Search for: All records

This paper reports the development and detailed properties of about 13 metric tons of gadolinium sulfate octahydrate, $\rm Gd_2(\rm SO_4)_3\cdot \rm 8H_2O$, which has been dissolved into Super-Kamiokande (SK) in the summer of 2020. We evaluate the impact of radioactive impurities in $\rm Gd_2(\rm SO_4)_3\cdot \rm 8H_2O$ on diffuse supernova neutrino background searches and solar neutrino observation and confirm the need to reduce radioactive and fluorescent impurities by about three orders of magnitude from commercially available high-purity $\rm Gd_2(\rm SO_4)_3\cdot \rm 8H_2O$. In order to produce ultra-high-purity $\rm Gd_2(\rm SO_4)_3\cdot \rm 8H_2O$, we have developed a method to remove impurities from gadolinium oxide, Gd2O3, consisting of acid dissolution, solvent extraction, and pH control processes, followed by a high-purity sulfation process. All of the produced ultra-high-purity $\rm Gd_2(\rm SO_4)_3\cdot \rm 8H_2O$ is assayed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and high-purity germanium detectors to evaluate its quality. Because of the long measurement time of high-purity germanium detectors, we have employed several underground laboratories for making parallel measurements including the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc in Spain, Boulby in the UK, and Kamioka in Japan. In the first half of production, the measured batch purities were found to be consistent with the specifications. However, in the latter half, the $\rm Gd_2(\rm SO_4)_3\cdot \rm 8H_2O$ contained one order of magnitude more 228Ra than the budgeted mean contamination. This was correlated with the corresponding characteristics of the raw material Gd2O3, in which an intrinsically large contamination was present. Based on their modest impact on SK physics, they were nevertheless introduced into the detector. To reduce 228Ra for the next stage of gadolinium loading to SK, a new process has been successfully established.

A search for the nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs in the$HH\to b\overline{b}{\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$channel is performed using$140{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The analysis strategy is optimized to probe anomalous values of the Higgs boson self-coupling modifier${\kappa }_{\lambda }$and of the quartic$HHVV$($V=W,Z$) coupling modifier${\kappa }_{2V}$. No significant excess above the expected background from Standard Model processes is observed. An observed (expected) upper limit${\mu }_{HH}<5.9(3.3)$is set at 95% confidence-level on the Higgs boson pair production cross section normalized to its Standard Model prediction. The coupling modifiers are constrained to an observed (expected) 95% confidence interval of$-3.1<{\kappa }_{\lambda }<9.0$($-2.5<{\kappa }_{\lambda }<9.3$) and$-0.5<{\kappa }_{2V}<2.7$($-0.2<{\kappa }_{2V}<2.4$), assuming all other Higgs boson couplings are fixed to the Standard Model prediction. The results are also interpreted in the context of effective field theories via constraints on anomalous Higgs boson couplings and Higgs boson pair production cross sections assuming different kinematic benchmark scenarios.

A search for leptoquark pair production decaying into$$te^- \bar{t}e^+$$$t{e}^{-}\overline{t}{e}^{+}$or$$t\mu ^- \bar{t}\mu ^+$$$t{\mu }^{-}\overline{t}{\mu }^{+}$in final states with multiple leptons is presented. The search is based on a dataset ofppcollisions at$$\sqrt{s}=13~\text {TeV} $$$\sqrt{s}=13\text{TeV}$recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$$^{-1}$$$_{}^{-1}$. Four signal regions, with the requirement of at least three light leptons (electron or muon) and at least two jets out of which at least one jet is identified as coming from ab-hadron, are considered based on the number of leptons of a given flavour. The main background processes are estimated using dedicated control regions in a simultaneous fit with the signal regions to data. No excess above the Standard Model background prediction is observed and 95% confidence level limits on the production cross section times branching ratio are derived as a function of the leptoquark mass. Under the assumption of exclusive decays into$$te^{-}$$$t{e}^{-}$($$t\mu ^{-}$$$t{\mu }^{-}$), the corresponding lower limit on the scalar mixed-generation leptoquark mass$$m_{\textrm{LQ}_{\textrm{mix}}^{\textrm{d}}}$$$m_{{\text{LQ}}_{\text{mix}}^{\text{d}}}$is at 1.58 (1.59) TeV and on the vector leptoquark mass$$m_{{\tilde{U}}_1}$$$m_{{\tilde{U}}_1}$at 1.67 (1.67) TeV in the minimal coupling scenario and at 1.95 (1.95) TeV in the Yang–Mills scenario.

The production yields of the Σ(1385)^±and Ξ(1530)⁰resonances are measured in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$$\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV with ALICE. The measurements are performed as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity ⟨dN_ch/dη⟩, which is related to the energy density produced in the collision. The results include transverse momentum (p_T) distributions,p_T-integrated yields, mean transverse momenta of Σ(1385)^±and Ξ(1530)⁰, as well as ratios of thep_T-integrated resonance yields relative to yields of other hadron species. The Σ(1385)^±/π^±and Ξ(1530)⁰/π^±yield ratios are consistent with the trend of the enhancement of strangeness production from low to high multiplicity pp collisions, which was previously observed for strange and multi-strange baryons. The yield ratio between the measured resonances and the long-lived baryons with the same strangeness content exhibits a hint of a mild increasing trend at low multiplicity, despite too large uncertainties to exclude the flat behaviour. The results are compared with predictions from models such as EPOS-LHC and PYTHIA 8 with Rope shoving. The latter provides the best description of the multiplicity dependence of the Σ(1385)^±and Ξ(1530)⁰production in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$$\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV.