AION/Magis

Abstract:

We investigate, in the context of asymmetric dark matter (DM), a new mechanism of spontaneous co-genesis of linked DM and baryon asymmetries, explaining the observed relation between the baryon and DM densities, Omega_DM/Omega_B ~ 5. The co-genesis mechanism requires a light scalar field, phi, with mass below 5 eV which couples derivatively to DM, much like a `dark axion'. The field phi can itself provide a final state into which the residual symmetric DM component can annihilate away.

Abstract:

We report on a search for anomalous production of Z boson pairs through a massive resonance decay in data corresponding to 2.5-2.9fb-1 of integrated luminosity in pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV using the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. This analysis, with more data and channels where the Z bosons decay to muons or jets, supersedes the 1.1fb-1 four-electron channel result previously published by CDF. In order to maintain high efficiency for muons, we use a new forward tracking algorithm and muon identification requirements optimized for these high signal-to-background channels. Predicting the dominant backgrounds in each channel entirely from sideband data samples, we observe four-body invariant mass spectra above 300GeV/c2 that are consistent with background. We set limits using the acceptance for a massive graviton resonance that are 7-20 times stronger than the previously published direct limits on resonant ZZ diboson production. © 2011 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

A study of event-shape observables in proton-antiproton collisions at √s=1.96TeV is presented. The data for this analysis were recorded by the CDF II Detector at the Tevatron Collider. The variables studied are the transverse thrust and thrust minor, both defined in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction. The observables are measured using energies from unclustered calorimeter cells. In addition to studies of the differential distributions, we present the dependence of event-shape mean values on the leading-jet transverse energy. Data are compared with pythia Tune A and to resummed parton-level predictions that were matched to fixed-order results at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy (NLO+NLL). Predictions from pythia Tune A agree fairly well with the data. However, the underlying event contributes significantly to these observables, making it difficult to make direct comparisons to the NLO+NLL predictions, which do not account for the underlying event. To overcome this difficulty, we introduce a new observable, a weighted difference of the mean values of the thrust and thrust minor, which is less sensitive to the underlying event, allowing for a comparison with NLO+NLL. Both pythia Tune A and the NLO+NLL calculations agree well within the 20% theoretical uncertainty with the data for this observable, indicating that perturbative QCD successfully describes shapes of the hadronic final states. © 2011 American Physical Society.