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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Future Circular Collider Feasibility Study Report

Volume 1 of the FCC Feasibility Report presents an overview of the physics case, experimental programme, and detector concepts for the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This volume outlines how FCC would address some of the most profound open questions in particle physics, from precision studies of the Higgs and EW bosons and of the top quark, to the exploration of physics beyond the Standard Model. The report reviews the experimental opportunities offered by the staged implementation of FCC, beginning with an electron-positron collider (FCC-ee), operating at several centre-of-mass energies, followed by a hadron collider (FCC-hh). Benchmark examples are given of the expected physics performance, in terms of precision and sensitivity to new phenomena, of each collider stage. Detector requirements and conceptual designs for FCC-ee experiments are discussed, as are the specific demands that the physics programme imposes on the accelerator in the domains of the calibration of the collision energy, and the interface region between the accelerator and the detector. The report also highlights advances in detector, software and computing technologies, as well as the theoretical tools/reconstruction techniques that will enable the precision measurements and discovery potential of the FCC experimental programme. The content and structure of this report are guided by the scope and priorities defined in the mandate of the FCC Feasibility Study. It is therefore not intended to serve as an exhaustive review of the full physics potential of FCC. Several topics, already covered in earlier reports such as the FCC CDR, are not reiterated here or are addressed only briefly, in alignment with the study’s focus. This volume reflects the outcome of a global collaborative effort involving hundreds of scientists and institutions, aided by a dedicated community-building coordination, and provides a targeted assessment of the scientific opportunities and experimental foundations of the FCC programme.

Benedikt, M. [European Organization for Nuclear Re↗
DOE OSTI2025

Individual neutrino masses from a supernova

A nearby supernova will carry an unprecedented wealth of information about astrophysics, nuclear physics, and particle physics. Because supernova are fundamentally neutrino driven phenomenon, our knowledge about neutrinos—particles that remain quite elusive—will increase dramatically with such a detection. One of the biggest open questions in particle physics is related to the masses of neutrinos. Here, we show how a galactic supernova provides information about the masses of each of the three mass eigenstates , at some precision, and is well probed at JUNO. This information comes from several effects including time delay and the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect within the supernova. The time delay feature is strongest during a sharp change in the flux such as the neutronization burst; additional information may also come from a QCD phase transition in the supernova or if the supernova forms a black hole. We consider both standard cases as dictated by local oscillation experiments as well as new physics motivated scenarios where neutrino masses may differ across the galaxy. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neutrino properties from muonium-antimuonium mixing

The nature of neutrino mass — whether neutrinos are Dirac or Majorana particles — remains one of the central open questions in particle physics. While observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would confirm the Majorana case, the absence of a signal offers no definitive insight. In light of this, we investigate muonium-antimuonium mixing — proposed for further study at the MACE experiment — as an alternative probe of neutrino properties. We compute the mixing amplitude in the Standard Model minimally extended to include massive Dirac or Majorana neutrinos, and correct previous calculations by properly treating the relevant infrared scales. As the GIM mechanism strongly suppresses the Dirac contribution, we explore whether relaxing unitarity of the PMNS matrix can enhance the mixing without obscuring neutrino properties. Surprisingly, the answer to this question is negative. We also examine the pseudo-Dirac case — predominantly Dirac neutrinos with small Majorana masses — and find that this scenario can significantly enhance the mixing compared to the pure Dirac case, especially for normal mass ordering.

Neutrino interactions↗
DOE OSTI2024

Review of searches for vector-like quarks, vector-like leptons, and heavy neutral leptons in proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV at the CMS experiment

