Accelerator Neutrinos

Abstract:

The current laws of physics do not explain the observed imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe. Sakharov proposed that an explanation would require the violation of CP symmetry between matter and antimatter. The only CP violation observed so far is in the weak interactions of quarks, and it is too small to explain the matter-antimatter imbalance of the universe. It has been shown that CP violation in the lepton sector could generate the matter-antimatter disparity through the process called leptogenesis. The quantum mixing of neutrinos, the neutral leptons in the Standard Model, provides a potential source of CP violation through a complex phase dCP, which may have consequences for theoretical models of leptogenesis. This CP violation can be measured in muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations and the corresponding antineutrino oscillations, which are experimentally accessible with accelerator-produced beams as established by the T2K experiment. Until now, the value of dCP has not been significantly constrained by neutrino oscillation experiments. Here the T2K collaboration reports a measurement that favors large enhancement of the neutrino oscillation probability, excluding values of dCP which result in a large enhancement of the observed anti-neutrino oscillation probability at three standard deviations (3 sigma). The 3 sigma confidence level interval for dCP, which is cyclic and repeats every 2pi, is [-3.41,-0.03] for the so-called normal mass ordering, and [-2.54,-0.32] for the inverted mass ordering. Our results show an indication of CP violation in the lepton sector. Herein we establish methods for sensitive searches for matter-antimatter asymmetry in neutrino oscillations using accelerator-produced neutrino beams. Future measurements with larger data samples will determine whether the leptonic CP violation is larger than the quark sector CP violation.

Abstract:

The production of single top quarks and top antiquarks via the t-channel exchange of a virtual W boson is measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The full Run 2 data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector in the years 2015–2018 is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The absolute and normalised production cross-sections are measured differentially as a function of the transverse momentum and absolute rapidity of the top quark and top antiquark. In addition, the ratio of top quark to top antiquark production cross-sections is measured. The measured distributions are compared with next-to-leading-order quantum chromodynamics predictions obtained with different combinations of matrix-element generators, parton-shower programs and proton parton distribution functions, as well as to next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations. Overall, good agreement is observed between the measurements and the theoretical predictions. For most measured distributions, the sensitivity to differences between the predictions is limited by the systematic uncertainties in the measurement. The measured differential distributions are also interpreted in an effective field theory approach to constrain the Wilson-Coefficient CQq3,1$$ {C}_{Qq}^{3,1} $$ associated with a four-quark operator. The interpretation accounts for the effect of the selection efficiency, which is altered significantly by non-zero contributions from CQq3,1$$ {C}_{Qq}^{3,1} $$.

Abstract:

A measurement of the associated production of a top-quark pair with the Higgs boson (tt¯H$$ t\overline{t}H $$) in multilepton final states is presented. The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at s=13$$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. Six final states defined by the number and flavour of reconstructed charged leptons are combined in a simultaneous likelihood fit to extract the tt¯H$$ t\overline{t}H $$ signal and constrain the most relevant backgrounds. The measured tt¯H$$ t\overline{t}H $$ cross-section normalised to Standard Model (SM) prediction is σtt¯H/σSM=0.63−0.19+0.20$$ {\sigma}_{t\overline{t}H}/{\sigma}^{\mathrm{SM}}=0.{63}_{-0.19}^{+0.20} $$. This result corresponds to an observed (expected) significance of 3.3σ (5.3σ). Additionally, two other fits are used to measure the tt¯H$$ t\overline{t}H $$ cross-section differentially in bins of the Higgs boson transverse momentum in the simplified template cross-section framework, and to extract the associated production cross-section of a single top-quark with the Higgs boson (tH) together with the tt¯H$$ t\overline{t}H $$ one. The CP structure of the top quark-Higgs boson Yukawa coupling is probed through an analysis of tt¯H$$ t\overline{t}H $$ and tH events. The results are compatible with the SM hypothesis, and values of the mixing angle between CP-even and CP-odd top-Higgs Yukawa couplings of |α| > 62° are excluded at 68% confidence level.

Abstract:

We present an inclusive search for anomalous production of single-photon events from neutrino interactions in the MicroBooNE experiment. The search and its signal definition are motivated by the previous observation of a low-energy excess of electromagnetic shower events from the MiniBooNE experiment. We use the Wire-Cell reconstruction framework to select a sample of inclusive single-photon final-state interactions with a final efficiency and purity of 7.0% and 40.2%, respectively. We leverage simultaneous measurements of sidebands of charged current ${\nu }_{\mu }$ interactions and neutral current interactions producing ${\pi }^0$ mesons to constrain signal and background predictions and reduce uncertainties. We perform a blind analysis using a dataset collected from February 2016 to July 2018, corresponding to an exposure of $6.34\times {10}^{20}$ protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab. In the full signal region, we observe agreement between the data and the prediction, with a goodness-of-fit $p$ value of 0.11. We then isolate a subsample of these events containing no visible protons, and observe $93\pm 22(\mathrm{stat})\pm 35(\mathrm{syst})$ data events above prediction, corresponding to just above $2\sigma$ local significance, concentrated at shower energies below 600 MeV.

Abstract:

The angular distributions of Drell–Yan lepton pairs provide sensitive probes of the underlying dynamics of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) effects in vector-boson production. This paper presents for the first time the measurement of the full set of angular coefficients together with the differential cross-section as a function of the transverse momentum of the W boson, in the full phase space of the decay leptons. The measurements are performed separately for the W-$$W^-$$ and W+$$W^+$$ channels. The analysis uses proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2017 and 2018, during special low-luminosity runs with a reduced number of interactions per bunch crossings (pile-up). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 338 pb-1$$^{-1}$$ at a centre-of-mass energy of s=13$$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ TeV. The low pile-up environment provides excellent experimental conditions for high-precision measurements of W-boson production. All results agree with theoretical predictions incorporating finite-order QCD corrections up to order αS2$$\alpha _S^2$$.