Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “invisible decays”

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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Searching for metastable particles using graph computing

The reconstruction of charged particle trajectories at the Large Hadron Collider and future colliders relies on energy depositions in sensors placed at distances ranging from a centimeter to a meter from the colliding beams. We propose a method of detecting charged particles that decay invisibly after traversing a short distance of about 25 cm inside the experimental apparatus. One of the decay products may constitute the dark matter known to be 84% of all matter at galactic and cosmological distance scales. Our method uses graph computing to cluster spacepoints recorded by two-dimensional silicon pixel sensors into mathematically-defined patterns. The algorithm may be implemented on silicon-based integrated circuits using field-programmable gate array technology to augment or replace traditional computing platforms.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stau pairs from natural SUSY at high luminosity LHC

Natural supersymmetry (SUSY) with light Higgsinos is perhaps the most plausible of all weak scale SUSY models while a variety of motivations point to (right) tau sleptons as the lightest of all the sleptons. We examine a SUSY model line with rather light right staus embedded within natural SUSY. For light τ ˜ 1 of a few hundred GeV, the decays τ ˜ 1 → τ χ ˜ 1 , 2 0 and ν τ χ ˜ 1 − occur at comparable rates where the (Higgsino-like) χ ˜ 1 ± and χ ˜ 2 0 release only small visible energy: in this case, the expected τ + τ − + E T signature is diminished from the usual expectations due to the presence of the nearly invisible decay mode τ ˜ 1 → ν τ χ ˜ 1 − . However, once m τ ˜ 1 ≳ m ( b i n o ) , decays to binos such as τ ˜ 1 → τ χ ˜ 3 0 open up where χ ˜ 3 0 decays to Higgsinos plus W ± , Z 0 , and h at comparable rates. For these heavier staus, the stau pair production gives rise to diboson + E T events, which may contain 0, 1, or 2 additional hard τ leptons. From these considerations, we examine the potential for future discovery of tau-slepton pair production at a high-luminosity LHC. While we do not find a 5 σ HL-LHC discovery reach for 3000 fb − 1 , we do find a 95% CL exclusion reach, ranging between m τ ˜ 1 : 100 – 450 GeV for m χ ˜ 1 0 ∼ 100 GeV . This latter reach disappears for m χ ˜ 1 0 ≳ 200 GeV . Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb -1 , collected in 2017–2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb -1 , collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Search for new particles in events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson and large missing transverse momentum at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for new particles produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV that result in final states comprising a massive vector ( W or Z ) boson that decays hadronically and large missing transverse momentum. The data sample was collected with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider from 2015 to 2018 and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb - 1 . No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed. Model-independent 95% confidence-level limits on the visible cross-section that range from 0.3 fb to 79.5 fb are obtained for non-Standard-Model processes. Exclusion limits are also presented for models with axion-like particles, for two-Higgs-doublet models with a pseudo-scalar mediator between the Standard Model and the dark sector, for the invisible decay of the Higgs boson and for pair-produced weakly interacting dark matter candidates.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Precision Higgs couplings in neutral naturalness models: an effective field theory approach

The Higgs sector in neutral naturalness models provides a portal to the hidden sectors, and thus measurements of Higgs couplings at current and future colliders play a central role in constraining the parameter space of the model. We investigate a class of neutral naturalness models, in which the Higgs boson is a pseudo-Goldstone boson from the universal SO(N)/SO(N - 1) coset structure. Integrating out the radial mode from the spontaneous global symmetry breaking, we obtain various dimension-six operators in the Standard Model effective field theory, and calculate the low energy Higgs effective potential with radiative corrections included. We perform a χ 2 fit to the Higgs coupling precision measurements at current and future colliders and show that the new physics scale could be explored up to 2.3 (2.4) TeV without (with) the Higgs invisible decay channels at future Higgs factories. The limits are comparable to the indirect constraints obtained via electroweak precision measurements.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Global electroweak symmetric vacuum

Although the Higgs potential in the Standard Model (SM) contains only a simple electroweak symmetry breaking vacuum in the small field region, additional metastable or global vacua could exist in models beyond the SM. In this paper, we study one intriguing scenario with an additional electroweak symmetric vacuum that could be the global one. For the thermal universe ending at the current metastable vacuum, the electroweak symmetry should stay non-restored at high temperatures. We realize the scenario in a model with Higgs-portal couplings to SM singlet scalars with approximately global O(N) symmetries with a large N. For a large portion of model parameter space, both the quantum and thermal tunneling rates are suppressed such that our current metastable vacuum is long-lived enough. Our scenario predicts order-one changes for the Higgs self-couplings and a large contribution to the signal of the off-shell Higgs invisible decay. It can be partly probed at the LHC Run 3 and well tested at the high luminosity LHC. We also discuss the subcritical (anti-de Sitter) bubbles from the thermal tunneling that could have a large population and interesting cosmological implications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dark moments for the Standard Model?

