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At least 235 records · Page 13

High-Enthalpy Testing to Validate Simulation of an Aerosol Capture Probe

AERACEPT (Aerosol Rapid Analysis Combined Entry Probe/sonde Technology) is a developing technology enabling in-situ aerosol particle sampling and analysis in a small spacecraft mission envelope. It integrates a passive aerosol sample collection system into a probe’s thermal protection system (TPS) to remove the need for heat shield separation and active descent control (parachutes, gliders, etc.). AERACEPT is being validated against the requirements of the Nephele mission concept, which targets the middle and lower Venus cloud layers. The proposed technology employs 3D Carbon-Carbon (3D-CC) at the probe’s nose to withstand the extreme environments encountered in a Venus entry without producing pyrolysis gases that would contaminate the mission sample collection. Any shape change of this 3D-CC sample inlet will affect airflow through the sampling system, thereby impacting aerosol sample collection bias and efficiency. Accurate prediction of the nose’s material response during entry is there-fore of fundamental importance to the development and practical use of this technology. As a result, the AERACEPT project is planning a test campaign in the newly built PlasmatronX facility with a novel “Open Iso-Q” test article to validate state-of-the-art material response tools for a simulated Venus entry. The PlasmatronX is a 350 kW inductively-coupled plasma facility developed and run by the Center for Hypersonics and Entry Systems Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The facility can support ground testing for a variety of planetary destinations by simulating entry conditions in Nitrogen, Air, and Carbon Dioxide. To best simulate the Venus atmosphere and match flight-like recession, the planned AERACEPT test campaign will use Carbon Dioxide as its test gas. AERACEPT has designed two test articles for this campaign: 1) a standard test article whose curved surface approximates a constant applied heat flux (“Closed Iso-Q” model) and 2) a novel inlet test article with a through-hole at the stagnation point (“Open Iso-Q” model). Both article types consist of a 3D-CC sample bonded to a graphite fixture. All articles will be laser scanned before and after testing to estimate shape change and recession, and the “Closed Iso-Q” articles will be instrumented with thermocouples to provide temperature histories. The test article temperatures and inlet shape change will be compared against simulations run with the Porous material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM (PATO) to validate the AERACEPT 3D-CC material response model. Due to the high thermal conductivity of 3D-CC, multidimensional effects have a large influence on the test article temperature and the standard 1-D material response tools are not sufficient for test planning. The test campaign features (e.g. article design, run duration, heat fluxes) are therefore informed by a series of 3-D simulations using state-of-the-art material response tools such as PATO. The test campaign is scheduled for spring of 2024. Expected results include 1) Key drivers of selected test conditions (e.g. matching mission flight atmosphere & recession), 2) Simulation results that informed test article design, 3) Acquired test data such as recession measurements, temperature histories, and photos, and 4) Comparisons between test results and simulation predictions.

