Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Hypothetical particles”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Review of Particle Physics

The Review summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 3,200 new measurements from 903 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as supersymmetric particles, heavy bosons, axions, dark photons, etc. Particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Higgs Boson Physics, Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, Neutrino Mixing, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Cosmology, Particle Detectors, Colliders, Probability and Statistics. Most of the 118 reviews are updated, including many that are heavily revised.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Review of Particle Physics - Scalar Mesons below 1 GeV

The summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 2,717 new measurements from 869 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as supersymmetric particles, heavy bosons, axions, dark photons, etc. Particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Higgs Boson Physics, Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, Neutrino Mixing, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Cosmology, Particle Detectors, Colliders, Probability and Statistics. Most of the 120 reviews are updated, including many that are heavily revised. The is divided into two volumes. Volume 1 includes the Summary Tables and 97 review articles. Volume 2 consists of the Particle Listings and contains also 23 reviews that address specific aspects of the data presented in the Listings. The complete (both volumes) is published online on the website of the Particle Data Group () and in a journal. Volume 1 is available in print as the . A with the Summary Tables and essential tables, figures, and equations from selected review articles is available in print, as a web version optimized for use on phones, and as an Android app. The 2024 edition of the Review of Particle Physics should be cited as: S. Navas et al. (Particle Data Group), Phys. Rev. D 110, 030001 (2024)© 20242024

Navas, S. [Universidad de Granada]↗
DOE OSTI2024

Search by the SENSEI Experiment for Millicharged Particles Produced in the NuMI Beam

Millicharged particles appear in several extensions of the standard model, but have not yet been detected. These hypothetical particles could be produced by an intense proton beam striking a fixed target. We use data collected in 2020 by the SENSEI experiment in the MINOS cavern at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to search for ultrarelativistic millicharged particles produced in collisions of protons in the NuMI beam with a fixed graphite target. The absence of any ionization events with 3 to 6 electrons in the SENSEI data allow us to place world-leading constraints on millicharged particles for masses between 30 to 380 MeV. This work also demonstrates the potential of utilizing low-threshold detectors to investigate new particles in beam-dump experiments, and motivates a future experiment designed specifically for this purpose. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for heavy long-lived charged particles with large ionization energy loss in proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV

Abstract A search for heavy, long-lived, charged particles with large ionization energy loss within the silicon tracker of the CMS experiment is presented. A data set of proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV, collected in 2017 and 2018 at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb −1, is used in this analysis. Two different approaches for the search are taken. A new method exploits the independence of the silicon pixel and strips measurements, while the second method improves on previous techniques using ionization to determine a mass selection. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of the pair production of supersymmetric particles, namely gluinos, top squarks, and tau sleptons, and of the Drell-Yan pair production of fourth generation (τ′) leptons with an electric charge equal to or twice the absolute value of the electron charge (e). An interpretation of a Z’ boson decaying to two τ′ leptons with an electric charge equal to 2e is presented for the first time. The 95% confidence upper limits on the production cross section are extracted for each of these hypothetical particles.

Hayrapetyan, A. [Yerevan Physics Institute]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for heavy long-lived charged particles with large ionization energy loss in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

A search for heavy, long-lived, charged particles with large ionization energy loss within the silicon tracker of the CMS experiment is presented. A data set of proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected in 2017 and 2018 at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb −1 , is used in this analysis. Two different approaches for the search are taken. A new method exploits the independence of the silicon pixel and strips measurements, while the second method improves on previous techniques using ionization to determine a mass selection. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of the pair production of supersymmetric particles, namely gluinos, top squarks, and tau sleptons, and of the Drell-Yan pair production of fourth generation (τ′) leptons with an electric charge equal to or twice the absolute value of the electron charge (e). An interpretation of a Z’ boson decaying to two τ′ leptons with an electric charge equal to 2e is presented for the first time. The 95% confidence upper limits on the production cross section are extracted for each of these hypothetical particles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Search for exotic Higgs boson decays H → 𝒜𝒜 with 𝒜 → γγ in events with a semi-merged topology in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV

A search for exotic Higgs boson decays H → 𝒜𝒜, with 𝒜 → γγ is presented, using events with a semi-merged topology. One of the hypothetical particles, 𝒜, is assumed to decay promptly into a semi-merged diphoton system reconstructed as a single photon-like object, while the other 𝒜 decays into two resolved photons. The search is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb −1 . The data agree with the standard model background expectation. Upper limits are set on the product of the Higgs boson production cross section and the branching fraction, σ(pp → H) ℬ(H → 𝒜𝒜 → 4γ), which range from 0.264 to 0.005 pb at 95% confidence level, for 𝒜 masses in the range 1 < m 𝒜 < 15 GeV. These limits are the most stringent to date in the 1–5 GeV m 𝒜 range.

