Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) remains one of the most promising dark matter candidates. Many experiments around the world are searching for WIMPs and the best current sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross-section is about ${10}^{-10}$ pb. LUX has been one of the world-leading experiments in the search for dark matter WIMPs. Results from the LUX experiment on WIMP searches for different WIMP masses are summarised in this paper. The LUX detector will be replaced by its successor, the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) detector. With 50 times larger fiducial mass and an increased background rejection power due to specially-designed veto systems, the LZ experiment (due to take first data in 2020) will achieve a sensitivity to WIMPs exceeding the current best limits by more than an order of magnitude (for spin-independent interactions and for WIMP masses exceeding a few GeV). An overview of the LZ experiment is presented and LZ sensitivity is discussed based on the accurately modelled background and the high-sensitivity material screening campaign. Full article

Precise measurements of the energy spectra and of the composition of cosmic rays in the PeV region could improve our knowledge regarding their origin, acceleration mechanism, propagation, and composition. At the present time, spectral measurements in this region are mainly derived from data collected by ground-based detectors, because of the very low particle rates at these energies. Unfortunately, these results are affected by the high uncertainties typical of indirect measurements, which depend on the complicated modeling of the interaction of the primary particle with the atmosphere. A space experiment dedicated to measurements in this energy region has to achieve a balance between the requirements of lightness and compactness, with that of a large acceptance to cope with the low particle rates. CaloCube is a four-year-old R&D project, approved and financed by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in 2014, aiming to optimize the design of a space-borne calorimeter. The large acceptance needed is obtained by maximizing the number of entrance windows, while thanks to its homogeneity and high segmentation this new detector achieves an excellent energy resolution and an enhanced separation power between hadrons and electrons. In order to optimize detector performances with respect to the total mass of the apparatus, comparative studies on different scintillating materials, different sizes of crystals, and different spacings among them have been performed making use of MonteCarlo simulations. In parallel to simulations studies, several prototypes instrumented with CsI(Tl) (Caesium Iodide, Tallium doped) cubic crystals have been constructed and tested with particle beams. Moreover, the last development of CaloCube, the Tracker-In-Calorimeter (TIC) project, financed by the INFN in 2018, is focused on the feasibility of including several silicon layers at different depths in the calorimeter in order to reconstruct the particle direction. In fact, an important requirement for $\gamma$ -ray astronomy is to have a good angular resolution in order to allow precise identification of astrophysical sources in space. In respect to the traditional approach of using a tracker with passive material in front of the calorimeter, the TIC solution can save a significant amount of mass budget in a space satellite experiment, which can then be exploited to improve the acceptance and the resolution of the calorimeter. In this paper, the status of the project and perspectives for future developments are presented. Full article

Evolution of directed flow of charged particles produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at energies $4\le \sqrt{s}\le 19.6$ GeV is considered within two microscopic transport models, ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) and quark-gluon string model (QGSM). In both models, the directed flow of protons changes its sign at midrapidity from antiflow to normal flow with decreasing energy of collisions, whereas the flows of mesons and antiprotons remain antiflow-oriented. For lighter colliding systems, such as Cu+Cu or S+S, changing of the proton directed flow occurs at lower bombarding energies and for more central topologies compared to a heavy Au+Au system. The differences can be explained by dissimilar production zones of different hadrons and by the influence of spectators. Directed flows of most abundant hadronic species at midrapidity are found to be formed within t = 10–12 fm/c after the beginning of nuclear collision. The influence of hard and soft mean-field potentials on the directed flow is also studied. Full article

The measurement of cosmic neutrinos is a new and unique method to observe the Universe. Neutrinos are chargeless, weakly-interacting particles that can provide information about the interior of an astrophysical object for cosmological distances. Indeed, they are a complementary probe with respect to other messengers such as multi-wavelength light and charged cosmic rays, allowing the observation of the far Universe and providing information on the production mechanism. Here, the neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea that are operating or in progress will be reviewed. The ANTARES (Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch) detector is the largest neutrino telescope currently in operation in the Mediterranean Sea and the first operating in sea water. Some of the ANTARES results will be summarized, including diffuse, point-like, and multi-messenger source searches. Finally, the future km ${}^3$ -scale telescope KM3NeT (Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope) will be described focusing on the expected performances and sensitivities. Full article

