Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• The SINDRUM-I Experiment

  Ralph Eichler, Christoph Grab

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 007 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  SINDRUM-I was the first nearly 4 spectrometer at SIN. It was initially designed to 9 search for the forbidden decay + ! e+e􀀀e+ , but also successfully studied various 10 other processes with high precision. The upper limit obtained for the branching ratio of B!3e = 􀀀 (+ ! e+e􀀀e+ )=􀀀 (+ ! e+e¯ 11  ) < 1.0  10􀀀12(90% CL) from 1988 is still the best. The first statistically significant observation of the rare decay + ! e+e􀀀e+e¯ 12  , achieved in 1985, yielded a branching ratio of B13 !3e2 = (3.40.20.2)10􀀀5. Several 14 othermeasurements of rare decays were undertaken: the first observation of the -decay 15 + !e+ee􀀀e+ resulted in 􀀀 (+ !e+ee􀀀e+ )=􀀀 (+ !+ ) = (3.2  0.5  0.2)  10􀀀9, 16 also still the best measurement; and a determination of the ratio of the weak axial- to 17 vector-form factor FA=FV = (0.7  0.5), resolving an ambiguity. In addition, upper limits 18 for + ! e+ and + ! e+e with subsequent decay ! e+e􀀀 (search for "massless" Goldstone bosons) and 0 !e+e􀀀 19 < 1.3  10􀀀7 were obtained.

  2 citations

• The WIMP paradigm: Theme and variations

  Jonathan L. Feng

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 71 (2023) · published 13 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  WIMPs, ↑ weakly-interacting massive particles, have been leading candidates for particle dark matter for decades, and they remain a viable and highly motivated possibility. In these lectures, I describe the basic motivations for WIMPs, beginning with the WIMP miracle and its under-appreciated cousin, the discrete WIMP miracle. I then give an overview of some of the basic features of WIMPs and how to find them. These lectures conclude with some variations on the WIMP theme that have by now become significant topics in their own right and illustrate the richness of the WIMP paradigm.

  2 citations

• The DAMIC-M experiment: Status and first results

  Isaac J. Arnquist, Nicolas Avalos, Philippe Bailly, David Baxter, Xavier Bertou, Mircea Bogdan, Christian Bourgeois, J. Brandt, Arnaud Cadiou, Nuria Castelló-Mor, Alvaro E. Chavarria, Marcel Conde, Nicholas J. Corso, J. C. Gutiérrez, Julian Cuevas-Zepeda, Ali Dastgheibi-Fard, Claudia De Dominicis, Olivier Deligny, R. Desani, Marc Dhellot, Jean-Jacques Dormard, Jordi Duarte-Campderros, E. Estrada, D. Florin, N. Gadola, R. Gaïor, J. González Sánchez, Todd W. Hossbach, Michael Huehn, Latifa Khalil, Ben Kilminster, Agustin Lantero-Barreda, Ian Lawson, Hervé Lebbolo, Steven Lee, Pascal Leray, Antoine Letessier-Selvon, Pia Loaiza, Amparo Lopez-Virto, David Martin, Ariel Matalon, Kellie McGuire, T. Milleto, Pitam Mitra, David M. Martin, S. Munagavalasa, Danielle Norcini, Cory T. Overman, Giorgos Papadopoulos, S. Paul, David Peterson, Alexander Piers, Olivier Pochon, Paolo Privitera, Karthik Ramanathan, Denis Reynet, Peter Robmann, Ryan Roehnelt, Mariangela Settimo, Radomir Smida, Ben Stillwell, Ryan Thomas, Michelangelo Traina, Philippe Vallerand, Tim Van Wechel, Ivan Vila, Rocio V. Cortabitarte, Achim Vollhardt, Guillaume Warot, D. Wolf, Rachana Yajur, J-P. Zopounidis

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 014 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) experiment employs thick, fully depleted silicon charged-coupled devices (CCDs) to search for dark matter particles with a target exposure of 1 kg-year. A novel skipper readout implemented in the CCDs provides single electron resolution through multiple non-destructive measurements of the individual pixel charge, pushing the detection threshold to the eV-scale. DAMIC-M will advance by several orders of magnitude the exploration of the dark matter particle hypothesis, in particular of candidates pertaining to the so-called "hidden sector." A prototype, the Low Background Chamber (LBC), with 20g of low background Skipper CCDs, has been recently installed at Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane and is currently taking data. We will report the status of the DAMIC-M experiment and first results obtained with LBC commissioning data.

  2 citations

• Latest Belle results on Tau decays

  Yifan Jin, Denis Epifanov, Hiroaki Aihara

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 002 (2019) · published 18 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present preliminary results of a latest measurement at Belle, the branching fraction of rare tau decay, $\tau^- \rightarrow \pi^- \nu_{\tau} \ell^+ \ell^-$ ($\ell = e$ or $\mu$), using a 562 $\rm fb^{-1}$\ data set. The branching fraction of $\tau^- \rightarrow \pi^- e^+ e^- \nu_\tau$ is measured to be $\mathbf{ \mathcal{B}(\tau^-\rightarrow \pi^- e^+ e^- \nu_\tau) = (2.11 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.30) \times 10^{-5}}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. An upper limit is set on the branching fraction of $\tau^- \rightarrow \pi^- \mu^+ \mu^- \nu_\tau$, $\mathbf{\mathcal{B}(\tau^-\rightarrow \pi^- \mu^+ \mu^- \nu_\tau) < 1.06 \times 10^{-5}}$, at 90\% confidence level.

