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At least 19 records

Baryon-baryon, meson-meson, and meson-baryon interactions in nonrelativistic QCD

Van der Waals potentials describing interactions between color-singlet mesons and/or baryons vanish at leading order in potential nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics (pNRQCD). This result and constraints from Gauss’s law are used to prove that weakly coupled pNRQCD van der Waals potentials in generic non-Abelian gauge theories with only heavy quarks are too weak to form bound states whose color state is a product of color singlets. Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of four, five, and six quarks with equal masses provide numerical evidence that exotic color configurations are higher energy than products of color-singlet hadrons, suggesting that equal-mass fully heavy tetraquark, pentaquark, and hexaquark bound states do not exist at next-to-leading order in pNRQCD and at all orders in QCD-like theories in which all quark masses are asymptotically large. Mechanisms for generating hadron-hadron bound states are identified, which necessarily involve large quark-mass hierarchies, relativistic effects arising from the presence of sufficiently light quarks, or nonperturbative effects outside the scope of weakly coupled pNRQCD.

Effective field theory↗

Baryon content in a sample of 91 galaxy clusters selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 <z < 1.25

We estimate total mass (M-500), intracluster medium (ICM) mass (M-ICM), and stellar mass (M-star) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses M-500 greater than or similar to 2.5 x 10(14) M-circle dot and redshift 0.2 < z < 1.25 from the 2500 deg(2) South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses M-500 are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses M-ICM are obtained from the analysis of Chandra X-ray observations, and the stellar masses M-star are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey griz optical photometry and WISE or Spitzer near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass, and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster halo mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past approximate to 9 Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low-density environment or field surrounding the parent haloes, we show that the measured mass trends without strong redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation could be explained by a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called 'missing baryons' outside cluster virial regions.

galaxies: clusters: stellar masses: ICM masses: ba↗

Studying strangeness and baryon production mechanisms through angular correlations between charged Ξ baryons and identified hadrons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

The angular correlations between charged Ξ baryons and associated identified hadrons (pions, kaons, protons, Λ baryons, and Ξ baryons) are measured in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ALICE detector to give insight into the particle production mechanisms and balancing of quantum numbers on the microscopic level. In particular, the distribution of strangeness is investigated in the correlations between the doubly-strange Ξ baryon and mesons and baryons that contain a single strange quark, K and Λ. As a reference, the results are compared to Ξπ and Ξp correlations, where the associated mesons and baryons do not contain a strange valence quark. These measurements are expected to be sensitive to whether strangeness is produced through string breaking or in a thermal production scenario. Furthermore, the multiplicity dependence of the correlation functions is measured to look for the turn-on of additional particle production mechanisms with event activity. The results are compared to predictions from the string-breaking model P YTHIA 8, including tunes with baryon junctions and rope hadronisation enabled, the cluster hadronisation model H ERWIG 7, and the core-corona model E POS-LHC . While some aspects of the experimental data are described quantitatively or qualitatively by the Monte Carlo models, no model can match all features of the data. These results provide stringent constraints on the strangeness and baryon number production mechanisms in pp collisions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

How macroscopic limits on neutron-star baryon loss yield microscopic limits on non-standard-model baryon decay

We investigate how our baryon-loss limits from anomalous binary-pulsar period lengthening can be interpreted microscopically to yield specific constraints on the particle physics of baryon number violation within a neutron star. We focus on the possibility of anomalous baryon disappearance via dark baryon processes and on scenarios in which the produced dark-sector particles do not survive to influence the response of the star to baryon-number-violating effects. We flesh out the conditions for which this may occur, as well as other key assumptions. We then turn to the analysis of particle processes in the dense nuclear medium found at the core of a neutron star, employing the techniques of relativistic mean-field theory. Using our study of in-medium effects and limits on macroscopic baryon number violation, we extract limits on in-vacuum baryon-number-violating processes, and we determine them for various equations of state. We conclude by noting the implications of our results for models of dark-sector-enabled baryogenesis. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Baryogenesis from oscillations of charmed or beautiful baryons

Here, we propose a model for CP violating oscillations of neutral, heavy-flavored baryons into antibaryons at rates which are within a few orders of magnitude of their lifetimes. The flavor structure of the baryon violation suppresses neutron oscillations and baryon number violating nuclear decays to experimentally allowed rates. We also propose a scenario for producing such baryons in the early Universe via the out-of-equilibrium decays of a neutral particle, after hadronization but before nucleosynthesis. We find parameters where CP violating baryon oscillations at a temperature of a few MeV could result in the observed asymmetry between baryons and antibaryons. Additionally, part of the relevant parameter space for baryogenesis is potentially testable at Belle II via decays of heavy flavor baryons into an exotic neutral fermion. The model introduces four new particles: three light Majorana fermions and a colored scalar. The lightest of these fermions is typically long lived on collider timescales and may be produced in decays of bottom and possibly charmed hadrons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Early-Universe constraints on dark matter-baryon scattering and their implications for a global 21 cm signal