Beyond Standard Model↗
DOE OSTI2025

Identifying environmentally induced calibration changes in cryogenic RF axion detector systems using deep neural networks

The axion is a compelling hypothetical particle that could account for the dark matter in our universe while simultaneously solving the strong CP problem in quantum chromodynamics. The most sensitive axion detection technique demonstrated so far makes use of a high Q cavity immersed in a strong magnetic field, where axions are converted to microwave photons. This is called an axion haloscope and has primarily targeted the 1–10 GHz range. As searches scan up in axion mass, toward the parameter space favored by theoretical predictions, individual cavity sizes decrease in order to achieve higher frequencies. This shrinking cavity volume translates directly to a loss in signal-to-noise, motivating the plan to replace individual cavity detectors with arrays of cavities. When the transition from one to (N) multiple cavities occurs, haloscope searches are anticipated to become much more complicated to operate, requiring N times as many measurements but also the new requirement that N detectors operate in unison, which can be achieved by locking them to a common frequency. To offset this anticipated increase in detector complexity, we aim to develop new tools for diagnosing experiments using neural networks. Current experiments monitor scattering parameters of their receiver for periodically measuring cavity quality factor and coupling. However, off-resonant data remain relatively useless. In this paper, we ask if it is possible that off-resonant information contained in vector network analyzer scans could be used to diagnose equipment failures/anomalies and measure physical conditions (e.g., temperatures and ambient magnetic field). We demonstrate a proof-of-concept that AI techniques can help manage the complexity of an axion haloscope search for operators.

Engel, Andrew W. [Pacific Northwest National Labor↗
DOE OSTI2026

New bounds on heavy QCD axions from big bang nucleosynthesis

We study big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints on heavy QCD axions. BBN offers a powerful probe of new physics that modifies the neutron-to-proton ratio during the process, thanks to the precisely measured primordial Helium-4 abundance. A heavy QCD axion provides an attractive target for this probe, because not only is it a well-motivated hypothetical particle by the strong 𝐶⁢𝑃 problem, but also it dominantly decays to hadrons if kinematically allowed. A range of its lifetime is thus excluded where the hadronic decays would significantly alter the neutron-to-proton ratio. We compute axion-induced modification of the neutron-to-proton ratio, and obtain robust upper bounds on the axion lifetimes, as low as 0.017 s for the axion mass higher than 300 MeV. Remarkably, this is stronger than projected future cosmic microwave background bounds via 𝑁 eff . Our bounds are largely insensitive to uncertainties in hadronic cross sections and the axion’s branching fractions into various hadrons, as well as to the precise value of the initial axion abundance. We also incorporate, for the first time, several key improvements, such as scattering processes by energetic 𝐾 𝐿 and secondary hadrons, that can also be important for studying general hadronic injections during BBN, not limited to those from axion decays.

Axions↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exotic particles at the DUNE near detector from charged pion scattering

Fixed-target proton-beam experiments produce a multitude of charged pions that rescatter in the beam dump. These charged pion scattering events can be an additional irreducible source of exotic particles which couple to photons or hadrons. We analyze the sensitivity of the DUNE near detector complex to millicharged particles (MCPs) and heavy axionlike particles (ALPs) with low-energy couplings to gluons. Using the framework of chiral perturbation theory, we demonstrate regimes of parameter space where the charged pion production channel dominates over previously considered production mechanisms for both MCPs and ALPs, thereby improving the sensitivity of DUNE to these new particles compared to previous studies. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dark Matter Search in Pu-241 Beta Decays

