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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.

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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Hadronic mono- W ' probes of dark matter at colliders

Particle collisions at the energy frontier can probe the nature of invisible dark matter via production in association with recoiling visible objects. We propose a new potential production mode, in which dark matter is produced by the decay of a heavy dark Higgs boson radiated from a heavy W' boson. In such a model, motivated by left-right symmetric theories, dark matter would not be pair produced in association with other recoiling objects due to its lack of direct coupling to quarks or gluons. We study the hadronic decay mode via W' → tb and estimate the LHC exclusion sensitivity at 95% confidence level to be 10 2 - 10 5 fb for W' boson masses between 250 and 1750 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Solving the strong CP problem with massless grand-color quarks

We propose a solution to the strong CP problem that specifically relies on massless quarks and has no light axion. The QCD color group SU(3) c is embedded into a larger, simple gauge group (grand-color) where one of the massless, colored fermions enjoys an anomalous chiral symmetry, rendering the strong CP phase unphysical. The grand-color gauge group G GC is Higgsed down to SU(3) c × ${G}_{c^{\prime }}$, after which ${G}_{c^{\prime }}$ eventually confines at a lower scale, spontaneously breaking the chiral symmetry and generating a real, positive mass to the massless, colored fermion. Since the chiral symmetry has a ${G}_{c^{\prime }}$ anomaly, there is no corresponding light Nambu-Goldstone boson. The anomalous chiral symmetry can be an accidental symmetry that arises from an exact discrete symmetry without introducing a domain wall problem. Potential experimental signals of our mechanism include vector-like quarks near the TeV scale, pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons below the 10 GeV scale, light dark matter decay, and primordial gravitational waves from the new strong dynamics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Primordial Black Holes with QCD Color Charge

We describe a realistic mechanism whereby black holes with significant QCD color charge could have formed during the early Universe. Primordial black holes (PBHs) could make up a significant fraction of the dark matter if they formed well before the QCD confinement transition. Such PBHs would form by absorbing unconfined quarks and gluons and hence could acquire a net color charge. We estimate the number of PBHs per Hubble volume with near-extremal color charge for various scenarios and discuss possible phenomenological implications. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Novel experimental probes of QCD in SIDIS and e + e - annihilation (Final Technical Report)

The research addressed with this award seeks to advance our understanding of the structure and dynamics underlying the properties of visible matter. In our current understanding the nucleons (protons and neutrons) are not fundamental but are comprised of quarks and gluons, which are collectively called partons. A static quark picture fails to explain the properties of the nucleons, such as their mass and intrinsic spin, which are thought to emerge dynamically from the quark-gluon interactions via the strong force. In this work, novel observables employing correlations of particles produced in the scattering of high energy electrons off protons at the CLAS12 experiment at Jefferson Lab were analyzed to probe quark-gluon interactions. The ultimate goal of this line of inquiry is to be able to describe the properties of protons and neutrons from first principles, similar to how studying the hydrogen atom has led to the formulation of the theory of Quantum Electrodynamics. Because quarks cannot be observed directly but only as part of more complex composite particles, a smaller, complimentary part of this work was the analysis of particle production in electron-positron annihilation at the Belle II experiment to understand the production of particles from initial quarks. This takes advantage of the fact that in e + e - annihilation the initial quark dynamics is known, unlike in the scattering of nucleons. Several new applications using Machine Learning algorithms for event tagging and reconstruction to support this program were developed as part of this award. In addition, we had a significant role in the development of the physics program for the future Electron-Ion Collider, which is a new collider to be build in the US within the next decade.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

FIMP dark matter from flavon portals

We investigate the phenomenology of a non-thermal dark matter (DM) candidate in the context of flavor models that explain the hierarchy in the masses and mixings of quarks and leptons via the Froggatt-Nielsen (FN) mechanism. A flavor-dependent U(1) FN symmetry explains the fermion mass and mixing hierarchy, and also provides a mechanism for suppressed interactions of the DM, assumed to be a Majorana fermion, with the Standard Model (SM) particles, resulting in its FIMP (feebly interacting massive particle) character. Such feeble interactions are mediated by a flavon field through higher dimensional operators governed by the U(1) FN charges. We point out a natural stabilizing mechanism for the DM within this framework with the choice of half-integer U(1) FN charge n for the DM fermion, along with integer charges for the SM fermions and the flavon field. In this flavon portal scenario, the DM is non-thermally produced from the decay of the flavon in the early universe which becomes a relic through the freeze-in mechanism. We explore the allowed parameter space for this DM candidate from relic abundance by solving the relevant Boltzmann equations. We find that reproducing the correct relic density requires the DM mass to be in the range (100 – 300) keV for n = 7.5 and (3 – 10) MeV for n = 8.5 where n is the U(1) FN charge of the DM fermion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hot and dense quark-gluon plasma thermodynamics from holographic black holes