  2 citations

• Test lepton flavor universality with (semi)leptonic $D$ decays at BESIII

  S. F. Zhang on behalf of the BESIII Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 016 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Using 2.93~fb$^{-1}$ data taken at $\sqrt{s}=3.773$~GeV, 0.482~fb$^{-1}$ data taken at $\sqrt{s}=4.009$~GeV and 3.19~fb$^{-1}$ data taken at $\sqrt{s}=4.178$~GeV with the BESIII detector, precision measurements of the branching fractions of $D^0\to K^-\mu^+\nu_\mu$, $D^+\to\bar K^0\mu^+\nu_\mu$, $D^0\to\pi^-\mu^+\nu_\mu$, $D^+\to\pi^0\mu^+\nu_\mu$, $D^+\to\ell^+\nu_\ell$ and $D_s^+\to\ell^+\nu_\ell$ are performed. Combining the known branching fractions of $D\to\bar Ke^+\nu_e$, $D\to\pi e^+\nu_e$ and $D^+_s\to\tau^+\nu_\tau$, we have tested the lepton flavor universality with $D\to\bar K\ell^+\nu_\ell$, $D\to\pi\ell^+\nu_\ell$, $D^+\to\ell^+\nu_\ell$ and $D_{s}^+\to\ell^+\nu_\ell$ decays. We have also tested lepton flavor universality in different $q_{\ell\nu_\ell}^2$ intervals for $D\to\bar K\ell^+\nu_\ell$~($\ell=e$ or $\mu$). Besides, hadronic form factor $f_+^K(0)$, $D$ meson decay constant $f_{D_s^+}$ and $f_{D^+}$, and quark mixing matrix element $|V_{cs}|$ and $|V_{cd}|$ are also extracted with the most precise accuracies to date.

  2 citations

• The LHCspin project

  M. Santimaria, V. Carassiti, G. Ciullo, P. Di Nezza, P. Lenisa, S. Mariani, L. L. Pappalardo, E. Steffens

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 050 (2022) · published 12 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Broad and unexplored kinematic regions can be accessed at the LHC with fixed-target $pp$, $pA$ and $PbA$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=72-115~\rm{GeV}$. The LHCb detector is a fully-instrumented forward spectrometer able to run in fixed-target mode, and currently hosts a target gas cell to take data in the upcoming Run 3. The LHCspin project aims at extending this physics program to Run 4 and to bring polarised physics at the LHC. An overview of the physics potential and a description of the LHCspin experimental setup are presented.

  2 citations

• Particle Physics with the Pierre Auger Observatory

  Matias Perlin

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 130 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest extensive air shower detector. Based on a hybrid system, this experiment measures the longitudinal shower development and the particles at the ground. This detection system allows the extraction of the p-air cross-section at energies much higher than the ones accessible by current colliders. It is also possible to test hadronic interaction models using correlations between different air shower observables, like the depth of shower maximum and the muon number at the ground and their fluctuations. Thanks to the low energy extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the muon deficit in air shower simulations can be addressed over almost three decades at the highest energies.

  2 citations

• LHC searches motivated by recent $B$-anomalies

  Darius Alexander Faroughy

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 021 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss the physics case for the LHC motivated by the $B$-physics anomalies. After correlating semi-tauonic $B$ decays to di-tau production at the LHC, and discussing the possible models solving the $B$-anomalies, we show how existing LHC data in $\tau\bar\tau$ tails exclude most beyond the SM scenarios except for a handful of leptoquark (LQ) models. We analyze the impact of LHC searches for some of these LQ solutions using current data. In particular, we focus on the well known $U_1$ vector LQ as well as the GUT-inspired scalar LQs, $R_2$ and $S_3$. By exploiting the complementarity between di-tau searches and the lepton flavor violating decays $B\to K\mu\tau$ and $\tau\to\mu\phi$ we argue that these model can be cornered by the LHC, Belle~II and LHCb in the near future.

  2 citations

• MEG: Muon to Electron and Gamma

  A.M. Baldini, T. Mori

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 019 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The possible existence of the muon to electron and gamma decay predicted by many new physics scenarios is investigated by stopping positive muons in a very thin target and measuring emitted photons and positrons with the best possible resolutions. Photons are measured by a 2.7 ton ultra pure liquid xenon detector while positron trajectories are measured in a specially designed gradient magnetic field by low-mass drift chambers and precisely timed by scintillation counters. A first phase of the experiment (MEG) ended in 2016, and excluded the existence of the decay with branching ratios larger than 4.2x10**(-13) (90% C.L.). This provides approximately 30 times stronger constraints on a variety of new physics models than previous experiments. In the second phase (MEG II), most of the detectors have been upgraded by adopting up-to-date technologies to improve the search sensitivity by another order of magnitude down to O(10**(-19) ). MEG II will pursue new physics beyond the Standard Model complementary to high energy collider experiments with a compatible or even higher sensitivity.

  2 citations

• Recent results of laser spectroscopy experiments of pionic helium atoms at PSI

  M. Hori, H. Aghai-Khozani, A. S\'ot\'er, A. Dax, D. Barna

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 5, 026 (2021) · published 6 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A review of a recent experiment carried out at PSI involving laser spectroscopy of metastable pionic helium ($\pi{\rm ^4He}^+\equiv\pi^{-}+{\rm ^4He}^{2+}+e^-$) atoms is presented. An infrared transition $(n,\ell)=(17,16)$$\rightarrow$$(17,15)$ at a resonance frequency of $\nu\approx 183760$ GHz was detected.

  2 citations