Our universe is predominantly composed of mysterious unknowns: Dark Matter (DM) and Dark Energy. DM constitutes approximately 27% of the universe, yet its nature and origins remain elusive. Among the various candidates for dark matter, this project focuses on the search for keV-scale sterile neutrinos. A sterile neutrino is a hypothetical particle that belongs to the neutrino family and may possess a higher mass than ordinary neutrinos. They are considered a compelling warm dark matter candidate if their mass is on the order of kilo-electronvolts. Existence of sterile neutrinos can be investigated via high precision beta spectroscopy. Sterile neutrinos can be produced during nuclear beta decay processes, similar to ordinary active neutrinos, but they uniquely alter the beta decay spectrum. The emission of sterile neutrinos will introduce a distinctive "kink" structure in the middle of the beta spectrum. This project investigated the existence of sterile neutrino dark matter by employing high-precision decay energy spectroscopy of Pu-241 beta decays using magnetic microcalorimeters (MMCs). The Pu-241 source material is embedded within the microcalorimeter detectors, enabling the measurement of full beta decay energies with ultra-high energy resolution. In this project, the most precise Pu-241 spectrum to date was obtained by collecting a total of 1 billion beta decay events in the MMC detectors. This extensive data set allows us to investigate evidence of keV sterile neutrino emission in beta decays with unprecedented sensitivity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Search for pair-produced vectorlike quarks coupling to light quarks in the lepton plus jets final state using 13 TeV p p collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vectorlike quarks (VLQs) that each decay into a W boson and a light quark. This study focuses on events where one W boson decays into leptons and the other into hadrons. The search analyzed 140 fb -1 of pp collision data with $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018 during run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. The final state is characterized by a high-transverse-momentum isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum, multiple small-radius jets, and a single large-radius jet identified as originating from the hadronic decay of a boosted W boson. With higher center-of-mass energy and integrated luminosity than in the run 1 search, and improved analysis tools, this analysis excludes VLQs (Q) with masses below 1530 GeV at 95% confidence level for the branching ratio $\mathscr{B}$⁡(Q →W⁢q) =1, an improvement of 840 GeV on the previous ATLAS limit.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for an Anomalous Production of Charged-Current 𝜈 𝑒 Interactions without Visible Pions across Multiple Kinematic Observables in MicroBooNE

This Letter presents an investigation of low-energy electron-neutrino interactions in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam by the MicroBooNE experiment, motivated by the excess of electron-neutrino-like events observed by the MiniBooNE experiment. This is the first measurement to use data from all five years of operation of the MicroBooNE experiment, corresponding to an exposure of 1.11 × 10 21 protons on target, a 70% increase on past results. Two samples of electron neutrino interactions without visible pions are used, one with visible protons and one without any visible protons. The MicroBooNE data show reasonable agreement with the nominal prediction, with 𝑝 values ≥26.7% when the two 𝜈 𝑒 samples are combined, though the prediction exceeds the data in limited regions of phase space. The data are further compared to two empirical models that modify the predicted rate of electron-neutrino interactions in different variables in the simulation to match the unfolded MiniBooNE low energy excess. In the first model, this unfolding is performed as a function of electron neutrino energy, while the second model aims to match the observed shower energy and angle distributions of the MiniBooNE excess. This measurement excludes an electronlike interpretation of the MiniBooNE excess based on these models at >99% CLs in all kinematic variables.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nonperturbative and perturbative dynamics of a light QCD axion: Dark matter and the strong 𝐶⁢𝑃 problem

Considerable theoretical efforts have gone into expanding the reach of the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) axion beyond its canonical mass–decay-constant relation. The 𝑍 𝒩 QCD axion model reduces the QCD axion mass naturally, by invoking a discrete 𝑍 𝒩 symmetry through which the axion field is coupled to 𝒩 copies of the Standard Model. Before the QCD phase transition at temperature 𝑇 QCD , the 𝑍 𝒩 potential has a minimum at misalignment angle 𝜃 = 𝜋. At 𝑇 QCD , 𝜃 = 𝜋 becomes a maximum; the axion potential becomes exponentially suppressed and develops 𝒩 minima—only one of which actually solves the strong 𝐶⁢𝑃 problem. Before 𝑇 QCD , 𝜃 relaxes toward 𝜋. After 𝑇 QCD , the axion field starts from around the hilltop and may have sufficient kinetic energy to overcome the newly suppressed potential barriers. Such a field evolution leads to nonperturbative effects via the self-interactions near the hilltop, which can cause the exponential growth of fluctuations and backreaction on the coherent motion. This behavior can influence the relic density of the field and the minimum in which it settles. We conduct the first lattice simulations of the 𝑍 𝒩 QCD axion using 𝒞osmoℒattice to accurately calculate dark matter abundances and find nonperturbative dynamics reduce the abundance by up to a factor of two. We furthermore find that the probability of solving the strong 𝐶⁢𝑃 problem tends to diverge considerably from the naïve expectation of 1/𝒩.