We present new results on the equation of state and transition line of hot and dense strongly interacting QCD matter, obtained from a bottom-up Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton holographic model. We considerably expand the previous coverage in baryon densities in this model by implementing new numerical methods to map the holographic black hole solutions onto the QCD phase diagram. We are also able to obtain, for the first time, the first-order phase transition line in a wide region of the phase diagram. Comparisons with the most recent lattice results for the QCD thermodynamics are also presented.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Autoencoders for semivisible jet detection

The production of dark matter particles from confining dark sectors may lead to many novel experimental signatures. Depending on the details of the theory, dark quark production in proton-proton collisions could result in semivisible jets of particles: collimated sprays of dark hadrons of which only some are detectable by particle collider experiments. The experimental signature is characterised by the presence of reconstructed missing momentum collinear with the visible components of the jets. This complex topology is sensitive to detector inefficiencies and mis-reconstruction that generate artificial missing momentum. With this work, we propose a signal-agnostic strategy to reject ordinary jets and identify semivisible jets via anomaly detection techniques. A deep neural autoencoder network with jet substructure variables as input proves highly useful for analyzing anomalous jets. The study focuses on the semivisible jet signature; however, the technique can apply to any new physics model that predicts signatures with anomalous jets from non-SM particles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nuclear Matter in 1 + 1 Dimensions

We review the solution of QCD in two spacetime dimensions. Following the analysis of Baluni, for a single flavor, the model can be analyzed using Abelian bosonization. The theory can be analyzed in strong coupling, when the quarks are much lighter than the gauge coupling. In this limit, the theory is given by a Luttinger liquid.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Relativistic Guiding-Center Motion: Action Principle, Kinetic Theory and Hydrodynamics

We treat the guiding-center dynamics in a varying external Maxwell field using a relativistically covariant action principle which reproduces the known Vandervoort expression for the drift velocity and extends it to curved spacetime. We derive the corresponding kinetic theory and ideal hydrodynamic theory. In contrast to conventional five-equation hydrodynamics, the guiding-center hydrodynamics needs only three equations due to a constraint on the motion across magnetic field. Furthermore, we argue that such a hydrodynamics is applicable to strongly coupled plasmas where kinetic theory fails.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

CMS Physics Results in the LHC Runs 2,3

The Large hadron Collider at CERN and four scientific collaborations: Alice, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb are in operation since September 2008. The accelerator delivered and the experiments processed trillions of events of proton-proton and heavy ions collisions and provided useful data for thousands of physics analyses and publications. The jewel of the published data is a discovery in 2012 of the long anticipated Higgs boson. During the operation time the regular acquisition of data was interleaved with two periods of maintenance, Long-shutdown-1 (2013-2015) and Long-shutdown-2 (2018-2022), which resulted in several improvements to the machine and the experiments. The CMS collaboration recorded to date two large physics datasets of pp collision data. The first dataset, called Run 2, was recorded between 2015 and 2018 with 140fb-1 of integrated luminosity taken at 13TeV of center of mass energy. The second dataset, called Run 3, has just started in 2022 and it has been recording pp collision data at 13.6 TeV of center of mass energy, with 80 fb-1 of data collected till the end of July 2023.For my presentation I selected the most recent results produced by CMS from Run2 and Run 3 which are covering the topics of Higgs boson properties, searches for new particles and additional scalars, top quark production and properties, and I am discussing other interesting models e.g. using SM particles as portals to the Dark matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Search for Dark Matter using mono-Higgs and the ATLAS Pixel Detector (Final Report)

A large component of the mass-energy of the universe is composed of dark matter (DM), whose properties and interactions with known particles are not yet understood. Searches for DM at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) provide important information, complementary to direct and indirect detection experiments, that is necessary to determine whether an observed signal indeed stems from DM. Furthermore, the discovery of the Higgs boson provides a unique avenue to search for DM because the potential interaction of the Higgs with DM would lead to the unique signature of a Higgs boson recoiling against DM. This process is typically referred to as mono-Higgs because DM does not interact strongly with most known particles and will therefore pass unseen through the detector, leading to a single detected Higgs boson and a large imbalance of momentum. Due to the strength of the interactions of the Higgs with Standard Model particles, it is unlikely for a Higgs boson to be radiated from initial state quarks. Therefore, the observation of this process would provide direct insight into the mechanism by which DM couples to known particles. The objective of this research program is to search for the dark matter particles produced in association with a Higgs boson at the LHC using the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) detector, specifically when the Higgs boson decays to two bottom quarks. This research will benefit greatly from the development of innovative identification techniques of boosted Higgs bosons. The program includes the upgrade of the ATLAS Pixel readout system, which is critical to maintain high performance of tracking, vertexing, and boosted Higgs tagging in the planned higher luminosity run of the LHC.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Insights into the emergence of mass from studies of pion and kaon structure

