Publications

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• Muon measurements at the Pierre Auger Observatory

  Dariusz Góra

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 15, 020 (2024) · published 3 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest detector for observation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) (above the energy of $10^{17}$ eV). It consists of a Fluorescence Detector (FD) and an array of particle detectors known as the Surface Detector (SD). Observations of extensive air showers by the Observatory can be used to probe hadronic interactions at high energy, in a kinematic and energy region inaccessible to experiments at man-made accelerators and to measure the muon component of the shower. Air showers induced by different primaries have different muon contents. With increasing mass of the primary cosmic ray particle, it is expected that the muon content in the corresponding air showers should also increase. Therefore, the determination of the muon component in the air shower is crucial to infer the mass of the primary particle. This is a key ingredient in the searches conducted to pinpoint the sources of UHECRs. Recent results obtained from the Pierre Auger Observatory and other experiments indicate that all the shower simulations underestimate the number of muons in the showers compared to the data. This is the so-called muon deficit. In this paper we briefly review the muon measurements, and present in more detail recent results on fluctuations in the muon number. These results provide new insights into the origin of the muon deficit in air shower simulations and constrain the models of hadronic interactions at ultrahigh energies. With the current design of the surface detectors it is also difficult to reliably separate the contributions of muons to the SD signal from the contributions of photons, electrons, and positrons. Therefore, we also present a new method to extract the muon component of the signal time traces recorded by each SD station using recurrent neural networks. The combination of such algorithms, with the future data collected by the upgraded Pierre Auger Observatory, will be a major step forward, as we are likely to achieve an unprecedented resolution in mass estimation on an event-by-event basis.

• Astroparticle and particle physics at ultra-high energy: Results from the Pierre Auger Observatory

  Antonella Castellina for the Pierre Auger Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 034 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The scientific achievements of the Pierre Auger Collaboration cover diverse and complementary fields of research. The search for the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is based on the measurement of the energy spectrum and mass composition of the primaries, on studies of multi-messengers, and on extensive anisotropy searches. With the collected data it is also possible to explore the characteristics of hadronic interactions at energies unreachable at human-made accelerators, and to assess the existence of non-standard physics effects. A selection of the latest results is presented and the emerging picture is discussed.

• Primary cosmic ray energy spectrum and mean mass composition using data from the TAIGA astrophysical complex

  V. Prosin, I. Astapov, P. Bezyazeekov, E. Bonvech, A. Borodin, A. Bulan, A. Chiavassa, D. Chernov, A. Dyachok, A. Gafarov, A. Garmash, V. Grebenyuk, O. Gress, E. Gress, T. Gress, A. Grinyuk, O. Grishin, A. D. Ivanova, A. L. Ivanova, N. Kalmykov, V. Kindin, S. Kiryuhin, R. Kokoulin, K. Kompaniets, E. Korosteleva, V. Kozhin, E. Kravchenko, A. Kryukov, L. Kuzmichev, A. Lagutin, M. Lavrova, Y. Lemeshev, B. Lubsandorzhiev, N. Lubsandorzhiev, A. Lukanov, D. Lukyantsev, S. Malakhov, R. Mirgazov, R. Monkhoev, E. Okuneva, E. Osipova, A. Pakhorukov, A. Pan, L. Panasenko, L. Pankov, A. D. Panov, A. Petrukhin, I. Poddubny, D. Podgrudkov, V. Poleschuk, V. Ponomareva, E. Popova, E. Postnikov, V. Ptuskin, A. Pushnin, R. Raikin, A. Razumov, G. Rubtsov, E. Ryabov, Y. Sagan, V. Samoliga, A. Silaev, A. Silaev, A. Sidorenkov, A. Skurikhin, A. Sokolov, L. Sveshnikova, V. Tabolenko, A. Tanaev, B. Tarashchansky, M. Y. Ternovoy, L. Tkachev, R. Togoo, N. Ushakov, A. Vaidyanathan, P. Volchugov, N. Volkov, D. Voronin, A. Zagorodnikov, A. Zhaglova, D. Zhurov, I. Yashin

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 037 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The corrected dependence of the mean depth of the EAS maximum $X_{max}$ on the energy was obtained from the data of the Tunka-133 array for 7 years and the TAIGA-HiSCORE array for 2 years. The parameter $\langle\ln A\rangle$, characterizing the mean mass compositon was derived from these results. The differential energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays in the energy range of $2\cdot 10^{14}$ – $2\cdot 10^{16}$ eV was reconstructed using the new parameter $Q_{100}$ the Cherenkov light flux at the core distance 100 m. Change of the parameter for the energy reconstuction for the TAIGA-HiSCORE from $Q_{200}$ to $Q_{100}$ provides a decreasing energy threshold for the spectrum to about 200 TeV.