Particle production in high energy hadronic/nuclear collisions in the Bjorken limit $Q^2,\sqrt{s}\to \infty$ can be described in the collinear factorization framework of perturbative Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD). On the other hand in the Regge limit, at fixed and not too high $Q^2$ with $\sqrt{s}\to \infty$ , a $k_{\perp }$ factorization approach (or a generalization of it) is the appropriate framework. A new effective action approach to QCD in the Regge limit, known as the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism, has been developed which allows one to investigate particle production in high energy collisions in the kinematics where collinear factorization breaks down. Here we give a brief overview of particle production in CGC framework and the evolution equation which governs energy dependence of the observables in this formalism. We show that the new evolution equation reduces to previously known evolution equations in the appropriate limits. Full article

We discuss the importance of the color reflection symmetry of the Abelian decomposition in QCD. The Abelian decomposition breaks up the color gauge field to three parts, the neuron, chromon, and the topological monopole, gauge independently. Moreover, it refines the Feynman diagram in such a way that the conservation of color is explicit. This leads us to generalize the quark model to the quark and chromon model. We show how the Abelian decomposition reduces the non-Abelian color gauge symmetry to the simple discrete 24 element color reflection symmetry which assumes the role of the color gauge symmetry and plays the central role in the quark and chromon model. Full article

We develop a Bayesian analysis method for selecting the most probable equation of state under a set of constraints from compact star physics, which now include the tidal deformability from GW170817. We apply this method for the first time to a two-parameter family of hybrid equations of state that is based on realistic models for the hadronic phase (KVORcut02) and the quark matter phase (SFM $\alpha$ ) which produce a third family of hybrid stars in the mass–radius diagram. One parameter ( $\alpha$ ) characterizes the screening of the string tension in the string-flip model of quark matter while the other ( ${\Delta }_P$ ) belongs to the mixed phase construction that mimics the thermodynamics of pasta phases and includes the Maxwell construction as a limiting case for ${\Delta }_P=0$ . We present the corresponding results for compact star properties like mass, radius and tidal deformabilities and use empirical data for them in the newly developed Bayesian analysis method to obtain the probabilities for the model parameters within their considered range. Full article

In this paper, we present the design and expected performance of the various detectors of the PADME experiment. The experiment design has been optimized for the detection of the final state photons produced along with a “Dark Photon”, decaying to invisible particles, in the annihilation a of 550 MeV positron with an atomic electron of a thin target. The PADME experiment has been built in a new dedicated experimental hall at the Beam Test Facility (BTF) of the INFN Frascati National Laboratories and has been taking data since the third quarter of 2018. Full article

The notions of Weak Value (WV) and Two-State Vector Formalism (TSVF), firstly introduced by Aharonov and collaborators, provide a quantum-theoretical formalism of extracting new information from a system in the limit of small disturbances to its state. Here, we explore two applications to the case of non-relativistic two-body scattering with one body weakly interacting with its environment. We present a physically compelling analysis of a new quantum effect: momentum transfer deficit and an accompanying enhanced energy transfer; or, equivalently, an apparent mass-deficit of the struck body. First, incoherent inelastic neutron scattering (INS) from protons of H ${}_2$ molecules in C-nanotubes is investigated. The data of the H ${}_2$ translational motion along the nanotube shows that the neutron apparently exchanges energy and momentum with a fictitious particle with mass of 0.64 atomic mass units (a.m.u.), which is in blatant contradiction with the expected value of 2 a.m.u. Second, the same theory is applied to neutron reflectivity—which is elastic and coherent—from the interface of (single crystal) Si with H ${}_2$ O-D ${}_2$ O liquid mixtures. The data shows a striking enhanced reflectivity in a wide range of momentum transfers, which is tantamount to a momentum-transfer deficit with respect to conventional expectations. However, these effects find a natural interpretation within the WV-TSVF theoretical analysis under consideration. In summary, both scattering effects contradict conventional theoretical expectations, thus also supporting the novelty of the theoretical framework of WV and TVSF. Additionally, it should be pointed out that the two dynamical variables in the interaction Hamiltonian of the theoretical model belong to two different physical bodies. Full article

Searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) of fundamental particles, atoms and molecules are promising experiments to constrain and potentially reveal beyond Standard Model (SM) physics. A non-zero EDM is a direct manifestation of time-reversal (T) violation, and, equivalently, violation of the combined operation of charge-conjugation (C) and parity inversion (P). Identifying new sources of CP violation can help to solve fundamental puzzles of the SM, e.g., the observed baryon-asymmetry in the Universe. Theoretical predictions for magnitudes of EDMs in the SM are many orders of magnitude below current experimental limits. However, many theories beyond the SM require larger EDMs. Experimental results, especially when combined in a global analysis, impose strong constraints on CP violating model parameters. Including an overview of EDM searches, I will focus on the future neutron EDM experiment at TRIUMF (Vancouver). For this effort, the TUCAN (TRIUMF Ultra Cold Advanced Neutron source) collaboration is aiming to build a strong, world leading source of ultra cold neutrons (UCN) based on a unique combination of a spallation target and a superfluid helium UCN converter. Another focus will be the search for an EDM of the diamagnetic atom ${}^{129}$ Xe using a ${}^3$ He comagnetometer and SQUID detection. The HeXeEDM collaboration has taken EDM data in 2017 and 2018 in the magnetically shielded room (BMSR-2) at PTB Berlin. Full article

