 0 , and P2B γ q T for the two subtraction schemes, respectively. This method allows the inclusion of both fiducial power corrections due to kinematic cuts on the photons and a set of isolation power corrections in the fragmentation channel where a quark may enter the isolation cone. We find significant improvements in the convergence of NNLO di-photon cross-sections with photon isolation cuts, demonstrating that it is possible to achieve a stable and efficient calculation of di-photon cross-sections using slicing methods.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

A unified neural-network framework for nucleon imaging from numerical simulations of QCD

Parton distributions encode the momentum-space structure and, in their generalizations, the spatial tomography of quarks and gluons inside hadrons, the building blocks of visible matter. We present a unified neural-network approach that learns these distributions directly from matrix elements calculated via numerical simulations of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) on the lattice by fitting two complementary inputs simultaneously: data matched to physical quantities via known momentum-space and coordinate-space formalisms. Utilizing data from both methods stabilizes the extraction and mitigates biases that can arise when either is used alone. We validate the method on controlled mock data and apply it to lattice-QCD matrix elements to extract parton distribution functions (PDFs). We show benefits of such an approach for determining the physical quantities. We further extend the framework to zero-skewness generalized parton distributions and demonstrate nucleon tomography within the same neural-network parameterization. Our results provide an adaptable and systematically improvable approach for extracting partonic distributions from Euclidean correlators. It can incorporate polarization, additional channels, and future experimental constraints from current and future facilities, such as the Electron-Ion Collider.

Hadronic Spectroscopy↗
DOE OSTI2020

Two-loop radiative jet function for exclusive B-meson and Higgs decays

The rare radiative B -meson decay \( {B}^{-}\to \gamma {\mathrm{\ell}}^{-}\overline{v} \) and the radiative Higgs-boson decay h → γγ mediated by light-quark loops both receive large logarithmic corrections in QCD, which can be resummed using factorization theorems derived in soft-collinear effective theory. In these factorization theorems the same radiative jet function appears, which is a central object in the study of factorization beyond the leading order in scale ratios. We calculate this function at two-loop order both in momentum space and in a dual space, where its renormalization-group evolution takes on a simpler form. We also derive the two-loop anomalous dimension of the jet function and present the exact solution to its evolution equation at two-loop order. Another important outcome of our analysis is the explicit form of the two-loop anomalous dimension of the B -meson light-cone distribution amplitude in momentum space.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Collinear drop

We introduce collinear drop jet substructure observables, which are unaffected by contributions from collinear radiation, and systematically probe soft radiation within jets. These observables can be designed to be either sensitive or insensitive to process-dependent soft radiation originating from outside the jet. Such collinear drop observables can be exploited as variables to distinguish quark, gluon, and color neutral initiated jets, for testing predictions for perturbative soft radiation in Monte Carlo simulations, for assessing models and universality for hadronization corrections, for examining the efficiency of pileup subtraction methods, and for any other application that leaves an imprint on soft radiation. We discuss examples of collinear drop observables that are based both on clustering and on jet shapes. Using the soft-collinear effective theory we derive factorization expressions for collinear drop observables from QCD jets, and carry out a resummation of logarithmically enhanced contributions at next-to-leading-logarithmic order. We also identify an infinite class of collinear drop observables for which the leading double logarithms are absent.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sterile neutrinos and neutrinoless double beta decay in effective field theory

We investigate neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) in the presence of sterile neutrinos with Majorana mass terms. These gauge-singlet fields are allowed to interact with Standard-Model (SM) fields via renormalizable Yukawa couplings as well as higher-dimensional gauge-invariant operators up to dimension seven in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory extended with sterile neutrinos. At the GeV scale, we use Chiral effective field theory involving sterile neutrinos to connect the operators at the level of quarks and gluons to hadronic interactions involving pions and nucleons. This allows us to derive an expression for 0νββ rates for various isotopes in terms of phase-space factors, hadronic low-energy constants, nuclear matrix elements, the neutrino masses, and the Wilson coefficients of higher-dimensional operators. The required hadronic low-energy constants and nuclear matrix elements depend on the neutrino masses, for which we obtain interpolation formulae grounded in QCD and chiral perturbation theory that improve existing formulae that are only valid in a small regime of neutrino masses. The resulting framework can be used directly to assess the impact of 0νββ experiments on scenarios with light sterile neutrinos and should prove useful in global analyses of sterile-neutrino searches. We per- form several phenomenological studies of 0νββ in the presence of sterile neutrinos with and without higher-dimensional operators. We find that non-standard interactions involving sterile neutrinos have a dramatic impact on 0νββ phenomenology, and next-generation experiments can probe such interactions up to scales of $\mathcal O$ (100) TeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A lattice study of ππ scattering at large N c

We present the first lattice study of pion-pion scattering with varying number of colors, N c . We use lattice simulations with four degenerate quark flavors, N f = 4, and N c = 3 – 6. We focus on two scattering channels that do not involve vacuum diagrams. These correspond to two irreducible representations of the SU(4) flavor group: the fully symmetric one, SS, and the fully antisymmetric one, AA. The former is a repulsive channel equivalent to the isospin-2 channel of SU(2). By contrast, the latter is attractive and only exists for N f ≥ 4. A representative state is (|D$^{+}_{s}$π + > – | D + K + >)/√2. Using Lüscher’s formalism, we extract the near-threshold scattering amplitude and we match our results to Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) at large N c . For this, we compute the analytical U(N f ) ChPT prediction for two-pion scattering, and use the lattice results to constrain the N c scaling of the relevant low-energy couplings.

1/N Expansion↗
DOE OSTI2022

Search for resonant production of strongly coupled dark matter in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

The first collider search for dark matter arising from a strongly coupled hidden sector is presented and uses a data sample corresponding to 138 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV. The hidden sector is hypothesized to couple to the standard model (SM) via a heavy leptophobic Z' mediator produced as a resonance in proton-proton collisions. The mediator decay results in two “semivisible” jets, containing both visible matter and invisible dark matter. The final state therefore includes moderate missing energy aligned with one of the jets, a signature ignored by most dark matter searches. No structure in the dijet transverse mass spectra compatible with the signal is observed. Assuming the Z' boson has a universal coupling of 0.25 to the SM quarks, an inclusive search, relevant to any model that exhibits this kinematic behavior, excludes mediator masses of 1.5–4.0 TeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the other signal model parameters. To enhance the sensitivity of the search for this particular class of hidden sector models, a boosted decision tree (BDT) is trained using jet substructure variables to distinguish between semivisible jets and SM jets from background processes. When the BDT is employed to identify each jet in the dijet system as semivisible, the mediator mass exclusion increases to 5.1 TeV, for wider ranges of the other signal model parameters. These limits exclude a wide range of strongly coupled hidden sector models for the first time.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the four leptons plus twob jets final state in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

The first search for nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs (HH) with one H decaying into four leptons and the other into a pair of b quarks is presented, using proton-proton collisions recorded at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment. The analyzed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb–1. A 95% confidence level upper limit of 32.4 is set on the signal strength modifier μ, defined as the ratio of the observed HH production rate in the HH → ZZ*b$\overline{b}$ → 4lb$\overline{b}$ decay channel to the standard model (SM) expectation. Possible modifications of the H trilinear coupling λHHH with respect to the SM value are investigated. The coupling modifier κ λ , defined as λHHH divided by its SM prediction, is constrained to be within the observed (expected) range –8.8 (–9.8) < κ λ < 13.4 (15.0) at 95% confidence level.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of the $t\overline{t}$ production cross-section in pp collisions at √s = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive top-quark pair tt production cross-section σ tt is measured in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV, using 257 pb -1 of data collected in 2017 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The $t\overline{t}$ cross-section is measured in both the dilepton and single-lepton final states of the $t\overline{t}$ system and then combined.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Opportunistic CP violation

In the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, CP violation arises through a very particular interplay between the three quark generations, as described by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mechanism and the single Jarlskog invariant J 4 . Once generalized to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), this peculiar pattern gets modified by higher-dimensional operators, whose associated Wilson coefficients are usually split into CP-even and odd parts. However, CP violation at dimension four, i.e., at the lowest order in the EFT expansion, blurs this distinction: any Wilson coefficient can interfere with J 4 and mediate CP violation. In this paper, we study such interferences at first order in the SMEFT expansion, $\mathcal{O}(1/Λ^2)$, and we capture their associated parameter space via a set of 1551 linear CP-odd flavor invariants. This construction describes both new, genuinely CP-violating quantities as well as the interference between J 4 and CP-conserving ones. We call this latter possibility opportunistic CP violation. Relying on an appropriate extension of the matrix rank to Taylor expansions, which we dub Taylor rank, we define a procedure to organize the invariants in terms of their magnitude, so as to retain only the relevant ones at a given precision. We explore how this characterization changes when different assumptions are made on the flavor structure of the SMEFT coefficients. Interestingly, some of the CP-odd invariants turn out to be less suppressed than J 4 , even when they capture opportunistic CPV, demonstrating that CP-violation in the SM, at dimension 4, is accidentally small.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Leptogenesis in parity solutions to the strong CP problem and Standard Model parameters

We study the simplest theories with exact spacetime parity that solve the strong CP problem and successfully generate the cosmological baryon asymmetry via decays of right-handed neutrinos. Lower bounds are derived for the masses of the right-handed neutrinos and for the scale of spontaneous parity breaking, v R . For generic thermal leptogenesis, v R ≳ 10 12 GeV, unless the small observed neutrino masses arise from fine-tuning. We compute v R in terms of the top quark mass, the QCD coupling, and the Higgs boson mass and find this bound is consistent with current data at 1σ. Future precision measurements of these parameters may provide support for the theory or, if v R is determined to be below 10 12 GeV, force modifications. However, modified cosmologies do not easily allow reductions in v R — no reduction is possible if leptogenesis occurs in the collisions of domain walls formed at parity breaking, and at most a factor 10 reduction is possible with non-thermal leptogenesis. Standard Model parameters that yield low values for v R can only be accommodated by having a high degree of degeneracy among the right-handed neutrinos involved in leptogenesis. If future precision measurements determine v R to be above 10 12 GeV, it is likely that higher-dimensional operators of the theory will yield a neutron electric dipole moment accessible to ongoing experiments. This is especially true in a simple UV completion of the neutrino sector, involving gauge singlet fermions, where the bound from successful leptogenesis is strengthened to v R ≳ 10 13 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hadronic mono- W ' probes of dark matter at colliders

Particle collisions at the energy frontier can probe the nature of invisible dark matter via production in association with recoiling visible objects. We propose a new potential production mode, in which dark matter is produced by the decay of a heavy dark Higgs boson radiated from a heavy W' boson. In such a model, motivated by left-right symmetric theories, dark matter would not be pair produced in association with other recoiling objects due to its lack of direct coupling to quarks or gluons. We study the hadronic decay mode via W' → tb and estimate the LHC exclusion sensitivity at 95% confidence level to be 10 2 - 10 5 fb for W' boson masses between 250 and 1750 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dark showers from sneaky dark matter

We present a minimal composite dark matter model, based on a SU(Nd) dark sector with nf dark quarks and a heavy t-channel mediator. For nf ≥ 4, the dark flavor symmetry guarantees the stability of a subset of the dark pions, which serve as our dark matter candidates. Their relic abundance is determined by dark sector annihilation with the remaining dark pions, which are unstable and decay. Due to their degenerate masses, the annihilation cross section is suppressed at low temperatures, thereby avoiding stringent constraints from indirect detection and opening up the GeV mass window. The decaying dark pions are naturally long lived. We obtain limits on the model from semi-visible or emerging jet searches and estimate the reach of future probes.

ALPs↗
DOE OSTI2020

The production of isolated photons in PbPb and pp collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} =$ 5.02 TeV

The transverse energy ($ {E}_{\mathrm{T}}^{\upgamma} $) spectra of photons isolated from other particles are measured using proton-proton (pp) and lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at the LHC at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $ = 5.02 TeV with integrated luminosities of 27.4 pb$^{−1}$ and 404 μb$^{−1}$ for pp and PbPb data, respectively. The results are presented for photons with 25 <$ {E}_{\mathrm{T}}^{\upgamma} $< 200 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |η| < 1.44, and for different centrality intervals for PbPb collisions. Photon production in PbPb collisions is consistent with that in pp collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, demonstrating that photons do not interact with the quark-gluon plasma. Therefore, isolated photons can provide information about the initial energy of the associated parton in photon+jet measurements. The results are compared with predictions from the next-to-leading-order jetphox generator for different parton distribution functions (PDFs) and nuclear PDFs (nPDFs). The comparisons can help to constrain the nPDFs global fits.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Higgs coupling measurements and the scale of new physics

A primary goal of present and future colliders is measuring the Higgs couplings to Standard Model (SM) particles. Any observed deviation from the SM predictions for these couplings is a sign of new physics whose energy scale can be bounded from above by requiring tree-level unitarity. In this paper, we extend previous work on unitarity bounds from the Higgs cubic coupling to Higgs couplings to vector bosons and top quarks. We find that HL-LHC measurements of these couplings compatible with current experimental bounds may point to a scale that can be explored at the HL-LHC or a next-generation collider. Our approach is completely model-independent: we assume only that there are no light degrees of freedom below the scale of new physics, and allow arbitrary values for the infinitely many couplings beyond the SM as long as they are in agreement with current measurements. We also extend and clarify the methodology of this analysis, and show that if the scale of new physics is above the TeV scale, then the deviations can be described by the leading higher-dimension gauge invariant operator, as in the SM effective field theory.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