Axions↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for cascade decays of charged sleptons and sneutrinos in final states with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in 𝑝⁢𝑝 collisions at $\sqrt{𝑠} = 13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for cascade decays of charged sleptons and sneutrinos using final states characterized by three leptons (electrons or muons) and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on a dataset with 140 fb −1 of proton-proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{𝑠} = 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. This paper focuses on a supersymmetric scenario that is motivated by the muon anomalous magnetic moment observation, dark-mattter relic density abundance, and electroweak naturalness. A mass spectrum involving light Higgsinos and heavier sleptons with a bino at intermediate mass is targeted. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. This search enables us to place stringent constraints on this model, excluding at the 95% confidence level charged slepton and sneutrino masses up to 450 GeV when assuming a lightest neutralino mass of 100 GeV and mass-degenerate selectrons, smuons and sneutrinos.

extensions of Higgs sector↗
DOE OSTI2024

Flavor-violating ALPs, electron g − 2 , and the Electron-Ion Collider

We revisit the possibility that light axionlike particles (ALPs) with lepton-flavor-violating couplings could give significant contributions to the electron’s anomalous magnetic moment g e − 2 . Unlike flavor diagonal lepton-ALP couplings, which are exclusively axial, lepton-flavor-violating couplings can have arbitrary chirality. Focusing on the e − τ ALP coupling, we find that the size of the contribution to g e − 2 depends strongly on the chirality of the coupling. A significant part of the parameter space for which such a coupling can explain experimental anomalies in g e − 2 can be probed at the Electron-Ion Collider, which is uniquely sensitive to the chirality of the coupling using the polarization of the electron beam. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for Fractionally Charged Particles in Proton-Proton Collisions at $\sqrt{𝑠}$ = 13 TeV

A search is presented for fractionally charged particles with charges below 1⁢𝑒, using their small energy loss in the tracking detector as a key variable to observe a signal. The analyzed dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb −1 of proton-proton collisions collected at $\sqrt{𝑠}$ = 13 TeV in 2016–2018 at the CERN LHC. This is the first search at the LHC for new particles with a charge between 𝑒/3 and 0.9⁢𝑒, including an extension of previous results at a charge of 2⁢𝑒/3. Masses up to 640 GeV and charges as low as 𝑒/3 are excluded at 95% confidence level. These are the most stringent limits to date for the considered Drell-Yan-like production mode.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Anomaly detection with flow-based fast calorimeter simulators

Recently, several normalizing flow-based deep generative models have been proposed to accelerate the simulation of calorimeter showers. Using caloflow as an example, we show that these models can simultaneously perform unsupervised anomaly detection with no additional training cost. As a demonstration, we consider electromagnetic showers initiated by one (background) or multiple (signal) photons. The caloflow model is designed to generate single-photon showers, but it also provides access to the shower likelihood. We use this likelihood as an anomaly score and study the showers tagged as being unlikely. As expected, the tagger struggles when the signal photons are nearly collinear but is otherwise effective. This approach is complementary to a supervised classifier trained on only specific signal models using the same low-level calorimeter inputs. While the supervised classifier is also highly effective at unseen signal models, the unsupervised method is more sensitive in certain regions, and, thus, we expect that the ultimate performance will require a combination of these approaches.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Search for Fractionally Charged Particles with CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a detector array comprised by 988 5 cm × 5 cm × 5 cm TeO 2 crystals held below 20 mK, primarily searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in 130 Te. Unprecedented in size among cryogenic calorimetric experiments, CUORE provides a promising setting for the study of exotic throughgoing particles. Using the first tonne year of CUORE’s exposure, we perform a search for hypothesized fractionally charged particles (FCPs), which are well-motivated by various standard model extensions and would have suppressed interactions with matter. Across the searched range of charges 𝑒/24−𝑒/2 no excess of FCP candidate tracks is observed over background, setting leading limits on the underground FCP flux with charges 𝑒/24 −𝑒/5 at 90% confidence level. Using the low background environment and segmented geometry of CUORE, we establish the sensitivity of tonne-scale subkelvin detectors to diverse signatures of new physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