AERACEPT↗

High-Enthalpy Testing to Validate Simulation of an Aerosol Capture Probe

AERACEPT (Aerosol Rapid Analysis Combined Entry Probe/sonde Technology) is a developing technology enabling in-situ aerosol particle sampling and analysis in a small spacecraft mission envelope. It integrates a passive aerosol sample collection system into a probe’s thermal protection system (TPS) to remove the need for heat shield separation and active descent control (parachutes, gliders, etc.). AERACEPT is being validated against the requirements of the Nephele mission concept, which targets the middle and lower Venus cloud layers. The proposed technology employs 3D Carbon-Carbon (3D-CC) at the probe’s nose to withstand the extreme environments encountered in a Venus entry without producing pyrolysis gases that would contaminate the mission sample collection. Any shape change of this 3D-CC sample inlet will affect airflow through the sampling system, thereby impacting aerosol sample collection bias and efficiency. Accurate prediction of the nose’s material response during entry is there-fore of fundamental importance to the development and practical use of this technology. As a result, the AERACEPT project is planning a test campaign in the newly built PlasmatronX facility with a novel “Open Iso-Q” test article to validate state-of-the-art material response tools for a simulated Venus entry. The PlasmatronX is a 350 kW inductively-coupled plasma facility developed and run by the Center for Hypersonics and Entry Systems Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The facility can support ground testing for a variety of planetary destinations by simulating entry conditions in Nitrogen, Air, and Carbon Dioxide. To best simulate the Venus atmosphere and match flight-like recession, the planned AERACEPT test campaign will use Carbon Dioxide as its test gas. AERACEPT has designed two test articles for this campaign: 1) a standard test article whose curved surface approximates a constant applied heat flux (“Closed Iso-Q” model) and 2) a novel inlet test article with a through-hole at the stagnation point (“Open Iso-Q” model). Both article types consist of a 3D-CC sample bonded to a graphite fixture. All articles will be laser scanned before and after testing to estimate shape change and recession, and the “Closed Iso-Q” articles will be instrumented with thermocouples to provide temperature histories. The test article temperatures and inlet shape change will be compared against simulations run with the Porous material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM (PATO) to validate the AERACEPT 3D-CC material response model. Due to the high thermal conductivity of 3D-CC, multidimensional effects have a large influence on the test article temperature and the standard 1-D material response tools are not sufficient for test planning. The test campaign features (e.g. article design, run duration, heat fluxes) are therefore informed by a series of 3-D simulations using state-of-the-art material response tools such as PATO. The test campaign is scheduled for spring of 2024. Expected results include 1) Key drivers of selected test conditions (e.g. matching mission flight atmosphere & recession), 2) Simulation results that informed test article design, 3) Acquired test data such as recession measurements, temperature histories, and photos, and 4) Comparisons between test results and simulation predictions.

AERACEPT↗

Gated CDS Integrator

A Gated CDS Integrator (GCI) may amplify low-level signals without introducing excessive offset and noise. The GCI may also amplify the low level signals with accurate and variable gain. The GCI may include a modulator preceding an amplifier such that offset or noise present in a signal path between the modulator and a demodulator input is translated to a higher out of band frequency, and thereafter reduced by a double sampled discrete time integrator which also reduces thermal noise. The thermal noise may also be reduced by averaging the output of the discrete time integrator.

Quilligan, Gerard T.↗

Nondestructive Analysis of Apollo Samples by Micro-CT and Micro-XRF Analysis: A PET Style Examination

An integral part of any sample return mission is the initial description and classification of returned samples by the preliminary examination team (PET). The goal of a PET is to characterize and classify the returned samples, making this information available to the general research community who can then conduct more in-depth studies on the samples. A PET strives to minimize the impact their work has on the sample suite, which often limits the PET work to largely visual measurements and observations like optical microscopy. More modern techniques can also be utilized by future PET to nondestructively characterize astromaterials in a more rigorous way. Here we present our recent analyses of Apollo samples 14321 and 14305 by micro-CT and micro-XRF (respectively), assess the potential for discovery of "new" Apollo samples for scientific study, and evaluate the usefulness of these techniques in future PET efforts.

Zeigler, Ryan A.↗

Laboratory and In-Flight In-Situ X-ray Imaging and Scattering Facility for Materials, Biotechnology and Life Sciences

We propose a multifunctional X-ray facility for the Materials, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Programs to visualize formation and behavior dynamics of materials, biomaterials, and living organisms, tissues and cells. The facility will combine X-ray topography, phase micro-imaging and scattering capabilities with sample units installed on the goniometer. This should allow, for the first time, to monitor under well defined conditions, in situ, in real time: creation of imperfections during growth of semiconductors, metal, dielectric and biomacromolecular crystals and films, high-precision diffraction from crystals within a wide range of temperatures and vapor, melt, solution conditions, internal morphology and changes in living organisms, tissues and cells, diffraction on biominerals, nanotubes and particles, radiation damage, also under controlled formation/life conditions. The system will include an ultrabright X-ray source, X-ray mirror, monochromator, image-recording unit, detectors, and multipurpose diffractometer that fully accommodate and integrate furnaces and samples with other experimental environments. The easily adjustable laboratory and flight versions will allow monitoring processes under terrestrial and microgravity conditions. The flight version can be made available using a microsource combined with multilayer or capillary optics.