The LHC has provided an unprecedented amount of proton–proton collision data, bringing forth exciting opportunities to address fundamental open questions in particle physics. These questions can potentially be answered by performing searches for very rare processes predicted by models that attempt to extend the standard model of particle physics. The data collected by the CMS experiment in 2015–2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV can be used to test the standard model with high precision and potentially uncover evidence for new particles or interactions. An interesting possibility is the existence of new fermions with masses ranging from the MeV to the TeV scale. Such new particles appear in many possible extensions of the standard model and are well motivated theoretically. New fermions may explain the appearance of three generations of leptons and quarks, the mass hierarchy across these generations, and the nonzero neutrino masses. In this report, the results of searches targeting vectorlike quarks, vector-like leptons, and heavy neutral leptons at the CMS experiment are summarized. The complementarity of current searches for each type of new fermion is discussed, and combinations of several searches for vector-like quarks are presented. The discovery potential for some of these searches at the High-Luminosity LHC is also discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Review of searches for vector-like quarks, vector-like leptons, and heavy neutral leptons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at the CMS experiment

The LHC has provided an unprecedented amount of proton-proton collision data, bringing forth exciting opportunities to address fundamental open questions in particle physics. These questions can potentially be answered by performing searches for very rare processes predicted by models that attempt to extend the standard model of particle physics. The data collected by the CMS experiment in 2015-2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV can be used to test the standard model with high precision and potentially uncover evidence for new particles or interactions. An interesting possibility is the existence of new fermions with masses ranging from the MeV to the TeV scale. Such new particles appear in many possible extensions of the standard model and are well motivated theoretically. New fermions may explain the appearance of three generations of leptons and quarks, the mass hierarchy across the generations, and the nonzero neutrino masses. In this report, the results of searches targeting vector-like quarks, vector-like leptons, and heavy neutral leptons at the CMS experiment are summarized. The complementarity of current searches for each type of new fermion is discussed, and combinations of several searches for vector-like quarks are presented. The discovery potential for some of these searches at the High-Luminosity LHC is also discussed.

FOS: Physical sciences↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dream Machines

Particle accelerators and their detectors are the world’s most powerful microscopes. They enable us to inspect the constituents of matter at attometer scales, study matter under unusual conditions, and concentrate extraordinary amounts of energy into tiny volumes to create new forms of matter and initiate new phenomena. The progress of particle physics and of accelerator science and technology go hand in hand. Here, I look to the past, present, and future, raising questions that we would like to answer about nature along the way.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Snowmass 2021 White Paper: Electron Ion Collider for High Energy Physics

Electron Ion Collider (EIC) is a particle accelerator facility planned for construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York by the United States Department of Energy. EIC will provide capabilities of colliding beams of polarized electrons with polarized beams of proton and light ions. EIC will be one of the largest and most sophisticated new accelerator facilities worldwide, and the only new large-scale accelerator facility planned for construction in the United States in the next few decades. The versatility, resolving power and intensity of EIC will present many new opportunities to address some of the crucial and fundamental open scientific questions in particle physics. This document provides an overview of the science case of EIC from the perspective of the high energy physics community.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

From oversimplified to overlooked: The case for exploring rich dark sectors

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics provides a very successful description of fundamental particles and their interactions but it is incomplete, as neutrino masses, dark matter and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe indicate. In addition, the origin of masses and of the approximate fundamental symmetries call out for deeper explanations. The quest for a New SM Theory, that extends the SM to a more general theory, is ongoing. For decades the main focus has been on the TeV scale, but despite an impressive theoretical and experimental effort, no hints of new physics at such scale has been found in experiments. Dark sectors provide an interesting alternative to TeV scale extensions of the SM to explain the open questions in particle and astroparticle physics. Going beyond minimal models, rich dark sectors extend the SM to a complex theory with multiple particles and interactions, in analogy to the SM itself. They have a wealth of theoretical and astrophysical/cosmological consequences and can lead to phenomenological signatures that can be markedly different to that of minimal ones. These include short-lived particles and semi-visible decay signatures, as opposed to minimal models where new states are typically long-lived and purely visible or invisible resonances. Given the experimental configurations and analysis strategies, current dark sector searches might miss such signatures. We advocate a dedicated programme of searches for rich dark sectors that overcomes the assumptions on minimality and on the long lifetime of particles and encompasses a broader range of possibilities. Here, we discuss a prototype model that includes a complex structure akin to the SM: multiple generations of fermions charged under a new spontaneously-broken gauge symmetry.