• Concentration of quantum equilibration and an estimate of the recurrence time

  Jonathon Riddell, Nathan J. Pagliaroli, Álvaro M. Alhambra

  SciPost Phys. 15, 165 (2023) · published 16 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We show that the dynamics of generic quantum systems concentrate around their equilibrium value when measuring at arbitrary times. This means that the probability of finding such values away from that equilibrium is exponentially suppressed, with a decay rate given by the effective dimension. Our result allows us to place a lower bound on the recurrence time of quantum systems, since recurrences corresponds to the rare events of finding a state away from equilibrium. In many-body systems, this bound is doubly exponential in system size. We also show corresponding results for free fermions, which display a weaker concentration and earlier recurrences.

• Direct measurements of cosmic rays with the calorimetric electron telescope on the international space station

  Y. Akaike, O. Adriani, K. Asano, Y. Asaoka, E. Berti, G. Bigongiari, W. R. Binns, M. Bongi, P. Brogi, A. Bruno, J. H. Buckley, N. Cannady, G. Castellini, C. Checchia, M. L. Cherry, G. Collazuol, K. Ebisawa, A. W. Ficklin, H. Fuke, S. Gonzi, T. G. Guzik, T. Hams, K. Hibino, M. Ichimura, K. Ioka, W. Ishizaki, M. H. Israel, K. Kasahara, J. Kataoka, R. Kataoka, Y. Katayose, C. Kato, N. Kawanaka, Y. Kawakubo, K. Kobayashi, K. Kohri, H. S. Krawczynski, J. F. Krizmanic, P. Maestro, P. S. Marrocchesi, A. M. Messineo, J. W. Mitchell, S. Miyake, A. A. Moiseev, M. Mori, N. Mori, H. M. Motz, K. Munakata, S. Nakahira, J. Nishimura, G. A. de Nolfo, S. Okuno, J. F. Ormes, S. Ozawa, L. Pacini, P. Papini, B. F. Rauch, S. B. Ricciarini, K. Sakai, T. Sakamoto, M. Sasaki, Y. Shimizu, A. Shiomi, P. Spillantini, F. Stolzi, S. Sugita, A. Sulaj, M. Takita, T. Tamura, T. Terasawa, S. Torii, Y. Tsunesada, Y. Uchihori, E. Vannuccini, J. P. Wefel, K. Yamaoka, S. Yanagita, A. Yoshida, K. Yoshida, W. V. Zober

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 040 (2023) · published 29 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The CALorimetric Electron Telescope, CALET, has been measuring high-energy cosmic rays on the International Space Station since October 13, 2015. The scientific objectives addressed by the mission are to search for possible nearby sources of high-energy electrons and potential signatures of dark matter, and to investigate the details of galactic cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation. The calorimetric instrument, which is 30 radiation lengths or 1.3 proton interaction lengths thick with fine imaging capability, is optimized to measure cosmic-ray electrons by achieving large proton rejection and excellent energy resolution well into the TeV region. In addition, very wide dynamic range of energy measurement and individual charge identification capability enable us to measure proton and nuclei spectra from a few tens GeV to a PeV scale. Nearly 20 million cosmic-ray shower events over 10 GeV per month are triggered and the continuous observation has been kept without any major interruption since the start of operation. Using the data obtained over 6.5 years of operation, we will present a brief summary of the CALET observation including electron spectrum, and proton and nuclei spectra as well as the performance study on orbit with MC simulations.

