Number Conservation Research Articles

HIKE: High Intensity Kaon Experiments at the CERN SPS

The availability of high intensity kaon beams at the CERN SPS North Area gives rise to unique possibilities for sensitive tests of the Standard Model in the quark flavor sector. Precise measurements of the branching ratios for the flavor-changing neutral current decays can provide unique constraints on CKM unitarity and, potentially, evidence for new physics. Building on the success of the NA62 experiment, plans are taking shape at CERN for a comprehensive program that will include experimental phases to measure the branching ratio for to ∼5% and to to ∼20% precision. These planned experiments would also carry out lepton flavor universality tests, lepton number and flavor conservation tests, and perform other precision measurements in the kaon sector, as well as searches for exotic particles in kaon decays. We overview the physics goals, detector requirements, and project status for the next generation of kaon physics experiments at CERN.

Searches for lepton flavour and lepton number violating K + decays at the NA62 experiment

The NA62 experiment at CERN collected the world’s largest dataset of charged kaon decays to di-lepton final states in 2016-2018, using dedicated trigger lines. Upper limits on the rates of several K + decays violating lepton flavour and lepton number conservation, obtained by analysing this dataset, are reported.

Non-uniform number-conserving elementary cellular automata

In this paper, we investigate non-uniform elementary cellular automata (i.e., one-dimensional cellular automata whose cells can use different Wolfram rules to update their states) in the context of number conservation. As a result, we obtain an exhaustive characterization of such number-conserving cellular automata on all finite grids both with periodic and null boundary conditions. The characterization obtained allows, inter alia, to enumerate all number-conserving non-uniform elementary cellular automata, in particular those that are reversible. Surprisingly, the numbers obtained are closely related to the Fibonacci sequence.

Number conservation in odd-particle number random phase approximation and extensions

Abstract The number conservation law in the odd-particle number random-phase approximation (oRPA) and its extension (EoRPA) is studied by applying them to a pairing model and 16O. It is found in the application to 16O that the number conservation law is not fulfilled in oRPA or EoRPA and that it is drastically improved in EoRPA due to the inclusion of ground-state correlation effects. PACS numbers: 21.60.Jz

A search for the K+ → μ−νe+e+ decay

A search for the K+→μ−νe+e+ decay, forbidden within the Standard Model by either lepton number or lepton flavour conservation depending on the flavour of the emitted neutrino, has been performed using the dataset collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2016–2018. An upper limit of 8.1×10−11 is obtained for the decay branching fraction at 90% CL, improving by a factor of 250 over the previous search.

Fission hindrances in transfermium nuclei

Very heavy nuclei owe their stability against spontaneous fission to quantum shell effects, which depend on the local density of single-particle states. The height but also the width and the structure of the barrier in multi-dimensional deformation space determine the fission half-lives. Other effects come into play, such as the conservation of quantum numbers and superfluidity or stiffness of the system in the fission process. This is why odd nuclei have longer fission partial half-lives with respect to their even neighbours and also why multi-quasi-particle states, such as high-K states, are thought to be more stable against fission than the ground state. We will report here on two different fission studies carried out with the GABRIELA detector array at the focal plane of the recoil separator SHELS. The first study concerns the fission properties of 253Rf, the most neutron deficient Rf isotope known to date. The second study focusses on a new measurement of the fission hindrance of the known 8- isomer in 254No.

Measuring the Speed of Sound Using Cumulants of Baryon Number

We show that the values of the first three cumulants of the baryon number distribution can be used to calculate the isothermal speed of sound and its logarithmic derivative with respect to the baryon number density. We discuss applications of this result to heavy-ion collision experiments and address possible challenges, including effects due to baryon number conservation, differences between proton and baryon cumulants, and the influence of finite number statistics on fluctuation observables in both experiment and hadronic transport simulations. In particular, we investigate the relation between quantities calculated in infinite, continuous matter and observables obtained in simulations using a finite number of particles.

Axionic Dirac seesaw mechanism and electroweak vacuum stability

We explore the connection between tree-level Dirac neutrino masses and axion physics in a scenario where the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry enforces lepton number conservation perturbatively. Requiring that the PQ scale ${f}_{a}$ is the only heavy scale to play a role in neutrino mass generation, we are led to the construction of a Kim--Shifman--Vainshtein--Zakharov-type model where Dirac neutrino masses are inversely proportional to ${f}_{a}$, provided a real scalar triplet (zero hypercharge) is added to the standard model scalar sector. We analyze this extended scalar sector, focusing on the stabilization of the electroweak vacuum. The contribution of the triplet vacuum expectation value to the $W$ mass may also be responsible for the recent hint of beyond-the-SM physics by the CDF collaboration.