There are two mass generating mechanisms in the standard model of particle physics (SM). One is related to the Higgs boson and fairly well understood. The other is embedded in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the SM’s strong interaction piece; and although responsible for emergence of the roughly 1 GeV mass scale that characterises the proton and hence all observable matter, the source and impacts of this emergent hadronic mass (EHM) remain puzzling. As bound states seeded by a valence-quark and -antiquark, pseudoscalar mesons present a simpler problem in quantum field theory than that associated with the nucleon. Consequently, there is a large array of robust predictions for pion and kaon properties whose empirical validation will provide a clear window onto many effects of both mass generating mechanisms and the constructive interference between them. This has now become significant because new-era experimental facilities, in operation, construction, or planning, are capable of conducting such tests and thereby contributing greatly to resolving the puzzles of EHM. These aspects of experiment, phenomenology, and theory, along with contemporary successes and challenges, are reviewed herein. In addition to providing an overview of the experimental status, we focus on recent progress made using continuum Schwinger function methods and lattice-regularised QCD. Further, advances made using other theoretical tools are also sketched. Our primary goal is to highlight the potential gains that can accrue from a coherent effort aimed at finally reaching an understanding of the character and structure of Nature’s Nambu–Goldstone modes.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

DOUBLY-STRANGE BARYON SPECTROSCOPY WITH THE GLUEX EXPERIMENT: GROUND STATE ¿(1320) PHOTOPRODUCTION CROSS SECTION AND PROPERTIES

In the light-quark sector, traditional quark models and, more recently, lattice QCD calculations have predicted many more baryon states than have been experimentally observed. The hyperons, baryons with strange-quark content, in particular abundantly lack these observed states, and past observations are statistically limited. For multi-strange hyperons the matter is much worse and the production mechanisms of these states in photoproduction are very poorly understood. By capitalizing on the narrow peaks, as compared to the broad and overlapping N* and ¿* states, characteristic of the lowest lying ¿ resonances, the systematic aspects of the spectrum can be analyzed. In addition, we can measure experimental observables such as the production cross section to study the production mechanisms of the ¿ resonances. By accumulating various experimental observables, this goal could be accomplished through Partial Wave Analysis (PWA). The main body of work presented in this dissertation is the physics analysis and systematic study of the production cross section for the doubly strange octet ground state baryon (¿(1320)) in the exclusive t-channel photoproduction reaction ¿p ¿ K+Y* ¿ K+(K+¿-)Y* where ¿- ¿ ¿p- and ¿ ¿ pp-. The spin quantum number of ¿(1320) is also extracted and discussed. A preliminary result to extract the mass of ¿(1320) is also explored as a result of the statistical limitations of current measurements. Furthermore, the spectrum of the excited ¿* baryons are explored and discussed in the ¿*- ¿ K-¿ decay channel. The studies on the ground state and excited ¿ baryon are performed using the GlueX Phase-I (GlueX-I) data set. We have extracted differential cross sections from seven beam photon energy bins for E¿ ¿ [6.4,11.4] GeV1 and for -t < 2.4 GeV2 in the production of K+Y*. 1Natural units (c = 1) are used for the entire body of work.

Hernandez, Jesse [Florida State Univ., Tallahassee↗
DOE OSTI2023

Relativistic Hartree–Fock chiral Lagrangians with confinement, nucleon finite size and short-range effects

A relativistic Hartree–Fock Lagrangian including a chiral potential and nucleon polarisation is investigated in hopes of providing a better description of dense nuclear matter. Here, we fully consider the contribution of the exchange Fock term to the energy and the self-energies, and in addition we investigate the nucleon’s compositeness and finite size effects (confinement and form factors) and short range correlations modeled by a Jastrow ansatz. These effects are added step by step, such that their impact on the dense matter properties can be analysed in details. The parameters of the model are adjusted to reproduce fundamental properties related to the QCD theory at low energy, such as the chiral symmetry breaking, nucleon’s quark substructure and Lattice-QCD predictions, as well as two empirical properties at saturation: the binding energy and the density. All other empirical parameters, e.g., symmetry energy and its slope, incompressibility modulus, effective mass, as well as spin–isospin Landau–Midgal parameter are predictions of the models and can be used to evaluate the gain of the different approximation schemes in describing nuclear properties. Bayesian statistics is employed in order to propagate parameter uncertainties into predictions for the nuclear matter properties. We show that the splitting of the effective Landau mass is largely influenced by the value of the ρ T coupling, and we show that the fit to the symmetry energy, which induces an increase of the coupling constant g ρ by about 20–25% compared to the case where it is fixed by the quark model, provides a very good EoS compatible with the present nuclear physics knowledge.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Vector boson dark matter from trinification

