This article reports the measurement of the $^{235}$U-induced antineutrino spectrum shape by the STEREO experiment. 43'000 antineutrinos have been detected at about 10 m from the highly enriched core of the ILL reactor during 118 full days equivalent at nominal power. The measured inverse beta decay spectrum is unfolded to provide a pure $^{235}$U spectrum in antineutrino energy. A careful study of the unfolding procedure, including a cross-validation by an independent framework, has shown that no major biases are introduced by the method. A significant local distortion is found with respect to predictions around $E_\nu \simeq 5.3$ MeV. A gaussian fit of this local excess leads to an amplitude of $A = 12.1 \pm 3.4\%$ (3.5$\sigma$).
STEREO Detector Response Matrix, sampled using STEREO's simulation using neutrinos with energy distributed according to HFR's IBD yield prediction. The matrix is given as a 200x22 matrix, with 200 50keV-wide $E_\nu$ bins (centers ranging from 0.05 to 10 MeV) and 22 250keV-wide measured-energy bins corresponding to measured data. The matrix is not normalized; desired normalization (e.g., $\sum_j R_{ij} = e_i$ where $e_i$ is the efficiency) has to be applied before the matrix can be used.
Anomalies in past neutrino measurements have led to the discovery that these particles have non-zero mass and oscillate between their three flavors when they propagate. In the 2010's, similar anomalies observed in the antineutrino spectra emitted by nuclear reactors have triggered the hypothesis of the existence of a supplementary neutrino state that would be sterile i.e. not interacting via the weak interaction. The STEREO experiment was designed to study this scientific case that would potentially extend the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Here we present a complete study based on our full set of data with significantly improved sensitivity. Installed at the ILL (Institut Laue Langevin) research reactor, STEREO has accurately measured the antineutrino energy spectrum associated to the fission of 235U. This measurement confirms the anomalies whereas, thanks to the segmentation of the STEREO detector and its very short mean distance to the core (10~m), the same data reject the hypothesis of a light sterile neutrino. Such a direct measurement of the antineutrino energy spectrum suggests instead that biases in the nuclear experimental data used for the predictions are at the origin of the anomalies. Our result supports the neutrino content of the Standard Model and establishes a new reference for the 235U antineutrino energy spectrum. We anticipate that this result will allow to progress towards finer tests of the fundamental properties of neutrinos but also to benchmark models and nuclear data of interest for reactor physics and for observations of astrophysical or geo-neutrinos.
STEREO IBD Spectrum for phase-II and phase-III. The spectra are given in nu/day and normalized to reactor power in cm2/fission/MeV with 22 250keV-wide measured-energy bins, ranging from 1.625MeV (lower edge of lowest bin) to 7.125 MeV (upper edge of highest bin). The normalized rates (cm2/fission/MeV) are split between U5 and non-U5 components (Aluminium and Off-Equilibrium corrections).
STEREO Global Covariance Matrix for phase-II and phase-III. The matrix is given as a 44x44 matrix, with 44 bins for phase-II (bins 1-22) and phase-III (bins 23-44) corresponding to the prompt spectra with 22 250-keV bins, ranging from 1.625 to 7.125 MeV; it is expressed in (cm2/fission/MeV)².
STEREO detection and selection efficiency for Phase-II and III. The efficiency is given in 22 antineutrino energy bins, bins 2-21 corresponding to the binning of the unfolded spectrum ranging 2.375-7.875 MeV, bin 1 integrates from 1.875 MeV to 2.375 MeV and bin 22 integrates from 7.875 MeV to 8.125 MeV.
We report the result of a brief experiment to measure the cross section for photoproduction of Jψ(3100). At a mean energy of 55 GeV we find this cross section per nucleon to be 37.5 ± 8.2 (statistical) ± 4 (systematic) nb. The result establishes the previously indicated rise in Jψ photoproduction on protons above 20 GeV and suggests that the rise has occurred by 55 GeV.