Nonlinear corrections in the quantization of a weakly nonideal Bose gas at zero temperature. II. The general case

In the present paper, discussion of the canonical quantization of a weakly nonideal Bose gas at zero temperature within the framework of the Bogolyubov approach is continued. Contrary to the previous paper on this subject, here the two-body interaction potential is considered in the general form. It is shown that in such a case consideration of the first nonlinear correction also leads to the automatic particle number conservation without any additional assumptions or modification of the resulting effective Hamiltonian.

Long-term clade-wide shifts in trilobite segment number and allocation during the Palaeozoic.

Arthropods are characterized by having an exoskeleton, paired jointed appendages and segmented body. The number and shape of those segments vary dramatically and unravelling the evolution of segmentation is fundamental to our understanding of arthropod diversification. Because trilobites added segments to the body post-hatching which were expressed and preserved in biomineralized exoskeletal sclerites, their fossil record provides an excellent system for understanding the early evolution of segmentation in arthropods. Over the last 200 years, palaeontologists have hypothesized trends in segment number and allocation in the trilobite body, but they have never been rigorously tested. We tabulated the number of segments in the post-cephalic body for over 1500 species, selected to maximize taxonomic, geographical and temporal representation. Analysis reveals long-term shifts in segment number and allocation over the 250-million-year evolutionary history of the clade. For most of the Palaeozoic, the median number of segments in the body did not change. Instead, the total range decreased over time and there was long-term increase in the proportion of segments allocated to the fused terminal sclerite relative to the articulated thoracic region. There was also increased conservation of thoracic segment number within families. Neither taxonomic turnover nor trends in functionally relevant defensive behaviour sufficiently explain these patterns.

Photon number conservation in time dependent systems [Invited

Time dependent systems in general do not conserve photons nor do they conserve energy. However when parity-time symmetry holds Maxwell's equations can sometimes both conserve photon number and energy. Here we show that photon conservation is the more widely applicable law which can hold in circumstances where energy conservation is violated shedding further light on an amplification mechanism identified in previous papers as a process of conserved photons climbing a frequency ladder.

Cooper-Frye sampling with short-range repulsion

This work incorporates the effect of short-range repulsion between particles into the Cooper-Frye hadron sampling procedure. This is achieved by means of a rejection sampling step, which prohibits any pair of particles from overlapping in the coordinate space, effectively modeling the effect of hard-core repulsion. The new procedure---called the fist sampler---is based on the package thermal-fist. It is used here to study the effect of excluded volume on cumulants of the (net-)proton number distribution in central collisions of heavy ions in a broad collision energy range in conjunction with exact global conservation of baryon number, electric charge, and strangeness. The results are compared with earlier calculations based on analytical approximations, quantifying the accuracy of the latter at different collision energies. An additional advantage of the new method over the analytic approaches is that it offers the flexibility provided by event generators, making it straightforwardly extendable to other observables.

Prethermalization in one-dimensional quantum many-body systems with confinement

Unconventional nonequilibrium phases with restricted correlation spreading and slow entanglement growth have been proposed to emerge in systems with confined excitations, calling their thermalization dynamics into question. Here, we show that in confined systems the thermalization dynamics after a quantum quench instead exhibits multiple stages with well separated time scales. As an example, we consider the confined Ising spin chain, in which domain walls in the ordered phase form bound states reminiscent of mesons. The system first relaxes towards a prethermal state, described by a Gibbs ensemble with conserved meson number. The prethermal state arises from rare events in which mesons are created in close vicinity, leading to an avalanche of scattering events. Only at much later times a true thermal equilibrium is achieved in which the meson number conservation is violated by a mechanism akin to the Schwinger effect. The discussed prethermalization dynamics is directly relevant to generic one-dimensional, many-body systems with confined excitations.

Strangeness thermodynamic instabilities in hot and dense nuclear matter

We explore the presence of thermodynamic instabilities and, consequently, the realization of a pure hadronic phase transition in the hot and finite baryon density nuclear matter. The analysis is performed by means of an effective relativistic mean-field model with the inclusion of hyperons, varDelta -isobars, and the lightest pseudoscalar and vector meson degrees of freedom. The Gibbs conditions on the global conservation of baryon number and zero net strangeness in symmetric nuclear matter are required. Similarly to the liquid–gas phase transition, we show that a phase transition, characterized by mechanical instabilities (due to fluctuations on the baryon number) and chemical-diffusive instabilities (due to fluctuations on the strangeness number), can take place for a finite range of varDelta -meson coupling constants, compatible with different experimental constraints. The hadronic phase transition, which presents similar features to the quark-hadron phase transition, is characterized by different strangeness content during the mixed phase and, consequently, by a sensible variation of the strange anti-particle to particle ratios.