Since 2010, the Gerda experiment at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) operates searching for neutrinoless double beta decay ( $0\nu \beta \beta$ ) of ${}^{76}$ Ge to the ground and excited states of ${}^{76}$ Se. $0\nu \beta \beta$ is an ultra-rare process whose detection would directly establish the Majorana nature of the neutrino and provide a direct measurement of its mass. Since the apparatus upgrade in 2013–2015, the collaboration released the third update of the achieved results at the Neutrino 2018 Conference. The hardware upgrade and the fine tuning of the powerful analysis tools to reconstruct the event energy and to discriminate the background allowed the achievement of the energy resolution of 3 keV and 3.6 keV for Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) and Coaxial Germanium (Coax) detectors, respectively, and an unprecedented low background index of 0.6 · 10 ${}^{-3}$ cts/(keV·kg·yr) ${10}^{-3}$ cts/(keV·kg·yr) in a 230 keV netto range centered at $Q_{\beta \beta }$ in the exposure of 58.93 kg·yr. No evidence of the $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay is found at the $Q_{\beta \beta }$ = 2039.1 keV, and the limit of 0.9 · ${10}^{26}$ yr on the half-life ( $T_{1/2}^{0\nu }$ ) at 90% C.L. is set. This corresponds to the limit range for the effective Majorana neutrino mass $m_{ee}$ of 110–260 meV. The Gerda sensitivity in terms of background index, energy resolution and exposure is the best achieved so far in ${}^{76}$ Ge double beta decay experiments, the energy resolution and background in the Region Of Interest (ROI) allow Gerda to operate in a background-free regime and to set a world record. Full article

We present a brief mathematical-like formulation of the no-go theorem, useful for bouncing and wormhole solutions in Horndeski theory. The no-go theorem is almost identical in the cases of flat FLRW geometry and static, spherically symmetric setting, hence, we generalize the argument of the theorem so that it has consise and universal form. We also give a strict mathematical proof of the no-go argument. Full article

A gravitational field model based on two symmetric tensors, $g_{\mu \nu }$ and ${\tilde{g}}_{\mu \nu }$ , is studied, using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis with the most updated catalog of SN-Ia. In this model, new matter fields are added to the original matter fields, motivated by an additional symmetry ( $\tilde{\delta }$ symmetry). We call them $\tilde{\delta }$ matter fields. This theory predicts an accelerating Universe without the need to introduce a cosmological constant $\mathsf{\Lambda }$ by hand in the equations. We obtained a very good fit to the SN-Ia Data, and with this, we found the two free parameters of the theory called C and $L_2$ . With these values, we have fixed all the degrees of freedom in the model. The last $H_0$ local value measurement is in tension with the CMB Data from Planck. Based on an absolute magnitude $M_V=-19.23$ for the SN, Delta Gravity finds $H_0$ to be $74.47\pm 1.63$ km/(s Mpc). This value is in concordance with the last measurement of the $H_0$ local value, $73.83\pm 1.48$ km/(s Mpc). Full article

The approximate method of solving nonperturbative Dyson-Schwinger equations by cutting off this infinite set of equations to three equations is considered. The gauge noninvariant decomposition of SU(3) degrees of freedom into SU(2) × U(1) and SU(3)/(SU(2) × U(1)) degrees of freedom is used. SU(2) × U(1) degrees of freedom have nonzero quantum average, and SU(3)/(SU(2) × U(1)) have zero quantum average. To close these equations, some approximations are employed. Regular spherically symmetric finite energy solutions of these equations are obtained. Energy spectrum of these solutions is studied. The presence of a mass gap is shown. The obtained solutions describe quasi-particles in a quark-gluon plasma. Full article