Dark matter↗
DOE OSTI2019

Barium Chemosensors with Dry-Phase Fluorescence for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

The nature of the neutrino is one of the major open questions in experimental nuclear and particle physics. The most sensitive known method to establish the Majorana nature of the neutrino is detection of the ultra-rare process of neutrinoless double beta decay. However, identification of one or a handful of decay events within a large mass of candidate isotope, without obfuscation by backgrounds is a formidable experimental challenge. One hypothetical method for achieving ultra- low-background neutrinoless double beta decay sensitivity is the detection of single 136 Ba ions produced in the decay of 136 Xe (“barium tagging”). To implement such a method, a single-ion-sensitive barium detector must be developed and demonstrated in bulk liquid or dry gaseous xenon. This paper reports on the development of two families of dry-phase barium chemosensor molecules for use in high pressure xenon gas detectors, synthesized specifically for this purpose. One particularly promising candidate, an anthracene substituted aza-18-crown-6 ether, is shown to respond in the dry phase with almost no intrinsic background from the unchelated state, and to be amenable to barium sensing through fluorescence microscopy. This interdisciplinary advance, paired with earlier work demonstrating sensitivity to single barium ions in solution, opens a new path toward single ion detection in high pressure xenon gas.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

SPANet: Generalized permutationless set assignment for particle physics using symmetry preserving attention

The creation of unstable heavy particles at the Large Hadron Collider is the most direct way to address some of the deepest open questions in physics. Collisions typically produce variable-size sets of observed particles which have inherent ambiguities complicating the assignment of observed particles to the decay products of the heavy particles. Current strategies for tackling these challenges in the physics community ignore the physical symmetries of the decay products and consider all possible assignment permutations and do not scale to complex configurations. Attention based deep learning methods for sequence modelling have achieved state-of-the-art performance in natural language processing, but they lack built-in mechanisms to deal with the unique symmetries found in physical set-assignment problems. We introduce a novel method for constructing symmetry-preserving attention networks which reflect the problem's natural invariances to efficiently find assignments without evaluating all permutations. This general approach is applicable to arbitrarily complex configurations and significantly outperforms current methods, improving reconstruction efficiency between 19% - 35% on typical benchmark problems while decreasing inference time by two to five orders of magnitude on the most complex events, making many important and previously intractable cases tractable. A full code repository containing a general library, the specific configuration used, and a complete dataset release, are available at https://github.com/Alexanders101/SPANet

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fireball antinucleosynthesis

The tentative identification of approximately ten relativistic antihelium ( He ¯ ) cosmic-ray events at AMS-02 would, if confirmed, challenge our understanding of the astrophysical synthesis of heavy antinuclei. We propose a novel scenario for the enhanced production of such antinuclei that is triggered by isolated, catastrophic injections of large quantities of energetic Standard Model (SM) antiquarks in our galaxy by physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). We demonstrate that SM antinucleosynthetic processes that occur in the resulting rapidly expanding, thermalized fireballs of SM plasma can, for a reasonable range of parameters, produce the reported tentative ∼ 2 : 1 ratio of He ¯ 3 to He ¯ 4 events at AMS-02, as well as their relativistic boosts. Moreover, we show that this can be achieved without violating antideuterium or antiproton flux constraints for the appropriate antihelium fluxes. A plausible BSM paradigm for the catastrophic injections is the collision of macroscopic composite dark-matter objects carrying large net antibaryon number. Such a scenario would require these objects to be cosmologically stable, but to destabilize upon collision, promptly releasing a fraction of their mass energy into SM antiparticles within a tiny volume. We show that, in principle, the injection rate needed to attain the necessary antihelium fluxes and the energetic conditions required to seed the fireballs appear possible to obtain in such a paradigm. We leave open the question of constructing a BSM particle physics model to realize this, but we suggest two concrete scenarios as promising targets for further investigation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