On the linearized system of equations for the condensate–normal fluid interaction at very low temperature

AbstractThe linearization around one of its equilibrium of a system that describes the correlations between the superfluid component and the normal fluid part of a condensed Bose gas in the approximation of very low temperature and small condensate density is studied. A simple and transparent argument gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of global solutions satisfying the conservation of the total number of particles and energy. The global solutions describe the evolution in time of the density of the thermal cloud and, unlike in previous work, that of the condensate's density. Their convergence to a suitable stationary state is also shown and rates of convergence for the normal fluid and superfluid components are obtained.

Closing in on critical net-baryon fluctuations at LHC energies: Cumulants up to third order in Pb–Pb collisions

Fluctuation measurements are important sources of information on the mechanism of particle production at LHC energies. This article reports the first experimental results on third-order cumulants of the net-proton distributions in Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy sNN=5.02 TeV recorded by the ALICE detector. The results on the second-order cumulants of net-proton distributions at sNN=2.76 and 5.02 TeV are also discussed in view of effects due to the global and local baryon number conservation. The results demonstrate the presence of long-range rapidity correlations between protons and antiprotons. Such correlations originate from the early phase of the collision. The experimental results are compared with HIJING and EPOS model calculations, and the dependence of the fluctuation measurements on the phase-space coverage is examined in the context of lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD) and hadron resonance gas (HRG) model estimations. The measured third-order cumulants are consistent with zero within experimental uncertainties of about 4% and are described well by LQCD and HRG predictions.

3D photon conserving code for time-dependent general relativistic radiative transfer: CARTOON

ABSTRACT We develop the three-dimensional general relativistic radiative transfer code: CARTOON (Calculation code of Authentic Radiative Transfer based On phOton Number conservation in curved space–time) which is improved from the two-dimensional code: ARTIST developed by Takahashi & Umemura (2017). In CARTOON, the frequency-integrated general relativistic radiative transfer equation is solved in a photon number-conserving manner, and the isotropic and coherent scattering in the zero angular momentum observers (ZAMO) frame and the fluid rest frame is incorporated. By calculating the average energy of photons, energy conservation of the radiation is also guaranteed. With the test calculations in two-dimensional and three-dimensional space, we have demonstrated that the wavefront propagation in black hole space–time can be correctly solved in CARTOON conserving photon numbers. The position of the wavefront coincides with the analytical solution and the number of photons remains constant until the wavefront reaches the event horizon. We also solve the radiative transfer equation on the geodesic reaching the observer’s screen. The time variation of the intensity map on the observer’s screen can be simultaneously and consistently calculated with the time variation of the radiation field around the black hole. In addition, the black hole shadow can be reproduced in moderately optically thin situations.

Consequences of neutron decay inside neutron stars

The hypothesis that neutrons might decay into dark matter is explored using neutron stars as a testing ground. It is found that in order to obtain stars with masses at the upper end of those observed, the dark matter must experience a relatively strong self-interaction. Conservation of baryon number and energy then require that the star must undergo some heating, with a decrease in radius, leading to an increase in speed of rotation over a period of days.

Double Beta Decay: A Shell Model Approach

Studies of weak interaction in nuclei are important tools for testing different aspects of the fundamental symmetries of the Standard Model. Neutrinoless double beta decay offers an unique venue of investigating the possibility that neutrinos are Majorana fermions and that the lepton number conservation law is violated. Here, I use a shell model approach to calculate the nuclear matrix elements needed to extract the lepton-number-violating parameters of a few nuclei of experimental interest from the latest experimental lower limits of neutrinoless double beta decay half-lives. The analysis presented here could reveal valuable information regarding the dominant neutrinoless double beta decay mechanism if experimental half-life data become available for different isotopes. A complementary shell model analysis of the two-neutrino double beta decay nuclear matrix elements and half-lives is also presented.

Similarity evaluation of the pump simulation loop in STELLA-2 for conservation of mechanical sodium pump characteristics

The STELLA-2 is a large-scale sodium thermal-hydraulic integral effect test facility and supports the development of PGSFR. The facility adopted Pump Simulation Loop System (PSLS) concept for the mechanical sodium pump in the reference reactor to control and to measure the primary sodium flow. Since the component (mechanical pump) is replaced by the loop, it is very important to evaluate the similarity between the pump and the loop. In this paper, to simulate the characteristic of the mechanical sodium pump, the pressure loss along the various options of the loop was evaluated and the comprehensive validity of each design options was analyzed. Using the similarity criteria based on the Richardson number and Euler number conservation, the PSLS design was finalized and the result was within the acceptable error range. Finally, the result of this study was used for construction of the overall facility, STELLA-2.