The 760-ton ICARUS T600 detector has completed a successful three-year physics run at the underground LNGS laboratories, searching for atmospheric neutrino interactions and, with the CNGS neutrino beam from CERN, performing a sensitive search for LSND-like anomalous ${\nu }_e$ appearance, which contributed to constraining the allowed parameters to a narrow region around $\Delta$ m ${}^2\sim$eV ${}^2$ , where all the experimental results can be coherently accommodated at 90% C.L. The T600 detector underwent a significant overhaul at CERN and has now been moved to Fermilab, to be soon exposed to the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) to search for sterile neutrinos within the SBN program, devoted to definitively clarifying the open questions of the presently-observed neutrino anomalies. This paper will address ICARUS’s achievements, its status, and plans for the new run and the ongoing analyses, which will be finalized for the next physics run at Fermilab. Full article

MoEDAL is a pioneering LHC experiment designed to search for anomalously ionizing messengers of new physics. It started data taking at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, in 2015. Its ground breaking physics program defines a number of scenarios that yield potentially revolutionary insights into such foundational questions as: Are there extra dimensions or new symmetries? What is the mechanism for the generation of mass? Does magnetic charge exist? What is the nature of dark matter? After a brief introduction, we report on MoEDAL’s progress to date, including our past, current and expected future physics output. We also discuss two new sub-detectors for MoEDAL: MAPP (Monopole Apparatus for Penetrating Particles) now being prototyped at IP8; and MALL (Monopole Apparatus for very Long Lived particles), currently in the planning stage. I conclude with a brief description of our program for LHC Run-3. Full article

Conditional expectation values of quantum mechanical observables reflect unique non-classical correlations, and are generally sensitive to decoherence. We consider the circumstances under which such sensitivity to decoherence is removed, namely, when the measurement process is subjected to conservation laws. Specifically, we address systems with additive conserved quantities and identify sufficient conditions for the system state such that its coherence plays no role in the conditional expectation values of observables that commute with the conserved quantity. We discuss our findings for a specific model where the system-detector coupling is given by the Jaynes-Cummings interaction, which is relevant to experiments tracking trajectories of qubits in cavities. Our results clarify, among others, the role of coherence in thermal measurements in current architectures for quantum thermodynamics experiments. Full article

In this paper, we discuss the quantum Unruh–DeWitt detector, which couples to the field bath for a finite amount of its proper time. It is demonstrated that due to the renormalization procedure, a new dimensionful parameter appears, having the meaning of a detector’s recovery proper time. It plays no role in the leading order of the perturbation theory, but can be important non-perturbatively. We also analyze the structure of finite time corrections in two cases—perturbative switching on, and switching off when the detector is thermalized. Full article

The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can be both measured and computed to a very high precision, making it a powerful probe to test the Standard Model and search for new physics. The previous measurement by the Brookhaven E821 experiment found a discrepancy from the SM predicted value of about three standard deviations. The Muon g–2 experiment at Fermilab will improve the precision to 140 parts per billion compared to 540 parts per billion of E821 by increasing statistics and using upgraded apparatus. The first run of data taking has been accomplished in Fermilab, where the same level of statistics as E821 has already been attained. This paper, summarizes the current experimental status and briefly describes the data quality of the first run. It compares the statistics of this run with E821 and discusses the future outlook. Full article

In this paper, we describe QUBIC, an experiment that will observe the polarized microwave sky with a novel approach, which combines the sensitivity of state-of-the-art bolometric detectors with the systematic effects control typical of interferometers. QUBIC’s unique features are the so-called “self-calibration”, a technique that allows us to clean the measured data from instrumental effects, and its spectral imaging power, i.e., the ability to separate the signal into various sub-bands within each frequency band. QUBIC will observe the sky in two main frequency bands: 150 GHz and 220 GHz. A technological demonstrator is currently under testing and will be deployed in Argentina during 2019, while the final instrument is expected to be installed during 2020. Full article

A novel approach to the Hamiltonian formulation of quantum field theory at finite temperature is presented. The temperature is introduced by compactification of a spatial dimension. The whole finite-temperature theory is encoded in the ground state on the spatial manifold $S^1(L)\times {\mathbb{R}}^2$ where L is the length of the compactified dimension which defines the inverse temperature. The approach is then applied to the Hamiltonian formulation of QCD in Coulomb gauge to study the chiral phase transition at finite temperatures. Full article

The renormalization group approach and the operator product expansion technique are applied to the model of a passively advected vector field by a turbulent velocity field. The latter is governed by the stochastic Navier-Stokes equation for a compressible fluid. The model is considered in the vicinity of space dimension $d=4$ and the perturbation theory is constructed within a double expansion scheme in y and $\epsilon =4-d$ , where y describes scaling behaviour of the random force that enters the Navier-Stokes equation. The properties of the correlation functions are investigated, and anomalous scaling and multifractal behaviour are established. All calculations are performed in the leading order of y, $\epsilon$ expansion (one-loop approximation). Full article

Neutron captures are likely to occur in the crust of accreting neutron stars (NSs). Their rate depends on the thermodynamic state of neutrons in the crust. At high densities, neutrons are degenerate. We find degeneracy corrections to neutron capture rates off nuclei, using cross sections evaluated with the reaction code TALYS. We numerically integrate the relevant cross sections over the statistical distribution functions of neutrons at thermodynamic conditions present in the NS crust. We compare our results to analytical calculations of these corrections based on a power-law behavior of the cross section. We find that although an analytical integration can simplify the calculation and incorporation of the results for nucleosynthesis networks, there are uncertainties caused by departures of the cross section from the power-law approach at energies close to the neutron chemical potential. These deviations produce non-negligible corrections that can be important in the NS crust. Full article

Muon absorption radiography is an imaging technique based on the measurement of the absorption of cosmic ray muons. This technique has recently been used successfully to investigate the presence of unknown cavities in the Bourbon Gallery in Naples and in the Chephren Pyramid at Cairo. The MIMA detector (Muon Imaging for Mining and Archaeology) is a prototype muon tracker for muon radiography for application in the fields of archaelogy and mining. It is made of three pairs of X-Y planes each consisting of 21 scintillator bars with a silicon photomultiplier readout. The detector is compact, robust, easily transportable, and has a low power consumption: all of which makes the detector ideal for measurements in confined and isolated environments. With this detector, a measurement from inside the Temperino mine in the San Silvestro archaeo-mining park in Tuscany was performed. The park includes about 25 km of mining tunnels arranged on several levels that have been exploited from the Etruscan time. The measured muon absorption was compared to the simulated one, obtained from the information provided by 3D laser scanner measurements and cartographic maps of the mountain above the mine, in order to obtain information about the average density of the rock. This allowed one to confirm the presence of a partially accessible exploitation opening and provided some hints regarding the presence of a high-density body within the rock. Full article

In recent years, tools from quantum information theory have become indispensable in characterizing many-body systems. In this work, we employ measures of entanglement to study the interplay between disorder and the topological phase in 1D systems of the Kitaev type, which can host Majorana end modes at their edges. We find that the entanglement entropy may actually increase as a result of disorder, and identify the origin of this behavior in the appearance of an infinite-disorder critical point. We also employ the entanglement spectrum to accurately determine the phase diagram of the system, and find that disorder may enhance the topological phase, and lead to the appearance of Majorana zero modes in systems whose clean version is trivial. Full article

The Fast Tracker (FTK) is a highly parallel processor dedicated to a quick and efficient reconstruction of tracks in the Pixel and Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) detectors of the ATLAS experiment at LHC. It is designed to identify charged particle tracks with transverse momentum above 1 GeV and reconstruct their parameters at an event rate of up to 100 kHz. The average latency of the processing is below 100 μs at the expected collision intensities. This performance is achieved by using custom ASIC chips with associative memory for pattern matching, while modern FPGAs calculate the track parameters. This paper describes the architecture, the current status and a High-Level Data Quality Monitoring framework of the FTK system. This monitoring framework provides an online comparison of the FTK hardware output with the FTK functional simulation, which is run on the pixel and SCT detector data at a low rate, allowing the detection of non-expected outputs of the FTK system. Full article

The highlights of the recent activities and physics results leading up to the summer of 2018 from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are presented here. The CMS experiment has a very wide-ranging physics program, and only a very limited subset of the physics analyses being performed at CMS are discussed here, consisting of several important results from the analysis of proton-proton collision data at center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. These include important analyses of Higgs boson physics, with the highlight being the first observation of the $\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{H}$ production of the Higgs boson, along with analyses pertaining to precision standard model measurements, top quark physics, with the single top production cross-section measurement, and flavor physics, with the important observation of ${\chi }_b$ (3P) states. Additionally, important searches for physics beyond the standard model are also presented. Full article

The search for the Lepton Flavor Violating decay $\mu \to e\gamma$ exploits the most intense continuous muon beams, which can currently deliver ∼ ${10}^8$ muons per second. In the next decade, accelerator upgrades are expected in various facilities, making it feasible to have continuous beams with an intensity of ${10}^9$ or even ${10}^{10}$ muons per second. We investigate the experimental limiting factors that will define the ultimate performances, and hence the sensitivity, in the search for $\mu \to e\gamma$ with a continuous beam at these extremely high rates. We then consider some conceptual detector designs and evaluate the corresponding sensitivity as a function of the beam intensity. Full article