A comprehensive study of the local and nonlocal amplitudes contributing to the decay $B^0\rightarrow K^{*0}(\to K^+\pi^-) \mu^+\mu^-$ is performed by analysing the phase-space distribution of the decay products. The analysis is based on $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.4fb$^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. This measurement employs for the first time a model of both one-particle and two-particle nonlocal amplitudes, and utilises the complete dimuon mass spectrum without any veto regions around the narrow charmonium resonances. In this way it is possible to explicitly isolate the local and nonlocal contributions and capture the interference between them. The results show that interference with nonlocal contributions, although larger than predicted, only has a minor impact on the Wilson Coefficients determined from the fit to the data. For the local contributions, the Wilson Coefficient $C_9$, responsible for vector dimuon currents, exhibits a $2.1\sigma$ deviation from the Standard Model expectation. The Wilson Coefficients $C_{10}$, $C_{9}'$ and $C_{10}'$ are all in better agreement than $C_{9}$ with the Standard Model and the global significance is at the level of $1.5\sigma$. The model used also accounts for nonlocal contributions from $B^{0}\to K^{*0}\left[\tau^+\tau^-\to \mu^+\mu^-\right]$ rescattering, resulting in the first direct measurement of the $b s\tau\tau$ vector effective-coupling $C_{9\tau}$.
The fragmentation properties of jets containing $b$-hadrons are studied using charged $B$ mesons in 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the period from 2015 to 2018. The $B$ mesons are reconstructed using the decay of $B^{\pm}$ into $J/\psi K^{\pm}$, with the $J/\psi$ decaying into a pair of muons. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with radius parameter $R=0.4$. The measurement determines the longitudinal and transverse momentum profiles of the reconstructed $B$ hadrons with respect to the axes of the jets to which they are geometrically associated. These distributions are measured in intervals of the jet transverse momentum, ranging from 50 GeV to above 100 GeV. The results are corrected for detector effects and compared with several Monte Carlo predictions using different parton shower and hadronisation models. The results for the longitudinal and transverse profiles provide useful inputs to improve the description of heavy-flavour fragmentation in jets.
ALICE is a large experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Located 52 meters underground, its detectors are suitable to measure muons produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this paper, the studies of the cosmic muons registered by ALICE during Run 2 (2015--2018) are described. The analysis is limited to multimuon events defined as events with more than four detected muons ($N_\mu>4$) and in the zenith angle range $0^{\circ}<\theta<50^{\circ}$. The results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations using three of the main hadronic interaction models describing the air shower development in the atmosphere: QGSJET-II-04, EPOS-LHC, and SIBYLL 2.3d. The interval of the primary cosmic-ray energy involved in the measured muon multiplicity distribution is about $ 4 \times 10^{15}<E_\mathrm{prim}< 6 \times 10^{16}$~eV. In this interval none of the three models is able to describe precisely the trend of the composition of cosmic rays as the energy increases. However, QGSJET-II-04 is found to be the only model capable of reproducing reasonably well the muon multiplicity distribution, assuming a heavy composition of the primary cosmic rays over the whole energy range, while SIBYLL 2.3d and EPOS-LHC underpredict the number of muons in a large interval of multiplicity by more than $20\%$ and $30\%$, respectively. The rate of high muon multiplicity events ($N_\mu>100$) obtained with QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d is compatible with the data, while EPOS-LHC produces a significantly lower rate ($55\%$ of the measured rate). For both QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d, the rate is close to the data when the composition is assumed to be dominated by heavy elements, an outcome compatible with the average energy $E_\mathrm{prim} \sim 10^{17}$ eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.
An experimental analysis of p p interactions between the p p threshold (√ s = 1878 MeV) and √ s = 2 100 MeV leads to clear evidence for an s -channel effect in the reaction p p → π + π − π + π − π 0 at 1949 ± 10 MeV /c 2 (Γ ⋍ 80 MeV /c 2 ) . A comparison is made with the backward elastic scattering and charge-exchange behaviour. An interpretation in terms of an object strongly coupled to mesonic decay modes, with small or middle-sized elasticity ( x ⩽ 0.135 −0.06 +0.13 ) is given. No significant narrow structure is observed in the backward elastic scattering between 1.9 and 2 GeV. The experimental resolution of √ s in this case is 2 MeV.