We show how trinification models based on the gauge group SU(3) C x SU(3) L x SU(3) R realized near the TeV scale can provide naturally a variety of dark matter (DM) candidates. These models contain a discrete T parity which may remain unbroken even after spontaneous symmetry breaking. The lightest T-odd particle, which could be a fermion, a scalar, or a gauge boson, can constitute the dark matter of the universe. This framework naturally admits a doublet-singlet fermionic DM, a singlet scalar DM, or a vector boson DM. Here we develop the vector boson DM scenario wherein the DM couples off-diagonally with the usual fermions and vector-like fermions present in the theory. We show consistency of this framework with dark matter relic abundance and direct detection limits as well as LHC constraints. We derive upper limits of 900 GeV on the vector gauge boson DM mass and 4.5 TeV on the vector-like quark masses. We also show the consistency of spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking down to Standard Model times an extra U(1) while preserving the T-parity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Determining the gluonic gravitational form factors of the proton

The proton is one of the main building blocks of all visible matter in the Universe. Among its intrinsic properties are its electric charge, mass and spin. These properties emerge from the complex dynamics of its fundamental constituents—quarks and gluons—described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics. The electric charge and spin of protons, which are shared among the quarks, have been investigated previously using electron scattering. An example is the highly precise measurement of the electric charge radius of the proton. By contrast, little is known about the inner mass density of the proton, which is dominated by the energy carried by gluons. Gluons are hard to access using electron scattering because they do not carry an electromagnetic charge. Here we investigated the gravitational density of gluons using a small colour dipole, through the threshold photoproduction of the J/ψ particle. We determined the gluonic gravitational form factors of the proton from our measurement. Here we used a variety of models and determined, in all cases, a mass radius that is notably smaller than the electric charge radius. In some, but not all cases, depending on the model, the determined radius agrees well with first-principle predictions from lattice quantum chromodynamics. This work paves the way for a deeper understanding of the salient role of gluons in providing gravitational mass to visible matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Search for production of four top quarks in final states with same-sign or multiple leptons in proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ ${TeV}$

The standard model (SM) production of four top quarks ($\text {t} {}{\overline{\text {t}}} \text {t} {}{\overline{\text {t}}} $) in proton–proton collisions is studied by the CMS Collaboration. The data sample, collected during the 2016–2018 data taking of the LHC, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$ at a center-of-mass energy of 13$\,\text {TeV}$. The events are required to contain two same-sign charged leptons (electrons or muons) or at least three leptons, and jets. The observed and expected significances for the $\text {t} {}{\overline{\text {t}}} \text {t} {}{\overline{\text {t}}} $ signal are respectively 2.6 and 2.7 standard deviations, and the $\text {t} {}{\overline{\text {t}}} \text {t} {}{\overline{\text {t}}} $ cross section is measured to be $12.6^{+5.8}_{-5.2}\,\text {fb} $. The results are used to constrain the Yukawa coupling of the top quark to the Higgs boson, $y_{\text {t}}$, yielding a limit of $|y_{\text {t}}/y_{\text {t}}^{\mathrm {SM}} | < 1.7$ at $95\%$ confidence level, where $y_{\text {t}}^{\mathrm {SM}}$ is the SM value of $y_{\text {t}}$. They are also used to constrain the oblique parameter of the Higgs boson in an effective field theory framework, $\hat{H}<0.12$. Limits are set on the production of a heavy scalar or pseudoscalar boson in Type-II two-Higgs-doublet and simplified dark matter models, with exclusion limits reaching 350–470$\,\text {GeV}$ and 350–550$\,\text {GeV}$ for scalar and pseudoscalar bosons, respectively. Upper bounds are also set on couplings of the top quark to new light particles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Continuous evolution of electromagnetic field in heavy-ion collisions

In relativistic heavy-ion collisions the electromagnetic field exists before the hot nuclear matter emergence. Requiring the field continuity, we compute it in the central rapidity region by taking into account the electromagnetic response of the Quark Gluon Plasma. We show that the electromagnetic field is nearly time-independent from about 1 fm/c after the collision until the freezeout. In particular, its value is about 10% of the initial magnitude of the magnetic field. In conclusion, our result provides a theoretical basis for the common assumption that the electromagnetic field produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions varies slowly with time.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