Source record↗

One Giant Leap to Protect All Mankind: An Overview of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory

Motivation. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy charged the nation "to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth." Eight years later, the Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after this first 8-day journey to the moon. As humans had never ventured to another extraterrestrial body, the U.S. government noted the great uncertainty associated with the unknown exposures related to this historic mission. Overview. With this uncertainty in mind, a newly formed Interagency Committee on Back Contamination (ICBC) was established to review the potential for lunar contaminants and establish the prevention of their escape into the biosphere during crew and sample recovery operations from the floating command module to the mobile quarantine facility on the recovery ship and return to the Johnson Space Center. Significance. As a result of the ICBC recommendations, in 1966 NASA planned and built the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The LRL served a great role in service of human space exploration to quarantine Apollo crewmembers, their space vehicles, and the lunar samples collected. Almost an afterthought in the space race to the Moon, the 83,000-square-foot LRL was designed and completed in 1967 for $7.8 million. The core purpose of the LRL was "to protect the public's health, agriculture, and other living resources; to provide lunar sample distribution to approved scientific investigators; and to preserve the scientific integrity of the lunar samples at all times." Its layout was comprised of three major zones: a quarantined Crew Area, a separate but also quarantined Sample Operations Area, and a Support and Administration Area outside the controlled biological barrier. This facility required trained personnel to live and perform within it for several weeks post-flight, to include astronaut crewmembers, flight surgeons, scientists, and vehicle recovery engineers. The LRL holds memories of these historic events but has since been repurposed for NASA's medical and environmental sciences activities, in what is now known as Building 37. As we approach its 50th anniversary, the LRL story will end in demolition as NASA advances its facilities for the next steps in human exploration of space. Learning Objectives: 1. To capture the historical relevance of the NASA Lunar Receiving Laboratory 2. To understand the requirements of receiving crew and samples from the moon for the first time 3. To describe the facility capabilities in protection of public health.

Hayes, Judith↗

Auto-Gopher-II – A wireline rotary-hammer ultrasonic drill that operates autonomously

An important challenge of exploring the solar system is the ability to penetrate at great depths the subsurface of planetary bodies for sample collection. The requirements of the drilling system are minimal mass, volume and energy consumption. To address this challenge, a deep drill, called the Auto-Gopher II, is currently being developed as a joint effort between JPL’s NDEAA laboratory and Honeybee Robotics Corp. The Auto-Gopher II is a wireline rotaryhammer drill that combines breaking formations by hammering using a piezoelectric actuator and removing the cuttings by rotating a fluted bit. The hammering is produced by the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism that has been developed by the JPL team as an adaptable tool for many drilling and coring applications. The USDC uses an intermediate free-flying mass to convert high frequency vibrations of a piezoelectric transducer horn tip into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The USDC concept was used in a previous task to develop an Ultrasonic/Sonic Ice Gopher and then integrated into a rotary hammer device to develop the Auto-Gopher-I. The lessons learned from these developments are being integrated into the development of the Auto-Gopher-II, an autonomous deep wireline drill with integrated cuttings and sample management and drive electronics. In this paper the latest development will be reviewed including the piezoelectric actuator, cuttings removal and retention flutes and drive electronics.

Paulsen, Gale L.↗

Auto-Gopher-II – An Autonomous Wireline Rotary-Hammer Ultrasonic Drill

Developing technologies that would enable future NASA exploration missions to penetrate deeper into the subsurface of planetary bodies for sample collection is of great importance. Performing these tasks while using minimal mass/volume systems and with low energy consumption is another set of requirements imposed on such technologies. A deep drill, called Auto-Gopher II, is currently being developed as a joint effort between JPL’s NDEAA laboratory and Honeybee Robotics Corp. The Auto-Gopher II is a wireline rotary-hammer drill that combines formation breaking by hammering using an ultrasonic actuator and cuttings removal by rotating a fluted auger bit. The hammering mechanism is based on the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism that has been developed as an adaptable tool for many drilling and coring applications. The USDC uses an intermediate free-flying mass to transform high frequency vibrations of a piezoelectric transducer horn tip into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The USDC concept was used in a previous task to develop an Ultrasonic/Sonic Ice Gopher and then integrated into a rotary hammer device to develop the Auto-Gopher-I. The lessons learned from these developments are being integrated into the development of the Auto-Gopher-II, an autonomous deep wireline drill with integrated cuttings and sample management and drive electronics. Subsystems of the wireline drill are being developed in parallel at JPL and Honeybee Robotics Ltd. This paper presents the development efforts of the piezoelectric actuator, cuttings removal and retention flutes and drive electronics.