We have investigated the particle production and fragmentation of nuclei participating in the interactions of 10.6 GeV/n gold nuclei in nuclear emulsions. A new criterion has been found to distinguish between the interactions of these gold nuclei with the light (H,C,N,O) and heavy (Ag, Br) target nuclei in the emulsion. This has allowed separate analyses of the multiplicity and pseudo-rapidity distributions of the singly charged particles emitted in Au-(H,C,N,O) and Au-(Ag,Br) interactions, as well as of the modes of breakup of the projectile and target nuclei. The pseudo-rapidity distributions show strong forward asymmetries, particularly for the interactions with the light nuclei. Heavy target nuclei produce a more severe breakup of the projectile gold nucleus than do the lighter targets. A negative correlation between the number of fragments emitted from the target nuclei and the degree of centrality of the collisions has been observed, which can be attributed to the total destruction of the relatively light target nuclei by these very heavy projectile nuclei.
The production of beauty hadrons was measured via semi-leptonic decays at mid-rapidity with the ALICE detector at the LHC in the transverse momentum interval $1<p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$ in minimum-bias p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and in $1.3<p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$ in the 20% most central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV. The pp reference spectra at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=2.76$ TeV, needed for the calculation of the nuclear modification factors $R_{\rm pPb}$ and $R_{\rm PbPb}$, were obtained by a pQCD-driven scaling of the cross section of electrons from beauty-hadron decays measured at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. In the $p_{\rm T}$ interval $3<p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$ a suppression of the yield of electrons from beauty-hadron decays is observed in Pb-Pb compared to pp collisions. Towards lower $p_{\rm T}$, the $R_{\rm PbPb}$ values increase with large systematic uncertainties. The $R_{\rm pPb}$ is consistent with unity within systematic uncertainties and is well described by theoretical calculations that include cold nuclear matter effects in p-Pb collisions. The measured $R_{\rm pPb}$ and these calculations indicate that cold nuclear matter effects are small at high transverse momentum also in Pb-Pb collisions. Therefore, the observed reduction of $R_{\rm PbPb}$ below unity at high $p_{\rm T}$ may be ascribed to an effect of the hot and dense medium formed in Pb-Pb collisions.
The production of prompt $D^{0}$, $D^{+}_{\rm s}$, and $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$ hadrons, and their ratios, $D^{+}_{\rm s}$/$D^{0}$ and $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$/$D^{0}$, are measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at midrapidity ($|y| <0.5$) with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed as a function of the charm-hadron transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) in intervals of charged-particle multiplicity, measured with two multiplicity estimators covering different pseudorapidity regions. While the strange to non-strange $D^{+}_{\rm s}$/$D^{0}$ ratio indicates no significant multiplicity dependence, the baryon-to-meson $p_{\rm T}$-differential $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$/$D^{0}$ ratio shows a multiplicity-dependent enhancement, with a significance of 5.3$\sigma$ for $1< p_{\rm T} < 12$ GeV/$c$, comparing the highest multiplicity interval with respect to the lowest one. The measurements are compared with a theoretical model that explains the multiplicity dependence by a canonical treatment of quantum charges in the statistical hadronisation approach, and with predictions from event generators that implement colour reconnection mechanisms beyond the leading colour approximation to model the hadronisation process. The $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$/$D^{0}$ ratios as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ present a similar shape and magnitude as the $\Lambda/K^{0}_{s}$ ratios in comparable multiplicity intervals, suggesting a potential common mechanism for light- and charm-hadron formation, with analogous multiplicity dependence. The $p_{\rm T}$-integrated ratios, extrapolated down to $p_{\rm T}$=0, do not show a significant dependence on multiplicity within the uncertainties.
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