If dark matter (DM) interacts with the Standard Model (SM) via the kinetic mixing (KM) portal, it necessitates the existence of portal matter (PM) particles which carry both dark and SM quantum numbers that will appear in vacuum polarization-like loop graphs. In addition to the familiar ~ eϵQ strength, QED-like interaction for the dark photon (DP), in some setups different loop graphs of these PM states can also induce other coupling structures for the SM fermions that may come to dominate in at least some regions of parameter space regions and which can take the form of ‘dark’ moments, e.g., magnetic dipole-type interactions in the IR, associated with a large mass scale, Λ. In this paper, motivated by a simple toy model, we perform a phenomenological investigation of a possible loop-induced dark magnetic dipole moment for SM fermions, in particular, for the electron. We show that at the phenomenological level such a scenario can not only be made compatible with existing experimental constraints for a significant range of correlated values for Λ and the dark U(1) D gauge coupling, g D , but can also lead to quantitatively different signatures once the DP is discovered. In this setup, assuming complex scalar DM to satisfy CMB constraints, parameter space regions where the DP decays invisibly are found to be somewhat preferred if PM mass limits from direct searches at the LHC and our toy model setup are all taken seriously. High precision searches for, or measurements of, the e + e - → γ + DP process at Belle II are shown to provide some of the strongest future constraints on this scenario.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Search for an Invisible Z ' in a Final State with Two Muons and Missing Energy at Belle II

The $L_μ – L_τ$ extension of the standard model predicts the existence of a lepton-flavor-universality-violating Z' boson that couples only to the heavier lepton families. We search for such a Z' through its invisible decay in the process $e^+e^– → μ^+μ^–$Z'. We use a sample of electron-positron collisions at a center- of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019-2020, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.7 fb –1 . We find no excess over the expected standard-model background. We set 90%-confidence-level upper limits on the cross section for this process as well as on the coupling of the model, which ranges from 3 × 10 –3 at low Z' masses to 1 at Z' masses of 8 GeV=$c^2$.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Averages of 𝑏-hadron, 𝑐-hadron, and 𝜏-lepton properties as of 2023

This paper reports world averages of measurements of 𝑏-hadron, 𝑐-hadron, and 𝜏-lepton properties obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group using results available before October 2023. In rare cases, significant results obtained several months later are also used. For the averaging, common input parameters used in the various analyses are adjusted (rescaled) to common values, and known correlations are taken into account. The averages include branching fractions, lifetimes, neutral meson mixing parameters, 𝐶⁢𝑃 violation parameters, parameters of semileptonic decays, and Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements.

Bottom quark production↗
DOE OSTI2023

Search for dark matter produced in association with a single top quark and an energetic W boson in $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV $pp$ collisions with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a search for dark matter, $χ$, using events with a single top quark and an energetic W boson. The analysis is based on proton–proton collision data collected with the ATLAS experiment at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV during LHC Run 2 (2015–2018), corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 . The search considers final states with zero or one charged lepton (electron or muon), at least one $b$-jet and large missing transverse momentum. In addition, a result from a previous search considering two-charged-lepton final states is included in the interpretation of the results. The data are found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model predictions and the results are interpreted in terms of 95% confidence-level exclusion limits in the context of a class of dark matter models involving an extended two Higgs-doublet sector together with a pseudoscalar mediator particle. The search is particularly sensitive to on-shell pro duction of the charged Higgs boson state, $H$ ± , arising from the two-Higgs-doublet mixing, and its semi-invisible decays via the mediator particle, $a$: $H$ ± → $W$ ± $a$(→ $χ$ $χ$). Signal models with $H$ ± masses up to 1.5 TeV and a masses up to 350 GeV are excluded assuming a tan $β$ value of 1. For masses of a of 150 (250) GeV, tan $β$ values up to 2 are excluded for $H$ ± masses between 200 (400) GeV and 1.5 TeV. Signals with tan $β$ values between 20 and 30 are excluded for $H$ ± masses between 500 and 800 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

FCC feasibility studies: Impact of tracker- and calorimeter-detector performance on jet flavor identification and Higgs physics analyses