Here we present and compare several cosmological constraints on the cross section for elastic scattering between dark matter (DM) and baryons, for cross sections with a range of power-law dependences on the DM-baryon relative velocity v , especially focusing on the case of σ ∝ v - 4 . We study constraints spanning a wide range of epochs in cosmological history, from prerecombination distortions to the blackbody spectrum and anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), to modifications to the intergalactic medium temperature and the resulting 21 cm signal, and discuss the allowed signals in the latter channels given the constraints from the former. Furthermore, we improve previous constraints on DM-baryon scattering from the CMB anisotropies, demonstrate via principal component analysis that the effect on the CMB can be written as a simple function of DM mass for v - 4 scattering, and map out the redshifts dominating this signal. We show that given high-redshift constraints on DM-baryon scattering, a v - 4 scaling of the cross section for light DM would be sufficient to explain the deep 21 cm absorption trough recently claimed by the Experiment to Detect the Reionization Step, if 100% of the DM scatters with baryons; we estimate the minimal necessary velocity scaling and find that it is close to v - 4 . For millicharged DM models proposed to explain the observation, where only a small fraction of the DM interacts, we estimate that a PIXIE-like future experiment measuring CMB spectral distortion could test the relevant parameter space.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Baryonic Effects in Cosmic Shear Tomography: PCA Parameterization and the Importance of Extreme Baryonic Models

Baryonic effects are amongst the most severe systematics to the tomographic analysis of weak lensing data which is the principal probe in many future generations of cosmological surveys like LSST, Euclid etc.. Modeling or parameterizing these effects is essential in order to extract valuable constraints on cosmological parameters. In a recent paper, Eifler et al. (2015) suggested a reduction technique for baryonic effects by conducting a principal component analysis (PCA) and removing the largest baryonic eigenmodes from the data. In this article, we conducted the investigation further and addressed two critical aspects. Firstly, we performed the analysis by separating the simulations into training and test sets, computing a minimal set of principle components from the training set and examining the fits on the test set. We found that using only four parameters, corresponding to the four largest eigenmodes of the training set, the test sets can be fitted thoroughly with an RMS $\sim 0.0011$. Secondly, we explored the significance of outliers, the most exotic/extreme baryonic scenarios, in this method. We found that excluding the outliers from the training set results in a relatively bad fit and degraded the RMS by nearly a factor of 3. Therefore, for a direct employment of this method to the tomographic analysis of the weak lensing data, the principle components should be derived from a training set that comprises adequately exotic but reasonable models such that the reality is included inside the parameter domain sampled by the training set. The baryonic effects can be parameterized as the coefficients of these principle components and should be marginalized over the cosmological parameter space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Baryon number violation: from nuclear matrix elements to BSM physics

Processes that violate baryon number, most notably proton decay and $n\bar{n}$ transitions, are promising probes of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) needed to understand the lack of antimatter in the Universe. To interpret current and forthcoming experimental limits, theory input from nuclear matrix elements to UV complete models enters. Thus, an interplay of experiment, effective field theory, lattice QCD, and BSM model building is required to develop strategies to accurately extract information from current and future data and maximize the impact and sensitivity of next-generation experiments. Here, we briefly summarize the main results and discussions from the workshop ‘INT-25-91W: Baryon Number Violation: From Nuclear Matrix Elements to BSM Physics,’ held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 13–17 January 2025.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Skewness and kurtosis of net baryon-number distributions at small values of the baryon chemical potential

In this paper, we present results for the ratios of mean (M B ), variance (σ$2\atop{B}$), skewness (S B ) and kurtosis (κ B ) of net baryon-number fluctuations obtained in lattice QCD calculations with physical values of light and strange quark masses. Using next-to-leading order Taylor expansions in baryon chemical potential we find that qualitative features of these ratios closely resemble the corresponding experimentally measured cumulants ratios of net proton-number fluctuations for beam energies down to √sNN ≥ 19.6 GeV. We show that the difference in cumulant ratios for the mean net baryon-number, M B /σ$2\atop{B}$ = χ$B\atop{1}$ (T, µ B )/χ$B\atop{2}$ (T, µ B ) and the normalized skewness, S B σ B = χ$B\atop{3}$ (T, µB)/χ2 (T, µB ), nat-urally arises in QCD thermodynamics. Moreover, we establish a close relation between skewness and kurtosis ratios, S B σ$B\atop{3}$/M B = χ$B\atop{3}$ (T, µ B )/χ$B\atop{1}$ (T,µ B ) and κ B σ$2\atop{B}$ = χ$B\atop{4}$ (T,μ B )/χ$B\atop{2}$ (T,μ B ), valid at small values of the baryon chemical potential.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Baryon-baryon interactions and spin-flavor symmetry from lattice quantum chromodynamics

