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The morphology of the Milky Way is still a matter of debate. In order to shed light on uncertainties surrounding the structure of the Galaxy, in this paper, we study the imprint of spiral arms on the distribution and properties of its molecular gas. To do so, we take full advantage of the SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation, and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic Interstellar Medium) survey that observed a large area of the inner Galaxy in the 13 CO (2–1) line at an angular resolution of 28′′. We analyse the influences of the spiral arms by considering the features of the molecular gas emission as a whole across the longitude–velocity map built from the full survey. Additionally, we examine the properties of the molecular clouds in the spiral arms compared to the properties of their counterparts in the inter-arm regions. Through flux and luminosity probability distribution functions, we find that the molecular gas emission associated with the spiral arms does not differ significantly from the emission between the arms. On average, spiral arms show masses per unit length of ~10 5 –10 6 M ⊙ kpc −1 . This is similar to values inferred from data sets in which emission distributions were segmented into molecular clouds. By examining the cloud distribution across the Galactic plane, we infer that the molecular mass in the spiral arms is a factor of 1.5 higher than that of the inter-arm medium, similar to what is found for other spiral galaxies in the local Universe. We observe that only the distributions of cloud mass surface densities and aspect ratio in the spiral arms show significant differences compared to those of the inter-arm medium; other observed differences appear instead to be driven by a distance bias. By comparing our results with simulations and observations of nearby galaxies, we conclude that the measured quantities would classify the Milky Way as a flocculent spiral galaxy, rather than as a grand-design one. 

Abstract We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen ( ${\rm H\small I}$ ) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal ${\rm H\small I}$ in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K ( $1.6\,\mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$ ) $\mathrm{per}\ 0.98\,\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$ spectral channel with an angular resolution of $30^{\prime\prime}$ ( ${\sim}10\,\mathrm{pc}$ ). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilises a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire ${\sim}25\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterise several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high-velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes ${\rm H\small I}$ test observations. 

By combining two surveys covering a large fraction of the molecular material in the Galactic disc, we investigate the role spiral arms play in the star formation process. We have matched clumps identified by APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) with their parental giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as identified by SEDIGISM, and use these GMC masses, the bolometric luminosities, and integrated clump masses obtained in a concurrent paper to estimate the dense gas fractions (DGFgmc = ∑Mclump/Mgmc) and the instantaneous star formation efficiencies (i.e. SFEgmc = ∑Lclump/Mgmc). We find that the molecular material associated with ATLASGAL clumps is concentrated in the spiral arms (∼60 per cent found within ±10 kms−1 of an arm). We have searched for variations in the values of these physical parameters with respect to their proximity to the spiral arms, but find no evidence for any enhancement that might be attributable to the spiral arms. The combined results from a number of similar studies based on different surveys indicate that, while spiral-arm location plays a role in cloud formation and H I to H2 conversion, the subsequent star formation processes appear to depend more on local environment effects. This leads us to conclude that the enhanced star formation activity seen towards the spiral arms is the result of source crowding rather than the consequence of any physical process. 

A measurement is performed of Higgs bosons produced with high transverse momentum (p_T) via vector boson or gluon fusion in proton-proton collisions. The result is based on a data set with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected in 2016–2018 with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹. The decay of a high-p_THiggs boson to a boosted bottom quark-antiquark pair is selected using large-radius jets and employing jet substructure and heavy-flavor taggers based on machine learning techniques. Independent regions targeting the vector boson and gluon fusion mechanisms are defined based on the topology of two quark-initiated jets with large pseudorapidity separation. The signal strengths for both processes are extracted simultaneously by performing a maximum likelihood fit to data in the large-radius jet mass distribution. The observed signal strengths relative to the standard model expectation are$$ {4.9}_{-1.6}^{+1.9} $$${4.9}_{-1.6}^{+1.9}$and$$ {1.6}_{-1.5}^{+1.7} $$${1.6}_{-1.5}^{+1.7}$for the vector boson and gluon fusion mechanisms, respectively. A differential cross section measurement is also reported in the simplified template cross section framework.

