Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “heavy flavor physics”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

FLAG Review 2021

Abstract We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D -meson, B -meson, and nucleon physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the nuclear and particle physics communities. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor $$f_+(0)$$ f + ( 0 ) arising in the semileptonic $$K \rightarrow \pi $$ K → π transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio $$f_K/f_\pi $$ f K / f π and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements $$V_{us}$$ V us and $$V_{ud}$$ V ud . Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of $$SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$$ S U ( 2 ) L × S U ( 2 ) R and $$SU(3)_L\times SU(3)_R$$ S U ( 3 ) L × S U ( 3 ) R Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the $$B_K$$ B K parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four B parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for $$m_c$$ m c and $$m_b$$ m b as well as those for the decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters of charmed and bottom mesons and baryons. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. We review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant $$\alpha _s$$ α s . We consider nucleon matrix elements, and review the determinations of the axial, scalar and tensor bilinears, both isovector and flavor diagonal. Finally, in this review we have added a new section reviewing determinations of scale-setting quantities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quark flavor balancing in nuclear collisions

The notion of charge balance function, originally designed to study the evolution of charge production in heavy-ion collisions, is extended to consider quark flavor balancing. This extension is considered based on simulations performed with the PYTHIA 8 event generator in the context of pp collisions at √𝑠 = 13.6, 7, and 2.76 TeV but can be trivially applied to any other scenario and implemented in measurements of correlated particle production in pp, pA, and AA collisions at colliders. Correlation of selected flavor balancing pairs is examined as a function of the produced charged particle multiplicity. One finds that the amplitude of the correlations increases monotonically with the number of balanced flavors and the actual flavor content of correlated particles.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Properties of the QCD matter: review of selected results from the relativistic heavy ion collider beam energy scan (RHIC BES) program

In the paper, we discuss the development of the multigap resistive plate chamber time-of-flight (TOF) technology and the production of the solenoidal tracker at RHIC (STAR) TOF detector in China at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Subsequently, recent experimental results from the first beam energy scan program (BES-I) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) pertaining to measurements of collectivity, chirality, criticality, global polarization, strangeness, heavy flavor, dilepton and light nuclei productions are reviewed.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

In-medium bottomonium properties from lattice NRQCD calculations with extended meson operators

We calculate the temperature dependence of bottomonium correlators in (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD with the aim to constrain in-medium properties of bottomonia at high temperature. The lattice calculations are performed using HISQ action with physical strange quark mass and light quark masses twenty times smaller than the strange quark mass at two lattice spacings a = 0.0493 fm and 0.0602 fm, and temporal extents N τ = 16 − 30, corresponding to the temperatures T = 133 − 250 MeV. We use a tadpole-improved NRQCD action including spin-dependent v 6 corrections for the heavy quarks and extended meson operators in order to be sensitive to in-medium properties of the bottomonium states of interest. We find that within estimated errors the bottomonium masses do not change compared to their vacuum values for all temperatures under our consideration; however, we find different nonzero widths for the various bottomonium states.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Future of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrino Flavor Measurements

The next generation of neutrino telescopes, including Baikal-GVD, KM3NeT, P-ONE, TAMBO, and IceCube-Gen2, will be able to determine the flavor of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos with 10% uncertainties. With the aid of future neutrino oscillation experiments --- in particular JUNO, DUNE, and Hyper-Kamiokande --- the regions of flavor composition at Earth that are allowed by neutrino oscillations will shrink by a factor of ten between 2020 and 2040. We critically examine the ability of future experiments and show how these improvements will help us pin down the source of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos and a sub-dominant neutrino production mechanism with and without unitarity assumed. As an illustration of beyond-the-Standard-Model physics, we also show that the future neutrino measurements will constrain the decay rate of heavy neutrinos to be below $2\times 10^{-5}~$$m$/eV/s assuming they decay into invisible particles.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Semileptonic form factors for $$B\rightarrow D^*\ell \nu $$ at nonzero recoil from $$2+1$$-flavor lattice QCD: Fermilab Lattice and MILC Collaborations

Abstract We present the first unquenched lattice-QCD calculation of the form factors for the decay $$B\rightarrow D^*\ell \nu $$ B → D ∗ ℓ ν at nonzero recoil. Our analysis includes 15 MILC ensembles with $$N_f=2+1$$ N f = 2 + 1 flavors of asqtad sea quarks, with a strange quark mass close to its physical mass. The lattice spacings range from $$a\approx 0.15$$ a ≈ 0.15 fm down to 0.045 fm, while the ratio between the light- and the strange-quark masses ranges from 0.05 to 0.4. The valence b and c quarks are treated using the Wilson-clover action with the Fermilab interpretation, whereas the light sector employs asqtad staggered fermions. We extrapolate our results to the physical point in the continuum limit using rooted staggered heavy-light meson chiral perturbation theory. Then we apply a model-independent parametrization to extend the form factors to the full kinematic range. With this parametrization we perform a joint lattice-QCD/experiment fit using several experimental datasets to determine the CKM matrix element $$|V_{cb}|$$ | V cb | . We obtain $$\left| V_{cb}\right| = (38.40 \pm 0.68_{\text {th}} \pm 0.34_{\text {exp}} \pm 0.18_{\text {EM}})\times 10^{-3}$$ V cb = ( 38.40 ± 0 . 68 th ± 0 . 34 exp ± 0 . 18 EM ) × 10 - 3 . The first error is theoretical, the second comes from experiment and the last one includes electromagnetic and electroweak uncertainties, with an overall $$\chi ^2\text {/dof} = 126/84$$ χ 2 /dof = 126 / 84 , which illustrates the tensions between the experimental data sets, and between theory and experiment. This result is in agreement with previous exclusive determinations, but the tension with the inclusive determination remains. Finally, we integrate the differential decay rate obtained solely from lattice data to predict $$R(D^*) = 0.265 \pm 0.013$$ R ( D ∗ ) = 0.265 ± 0.013 , which confirms the current tension between theory and experiment.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Higgs flavor phenomenology in a supersymmetric left-right model with parity

In this paper, we focus on the supersymmetric model with left-right (LR) symmetry, that is especially proposed in our previous work [ 1 ]. In this model, there are four Higgs doublets in order to realize the Standard Model (SM) fermion masses and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. The heavy Higgs doublets unavoidably have flavor changing couplings to the SM fermions and induce flavor-changing neutral currents at tree level. We study broader parameter space than the previous work with including the renormalization group corrections to the Yukawa couplings between the LR breaking scale, \( \mathcal{O} \) (10 13 ) GeV, and the supersymmetry breaking scales, \( \mathcal{O} \) (100) TeV. The CP violating observable in K – \( \overline{K} \) mixing, ϵ K , strongly constrains the model, so that heavy Higgs mass should be heavier than \( \mathcal{O} \) (100) TeV. We study the lepton flavor violating (LFV) processes setting heavy Higgs masses to be 170 TeV. The branching ratios of μ → 3 e and the μ – e conversion can be larger than 10 - 16 that could be covered by the future experiments. We also study the degree of fine-tuning in the parameter region that predicts testable LFV processes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Search for Lepton Flavor Violation in Two Body Muon and Pion Decay at Rest

The ability of the Mu2e experiment to probe, or discover beyond the Standard Model physics in direct Charged Lepton Flavor Violation $\mu^+$ and $\pi^+$ decay modes is estimated. These direct modes are searched for simultaneously with proposed Mu2e detector validation runs, and are complementary to the Mu2e main search goal, an indirect search for $\mu^- \to e^-$ conversion at the sensitivity level of $\sim 10^{-17}$. The $\mu^+$ validation run will operate at 50% nominal magnetic field and reduced proton beam intensity to less than 1/100th nominal, in order to observe the e+ spectrum from $\mu^+$ decay, at and below the Michel edge Ee . 53 MeV. The $\pi^+$ validation run, based on measuring the mono-energetic e+ emission in the decay $\pi^+ \to e+\nu$, at 76% of nominal magnetic field and reduced beam intensity less than 1/5th nominal. Both of these runs can be used to fix the momentum scale for the Mu2e conversion search. In addition the muon validation dataset can be used to correct for systematic errors in the detector response by mapping the well known to O(\u03B13) corrected theoretical Michel spectrum, to the observed spectrum. One direct search is for two-body Charged Lepton Flavor Violation $\mu^+ \to e^+X$ decay, where $X$ is a light new physics particle. This allows Mu2e to explore well motivated models including axion like particles with flavor violating couplings and massive $Z^0$ bosons with more sensitivity then present astrophysical and laboratory constraints. In two weeks of data-taking, Mu2e can achieve direct mode 90% confidence level branching ratio limits of $10^{-7}$ over the mass range $20 \le m_X \le 50$ MeV, improving the current experimental limit at $10^{-5}$ by two orders of magnitude. In the mass range $m_X \le 20$ MeV, assuming systematic error corrections can be made by correcting the Monte Carlo mapping, the achievable search sensitivity is found to be $2.3\times 10^{-7}$ for $m_X =0$, an order of magnitude improvement over the current best limit at $2.6\times 10^{-6}$, when assuming $V+A$ or isotropic coupling. The $\pi^+$ validation run, allows searching for $\pi^+ \to e^+N$ decay, where $N$ is a heavy neutral lepton such as a heavy sterile neutrino, in the mass region $20 \le m_N \le 65$ MeV. A branching ratio limit at 90% confidence level of $3\times 10^{-8}$ can be achieved in two weeks, an improvement of the current search sensitivity limit by an order of magnitude.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thermal-model-based characterization of heavy-ion-collision systems at chemical freeze-out