Lattice quantum chromodynamics is used to constrain the interactions of two octet baryons at the SU(3) flavor-symmetric point, with quark masses that are heavier than those in nature (equal to that of the physical strange quark mass and corresponding to a pion mass of $\approx 806~\tt{MeV}$). Specifically, the S-wave scattering phase shifts of two-baryon systems at low energies are obtained with the application of L\"uscher's formalism, mapping the energy eigenvalues of two interacting baryons in a finite volume to the two-particle scattering amplitudes below the relevant inelastic thresholds. The values of the leading-order low-energy scattering parameters in the irreducible representations of SU(3) are consistent with an approximate SU(6) spin-flavor symmetry in the nuclear and hypernuclear forces that is predicted in the large-$N_c$ limit of QCD. The two distinct SU(6)-invariant interactions between two baryons are constrained at this value of the quark masses, and their values indicate an approximate accidental SU(16) symmetry. The SU(3) irreducible representations containing the $NN~({^1}S_0)$, $NN~({^3}S_1)$ and $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\Xi^0n+\Xi^-p)~({^3}S_1)$ channels unambiguously exhibit a single bound state, while the irreducible representation containing the $\Sigma^+ p~({^3}S_1)$ channel exhibits a state that is consistent with either a bound state or a scattering state close to threshold. These results are in agreement with the previous conclusions of the NPLQCD collaboration regarding the existence of two-nucleon bound states at this value of the quark masses.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

First constraint on the neutrino-induced phase shift in the spectrum of baryon acoustic oscillations

The existence of the cosmic neutrino background is a robust prediction of the hot big bang model. These neutrinos were a dominant component of the energy density in the early Universe and therefore played an important role in the evolution of cosmological perturbations. The energy density of the cosmic neutrino background has been measured using the abundances of light elements and the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background. A complementary and more robust probe is provided by a distinct shift in the temporal phase of sound waves in the primordial plasma that is produced by fluctuations in the neutrino density. Here, we report on the first constraint on this neutrino-induced phase shift in the spectrum of baryon acoustic oscillations of the BOSS DR12 data. Constraining the acoustic scale using Planck data while marginalizing over the effects of neutrinos in the cosmic microwave background, we find a non-zero phase shift at greater than 95% confidence. Besides providing a new test of the cosmic neutrino background, our work is the first application of the baryon acoustic oscillation signal to early Universe physics.

Baumann, Daniel↗

The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Ly$α$ Forests

Here, we present a measurement of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) from Lyman-α (Lyα) absorption and quasars at an effective redshift $z = 2.33$ using the complete extended Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). The sixteenth and final eBOSS data release (SDSS DR16) contains all data from eBOSS and its predecessor, the Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), providing 210,005 quasars with $z_q > 2.10$ that are used to measure Lyα absorption. We measure the BAO scale both in the auto-correlation of Ly$α$ absorption and in its cross correlation with 341,468 quasars with redshift $z_q > 1.77$. Apart from the statistical gain from new quasars and deeper observations, the main improvements over previous work come from more accurate modeling of physical and instrumental correlations and the use of new sets of mock data. Combining the BAO measurement from the auto- and cross-correlation yields the constraints of the two ratios $D_H(z = 2.33)/r_d = 8.99 ± 0.19$ and $D_M(z = 2.33)/r_d = 37.5 ± 1.1$, where the error bars are statistical. These results are within $1.5σ$ of the prediction of the flat-ΛCDM cosmology of Planck (2016). The analysis code, picca, the catalog of the flux-transmission field measurements, and the $Δ\chi^2$ surfaces are publicly available.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Bayesian inference of in-medium baryon-baryon scattering cross sections from HADES proton flow data

Within a Bayesian statistical framework using a Gaussian Process emulator for an isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (IBUU) transport model simulator of heavy-ion reactions at intermediate energies, we infer from the HADES proton flow data the posterior probability distribution functions of in-medium baryon-baryon scattering cross section modification factor X with respect to free-space and the corresponding incompressibility K of nuclear matter as well as their correlation function. In conclusion, the mean value of X is found to be $X$ = $1.32_ {+0.28} ^ {-0.40} $ at 68% confidence level assuming the nuclear incompressibility K will not exceed 400 MeV, providing circumstantial evidence for enhanced baryon-braryon scattering cross sections in hot and dense nuclear matter.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Pulsar timing anomalies: a window into baryon number violation

