Search results for "KAONS"
showing 10 items of 23 documents
Searches for lepton number violation and resonances in K± → πμμ decays
2017
The NA48/2 experiment at CERN collected a large sample of charged kaon decays to final states with multiple charged particles in 2003–2004. A new upper limit on the rate of the lepton number violating decay K±→π∓μ±μ± is reported: B(K±→π∓μ±μ±)<8.6×10−11 at 90% CL. Searches for two-body resonances X in K±→πμμ decays (such as heavy neutral leptons N4 and inflatons χ ) are also presented. In the absence of signals, upper limits are set on the products of branching fractions B(K±→μ±N4)B(N4→πμ) and B(K±→π±X)B(X→μ+μ−) for ranges of assumed resonance masses and lifetimes. The limits are in the (10−11,10−9) range for resonance lifetimes below 100 ps.
Measurement of K-e3(0) form factors
2004
The semi-leptonic decay of the neutral K meson $K^{0}_{L} \to \pi^{\pm}e^{\mp}\nu (K_{e3})$, was used to study the strangeness-changing weak interaction of hadrons. A sample of 5.6 million reconstructed events recorded by the NA48 experiment was used to measure the Dalitz plot density. Admitting all possible Lorentz-covariant couplings, the form factors for vector $(f_{+}(q^{2}))$, scalar $(f_{S})$ and tensor $(f_{T})$ interactions were measured. The linear slope of the vector form factor $\lambda_{+} = 0.0284 \pm 0.0007 \pm 0.0013$ and values for the ratios $|f_{S}/f_{+}(0)|=0.015^{+0.007}_{-0.010} \pm 0.012$ and $|f_{T}/f_{+}(0)|=0.05^{+0.03}_{-0.04} \pm 0.03$ were obtained. The values fo…
Kaon decays and other hadronic processes in lattice QCD
2021
This doctoral thesis deals with the study of properties and interactions of light mesons. More specifically, we focus on hadronic decay and scattering processes, which are dominated by effects of the strong interaction in the low-energy regime. Concrete examples that will be addressed are the weak decay of a kaon into two pions, and the scattering of three pions. A peculiarity of the strong interaction is that perturbative expansions fail at hadronic energy scales. For this reason, genuine nonperturbative tools are essential to obtain first-principles predictions. The central technique employed in this work is Lattice Field Theory, which uses a discretized spacetime to stochastically estima…
Tuning and test of fragmentation models based on identified particles and precision event shape data
1996
Event shape and charged particle inclusive distributions are measured using 750000 decays of the $Z$ to hadrons from the DELPHI detector at LEP. These precise data allow a decisive confrontation with models of the hadronization process. Improved tunings of the JETSET ARIADNE and HERWIG parton shower models and the JETSET matrix element model are obtained by fitting the models to these DELPHI data as well as to identified particle distributions from all LEP experiments. The description of the data distributions by the models is critically reviewed with special importance attributed to identified particles.
Searches for lepton number violating $K^+$ decays
2019
The NA62 experiment at CERN reports a search for the lepton number violating decays K+ -> pi(-)e(+)e(+) and K+ -> pi(-)mu(+)mu(+) using a data sample collected in 2017. No signals are observed, and upper limits on the branching fractions of these decays of 2.2 x 10(-10) and 4.2 x 10(-11) are obtained, respectively, at 90% confidence level. These upper limits improve on previously reported measurements by factors of 3 and 2, respectively.
Search for K+ decays to a muon and invisible particles
2021
The NA62 experiment at CERN reports searches for $K^+\to\mu^+N$ and $K^+\to\mu^+\nu X$ decays, where $N$ and $X$ are massive invisible particles, using the 2016-2018 data set. The $N$ particle is assumed to be a heavy neutral lepton, and the results are expressed as upper limits of ${\cal O}(10^{-8})$ of the neutrino mixing parameter $|U_{\mu4}|^2$ for $N$ masses in the range 200-384 MeV/$c^2$ and lifetime exceeding 50 ns. The $X$ particle is considered a scalar or vector hidden sector mediator decaying to an invisible final state, and upper limits of the decay branching fraction for $X$ masses in the range 10-370 MeV/$c^2$ are reported for the first time, ranging from ${\cal O}(10^{-5})$ t…
Centrality dependence of the nuclear modification factor of charged pions, kaons, and protons in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV
2016
Transverse momentum (pT) spectra of pions, kaons, and protons up to pT = 20 GeV/c have been measured in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV using the ALICE detector for six different centrality classes covering 0%–80%. The proton-to-pion and the kaon-to-pion ratios both show a distinct peak at pT ≈ 3 GeV/c in central Pb-Pb collisions that decreases for more peripheral collisions. For pT > 10 GeV/c, the nuclear modification factor is found to be the same for all three particle species in each centrality interval within systematic uncertainties of 10%–20%. This suggests there is no direct interplay between the energy loss in the medium and the particle species composition in the hard core of …
Chiral approach to antikaon s- and p-wave interactions in dense nuclear matter
2006
The properties of the antikaons in nuclear matter are investigated from a chiral unitary approach which incorporates the s- and p-waves of the ${\bar K}N$ interaction. To obtain the in-medium meson-baryon amplitudes we include, in a self-consistent way, Pauli blocking effects, meson self-energies corrected by nuclear short-range correlations and baryon binding potentials. We pay special attention to investigating the validity of the on-shell factorization, showing that it cannot be applied in the evaluation of the in-medium corrections to the p-wave amplitudes. In nuclear matter at saturation energy, the $\Lambda$ and $\Sigma$ develop an attractive potential of about -30 MeV, while the $\Si…
Insight into particle production mechanisms via angular correlations of identified particles in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV
2017
Two-particle angular correlations were measured in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV for pions, kaons, protons, and lambdas, for all particle/anti-particle combinations in the pair. Data for mesons exhibit an expected peak dominated by effects associated with mini-jets and are well reproduced by general purpose Monte Carlo generators. However, for baryon–baryon and anti-baryon–anti-baryon pairs, where both particles have the same baryon number, a near-side anti-correlation structure is observed instead of a peak. This effect is interpreted in the context of baryon production mechanisms in the fragmentation process. It currently presents a challenge to Monte Carlo models and its origin remains an op…
Multiplicity dependence of the average transverse momentum in pp, p–Pb, and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC
2013
The average transverse momentum $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ versus the charged-particle multiplicity $N_{\rm ch}$ was measured in p-Pb collisions at a collision energy per nucleon-nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and in pp collisions at collision energies of $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76, and 7 TeV in the kinematic range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<10.0$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta|<0.3$ with the ALICE apparatus at the LHC. These data are compared to results in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at similar charged-particle multiplicities. In pp and p-Pb collisions, a strong increase of $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ with $N_{\rm ch}$ is observed, which is much stronger than that measured in Pb-Pb colli…