We investigate the chemical freeze-out in heavy-ion collisions (HICs) and the impact of the hadronic spectrum on thermal model analyses [1, 2]. Detailed knowledge of the hadronic spectrum is still an open question, which has phenomenological consequences on the study of HICs. By varying the number of resonances included in Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) Model calculations, we can shed light on which particles may be produced. Furthermore, we study the influence of the number of states on the so-called two flavor freezeout scenario, in which strange and light particles can freeze-out separately. We consider results for the chemical freeze-out parameters obtained from thermal model fits and from calculating net-particle fluctuations. We will show the effect of using one global temperature to fit all particles and alternatively, allowing particles with and without strange quarks to freeze-out separately.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Investigation of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly with CeLAND (Final Technical Report)

The goal of this project has been to investigate reactor antineutrino anomaly by searching for the oscillation signature of the hypothesized 4th neutrino flavor. The 4th neutrino flavor is often referred to as sterile, not interacting with matter and can be only observed via disappearance of standard model neutrino flavors. It is also anticipated to be heavy and therefore disappearance due to sterile neutrino oscillations is expected to happen within few meters from the neutrino source. As such, the effect can be investigated with either reactor antineutrinos few meters from the reactor core or with the dedicated strong antineutrino source close to a large liquid scintillator detector to detect antineutrinos coming from the source.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Light new physics in B → K ( * ) ν ν ¯ ?

The study of the rare decays B → K ( * ) ν ν ¯ offers a window into the dynamics operating at the electroweak scale, allowing studies of the Standard Model and searches for heavy new physics. However, the analysis of these decays is also potentially sensitive to the on shell production of new light bosons X through the process B → K ( * ) X . In particular, Belle II has recently measured B + → K + ν ν ¯ , finding a 2.8 σ excess under the assumption of heavy new physics. Since this excess is rather localized in the kaon energy, a fit that includes the decay mode B + → K + X to the kinematic distributions prefers m X ≈ 2 GeV with branching fraction Br [ B → K X ] = ( 8.8 ± 2.5 ) × 10 − 6 and a significance of ≈ 3.6 σ . However, no excess was found in the measurements of B → K ( * ) ν ν ¯ , and a global analysis of the Belle II and data leads to Br [ B → K X ] = ( 5.1 ± 2.1 ) × 10 − 6 with a reduced significance of ≈ 2.4 σ . We then study various simplified dark-flavored models and present a possible UV completion based on a gauged B 3 − L 3 symmetry, highlighting the discovery potential of dedicated searches for B → K ( * ) X at Belle II. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Radiative three-body D -meson decays in and beyond the standard model

We study radiative charm decays D → P 1 P 2γ , P 1,2 = π, K in QCD factorization at leading order and within heavy hadron chiral perturbation theory. Branching ratios including resonance contributions are around ~10 –3 for the Cabibbo-favored modes into Kπγ and ~10 –5 for the singly Cabibbo-suppressed modes into π + π – γ,K + K – γ, and thus in reach of the flavor factories BES III and Belle II. Dalitz plots and forward–backward asymmetries reveal significant differences between the two QCD frameworks; such observables are therefore ideally suited for a data-driven identification of relevant decay mechanisms in the standard-model dominated D → Kπγ decays. This increases the potential to probe new physics with the D → π + π – γ and D → K + K – γ decays, which are sensitive to enhanced dipole operators. CP asymmetries are useful to test the SM and look for new physics in neutral |ΔC| = 1 transitions. Cuts in the Dalitz plot enhance the sensitivity to new physics due to the presence of both s- and t, u-channel intermediate resonances.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Mesogenesis through the ephemeral dark decay of Beauty