Revisiting the fast fermion damping rate calculation in a thermalized momentum scale eT (QED) and/or momentum scale gT (QCD) plasma at 4-loop order, focus is put on a peculiar perturbative structure which has no equivalent at zero-temperature. Not surprisingly, and in agreement with previous $C^{★}$ -algebraic analyses, this structure renders the use of thermal perturbation theory quite questionable. Full article

The NA61/SHINE experiment studies hadron production in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. The physics programme includes the study of the onset of deconfinement and search for the critical point as well as reference measurements for neutrino and cosmic ray experiments. For strong interactions, future plans are to extend the programme of study of the onset of deconfinement by measurements of open-charm and possibly other short-lived, exotic particle production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. This new programme is planned to start after 2020 and requires upgrades to the present NA61/SHINE detector setup. Besides the construction of a large acceptance silicon detector, a 10-fold increase of the event recording rate is foreseen, which will necessitate a general upgrade of most detectors. Full article

The design and construction of a small-area, low-cost educational cosmic ray telescope is presented. It can be operated in high-school classrooms or university laboratories. The telescope consists of three small-area scintillation detectors with all the necessary electronics for powering, control, monitoring, and data acquisition. The calibration procedures and the performance of the telescope in reconstructing Extensive Air Showers are also presented. Full article

The T2K long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment measures muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance in accelerator-produced neutrino and anti-neutrino beams. This presentation reports on the analysis of our data from an exposure of $2.6\times {10}^{21}$ protons on target. Results for oscillation parameters, including the CP violation parameter and neutrino mass ordering, are shown. Full article

Super-Kamiokande (SK), a 50 kton water Cherenkov detector in Japan, is observing both atmospheric and solar neutrinos. It is also searching for supernova (relic) neutrinos, proton decays and dark matter-like particles. A three-flavor oscillation analysis was conducted with the atmospheric neutrino data to study the mass hierarchy, the leptonic CP violation term, and other oscillation parameters. In addition, the observation of solar neutrinos gives precise measurements of the energy spectrum and oscillation parameters. In this proceedings, we given an overview of the latest results from SK and the prospect toward the future project of SK-Gd. Full article

An overview of recent results of single-top quark production at the LHC using data collected with the CMS detector is presented. The CMS experiment has measured the electroweak production of the top quark in three production modes, namely t-channel, tW-channel, and s-channel. Measurements of the rare processes involving a single-top quark with a Z boson and a single-top quark with a $\gamma$ are also discussed. All measurements are in agreement with the standard model prediction, and no sign of physics beyond the standard model is observed. Full article

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector is one of the two multipurpose experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It has successfully collected data during Run 1 (2010–2013) and achieved important physics results, like the discovery of the Higgs boson announced in 2012. Willing to unravel further open questions not yet explained by the standard model, intense activities have been performed to further improve the detector and the trigger before the LHC restart in 2016 (Run 2), in parallel with the upgrade of the LHC. The achieved global performance of the CMS experiment and of several subdetectors will be presented. Full article

The 760-ton liquid argon ICARUS T600 detector performed a successful three-year physics run at the underground LNGS laboratories, studying in particular neutrino oscillations with the CNGS neutrino beam from CERN. This detector has been moved in 2017 to Fermilab after a significant overhauling and will be exposed soon to the Booster Neutrino Beam acting as the far station to search for sterile neutrinos within the SBN program. The contribution addresses the developed methods and the results of an analysis to identify and reconstruct atmospheric neutrino interactions collected by ICARUS T600 in the underground run at LNGS. Despite the limited statistics, this search demonstrates the excellent quality of the detector reconstruction and the feasibility of an automatic search for the electron neutrino CC interactions in the sub-GeV range, as required for the study of the BNB neutrinos at FNAL. Full article

We calculate the strongly intensive observables for multiplicities in two rapidity windows in the model with independent identical strings taking into account the charge sign of particles. We express the observables through the string pair correlation functions describing the correlations between the same and opposite sign particles produced in a string decay. We extract these charge-wise string two-particle correlation functions from the ALICE data on the forward-backward correlations and the balance function. Using them we predict the behavior of the charge-wise strongly intensive observables in the model with independent identical strings. We also show that the observable between multiplicities in two acceptance windows separated in rapidity, which is a strongly intensive in the case with independent identical strings, loses this property, when we take into account string fusion effects and a formation of strings of a few different types takes place in a collision. We predict the changes in the behaviour of this observable with energy and collision centrality, arising due to the string fusion phenomena. Full article

The study of open charm meson production provides an efficient tool for detailed investigations of the properties of hot and dense matter formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The interpretation of the existing data from the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) suffers from a lack of knowledge about the total charm production rate. To overcome this limitation, the heavy-ion program of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS has been upgraded to allow for precise measurements of particles with a short lifetime. A new vertex detector (Small Acceptance version of the Vertex Detector (SAVD)) was constructed to meet the challenges of open charm measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The first exploratory data taking of Pb + Pb collisions at 150A GeV/c with the SAVD was performed in 2016, and a $D^0$ signal was extracted in its $D^0\to {\pi }^{+}+K^{-}$ decay channel. This was the first, direct observation of open charm in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the SPS energies. Furthermore, the future plans of open charm measurements in the NA61/SHINE experiment related to the upgraded version of the Vertex Detector are discussed. Full article

The ‘projective theory of relativity’ is a theory developed historically by Oswald Veblen and Banesh Hoffmann, Jan Arnoldus Schouten and David van Dantzig. This theory differs radically from Kaluza-Klein/conformal type theories of spacetime, although it shares with these theories geometric aspects in five-dimensional spaces. The peculiarity of the projective geometries involved in this theory was that it is based on spaces coordinated by five so-called ‘homogeneous coordinates.’ Since then, no physical observables could be ascribed to these five homogeneous coordinates and, in particular, during the elaboration of this theory which consequently fell completely into oblivion. We will present how this projective theory of relativity can be fully justified physically from the causal structures and localizing protocols involved in so-called ‘relativistic localizing systems’ that extend ‘relativistic positioning systems.’ We explain the correspondence between ‘homogeneous coordinates’ of the projective theory of relativity and the physical observables defined in relativistic localizing systems. Then, possible astrophysical manifestations will be presented based on projective effects, invariance of interactions, or observations with respect to projective transformations. Full article

The gravitational instability, responsible for the formation of the structure of the Universe, occurs below energy thresholds and above spatial scales of a self-gravitating expanding region, when thermal energy can no longer counterbalance self-gravity. I argue that at sufficiently-large scales, dark energy may restore thermal stability. This stability re-entrance of an isothermal sphere defines a turnaround radius, which dictates the maximum allowed size of any structure generated by gravitational instability. On the opposite limit of high energies and small scales, I will show that an ideal, quantum or classical, self-gravitating gas is subject to a high-energy relativistic gravothermal instability. It occurs at sufficiently-high energy and small radii, when thermal energy cannot support its own gravitational attraction. Applications of the phenomenon include neutron stars and core-collapse supernovae. I also extend the original Oppenheimer–Volkov calculation of the maximum mass limit of ideal neutron cores to the non-zero temperature regime, relevant to the whole cooling stage from a hot proto-neutron star down to the final cold state. Full article

LUCID (LUminosity Cerenkov Integrating Detector) is the main luminosity monitor of the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and in particular is the only one capable of providing bunch-by-bunch luminosity information, both online and offline, for all beam conditions and luminosity ranges. LUCID-2 refers to the detector upgrade designed to cope with the running conditions to be met in Run-2 (2015–2018): a center of mass energy of 13 TeV, with 50 pp interactions per bunch-crossing on average and a 25 ns bunch-spacing. This report summarizes all changes with respect to the detector deployed in Run-1 (2010–2012), including smaller sensors for higher granularity, new readout electronics for early signal digitization, and a completely new calibration concept guaranteeing long-term stability of the detector response. In addition, the overall detector performance in Run-2 and preliminary results on luminosity measurements are presented. Full article

We work with a symmetric scalar theory with quartic coupling in 4-dimensions. Using a 2PI effective theory and working at 4 loop order, we renormalize with a renormalization group method. All divergences are absorbed by one bare coupling constant and one bare mass which are introduced at the level of the Lagrangian. The method is much simpler than counterterm renormalization, and can be generalized to higher order nPI effective theories. Full article

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is the first bolometric experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay that has been able to reach the 1-ton scale. The detector consists of an array of 988 ${\mathrm{TeO}}_2$ crystals arranged in a cylindrical compact structure of 19 towers, each of them made of 52 crystals. The construction of the experiment was completed in August 2016 and the data taking started in spring 2017 after a period of commissioning and tests. In this work we present the neutrinoless double beta decay results of CUORE from examining a total ${\mathrm{TeO}}_2$ exposure of $86.3\mathrm{kg}\mathrm{yr}$ , characterized by an effective energy resolution of 7.7 keV FWHM and a background in the region of interest of $0.014$ $\mathrm{counts}/\left(\mathrm{keV}\mathrm{kg}\mathrm{yr}\right)$ . In this physics run, CUORE placed a lower limit on the decay half-life of neutrinoless double beta decay of ${}^{130}\mathrm{Te}>1.3·{10}^{25}$ yr (90% C.L.). Moreover, an analysis of the background of the experiment is presented as well as the measurement of the ${}^{130}$ Te 2 $\nu \beta \beta$ decay with a resulting half-life of $T_{1/2}^{2\nu }=[7.9\pm 0.1(\mathrm{stat}.)\pm 0.2(\mathrm{syst}.)]\times {10}^{20}$ yr which is the most precise measurement of the half-life and compatible with previous results. Full article

