Physics In Rare Decays Research Articles

Monochromatization of e⁺e⁻ Colliders with a Large Crossing Angle

The relative center-of-mass energy spread at $e^+e^-$ colliders is about $10^{-3}$, which is much larger than the widths of narrow resonances produced in the s-channel in $e^+e^-$ collisions. This circumstance greatly lowers the resonance production rates of J/Psi, Upsilon(1S), Upsilon(2S), Upsilon(3S) and makes it extremely difficult to observe resonance production of the Higgs boson. Thus, a significant reduction of the center-of-mass energy spread would open up great opportunities in the search for new physics in rare decays of narrow resonances, the search for new narrow states with small $\Gamma_{e^+e^-}$, the study of true muonium and tauonium, etc. The existing monochromatization scheme is only suitable for head-on collisions, while $e^+e^-$ colliders with crossing angles (the so-called Crab Waist collision scheme) can provide significantly higher luminosity due to reduced collision effects. In this paper, we propose a new monochromatization method for colliders with a large crossing angle. The contribution of the beam energy spread to the spread of the center-of-mass energy is canceled by introducing an appropriate energy-angle correlation at the interaction point; $\sigma_W/W \sim (3-5)10^{-6}$ appears possible. Limitations of the proposed method are also considered.

The hierarchion, a relaxion addressing the Standard Model\u2019s hierarchies

We present a mechanism that addresses the electroweak, the strong CP, and the flavor hierarchies of the Standard Model (including neutrino masses) in a unified way. The naturalness of the electroweak scale is solved together with the strong CP problem by the Nelson-Barr relaxion: the relaxion field is identified with the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of an abelian symmetry with no QCD anomaly. The Nelson-Barr sector generates the “rolling” potential and the relaxion vacuum expectation value at the stopping point is mapped to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase. The same abelian symmetry accounts for the Standard Model’s mass hierarchies and flavor textures through the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism. We show how the “backreaction” potential of the relaxion can be induced by a sterile neutrino sector, without any extra state with electroweak quantum numbers. The same construction successfully explains neutrino masses and mixings. The only light field in our model is the relaxion, which we call the hierarchion because it is central to our construction that accounts for all the Standard Model hierarchies. Given its interplay with flavor symmetries, the hierarchion can be probed in flavor-violating decays of the Standard Model fermions, motivating a further experimental effort in looking for new physics in rare decays of leptons and mesons.

LHCb RICH Upgrade: an overview of the photon detector and electronic system

The LHCb experiment is one of the four large detectors operating at the LHC at CERN and it is mainly devoted to CP violation measurements and to the search for new physics in rare decays of beauty and charm hadrons. The data from the two Ring Image Cherenkov (RICH-1 and RICH-2) detectors are essential to identify particles in a wide momentum range. From 2019 onwards 14 TeV collisions with luminosities reaching up to 2 × 1033 cm−2s−1 with 25 ns bunch spacing are planned, with the goal of collecting 5 fb−1 of data per year. In order to avoid degradation of the PID performance at such high rate (40 MHz), the RICH detector has to be upgraded. New photodetectors (Multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, MaPMTs) have been chosen and will be read out using an 8-channel chip, named CLARO, designed to sustain a photon counting rate up to 40 MHz, while minimizing the power consumption and the cross-talk. A 128-bit digital register allows selection of thresholds and attenuation values and provides features useful for testing and debugging. Photosensors and electronics are arranged in basic units, the first prototypes of which have been tested in charged particle beams in autumn 2014. An overview of the CLARO features and of the readout electronics is presented.

Prospects for New Physics in rare decays, mixing and related CP violation at LHCb

The LHCb experiment currently constructed at CERN has been designed to perform precision measurements on CP asymmetries and to measure rare decays of B mesons. We discuss some selected key measurements to demonstrate the potential of LHCb to find New Physics beyond the Standard Model.