The ambitious physics program planned for the Future Circular Collider electron-positron phase imposes stringent constraints on detector performance. This study systematically investigates how different detector configurations impact jet flavor identification and their effects on high-profile physics analyses. Using Higgs boson coupling measurements and searches for invisible Higgs decays as benchmarks, we evaluate the sensitivity of these analyses to variations in tracker and calorimeter detector properties. We examine modifications to single-point resolution, material budget, silicon layer placement, and particle identification capabilities, quantifying their effects on flavor-tagging performance. Additionally, we present the first comprehensive study of Higgs-to-invisible decay detection using full detector simulation, providing insights for optimizing detector designs at lepton colliders.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

A search for decays of the Higgs boson to invisible particles in events with a top-antitop quark pair or a vector boson in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 13\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V} $$

A search for decays to invisible particles of Higgs bosons produced in association with a top-antitop quark pair or a vector boson, which both decay to a fully hadronic final state, has been performed using proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138fb -1 . The 95% confidence level upper limit set on the branching fraction of the 125 GeV Higgs boson to invisible particles, B(H → inv), is 0.54 (0.39 expected), assuming standard model production cross sections. The results of this analysis are combined with previous B(H → inv) searches carried out at $\sqrt{s} = 7$, 8, and 13 TeV in complementary production modes. The combined upper limit at 95% confidence level on B(H → inv) is 0.15 (0.08 expected).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Study of Neutrino Decay Signals at NOvA

NOvA is a long-baseline accelerator neutrino experiment with sensitivity to effects beyond the standard three-flavor oscillation framework. In this work, we study invisible neutrino decay within neutrino oscillations in the context of the NOvA experiment and its impact on measurement of the standard three-flavour parameters. Neutrino decay has been implemented in the oscillation probability calculation and validated against the standard no-decay case. Here we present the current status of the analysis, focusing on oscillation probabilities and neutrino event rate predictions including invisible neutrino decay.

Barros, Andrea [U. Atlantico, Barranquilla] (ORCID↗
DOE OSTI2021

Search for K + decays to a muon and invisible particles

The NA62 experiment at CERN reports searches for K + → μ + N and K + → μ + ν X decays, where N and X are massive invisible particles, using the 2016–2018 data set. The N particle is assumed to be a heavy neutral lepton, and the results are expressed as upper limits of O ( 10 - 8 ) of the neutrino mixing parameter | U μ 4 | 2 for N masses in the range 200–384 MeV/ c 2 and lifetime exceeding 50 ns. The X particle is considered a scalar or vector hidden sector mediator decaying to an invisible final state, and upper limits of the decay branching fraction for X masses in the range 10–370 MeV/ c 2 are reported for the first time, ranging from O ( 10 - 5 ) to O ( 10 - 7 ) . An improved upper limit of 1.0 × 10 - 6 is established at 90% CL on the K + → μ + ν ν ν ¯ branching fraction.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Search for Lepton-Flavor-Violating τ Decays to a Lepton and an Invisible Boson at Belle II

We search for lepton-flavor-violating $τ^– \rightarrow e^–α$ $τ^– \rightarrow μ^–α$ decays, where α is an invisible spin-0 boson. The search uses electron-positron collisions at 10.58 GeV center-of-mass energy with an integrated luminosity of 62.8 fb –1 , produced by the SuperKEKB collider and collected with the Belle II detector. We search for an excess in the lepton-energy spectrum of the known $τ^–\rightarrow e^–\bar{v}_{e}v_τ$ decays. We report 95% confidence-level upper limits on the branching-fraction ratio $\mathscr{B}(τ^–\rightarrow e^–α) \ / \mathscr{B}(τ^–\rightarrow e^– \bar{v}_{e}v_τ)$ in the range (1.1-9.7) × 10 –3 and on $\mathscr{B}(τ^–\rightarrow μ^–α) \ / \mathscr{B}(τ^–\rightarrow μ^– \bar{v}_{μ}v_τ)$ in the range (0.7-12.2)×10 –3 for α masses between 0 and 1.6 GeV/c 2 . These results provide the most stringent bounds on invisible boson production from τ decays.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Precision measurement of the Z boson invisible width in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV

A precise measurement of the invisible width of the Z boson produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented using data recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.3 fb − 1 . The result is obtained from a simultaneous fit to kinematic distributions for two data samples of Z boson plus jets: one dominated by Z boson decays to invisible particles and the other by Z boson decays to muon and electron pairs. The invisible width is measured to be 523 ± 3 (stat) ± 16 (syst) MeV . This result is the first precise measurement of the invisible width of the Z boson at a hadron collider, and is the single most precise direct measurement to date, competitive with the combined result of the direct measurements from the LEP experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