We discuss our recently proposed interpretation of the discrepancy between the bottle and beam neutron lifetime experiments as a sign of a dark sector. The difference between the outcomes of the two types of measurements is explained by the existence of a neutron dark decay channel with a branching fraction 1%. Phenomenologically consistent particle physics models for the neutron dark decay can be constructed and they involve a strongly self-interacting dark sector. We elaborate on the theoretical developments around this idea and describe the efforts undertaken to verify it experimentally.
We investigate the consequences of long range rapidity correlations in the Glasma. Particles produced locally in the transverse plane are correlated by approximately boost invariant flux tubes of longitudinal color electric and magnetic fields that are formed when two sheets of Colored Glass Condensate pass through one another, each acquiring a modified color charge density in the collision. We argue that such long range rapidity correlations persist during the evolution of the Quark Gluon Plasma formed later in the collision. When combined with transverse flow, these correlations reproduce many of the features of the recently observed ridge events in heavy ion collisions at RHIC.
This paper is addressed to the analysis of the set of observables of the bound-state beta-decay, which can be used for the experimental investigation of contributions of i) interactions beyond the Standard Model (SM) and of ii) the left-handed polarisation state of antineutrinos. For this aim we calculate the branching ratio, probabilities and angular distributions of probabilities of hydrogen in the hyperfine states and of the proton-electron pair in different spinorial states, induced by left-handed and right-handed hadronic and leptonic currents. The branching ratio of the bound-state beta-decay is calculated by taking into account radiative corrections. We show that the probabilities of the bound-state beta-decay can be good observables for experimental investigations of contributions of interactions beyond the SM, whereas the angular distributions of probabilities are good observables for experimental searches of contributions of the left-handed polarisation state of antineutrinos.
In the framework of the Standard Model (SM) a theoretical description of the neutron beta decay is given at the level of 10^{-5}. The neutron lifetime and correlation coefficients of the neutron beta decay for a polarized neutron, a polarized electron and an unpolarized proton are calculated at the account for i) the radiative corrections of order O(alpha E_e/m_N) ~ 10^{-5} to Sirlins outer and inner radiative corrections of order O(alpha/pi), ii) the corrections of order O(E^2_e/m^2_N) ~ 10^{-5}, caused by weak magnetism and proton recoil, and iii) Wilkinsons corrections of order 10^{-5} (Wilkinson, Nucl. Phys. A377, 474 (1982)). These corrections define the SM background of the theoretical description of the neutron beta decay at the level of 10^{-5}, which is required by experimental searches of interactions beyond the SM with experimental uncertainties of a few parts of 10^{-5}.
In the presence of non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI), oscillation data are affected by a degeneracy which allows the solar mixing angle to be in the second octant (aka the dark side) and implies a sign flip of the atmospheric mass-squared difference. This leads to an ambiguity in the determination of the ordering of neutrino masses, one of the main goals of the current and future experimental neutrino program. We show that the recent observation of coherent neutrino--nucleus scattering by the COHERENT experiment, in combination with global oscillation data, excludes the NSI degeneracy at the $3.1sigma$ ($3.6sigma$) CL for NSI with up (down) quarks.
New millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in compact binaries provide a good opportunity to search for the most massive neutron stars. Their main-sequence companion stars are often strongly irradiated by the pulsar, displacing the effective center of light from their barycenter and making mass measurements uncertain. We present a series of optical spectroscopic and photometric observations of PSR J2215+5135, a redback binary MSP in a 4.14 hr orbit, and measure a drastic temperature contrast between the dark/cold (T$_mathrm{N}$=5660$^{+260}_{-380}$ K) and bright/hot (T$_mathrm{D}$=8080$^{+470}_{-280}$ K) sides of the companion star. We find that the radial velocities depend systematically on the atmospheric absorption lines used to measure them. Namely, the semi-amplitude of the radial velocity curve of J2215 measured with magnesium triplet lines is systematically higher than that measured with hydrogen Balmer lines, by 10%. We interpret this as a consequence of strong irradiation, whereby metallic lines dominate the dark side of the companion (which moves faster) and Balmer lines trace its bright (slower) side. Further, using a physical model of an irradiated star to fit simultaneously the two-species radial velocity curves and the three-band light curves, we find a center-of-mass velocity of K$_2$=412.3$pm$5.0 km s$^{-1}$ and an orbital inclination i=63.9$^circ$$^{+2.4}_{-2.7}$. Our model is able to reproduce the observed fluxes and velocities without invoking irradiation by an extended source. We measure masses of M$_1$=2.27$^{+0.17}_{-0.15}$ M$_odot$ and M$_2$=0.33$^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$ M$_odot$ for the neutron star and the companion star, respectively. If confirmed, such a massive pulsar would rule out some of the proposed equations of state for the neutron star interior.