Here, we investigate the influence of a specific class of slow Baryon Number Violation (BNV)—one that induces quasi-equilibrium evolution — on pulsar spin characteristics. This work reveals how BNV can potentially alter observable parameters, including spin-down rates, the second derivative of spin frequency, and braking indices of pulsars. Moreover, we demonstrate that BNV could lead to anomalies in pulsar timing, along with a wide array of braking indices, both positive and negative. In addition, we examine the possibility of pulsar spin-up due to BNV, which may result in a novel mechanism for the revival of “dead” pulsars. We conclude by assessing the sensitivity required for future pulsar timing efforts to detect such BNV effects, thus highlighting the potential for pulsars to serve as laboratories for testing fundamental physics.

cosmology↗

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey quasar sample: testing observational systematics on the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurement

ABSTRACT Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) are considered to be a very robust standard ruler against various systematics. This premise has been tested against observational systematics, but not to the level required for the next generation of galaxy surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and Euclid. In this paper, we investigate the effect of observational systematics on the BAO measurement of the final sample of quasars from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 in order to prepare and hone a similar analysis for upcoming surveys. We employ catalogues with various treatments of imaging systematic effects using linear and neural network-based non-linear approaches and consider how the BAO measurement changes. We also test how the variations to the BAO fitting model respond to the observational systematics. As expected, we confirm that the BAO measurements obtained from the DR16 quasar sample are robust against imaging systematics well within the statistical error, while reporting slightly modified constraints that shift the line-of-sight BAO signal by less than 1.1 per cent. We use realistic simulations with similar redshift and angular distributions as the DR16 sample to conduct statistical tests for validating the pipeline, quantifying the significance of differences, and estimating the expected bias on the BAO scale in future high-precision data sets. Although we find a marginal impact for the eBOSS QSO data, the work presented here is of vital importance for constraining the nature of dark energy with the BAO feature in the new era of big data cosmology.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: First measurement of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations between redshift 0.8 and 2.2

Here, we present measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale in redshift-space using the clustering of quasars. We consider a sample of 147,000 quasars from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) distributed over 2044 square degrees with redshifts 0.8 < z < 2.2 and measure their spherically-averaged clustering in both configuration and Fourier space. Our observational dataset and the 1400 simulated realizations of the dataset allow us to detect a preference for BAO that is greater than 2.5σ . We determine the spherically averaged BAO distance to z = 1.52 to 4.4 per cent precision: D V (z = 1:52) = 3855 170 (r d /r d,fid ) Mpc. This is the first time the location of the BAO feature has been measured between redshifts 1 and 2. Our result is fully consistent with the prediction obtained by extrapolating the Planck flat CDM best-fit cosmology. All of our results are consistent with basic large-scale structure (LSS) theory, confirming quasars to be a reliable tracer of LSS, and provide a starting point for numerous cosmological tests to be performed with eBOSS quasar samples. We combine our result with previous, independent, BAO distance measurements to construct an updated BAO distance-ladder. Bu using these BAO data alone and marginalizing over the length of the standard ruler, we find Ω Λ > 0 at 6.5σ significance when testing a CDM model with free curvature.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Constraints on dark energy dynamics and spatial curvature from Hubble parameter and baryon acoustic oscillation data

We use all available baryon acoustic oscillation distance measurements and Hubble parameter data to constrain the cosmological constant Λ, dynamical dark energy, and spatial curvature in simple cosmological models. Here, we find that the consensus spatially flat ΛCDM (Λ cold dark matter) model provides a reasonable fit to the data, but depending on the Hubble constant prior and cosmological model, it can be a little more than 1σ away from the best-fitting model, which can favour mild dark energy dynamics or non-flat spatial hypersurfaces.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The clustering of theSDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: measuring the anisotropic baryon acoustic oscillations with redshift weights

We present an anisotropic analysis of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 14 quasar sample. The sample consists of 147 000 quasars distributed over a redshift range of 0.8 < z < 2.2. We apply the redshift weights technique to the clustering of quasars in this sample and achieve a 4.6 per cent measurement of the angular distance measurement DM at z = 2.2 and Hubble parameter H at z = 0.8. We parametrize the distance-redshift relation, relative to a fiducial model, as a Taylor series. The coefficients of this expansion are used to reconstruct the distance-redshift relation and obtain distance and Hubble parameter measurements at all redshifts within the redshift range of the sample. Reporting the result at two characteristic redshifts, we determine DM(z = 1) = 3405 ± 305 (rd/rd, fid) Mpc, H(z=1) = 120.7± 7.3 (r_d,fid / r_d) km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1} and DM(z = 2) = 5325 ± 249 (rd/rd, fid) Mpc, H(z=2) = 189.9± 32.9 (r_d,fid / r_d) km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}. These measurements are highly correlated. We assess the outlook of BAO analysis from the final quasar sample by testing the method on a set of mocks that mimic the noise level in the final sample. We demonstrate on these mocks that redshift weighting shrinks the measurement error by over 25 per cent on average. We conclude redshift weighting can bring us closer to the cosmological goal of the final quasar sample.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