Strange quark matter and proto-strange stars in a baryon density-dependent quark mass model

The properties of strange quark matter and the structures of (proto-)strange stars are studied within the framework of a baryon density-dependent quark mass model, where a new quark mass scaling and self-consistent thermodynamic treatment are adopted. Our results show that the perturbative interaction has a strong impact on the properties of strange quark matter. It is found that the energy per baryon increases with temperature, while the free energy decreases and eventually becomes negative. At fixed temperatures, the pressure at the minimum free energy per baryon is zero, suggesting that the thermodynamic self-consistency is preserved. Additionally, the sound velocity v in quark matter approaches to the extreme relativistic limit (c=p3) as the density increases. By increasing the strengths of confinement parameter D and perturbation parameter C, the tendency for v to approach the extreme relativistic limit at high density is slightly weakened. For (proto-)strange stars, in contrast to the quark mass scalings adopted in previous publications, the new quark mass scaling can accommodate massive proto-strange stars with their maximum mass surpassing twice the solar mass by considering the isentropic stages along the star evolution line, where the entropy per baryon of the star matter was set to be 0.5 and 1 with the lepton fraction Yl=0.4.

Real corrections to Higgs boson pair production at NNLO in the large top quark mass limit

In this paper we consider the next-to-next-to-leading order total cross section of Higgs boson pair production in the large top quark mass limit and compute four expansion terms in 1/$$ {m}_t^2 $$ m t 2 . To this end, we analytically compute the real-virtual and double-real contributions to the total cross section and combine them with the existing virtual contribution. Good convergence is observed below the top quark threshold, which makes our results a valuable input for approximation methods which aim for next-to-next-to-leading order corrections over the whole kinematic range. We present details on various steps of our calculation; in particular, we provide results for three- and four-particle phase-space master integrals and describe in detail the evaluation of the collinear counterterms.

Measurement of the top quark mass using events with a single reconstructed top quark in pp collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV

A measurement of the top quark mass is performed using a data sample enriched with single top quark events produced in the t channel. The study is based on proton- proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1, recorded at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016. Candidate events are selected by requiring an isolated high-momentum lepton (muon or electron) and exactly two jets, of which one is identified as originating from a bottom quark. Multivariate discriminants are designed to separate the signal from the background. Optimized thresholds are placed on the discriminant outputs to obtain an event sample with high signal purity. The top quark mass is found to be $$ {172.13}_{-0.77}^{+0.76} $$ 172.13 − 0.77 + 0.76 GeV, where the uncertainty includes both the statistical and systematic components, reaching sub-GeV precision for the first time in this event topology. The masses of the top quark and antiquark are also determined separately using the lepton charge in the final state, from which the mass ratio and difference are determined to be $$ {0.9952}_{-0.0104}^{+0.0079} $$ 0.9952 − 0.0104 + 0.0079 and $$ {0.83}_{-1.35}^{+1.79} $$ 0.83 − 1.35 + 1.79 GeV, respectively. The results are consistent with CPT invariance.

Towards a Higgs mass determination in asymptotically safe gravity with a dark portal

There are indications that an asymptotically safe UV completion of the Standard Model with gravity could constrain the Higgs self-coupling, resulting in a prediction of the Higgs mass close to the vacuum stability bound in the Standard Model. The predicted value depends on the top quark mass and comes out somewhat higher than the experimental value if the current central value for the top quark mass is assumed. Beyond the Standard Model, the predicted value also depends on dark fields coupled through a Higgs portal. Here we study the Higgs self-coupling in a toy model of the Standard Model with quantum gravity that we extend by a dark scalar and fermion. Within the approximations used in [1], there is a single free parameter in the asymptotically safe dark sector, as a function of which the predicted (toy model) Higgs mass can be lowered due to mixing effects if the dark sector undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking.