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Creators/Authors contains: "Novak, A"

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  1. N incorporation mechanisms in GaAs1−xNx alloys are probed using combined experimental and computational Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and nuclear reaction analysis angular yield scans. For xN < 0.025, in addition to substitutional nitrogen, NAs, (N-N)As, and (N-As)As split-interstitials are observed. However, for xN ≥ 0.025, evidence for N tetrahedral interstitials, Ntetra, emerges. We propose a mechanism for stabilization of Ntetra in which the elastic interaction between Ntetra and NAs is induced by the opposite signs of their misfit volumes. This work opens opportunities for exploring the formation of Ntetra and its influence on the properties of a variety of highly mismatched alloys. 
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  2. Abstract Salt marshes are threatened by rising sea levels and human activities, and a major mechanism of marsh loss is edge retreat or erosion. To understand and predict loss in these valuable ecosystems, studies have related erosion to marsh hydrodynamics and wave characteristics such as wave power. Across global studies, erosion is reported to be largely linearly related to wave power, with this relationship having implications for the resilience of marshes to extreme events such as storms. However, there is significant variability in this relationship across marshes because of marsh heterogeneity and the uniqueness of each physical setting. Here, we investigate the results of individual studies throughout the world that report a linear relationship and add a new dataset from the Great Marsh in Massachusetts (USA). We find that most marsh wave power and erosion data are not normally distributed and when these datasets are properly plotted to account for their distributions, the resulting relationships vary from previously published curves. Our Great Marsh data suggest that events from specific wind directions can have an outsized impact on edge erosion due to their larger fetch and wind speeds. We also find that factors other than wave attack such as edge erosion along tidal channels, can have a measurable impact on retreat rates. We show the importance of maintaining statistical assumptions when performing regressions, as well as emphasize the site-specificity of these relationships. Without calibration of a marsh erosion-wave power relationship using robust regressions for each individual marsh, such a relationship is not fully constrained, resulting in unreliable predictions of future marsh resilience and response to climate change. 
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  3. A<sc>bstract</sc> The measurements of the Higgs boson (H) production cross sections performed by the CMS Collaboration in the four-lepton (4ℓ, ℓ= e,μ) final state at a center-of-mass energy$$\sqrt{s}$$= 13.6 TeV are presented. These measurements are based on data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2022, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.7 fb−1. Cross sections are measured in a fiducial region closely matching the experimental acceptance, both inclusively and differentially, as a function of the transverse momentum and the absolute value of the rapidity of the four-lepton system. The H → ZZ → 4ℓinclusive fiducial cross section is measured to be$${2.89}_{-0.49}^{+0.53}{\left({\text{stat}}\right)}_{-0.21}^{+0.29}\left({\text{syst}}\right)$$fb, in agreement with the standard model expectation of$${3.09}_{-0.24}^{+0.27}$$fb. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2026
  4. A measurement of the Higgs boson mass and width via its decay to two Z bosons is presented. Proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb 1 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, is used. The invariant mass distribution of four leptons in the on-shell Higgs boson decay is used to measure its mass and constrain its width. This yields the most precise single measurement of the Higgs boson mass to date, 125.04 ± 0.12 GeV , and an upper limit on the width Γ H < 330 MeV at 95% confidence level. A combination of the on- and off-shell Higgs boson production decaying to four leptons is used to determine the Higgs boson width, assuming that no new virtual particles affect the production, a premise that is tested by adding new heavy particles in the gluon fusion loop model. This result is combined with a previous CMS analysis of the off-shell Higgs boson production with decay to two leptons and two neutrinos, giving a measured Higgs boson width of 3.0 1.5 + 2.0 MeV , in agreement with the standard model prediction of 4.1 MeV. The strength of the off-shell Higgs boson production is also reported. The scenario of no off-shell Higgs boson production is excluded at a confidence level corresponding to 3.8 standard deviations. © 2025 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration2025CERN 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 1, 2026
  5. A<sc>bstract</sc> 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 twoτ′ leptons with an electric charge equal to 2eis presented for the first time. The 95% confidence upper limits on the production cross section are extracted for each of these hypothetical particles. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available April 1, 2026
  6. Free, publicly-accessible full text available April 1, 2026
  7. Nuclear medium effects on B + meson production are studied using the binary-collision scaled cross section ratio between events of different charged-particle multiplicities from proton-lead collisions. Data, collected by the CMS experiment in 2016 at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of s NN = 8.16 TeV , corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 175 nb 1 , were used. The scaling factors in the ratio are determined using a novel approach based on the Z μ μ + cross sections measured in the same events. The scaled ratio for B + is consistent with unity for all event multiplicities, putting stringent constraints on nuclear modification for heavy flavor. © 2025 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration2025CERN 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 1, 2026
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  9. Free, publicly-accessible full text available February 1, 2026
  10. A<sc>bstract</sc> The production cross sections of$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 and B+mesons are reported in proton-proton (pp) collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC with a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 302 pb−1. The cross sections are based on measurements of the$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 →J/ψ(μ+μ)ϕ(1020)(K+K) and B+→J/ψ(μ+μ)K+decay channels. Results are presented in the transverse momentum (pT) range 7–50 GeV/cand the rapidity interval |y|<2.4 for the B mesons. The measuredpT-differential cross sections of B+and$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 in pp collisions are well described by fixed-order plus next-to-leading logarithm perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations. Using previous PbPb collision measurements at the same nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy, the nuclear modification factors,RAA, of the B mesons are determined. ForpT>10 GeV/c, both mesons are found to be suppressed in PbPb collisions (withRAAvalues significantly below unity), with less suppression observed for the$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 mesons. In thispTrange, theRAAvalues for the B+mesons are consistent with those for inclusive charged hadrons and D0mesons. Below 10 GeV/c, both B+and$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 are found to be less suppressed than either inclusive charged hadrons or D0mesons, with the$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 RAAvalue consistent with unity. TheRAAvalues found for the B+and$$ {\textrm{B}}_{\textrm{s}}^0 $$ B s 0 are compared to theoretical calculations, providing constraints on the mechanism of bottom quark energy loss and hadronization in the quark-gluon plasma, the hot and dense matter created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available February 1, 2026