DAMSA Experiment Conceptual Design White Paper

DAMSA (DArk Messenger Searches at an Accelerator) is a novel short-baseline accelerator experiment aimed at probing short-lived physics processes, including searches for evidence of a dark sector of particle physics and well-motivated Standard Model signals. Motivated by open questions in neutrino physics and the absence of conclusive evidence for conventional weakly interacting massive particles, DAMSA targets MeV-to-sub-GeV dark-sector messengers with feeble couplings that can be produced in abundance at the PIP-II LINAC. By employing an ultra-short baseline of order one meter, DAMSA is uniquely positioned to overcome the beam-dump "ceiling" that limits sensitivity to promptly decaying particles in longer-baseline experiments. The conceptual design emphasizes a beam-dump production scheme combined with a compact detector optimized for rare decays while mitigating intense neutron-induced backgrounds inherent to high-power proton beams. To validate the experimental strategy and detector technologies, the Little DAMSA Path-Finder (LDPF) proof-of-concept experiment is proposed, focusing on axion-like particles decaying to two photons and operating with 300 MeV electron beams at FAST. Successful realization of LDPF will establish the feasibility of the DAMSA approach, enabling a broad and powerful program to explore short-lived new physics and precision Standard Model processes in a previously inaccessible regime. This conceptual design document outlines the technical details of DAMSA's physics goals, the beam facility proposals, key experimental challenges and how to overcome them, and the proposed experimental staging campaigns.

Bhattarai, Prithak [Texas U., Arlington]↗
DOE OSTI2025

The phase diagram of quantum chromodynamics in one dimension on a quantum computer

The quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram, which reveals the state of strongly interacting matter at different temperatures and densities, is key to answering open questions in physics, ranging from the behaviour of particles in neutron stars to the conditions of the early universe. However, classical simulations of QCD face significant computational barriers, such as the sign problem at finite matter densities. Quantum computing offers a promising solution to overcome these challenges. Here, we take an important step toward exploring the QCD phase diagram with quantum devices by preparing thermal states in one-dimensional non-Abelian gauge theories. We experimentally simulate the thermal states of SU(2) and SU(3) gauge theories at finite densities on a trapped-ion quantum computer using a variational method. This is achieved by introducing two features: Firstly, we add motional ancillae to the existing qubit register to efficiently prepare thermal probability distributions. Secondly, we introduce charge-singlet measurements to enforce colour-neutrality constraints. This work pioneers the quantum simulation of QCD at finite density and temperature for two and three colours, laying the foundation to explore QCD phenomena on quantum platforms.

Quantum information↗
DOE OSTI2022

A muon–ion collider at BNL: The future QCD frontier and path to a new energy frontier of μ + μ – colliders

In this work, we propose the development and construction of a novel muon–ion collider (MuIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in the USA as an upgrade to succeed the electron–ion collider (EIC) that is scheduled to commence in the early 2030s, by a joint effort of the nuclear and particle physics communities. The BNL facility could accommodate a muon storage beam with an energy up to about 1 TeV with existing magnet technology. When collided with a 275 GeV hadron beam, the MuIC center-of-mass energy of about 1 TeV will extend the kinematic coverage of deep inelastic scattering physics at the EIC (with polarized beams) by more than an order of magnitude in Q 2 and x, opening a new QCD frontier to address many fundamental scientific questions in nuclear and particle physics. This coverage is comparable to that of the proposed Large Hadron–Electron Collider (LHeC) at CERN, but with complementary lepton and hadron kinematics, ion species, and beam polarization. Additionally, the development of a MuIC at BNL will focus the worldwide R&D efforts on muon collider technology and serve as a demonstrator toward a future muon–antimuon collider at O(10) TeV energy, which is an attractive option to reach the next high energy frontier in particle physics at an affordable cost and a smaller footprint than a future circular hadron collider. We discuss here the possible design parameters of the MuIC, kinematic coverage, science cases, and detector design considerations including resolution estimates on DIS kinematic variables. A possible road map toward the future MuIC and muon–antimuon colliders is also presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1995

Studies with Cluster upstream and downstream of the bow shock: An experimenter's perspective

Some open questions in the physics of bow shock formation, the evolution of the particle distributions from solar wind into the magnetosheath, and the acceleration of ions at the moment of the shock are summarized. A layout of the current situation is presented in view of recent theoretical developments and the new diagnostic tools provided by the Cluster mission. The transition of ions across the quasi-perpendicular bow shock and their downstream thermalization are discussed. The processes and spatial scales are found to be species dependent and are discussed for H(+), He(2+), and He(+). The theory of particle acceleration at quasi-parallel shocks are reviewed. It is shown how Cluster can study the time variable structures of the shock as predicted by hybrid simulation. It is emphasized that high time resolution measurement with simultaneous species separation is necessary for the study of the ion acceleration. Suggestions for the spacecraft separations at the bow shock are suggested.

Moebius, E.↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Indirect Search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles in the Sun Using Upward-going Muons in NOvA

I present the first Dark Matter search results using the full data set collected with the upward-going muon trigger in NOvA. Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) are a theoretical non-baryonic form of Dark Matter. The nature of Dark Matter is one of the most exciting open questions in modern physics. Though its existence can be inferred by astrophysical evidence, its properties are not yet understood. If we assume that Dark Matter particles can produce Standard Model particles through their interactions, an indirect search can help shed light on this mystery.The NOvA collaboration has built a 14 kton, fine-grained, low-Z, total absorption tracking calorimeter at an off-axis angle to the NuMI neutrino beam. Even though the detector is optimized to observe electron neutrino appearance from a muon neutrino beam, it has a unique potential for more exotic searches given its excellent granularity and energy resolution and relatively low-energy neutrino thresholds. In fact, with an efficient upward-going muon trigger and sufficient background suppression offline, NOvA is capable of a competitive indirect Dark Matter search for low-mass WIMPs.The idea of the upward-going muon trigger is first to select high-quality muon tracks, then use the timing information of all of the hits of each track to estimate directionality. In this way, the background flux is suppressed by more than a factor of 10^5 at trigger level to a rate of approximately 1 Hz. To further optimize this search, we use only upward-going muons that point to the Sun, so our search occurs at night when the Sun is on the other side of the Earth. This strategy also allows us to use the time when the Sun is above the horizon as a control region to estimate the background. Ultimately, implementation of a cut based and maximum likelihood analysis provides a powerful tool for rejecting background and selecting a sample of neutrino-induced upward-going muons. The overall background rejection power achieved by the analysis is substantial and impressive. Starting with approximately 150,000 events per second, we reduced it to 40 events per year. Since no statistically significant excess was found, a 90\% C.L. upper limit on the expected muon flux of upward-going muons has been set using the upper limit on the number of events given the number of observed events in the signal region. Lastly, by assuming the theory behind the upward-going muon flux, a limit on the WIMP-nucleon spin-dependent cross-section in the Sun was estimated. Although the limits on the spin-dependent cross-section do not appear to be competitive with previous indirect Dark Matter searches, the upward-going muon flux limits are promising. The upward-going muon flux limits could extend these results to a broader class of models that are not specific to the dark matter theory but produce upward-going muons, leading to competitive results.

Principato, Cristiana↗
DOE OSTI2023

Studying dark matter with observations of small-scale structure

The standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter model provides an accurate description of our universe on large spatial scales; however, it remains poorly tested on scales smaller than our Milky Way galaxy. The smallest, faintest, and most dark-matter-dominated galaxies are exceptional laboratories for studying the fundamental properties of dark matter and galaxy formation. Our Milky Way galaxy is surrounded by dozens of ultra-faint “dwarf” galaxies, which have only recently been discovered thanks to the unprecedented sensitivity of large digital sky surveys. As telescopes grow larger and more powerful, we continue to find fainter, more distant, and more dark-matter-dominated galaxies. In addition, we are now able to study faint galaxies beyond the Local Volume. I will describe recent observational programs to study faint galaxies, and how observations of faint galaxies can help address some of the foremost open questions in physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