Badescu, Mircea↗

Case Study Analyses of the SUCCESS DC-8 Scanning Lidar Database

Under project SUCCESS (Subsonic Aircraft Contrail and Cloud Effects Special Study) funded by the Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Program, SRI International (SRI) developed an angular scanning backscatter lidar for operation on the NASA DC-8 research aircraft and deployed the scanning lidar during the SUCCESS field campaign. The primary purpose of the lidar was to generate real-time video displays of clouds and contrails above, ahead of, and below the DC-8 as a means to help position the aircraft for optimum cloud and contrail sampling by onboard in situ sensors, and to help extend the geometrical domain of the in situ sampling records. A large, relatively complex lidar database was collected and several data examples were processed to illustrate the value of the lidar data for interpreting the other data records collected during SUCCESS. These data examples were used to develop a journal publication for the special SUCCESS Geophysical Research Letters issue. The data examples justified data analyses of a larger part of the DC-8 lidar database and is the objective of the current study. Efficient processing of the SUCCESS DC-8 scanning lidar database required substantial effort to enhance hardware and software components of the data system that was used for the initial analyses. MATLAB instructions are used to generate altitude and distance color-coded lidar displays corrected for effects introduced by aircraft pitch and forward movement during an angular scan time interval. Onboard in situ sensor atmospheric measurements are propagated to distances ahead of the DC-8 using recorded aircraft velocity so that they can be plotted on the lidar displays for comparison with lidar remotely observed aerosol distributions. Resulting lidar and in situ sensor polar scan displays over extended sampling intervals are integrated into a time series movie format for 36 case studies. Contrails and clouds were detected to ranges of 15 km by the forward-viewing angular scanning lidar and were progressively mapped as the aircraft approached and penetrated them. Near aircraft lidar observations were much better correlated with in situ sensor observations than lidar observations at greater distances ahead of the aircraft. The major cause of this difference was thought to be the about 2 deg. offset of the lidar viewing direction from the flight direction. Contrail spatial distributions were not of the quality obtainable from ground-based lidar observations. This results because contrails tend to become horizontally stratified, vertical distance between angular lidar observations increases with increased distance from the aircraft, and erratic aircraft motions during an angular scan. The most useful lidar observations were made with lidar viewing directions of vertically upward or vertically downward. These provided real-time information on aircraft altitudes to achieve optimum in situ cloud and contrail sampling. At sampling altitudes, the forward viewing angular scanning observations were useful for fine-tuning the aircraft altitude for cloud and contrail penetration. Best information on cloud and contrail properties were obtained from vertically directed lidar observations as the aircraft performed a series of upward and downward penetrations of contrails. This operational mode was especially well suited for lidar and radiometric evaluation of cloud and contrail optical and radiative properties. The vertical viewing lidar detected ice crystals thought to be precipitating from an aircraft contrail and their scavenging by a cirrus cloud layer. The lidar display indicates that the crystals are effective for increasing cirrus cloud density. Vertical angular scanning observations can evaluate the sharp decrease in lidar backscatter for small off-vertical viewing directions that result from horizontally aligned ice crystals and perhaps can provide additional information on crystal shapes. The about 2 deg. offset of the lidar viewing direction from the flight direction is thought to have greatly degraded the forward-viewing angular scanning observations and this mode of operation was not fully evaluated. However, the reasoning for this capability remains valid and the angular scan presentations collected during this program justifies modification of the lidar pod for true forward direction lidar viewing during future cloud and contrail studies.

