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1. Massless fermions in uniform flux background on $T^2\times R$ : Vacuum quantum numbers from single-particle filled modes using lattice regulator

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.014502  

   Karthik, Nikhil; Narayanan, Rajamani; Romero, Ray (January 2025, Physical Review D)

   The quantum numbers of monopoles in $R^3$in the presence of massless fermions have been analyzed using a uniform flux background in $S^2\times R$coupled to fermions. An analogous study in $T^2\times R$is performed by studying the discrete symmetries of the Dirac Hamiltonian in the presence of a static uniform field on $T^2$with a total flux of $Q$in the continuum. The degenerate ground states are classified based on their transformation properties under $\frac{\pi }{2}$rotations of $T^2$that leave the background field invariant. We find that the lattice analysis with overlap fermions exactly reproduces the transformation properties of the single-particle zero modes in the continuum. Whereas the transformation properties of the single-particle negative energy states can be studied in the continuum and the lattice, we are also able to study the transformation properties and the particle number (charge) of the many-body ground state on a finite lattice, and we show that the contributions from the fully filled single-particle states cannot be ignored. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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2. Solar neutrinos and ${\nu }_2$ visible decays to ${\nu }_1$

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.013003  

   de_Gouvêa, André; Weill, Jean; Sen, Manibrata (January 2024, Physical Review D)

   Experimental bounds on the neutrino lifetime depend on the nature of the neutrinos and the details of the potentially new physics responsible for neutrino decay. In the case where the decays involve active neutrinos in the final state, the neutrino masses also qualitatively impact how these manifest themselves experimentally. In order to further understand the impact of nonzero neutrino masses, we explore how observations of solar neutrinos constrain a very simple toy model. We assume that neutrinos are Dirac fermions and there is a new massless scalar that couples to neutrinos such that a heavy neutrino— ${\nu }_2$with mass $m_2$—can decay into a lighter neutrino— ${\nu }_1$with mass $m_1$—and a massless scalar. We find that the constraints on the new physics coupling depend, sometimes significantly, on the ratio of the daughter-to-parent neutrino masses and that, for large-enough values of the new physics coupling, the “dark side” of the solar neutrino parameter space— ${\sin }^2{\theta }_{12}\sim 0.7$—provides a reasonable fit to solar neutrino data, if only ${}^8\mathrm{B}$or ${}^7\mathrm{Be}$neutrino data alone are considered, but no allowed region is found in the combined analysis. Our results generalize to other neutrino-decay scenarios, including those that mediate ${\nu }_2\to {\nu }_1{\overline{\nu }}_3{\nu }_3$when the neutrino mass ordering is inverted mass and $m_2>m_1\gg m_3$, the mass of ${\nu }_3$. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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3. Measurement of the branching fraction and $CP$ -violating asymmetry of the decay $B^0\to {\pi }^0{\pi }^0$ using 387 million $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)$ decays in Belle II data

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.L071102  

   Adachi, I; Aggarwal, L; Ahmed, H; Aihara, H; Alhakami, M; Aloisio, A; Althubiti, N; Anh_Ky, N; Asner, D M; Atmacan, H; et al (April 2025, Physical Review D)

   We measure the branching fraction and $CP$-violating flavor-dependent rate asymmetry of $B^0\to {\pi }^0{\pi }^0$decays reconstructed using the Belle II detector in an electron-positron collision sample containing $387\times {10}^6\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(4S\right)$mesons. Using an optimized event selection, we find $125\pm 20$signal decays in a fit to background-discriminating and flavor-sensitive distributions. The resulting branching fraction is $(1.25\pm 0.23)\times {10}^{-6}$and the $CP$-violating asymmetry is $0.03\pm 0.30$. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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4. Search for Highly Ionizing Particles in $pp$ Collisions during LHC Run 2 Using the Full MoEDAL Detector

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.071802  

   Acharya, B; Alexandre, J; Benes, P; Bergmann, B; Bertolucci, S; Bevan, A; Brancaccio, R; Branzas, H; Burian, P; Campbell, M; et al (February 2025, Physical Review Letters)

   This search for magnetic monopoles (MMs) and high electric charge objects (HECOs) with spins 0, $1/2$, and 1, uses for the first time the full MoEDAL detector, exposed to $6.46{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV. The results are interpreted in terms of Drell-Yan and photon-fusion pair production. Mass limits on direct production of MMs of up to 10 Dirac magnetic charges and HECOs with electric charge in the range $10e$to $400e$, were achieved. The charge limits placed on MM and HECO production are currently the strongest in the world. MoEDAL is the only LHC experiment capable of being directly calibrated for highly ionizing particles using heavy ions and with a detector system dedicated to definitively measuring magnetic charge. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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5. Enantioselective One-Photon Excitation of Formic Acid

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.093002  

   Tsitsonis, D; Trinter, F; Williams, J B; Fehre, K; Demekhin, Ph V; Jahnke, T; Dörner, R; Schöffler, M S (August 2024, Physical Review Letters)

   We use one-photon excitation to promote $K$-shell electrons of formic acid (which has a planar equilibrium structure) to an antibonding ${\pi }^{*}$orbital. The excited molecule is known to have a (chiral) pyramidal equilibrium structure. In our experiment, we determine the handedness of the excited molecule by imaging the momenta of charged fragments, which occur after its Coulomb explosion triggered by Auger-Meitner decay cascades succeeding the excitation. We find that the handedness of the excited molecule depends on its spatial orientation with respect to the propagation (or polarization) direction of the exciting photon. The effect is largely independent of the exact polarization properties of the light driving the $1s\to {\pi }^{*}$excitation. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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