High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

Abstract: We discuss possible future studies of photon-photon (light-by-light) scattering using a planned FoCal and ALICE 3 detectors. We include different mechanisms of $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$ scattering, such as double-hadronic photon fluctuations, $t/u$-channel neutral pion exchange or resonance excitations ($\gamma \gamma \to R$) and deexcitation ($R \to \gamma \gamma$). The broad range of (pseudo)rapidities and lower cuts on transverse momenta open a necessity to consider not only dominant box contributions but also other subleading contributions. Here we include low mass resonant $R = \pi^0$, $\eta$, $\eta'$ contributions. The resonance contributions give intermediate photon transverse momenta. However, these contributions can be eliminated by imposing windows on di-photon invariant mass. We study and quantify individual box contributions (leptonic, quarkish). The electron/positron boxes dominate at low $M_{\gamma \gamma}<1$ GeV di-photon invariant masses. The PbPb$\to$PbPb$\gamma \gamma$ cross section is calculated within equivalent photon approximation in the impact parameter space. Several differential distributions are presented and discussed. We consider four different kinematic regions. We predict cross section in the (mb-b) range for typical ALICE 3 cuts, a few orders of magnitude larger than for the current ATLAS or CMS experiments. We also consider the two-$\pi^0$ background which can, in principle, be eliminated at the new kinematical range for the ALICE 3 measurements by imposing dedicated cuts on di-photon transverse momentum and\or so-called vector asymmetry.

Abstract: The T2K experiment is one of the most powerful long-baseline experiments to investigate neutrino oscillations. The off-axis near detector called ND280 is installed 280 m downstream from the neutrino production target to measure the neutrino energy spectrum. In this paper, we study the capability of the ND280 detector to search for the dark photon produced through the meson rare decay and proton bremsstrahlung processes at the proton beam dump. We find that the ten-year operation of T2K with the ND280 detector excludes the unexplored parameter region for the dark photon mass and kinetic mixing. We also show that a broader parameter region can be searched by the ND280 in the future T2K operation for dark photon as well as U(1)$_{B-L}$ gauge boson.

Abstract: In-medium masses of the light vector $\omega$, $\rho$ and axial-vector $A_1$ mesons are studied in the magnetized nuclear matter, accounting for the effects of (inverse) magnetic catalysis at finite temperature. The in-medium partial decay widths for the $A_1\rightarrow \rho \pi$ channels are studied from the in-medium masses of the initial and the final state particles, by applying a phenomenological Lagrangian to account for the $A_1\rho\pi$ interaction vertices. The masses are calculated within the QCD sum rule framework, with the medium effects coming through the light quark ($\sim \langle \bar{q}q \rangle$) and the scalar gluon condensates ($\sim \langle G^2 \rangle$), as well as the light four-quark condensate ($\sim \langle \bar{q}q\rangle^2 $). The condensates are calculated within the chiral $SU(3)$ model in terms of the medium modified scalar fields: isoscalar $\sigma$, $\zeta$, isovector $\delta$ and the dilaton field $\chi$. The effects of magnetic fields are incorporated through the magnetized Dirac sea contribution as well as the Landau energy levels of protons and anomalous magnetic moments (AMMs) of the nucleons at finite temperature nuclear matter. The incorporation of the magnetic field through the Dirac sea of nucleons lead to an enhancement (reduction) of the light quark condensates with magnetic field, give rise to the phenomenon of magnetic (inverse) catalysis. The effects of (inverse) magnetic catalysis at finite temperature nuclear matter are studied on the spectral functions and production cross-sections of the neutral $\rho$ and $A_1$ mesons. This may affect the production of the light vector and axial-vector mesons in the peripheral heavy-ion collision experiments, where estimated magnetic field is very large at the early stages of collisions with very high temperature.

Abstract: We calculate the momentum spectrum of electron-positron pairs created via the Schwinger mechanism by a class of four-dimensional electromagnetic fields called e-dipole fields. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the momentum spectrum has been calculated for 4D, exact solutions to Maxwell's equations. Moreover, these solutions give fields that are optimally focused, and are hence particularly relevant for future experiments. To achieve this we have developed a worldline instanton formalism where we separate the process into a formation and an acceleration region.

Abstract: The conversion of protons to positrons at the horizon of a black hole (BH) is considered. It is shown that the process may efficiently proceed for BHs with masses in the range $\sim 10^{18}$ -- $10^{21}$ g. It is argued that the electric charge of BH acquired by the proton accretion to BH could create electric field near BH horizon close to the critical Schwinger one. It leads to efficient electron-positron pair production, when electron is back capture by the BH while positron is emitted into outer space. The electron-positron annihilation in the interstellar medium may explain the origin of the observed 511 keV line.

Abstract: We propose a novel signature with four-photon final states to probe CP-violating (CPV) extended Higgs sectors via $f \bar{f} \to Z^* \to H_1H_2 \to 4 \gamma$ processes with $H_{1,2}$ being additional neutral Higgs bosons. We focus on the nearly Higgs alignment scenario, in which the discovered Higgs boson almost corresponds to a neutral scalar state belonging to the isospin doublet field with the vacuum expectation value $v \simeq 246$ GeV. We show that the branching ratios of $H_{1,2} \to \gamma \gamma$ can simultaneously be sizable when CPV phases in the Higgs potential are of order one due to the enhancement of charged-Higgs boson loops. Such branching ratios can be especially significant when the fermiophobic scenario is taken into account. As a simple example, we consider the general two Higgs doublet model, and demonstrate that the cross section for the four-photon process can be 0.1 fb at LHC with the masses of $H_{1,2}$ to be a few 100 GeV in the Higgs alignment limit under the constraints from electric dipole moments (EDMs) and LHC Run-II data. We also illustrate that the searches for EDMs and di-photon resonances at high-luminosity LHC play complementary roles to explore CPV extended Higgs sectors.