Uthe, Edward E.↗

Auto-Gopher-2 – An Autonomous Wireline Rotary Piezo-Percussive Deep Drilling Mechanism

Drilling deep into the subsurface of planetary bodies in the Solar System for samples acquisition enables critical capabilities for future NASA exploration missions in its quest to understand the origins of the Solar System and potentially the search for life. Such planetary bodies as Mars and Europa are key targets for potential missions that would require reaching great depths. Performing drilling while using minimal mass/volume systems and with low energy consumption are the main requirements that are imposed on such technologies. A wireline deep drill, called Auto-Gopher-2, is currently being developed as a joint effort between JPL and Honeybee Robotics Ltd. The Auto-Gopher II is a wireline rotary piezo-percussive deep drilling mechanism that combines formation breaking by rotating and piezoelectric actuator hammering and cuttings removal by rotating a fluted bit. The hammering mechanism is based on the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism that has been developed as an adaptable tool for many drilling and coring applications. The USDC uses an intermediate ball-shape free-mass to transform high frequency vibrations of a piezoelectric transducer horn tip into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The lessons learned from the previous studies are being implemented into the development of the Auto-Gopher-II, an autonomous deep wireline drill with integrated cuttings and sample management and drive electronics. Subsystems of the wireline drill are being developed in parallel at JPL and Honeybee Robotics, Ltd. Issues related to the bit and its ability to retain the cuttings for caching and removal are currently being addressed. This paper presents the development efforts of the piezoelectric actuator, cuttings removal and retention flutes and drive electronics.

Bar-Cohen, Yoseph↗

BOREAS TE-12 Leaf Optical Data for SSA Species

The BOREAS TE-12 team collected several data sets in support of its efforts to characterize and interpret information on the reflectance, transmittance, and gas exchange of boreal vegetation. This data set contains measurements of hemispherical spectral reflectance and transmittance factors of individual leaves, needles (ages: current and past 2 years' growth, i.e., for 1993, the growing seasons of 1993, 1992, and 1991 were measured; in 1994, the growing seasons of 1994, 1993, and 1992 were measured), twigs (reflectance only), and substrate at near-normal incidence measured using a LI-COR LI-1800-12 integrating sphere attached to a Spectron Engineering SE590 spectroradiometer. Procedures of Daughtry et a]. (1989) were followed. These procedures permitted measurement of samples that: (1) filled the entire integrating sphere sample port; and (2) were narrow with a length greater than the sample port diameter. Optical properties were measured in 1993 and 1994 at the SSA Fen, YJP, YA, and OBS sites. The data are stored in tabular ASCII files. The data files are available on a CD-ROM (see document number 20010000884), or from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Hall, Forrest G.↗

Study of e+e- → γΦJ/ψ from $\sqrt{s}$ = 4.600 to 4.951 GeV

Using data samples with an integrated luminosity of 6.4 fb -1 collected by the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage ring, the process of e+e- → γΦJ/ψ is studied. The processes of e + e - → Φχc1,c2, χc1,c2 → γJ/ψ are observed with a significance of more than 10σ. The √s-dependent cross section of e + e - → Φχc1,c2 is measured between 4.600 and 4.951 GeV, and evidence of a resonance structure is found for the first time in the Φχc2 process. We also search for the processes of e + e - → γX(4140), γX(4274) and γX(4500) via the γΦJ/ψ final state, but no obvious structures are found. The upper limits on the production cross section times the branching fraction for these processes at the 90% confidence level are reported.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Combined analysis of Belle and Belle II data to determine the CKM angle φ 3 using B + → D($ {K}_S^0 $h + h – )h + decays

We present a measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle angle φ 3 (also known as γ) using a model-independent Dalitz plot analysis of B + → D($ {K}_S^0 $h + h – )h + , where D is either a D o or D o ¯ meson and h is either a π or K. This is the first measurement that simultaneously uses Belle and Belle II data, combining samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 711 fb –1 and 128 fb –1 , respectively. All data were accumulated from energy-asymmetric e + e – collisions at a centre-of-mass energy corresponding to the mass of the Υ(4S) resonance. We measure φ 3 = (78.4 ± 11.4 ± 0.5 ± 1.0)°, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty and the third is from the uncertainties on external measurements of the D-decay strong-phase parameters.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

First measurement of large area jet transverse momentum spectra in heavy-ion collisions