• Tensor network study of the Shastry-Sutherland model with weak interlayer coupling

  Patrick C. G. Vlaar, Philippe Corboz

  SciPost Phys. 15, 126 (2023) · published 2 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The layered material SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ has long been studied because of its fascinating physics in a magnetic field and under pressure. Many of its properties are remarkably well described by the Shastry-Sutherland model (SSM) - a two-dimensional frustrated spin system. However, the extent of the intermediate plaquette phase discovered in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ under pressure is significantly smaller than predicted in theory, which is likely due to the weak interlayer coupling that is present in the material but neglected in the model. Using state-of-the-art tensor network methods we study the SSM with a weak interlayer coupling and show that the intermediate plaquette phase is destabilized already at a smaller value around $J''/J\sim0.04-0.05$ than previously predicted from series expansion. Based on our phase diagram we estimate the effective interlayer coupling in SrCu$_2$(BO$_3$)$_2$ to be around $J''/J\sim 0.027$ at ambient pressure.

• $\beta$-function of the level-zero Gross-Neveu model

  Dmitri Bykov

  SciPost Phys. 15, 127 (2023) · published 2 October 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We explain that the supersymmetric $\mathbb{CP}^{n-1}$ sigma model is directly related to the level-zero chiral Gross-Neveu (cGN) model. In particular, beta functions of the two theories should coincide. This is consistent with the one-loop-exactness of the $\mathbb{CP}^{n-1}$ beta function and a conjectured all-loop beta function of cGN models. We perform an explicit four-loop calculation on the cGN side and discuss the renormalization scheme dependence that arises.

• Topological insulators and geometry of vector bundles

  Alexander S. Sergeev

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 67 (2023) · published 12 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  For a long time, band theory of solids has focused on the energy spectrum, or Hamiltonian eigenvalues. Recently, it was realized that the collection of eigenvectors also contains important physical information. The local geometry of eigenspaces determines the electric polarization, while their global twisting gives rise to the metallic surface states in topological insulators. These phenomena are central topics of the present notes. The shape of eigenspaces is also responsible for many intriguing physical analogies, which have their roots in the theory of vector bundles. We give an informal introduction to the geometry and topology of vector bundles and describe various physical models from this mathematical perspective.

• A pitfall in applying non-anticommuting $γ_5$ in $q\overline{q} \rightarrow ZH$ amplitudes

  Taushif Ahmed

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 008 (2022) · published 20 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In computing the two-loop QCD corrections to a class of Feynman diagrams for the process $q\overline{q} \rightarrow ZH$ in Higgs effective field theory, we discover a striking phenomenon. We find the need for an additional local composite operator in the renormalised Lagrangian while employing a non-anticommuting $\gamma_5$ in dimensional regularisation. The computation using anticommuting $\gamma_5$, however, does not require any such amendment.

• Dark sector studies with the PADME experiment

  Anna Paola Caricato, Maurizio Martino, Isabella Oceano, Federica Oliva, Stefania Spagnolo, Gabriele Chiodini, Fabio Bossi, Riccardo De Sangro, Claudio Di Giulio, Danilo Domenici, Giuseppe Finocchiaro, Luca Gennaro Foggetta, Marco Garattini, Andrea Ghigo, Federica Giacchino, Paola Gianotti, Tommaso Spadaro, Eleuterio Spiriti, Clara Taruggi, Elisabetta Vilucchi, Venelin Kozhuharov, Simeon Ivanov, Sevtoslav Ivanov, Radoslav Simeonov, Georgi Georgiev, Fabio Ferrarotto, Emanuele Leonardi, Paolo Valente, Elizabeth Long, Giovanni Organtini, Gabriele Piperno, Mauro Raggi, Salvatore Fiore, Paolo Branchini, Diego Tagnani, Vittoria Capirossi, Federico Pinna, Andre Frankenthal

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 050 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Positron Annihilation to Dark Matter Experiment (PADME) uses the positron beam of the DA$\Phi$NE Beam-Test Facility, at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) to search for a Dark Photon $A'$. The search technique studies the missing mass spectrum of single-photon final states in $e^+e^-\rightarrow A'\gamma$ annihilation in a positron-on-thin-target experiment. This approach facilitates searches for new particles such as long lived Axion-Like-Particles, protophobic X bosons and Dark Higgs. This talk illustrated the scientific program of the experiment and its first physics results. In particular, the measurement of the cross-section of the SM process $e^+e^-\rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ at $\sqrt{s}$=21 MeV was shown.