FASER2

Abstract:

Jets with different radius parameters R are an important tool for probing quantum chromodynamics processes at different angular scales. Jets with small R=0.2$$R=0.2$$ are instrumental in measurements of the substructure of large-R jets resulting from collimated hadronic decays of energetic W,  Z,  and Higgs bosons, top quarks, and of potential new resonances. This paper presents measurements of the energy scale, resolution, and associated uncertainties of jets with radius parameters R=0.2$$R=0.2$$ and 0.6,  obtained using the ATLAS detector. The results are based on 37fb-1$$37~\text {fb}^{-1}$$ of proton–proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of s=13$$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV. A new in situ method for measuring jet energy scale differences between data and Monte Carlo simulations is presented. The systematic uncertainties in the jet energy scale for central jets (|η|<1.2)$$(|\eta | < 1.2)$$ typically vary from 1% to about 5% as a function of |η|$$|\eta |$$ at very low transverse momentum, pT,$$p_{\text {T}},$$ of around 20 GeV for both R=0.2$$R=0.2$$ and 0.6 jets. The relative energy resolution ranges from (35±6)%$$(35 \pm 6)\%$$ at pT=20$$p_{\text {T}} = 20$$ GeV to (6±0.5)%$$(6 \pm 0.5)\%$$ at pT=300$$p_{\text {T}} = 300$$ GeV for central R=0.2$$R=0.2$$ jets, and is found to be slightly worse for R=0.6$$R=0.6$$ jets. Finally, the effect of close-by hadronic activity on the jet energy scale is investigated and is found to be well modelled by the ATLAS Monte Carlo simulations.

Abstract:

The recent IceCube detection of TeV neutrino emission from the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068 suggests that active galactic nuclei (AGNs) could make a sizable contribution to the diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos. The absence of TeV γ-rays from NGC 1068 indicates neutrino production in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole, where the high radiation density leads to γ-ray attenuation. Therefore, any potential neutrino emission from similar sources is not expected to correlate with high-energy γ-rays. Disk-corona models predict neutrino emission from Seyfert galaxies to correlate with keV X-rays because they are tracers of coronal activity. Using through-going track events from the Northern Sky recorded by IceCube between 2011 and 2021, we report results from a search for individual and aggregated neutrino signals from 27 additional Seyfert galaxies that are contained in the Swift's Burst Alert Telescope AGN Spectroscopic Survey. Besides the generic single power law, we evaluate the spectra predicted by the disk-corona model assuming stochastic acceleration parameters that match the measured flux from NGC 1068. Assuming all sources to be intrinsically similar to NGC 1068, our findings constrain the collective neutrino emission from X-ray bright Seyfert galaxies in the northern sky, but, at the same time, show excesses of neutrinos that could be associated with the objects NGC 4151 and CGCG 420-015. These excesses result in a 2.7σ significance with respect to background expectations.

Abstract:

We present a search for the diffuse extremely-high-energy neutrino flux using 12.6 years of IceCube data. The nonobservation of neutrinos with energies well above 10 PeV constrains the all-flavor neutrino flux at 1018 eV to a level of E2Φνe+νμ+ντ≃10−8 GeV cm-2 s-1 sr-1, the most stringent limit to date. Using these data, we constrain the proton fraction of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) above ≃30 EeV to be ≲70% (at 90% CL) if the cosmological evolution of the sources is comparable to or stronger than the star formation rate. This is the first result to disfavor the “proton-only” hypothesis for UHECR in this evolution regime using neutrino data. This result complements direct air-shower measurements by being insensitive to uncertainties associated with hadronic interaction models. We also evaluate the tension between IceCube’s nonobservation and the ∼200 PeV KM3NeT neutrino candidate (KM3-230213A), finding it to be ∼2.9σ based on a joint-livetime fit between neutrino datasets.

Abstract:

A search is performed for long-lived heavy neutral leptons (HNLs), produced through the decay of a W boson along with a muon or electron. Two channels are explored: a leptonic channel, in which the HNL decays into two leptons and a neutrino, and a semi-leptonic channel, in which the HNL decays into a lepton and a charged pion. The search is performed with 140 fb−1 of s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. No excess of events is observed; Dirac-like and Majorana-like HNLs with masses below 14.5 GeV and mixing coefficients as small as 10−7 are excluded at the 95% confidence level. The results are interpreted under different assumptions on the flavour of the leptons from the HNL decays.

Abstract:

This paper presents a search for massive, charged, long-lived particles with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV. These particles are expected to move significantly slower than the speed of light. In this paper, two signal regions provide complementary sensitivity. In one region, events are selected with at least one charged-particle track with high transverse momentum, large specific ionisation measured in the pixel detector, and time of flight to the hadronic calorimeter inconsistent with the speed of light. In the other region, events are selected with at least two tracks of opposite charge which both have a high transverse momentum and an anomalously large specific ionisation. The search is sensitive to particles with lifetimes greater than about 3 ns with masses ranging from 200 GeV to 3 TeV. The results are interpreted to set constraints on the supersymmetric pair production of long-lived R-hadrons, charginos and staus, with mass limits extending beyond those from previous searches in broad ranges of lifetime.