Jet production in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV is studied with the CMS detector at the LHC, using PbPb and pp data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 404 μb$^{−1}$ and 27.4 pb$^{−1}$, respectively. Jets with different areas are reconstructed using the anti-k$_{T}$ algorithm by varying the distance parameter R. The measurements are performed using jets with transverse momenta (p$_{T}$) greater than 200 GeV and in a pseudorapidity range of |η| < 2. To reveal the medium modification of the jet spectra in PbPb collisions, the properly normalized ratio of spectra from PbPb and pp data is used to extract jet nuclear modification factors as functions of the PbPb collision centrality, p$_{T}$ and, for the first time, as a function of R up to 1.0. For the most central collisions, a strong suppression is observed for high-p$_{T}$ jets reconstructed with all distance parameters, implying that a significant amount of jet energy is scattered to large angles. The dependence of jet suppression on R is expected to be sensitive to both the jet energy loss mechanism and the medium response, and so the data are compared to several modern event generators and analytic calculations. The models considered do not fully reproduce the data.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Measurement of electroweak $Z\left(\nu \overline{\nu}\right)\gamma jj$ production and limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The electroweak production of $Z\left(\nu \overline{\nu}\right)\gamma jj$ in association with two jets is studied in a regime with a photon of high transverse momentum above 150 GeV using proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb –1 collected by the ATLAS detector during the 2015–2018 LHC data-taking period. This process is an important probe of the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism in the Standard Model and is sensitive to quartic gauge boson couplings via vector-boson scattering. The fiducial $Z\left(\nu \overline{\nu}\right)\gamma jj$ cross section for electroweak production is measured to be ${0.77}_{-0.30}^{+0.34}$ fb and is consistent with the Standard Model prediction. Evidence of electroweak $Z\left(\nu \overline{\nu}\right)\gamma jj$ production is found with an observed significance of 3.2σ for the background-only hypothesis, compared with an expected significance of 3.7σ. The combination of this result with the previously published ATLAS observation of electroweak $Z\left(\nu \overline{\nu}\right)\gamma jj$ production yields an observed (expected) signal significance of 6.3σ (6.6σ). Limits on anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings are obtained in the framework of effective field theory with dimension-8 operators.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Test of light-lepton universality in τ decays with the Belle II experiment

We present a measurement of the ratio R µ = $\mathcal{B}$($τ^- → µ^-\overline{ν}_µν_τ$)/$\mathcal{B}(τ^- → e^-\overline{ν}_eν_τ$) of branching fractions B of the τ lepton decaying to muons or electrons using data collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB e + e - collider. The sample has an integrated luminosity of 362 ± 2 fb -1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV. Using an optimised event selection, a binned maximum likelihood ft is performed using the momentum spectra of the electron and muon candidates. The result, R µ = 0.9675 ± 0.0007 ± 0.0036, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic, is the most precise to date. It provides a stringent test of the light-lepton universality, translating to a ratio of the couplings of the muon and electron to the W boson in τ decays of 0.9974 ± 0.0019, in agreement with the standard model expectation of unity.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for a new heavy scalar particle decaying into a Higgs boson and a new scalar singlet in final states with one or two light leptons and a pair of τ -leptons with the ATLAS detector

A search for a new heavy scalar particle X decaying into a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson and a new singlet scalar particle S is presented. The search uses a proton-proton (pp) collision data sample with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb -1 recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The most sensitive mass parameter space is explored in X mass ranging from 500 to 1500 GeV, with the corresponding S mass in the range 200–500 GeV. The search selects events with two hadronically decaying τ-lepton candidates from H → τ + τ - decays and one or two light leptons (ℓ = e, μ) from S → VV (V = W, Z) decays while the remaining V boson decays hadronically or to neutrinos. A multivariate discriminant based on event kinematics is used to separate the signal from the background. No excess is observed beyond the expected SM background and 95% confidence level upper limits between 72 fb and 542 fb are derived on the cross-section σ(pp → X → SH) assuming the same SM-Higgs boson-like decay branching ratios for the S → VV decay. Upper limits on the visible cross-sections σ(pp → X → SH → WWττ) and σ(pp → X → SH → ZZττ) are also set in the ranges 3–26 fb and 6–33 fb, respectively.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