 

This paper describes theCombinesoftware package used for statistical analyses by the CMS Collaboration. The package, originally designed to perform searches for a Higgs boson and the combined analysis of those searches, has evolved to become the statistical analysis tool presently used in the majority of measurements and searches performed by the CMS Collaboration. It is not specific to the CMS experiment, and this paper is intended to serve as a reference for users outside of the CMS Collaboration, providing an outline of the most salient features and capabilities. Readers are provided with the possibility to runCombineand reproduce examples provided in this paper using a publicly available container image. Since the package is constantly evolving to meet the demands of ever-increasing data sets and analysis sophistication, this paper cannot cover all details ofCombine. However, the online documentation referenced within this paper provides an up-to-date and complete user guide.

 

The first observation of the concurrent production of two$J/\psi$mesons in proton-nucleus collisions is presented. The analysis is based on a proton-lead ($p\mathrm{Pb}$) data sample recorded at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of$174.6{\mathrm{nb}}^{-1}$. The two$J/\psi$mesons are reconstructed in their${\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$decay channels with transverse momenta$p_{\mathrm{T}}>6.5\mathrm{GeV}$and rapidity$|y|<2.4$. Events where one of the$J/\psi$mesons is reconstructed in the dielectron channel are also considered in the search. The$p\mathrm{Pb}\to J/\psi J/\psi +X$process is observed with a significance of 5.3 standard deviations. The measured inclusive fiducial cross section, using the four-muon channel alone, is$\sigma (p\mathrm{Pb}\to J/\psi J/\psi +X)=22.0\pm 8.9(\mathrm{stat})\pm 1.5(\mathrm{syst})\mathrm{nb}$. A fit of the data to the expected rapidity separation for pairs of$J/\psi$mesons produced in single (SPS) and double (DPS) parton scatterings yields${\sigma }_{\mathrm{SPS}}^{p\mathrm{Pb}\to J/\psi J/\psi +X}=16.5\pm 10.8(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.1(\mathrm{syst})\mathrm{nb}$and${\sigma }_{\mathrm{DPS}}^{p\mathrm{Pb}\to J/\psi J/\psi +X}=5.4\pm 6.2(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.4(\mathrm{syst})\mathrm{nb}$, respectively. This latter result can be transformed into a lower bound on the effective DPS cross section, closely related to the squared average interparton transverse separation in the collision, of${\sigma }_{\mathrm{eff}}>1.0\mathrm{mb}$at 95% confidence level.

© 2024 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration2024CERN 

The first search for soft unclustered energy patterns (SUEPs) is performed using an integrated luminosity of$138{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$of proton-proton collision data at$\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$, collected in 2016–2018 by the CMS detector at the LHC. Such SUEPs are predicted by hidden valley models with a new, confining force with a large ’t Hooft coupling. In events with boosted topologies, selected by high-threshold hadronic triggers, the multiplicity and sphericity of clustered tracks are used to reject the background from standard model quantum chromodynamics. With no observed excess of events over the standard model expectation, limits are set on the cross section for production via gluon fusion of a scalar mediator with SUEP-like decays.

© 2024 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration2024CERN 

Diboson production in association with jets is studied in the fully leptonic final states, pp → (Z/γ^*)(Z/γ^*) + jets → 2ℓ2ℓ′ + jets, (ℓ,ℓ′ = e orμ) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Differential distributions and normalized differential cross sections are measured as a function of jet multiplicity, transverse momentump_T, pseudorapidityη, invariant mass and ∆ηof the highest-p_Tand second-highest-p_Tjets, and as a function of invariant mass of the four-lepton system for events with various jet multiplicities. These differential cross sections are compared with theoretical predictions that mostly agree with the experimental data. However, in a few regions we observe discrepancies between the predicted and measured values. Further improvement of the predictions is required to describe the ZZ+jets production in the whole phase space.

 

A search for Higgs boson pair (HH) production in association with a vector boson V (W or Z boson) is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹. Both hadronic and leptonic decays of V bosons are used. The leptons considered are electrons, muons, and neutrinos. The HH production is searched for in the$$ \textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}}\textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}} $$$b\overline{b}b\overline{b}$decay channel. An observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level of VHH production cross section is set at 294 (124) times the standard model prediction. Constraints are also set on the modifiers of the Higgs boson trilinear self-coupling,k_λ, assumingk_2V= 1, and vice versa on the coupling of two Higgs bosons with two vector bosons,k_2V. The observed (expected) 95% confidence intervals of these coupling modifiers are−37.7 <k_λ< 37.2 (−30.1 <k_λ< 28.9) and−12.2 <k_2V< 13.5 (−7.2 <k_2V< 8.9), respectively.