On extending the Standard Model (SM) Lagrangian, through a non-linear Born–Infeld (BI) hypercharge term with a parameter $\beta$ (of dimensions of [mass] ${}^2$ ), a finite energy monopole solution was claimed by Arunasalam and Kobakhidze. We report on a new class of solutions within this framework that was missed in the earlier analysis. This new class was discovered on performing consistent analytic asymptotic analyses of the nonlinear differential equations describing the model; the shooting method used in numerical solutions to boundary value problems for ordinary differential equations is replaced in our approach by a method that uses diagonal Padé approximants. Our work uses the ansatz proposed by Cho and Maison to generate a static and spherically-symmetric monopole with finite energy and differs from that used in the solution of Arunasalam and Kobakhidze. Estimates of the total energy of the monopole are given, and detection prospects at colliders are briefly discussed. Full article

We report the results from a search in Super-Kamiokande for neutrino signals coincident with gravitational-wave events using a neutrino energy range from $3.5$ MeV–100 PeV. We searched for coincident neutrino events within a time window of $\pm 500$ s around the gravitational-wave detection time. In this work, we report the number of events within the search-window and the $90\%$ confidence level upper limits on the neutrino fluence for each gravitational-wave event. Full article

The HELYCON project aims at the installation of cosmic air-shower detectors on the roofs of high-school buildings in western Greece. During the last four years, the HELYCON project made a substantial progress. Three HELYCON stations were installed and are still in operation at the Hellenic Open University (HOU) campus, while a small-scale air-shower detector ( $\mu$ Cosmics detector), suitable for in classroom operation, was developed. During the construction and operation of these detectors, many experimental tests and calibration procedures were established, offering the framework for the educational activities of the HELYCON project. In this work, we present the recent developments of the HELYCON project and describe the main aspects of the methodology we use in a five-day training program that introduces the Greek education community to the experimental procedures of HELYCON. Full article

The Astroneu array comprises 9 large charged particle detectors and 3 RF antennas arranged in three autonomous stations operating at the University Campus of the Hellenic Open University in the city of Patras. Each station of the array detects extensive air showers with primary energy threshold of about 10 TeV, while double station coincidence events select showers with energies higher than ${10}^3$ TeV. In such an environment, the radio detection of air showers is challenging. The RF signals besides being extremely weak they also suffer from strong human made electromagnetic noise. In this work, we present the analysis of double station coincidence events and we study the correlation of the RF data with the particle detectors data. We use the experimental information from the particle detectors and the antennas to select very high energy showers and we compare the timing of the RF signals with the timing of the particle detector signals as well as the strength of the RF signals with the simulation predictions. Full article

CUPID-0 is the first large array of scintillating Zn ${}^{82}$ Se cryogenic calorimeters (bolometers) implementing particle identification for the search of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0 $\nu \beta \beta$ ). The detector consists of 24 enriched Zn ${}^{82}$ Se bolometers for a total ${}^{82}$ Se mass of 5.28 kg and it has been taking data in the underground LNGS (Italy) since March 2017. In this article we show how the dual read-out provides a powerful tool for the $\alpha$ particles rejection. The simultaneous use of the heat and light information allows us to reduce the background down to (3.2 ${}_{-1.1}^{+1.3}$ )×10 ${}^{-3}$ counts/(keV kg year), an unprecedented level for cryogenic calorimeters. In a total exposure of 5.46 kg year Zn ${}^{82}$ Se we set the most stringent limit on the 0 $\nu \beta \beta$ decay ${}^{82}$ Se half-life $T_{1/2}^{0\nu }>4.0\times {10}^{24}$ year at 90% C.I. Full article

Recent developments, results, and perspectives arising from double beta decay experiments at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) of the INFN by using HPGe detectors and crystal scintillators and by exploiting various approaches and different isotopes are summarized. The measurements here presented have been performed in the experimental set-ups of the DAMA collaboration. These setups are optimized for low-background studies and operate deep underground at LNGS. The presented results are of significant value to the field, and the sensitivity achieved for some of the considered isotopes is one of the best available to date. Full article