Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Ionization efficiency at sub-keV energies for crystals and noble liquids

  Youssef Sarkis, Alexis A. Aguilar-Arevalo, Juan Carlos D'Olivo

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 008 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the ionization and light yields produced by nuclear recoils at low energies in pure crystals and noble liquids in the context of Lindhard's integral equation, incorporating the effects of binding energy, improved modeling of the electronic stopping, and electronic straggling. We consider three different models for the electronic stopping power that incorporate Coulomb repulsion effects at low energies, and Bohr electronic stripping for high energies. Finally, we discuss possible new effects near threshold.

• Experimental status of LNU in B decays in LHCb

  Sean Benson on behalf of the LHCb collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 011 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the Standard Model, the three charged leptons are identical copies of each other, apart from mass differences. Experimental tests of this feature in semileptonic decays of b-hadrons are highly sensitive to New Physics particles which preferentially couple to the 2nd and 3rd generations of leptons. A review of the latest lepton universality tests in semileptonic $b\to c$ transitions at LHCb is reported.

• Unfrustrating the t-J Model: d-wave BCS Superconductivity in the t'-J_z-V Model

  Kevin Slagle

  SciPost Phys. 7, 046 (2019) · published 9 October 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The t-J model is believed to be a minimal model that may be capable of describing the low-energy physics of the cuprate superconductors. However, although the t-J model is simple in appearance, obtaining a detailed understanding of its phase diagram has proved to be challenging. We are therefore motivated to study modifications to the t-J model such that its phase diagram and mechanism for d-wave superconductivity can be understood analytically without making uncontrolled approximations. The modified model we consider is a t'-J_z-V model on a square lattice, which has a second-nearest-neighbor hopping t' (instead of a nearest-neighbor hopping t), an Ising (instead of Heisenberg) antiferromagnetic coupling J_z, and a nearest-neighbor repulsion V. In a certain strongly interacting limit, the ground state is an antiferromagnetic superconductor that can be described exactly by a Hamiltonian where the only interaction is a nearest-neighbor attraction. BCS theory can then be applied with arbitrary analytical control, from which nodeless d-wave or s-wave superconductivity can result.

• Charged lepton flavour violating processes

  Adrian Signer

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 014 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charged lepton flavour violating processes are naturally present in many extensions of the Standard Model. After a brief overview on the experimental situation, an effective-field-theory framework is described that allows to interpret and compare the various experiments in a consistent way. The usefulness of this approach is then illustrated in the context of a specific model with a doubly charged scalar.

• Momentum transfer dependence of heavy quarkonium electroproduction

  Michal Krelina, Jan Nemchik

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 114 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We investigate the momentum transfer dependence of differential cross sections $d\sigma/dt$ in diffractive electroproduction of heavy quarkonia on proton targets. Model predictions for $d\sigma/dt$ within the light-front QCD dipole formalism are based on a realistic model for a proper correlation between the impact parameter $\vec b$ of a collision and color dipole orientation $\vec r$. We demonstrate a significance of $\vec b-\vec r$ correlation by comparing with a standard simplification $\vec{b}\parallel\vec{r}$, frequently used in the literature.

• Measurement of low-energy Compton and neutron scattering in Si CCDs for dark matter searches

  Radomir Smida for the DAMIC-M Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 015 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  For optimal sensitivity to low-mass dark matter candidates experiments like DAMIC-M employ skipper charged-coupled devices (CCDs) with detection threshold of just a few ionization charges. Ionization signals from small-angle Compton scatters of environmental $\gamma$-rays, an important component of the background in dark matter searches, must thus be characterized down to $O$(10 eV) energy. Using a $^{241}$Am $\gamma$-ray source, we report a precise measurement of scattering on Si atomic shell electrons in a skipper CCD with single-electron resolution. Notable differences are observed between data and theoretical expectations in the L-shell energy region ($<$150 eV). We also present preliminary data from a skipper CCD exposed to low-energy neutrons ($<$24 keV) from a $^{124}$Sb$^9$Be photoneutron source, demonstrating a measurement of the nuclear recoil ionization efficiency in Si down to few ionization charges.

• 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.

• Neutrinos from near and far: Results from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

  Tianlu Yuan for the IceCube Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 010 (2023) · published 28 September 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Instrumenting a gigaton of ice at the geographic South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has been at the forefront of groundbreaking scientific discoveries over the past decade. These include the observation of a flux of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos, detection of the first astrophysical neutrino on the Glashow resonance and evidence of the blazar TXS 0506+056 as the first known astronomical source of high-energy neutrinos. Several questions, however, remain, pertaining to the precise origins of astrophysical neutrinos, their production mechanisms at the source and in Earth’s atmosphere and in the context of physics beyond the Standard Model. This proceeding highlights some of our latest results, from new constraints on neutrino interactions and oscillations to the latest measurements of the astrophysical neutrino flux and searches for their origins to future prospects with IceCube-Gen2.

• Central exclusive diffractive production of axial-vector $f_{1}$ mesons in proton-proton collisions

  Piotr Lebiedowicz, Josef Leutgeb, Otto Nachtmann, Anton Rebhan, Antoni Szczurek

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 121 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Exclusive production of axial-vector $f_{1}(1285)$ meson in proton-proton collisions via pomeron-pomeron fusion within the tensor-pomeron approach is discussed. Two ways to construct the pomeron-pomeron-$f_{1}$ coupling are presented. We adjust the parameters of our model to the WA102 experimental data and compare with predictions of the Sakai-Sugimoto model. Predictions for LHC experiments are given.

• Nucleon and pion PDFs: large-x asymptotics meets functional mimicry

  Aurore Courtoy, Pavel M. Nadolsky

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 063 (2022) · published 12 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We review strategies to unveil the primordial large-$x$ structure of the nucleons as well as the pion from hard-scattering experiments. Ideas are presented for learning about the $x\to 1$ limit of nonperturbative QCD dynamics at energy scales of order 1 GeV from collider experiments at much higher scales. The behavior of parton distributions at $x\to 1$ predicted by the quark counting rules and other low-energy theoretical approaches is contrasted with phenomenological PDFs. Polynomial mimicry of PDF parametrizations is one of many factors that influence the apparent power of the $(1-x)$ falloff. We discuss implications of the mimicry for the large-$x$ falloff of the pion PDFs.