Mesogenesis provides a path for generating the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, using only the CP violation furnished by the Standard Model in the decay of B mesons. While this is an intriguing possibility, it is largely constrained by the data on B meson branching fractions into baryons and missing energy carried into the dark sector. We point out that it is possible to make this branching fraction dominant only in the early Universe, through an ultralight scalar coupled to the dark sector and the Standard Model leptons. A scenario is examined where the thermal density of muons in the early Universe temporarily lowers the mass of a dark fermion, allowing for efficient B meson decays. This `dark’ decay channel is shut off later when the muon number density falls, making the scenario compatible with flavor data. Our model can be consistent with the LHC constraints on color-charged heavy bosons required to implement Mesogenesis; such states may be discovered in the future runs as their masses cannot be far above the current bounds. We also outline other possible signals, which can arise in future displaced vertex searches, long range force searches, and observations of neutron star binary mergers.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Heavy Quark Diffusion from 2+1 Flavor Lattice QCD with 320 MeV Pion Mass

We present the first calculations of the heavy flavor diffusion coefficient using lattice QCD with light dynamical quarks corresponding to a pion mass of around 320 MeV. For temperatures 195 MeV< 𝑇 <352 MeV, the heavy quark spatial diffusion coefficient is found to be significantly smaller than previous quenched lattice QCD and recent phenomenological estimates. The result implies very fast hydrodynamization of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma created during ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Structure of open-flavor four-quark states in the charm and bottom region

We present quantitative results for masses and the internal structure of four-quark states with two heavy quarks, i.e., Q Q ′ q ¯ q ¯ ′ with Q , Q ′ ∈ { c , b } and q , q ′ ∈ { u , d , s } , and J P ∈ 1 + . The composition of these states in terms of meson-meson and diquark-antidiquark pairs, extracted from a relativistic four-body Faddeev-Yakubowski equation, is dynamically determined from underlying QCD forces. We find states at energy levels in very good agreement with lattice QCD and, where available, with experimental states. Their internal structure, most notably between the T c c + , T b c and T b b − , show significant and sizeable variations. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Hoffer, Joshua (ORCID:0009000871793956)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Lepton-flavor-violating ALPs at the Electron-Ion Collider: a golden opportunity

Axion-like particles (ALPs) arise in a variety of theoretical contexts and can, in general, mediate flavor violating interactions and parity non-conservation. We consider lepton flavor violating ALPs with GeV scale or larger masses which may, for example, arise in composite dark sector models. We show that a future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) can uncover or constrain such ALPs via processes of the type e A Z → τ A Z a, where A Z is a nucleus of charge Z and a is an ALP in the range m τ ≤ m a ≲ 20 GeV. The production of the ALP can have a large Z 2 enhancement from low Q 2 electromagnetic scattering of the electron from a heavy ion. Using the gold nucleus (Z = 79) as an example, we show that the EIC can explore e – τ flavor violation, mediated by GeV-scale ALPs, well beyond current limits. Importantly, the EIC reach for this interaction is not sensitive to the lepton-flavor conserving ALP couplings, whose possible smallness can render searches using τ decays ineffective. We also discuss how the EIC electron beam polarization can provide a powerful tool for investigating parity violating ALPs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Search for physics beyond the standard model in multilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three charged leptons (electrons or muons) is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{−1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016–2018. The two targeted signal processes are pair production of type-III seesaw heavy fermions and production of a light scalar or pseudoscalar boson in association with a pair of top quarks. The heavy fermions may be manifested as an excess of events with large values of leptonic transverse momenta or missing transverse momentum. The light scalars or pseudoscalars may create a localized excess in the dilepton mass spectra. The results exclude heavy fermions of the type-III seesaw model for masses below 880 GeV at 95% confidence level in the scenario of equal branching fractions to each lepton flavor. This is the most restrictive limit on the flavor-democratic scenario of the type-III seesaw model to date. Assuming a Yukawa coupling of unit strength to top quarks, branching fractions of new scalar (pseudoscalar) bosons to dielectrons or dimuons above 0.004 (0.03) and 0.04 (0.03) are excluded at 95% confidence level for masses in the range 15–75 and 108–340 GeV, respectively. These are the first limits in these channels on an extension of the standard model with scalar or pseudoscalar particles.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Heavy and light flavor jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions in a perturbative QCD approach

In this work, we study the flavor dependence of jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions. A next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD framework is applied to account for both quark and gluon contributions to light and heavy flavor hadron productions. A linear Boltzmann transport model coupled to hydrodynamic simulation is utilized to study the nuclear modification of heavy and light flavor jets in the dynamically evolving quark-gluon plasma. Within our jet quenching framework, we obtain a nice description of the nuclear modification factors of charged hadrons, D mesons, B mesons and B–decayed D mesons over a wide range of transverse momentum (8-300 GeV). Our result shows that perturbative QCD is sufficient to explain the color, mass and energy dependence of parton energy loss and jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