Probing the gluon plasma with charm balance functions

Recent theoretical explanations for how hydrodynamic-like flow can build up quickly in small collision systems (hydrodynamization) has led to a microscopic picture of flow building up in a gluon-dominated phase before chemical equilibrium between quarks and gluons has been attained. The goal of this contribution to Offshell-2021 is to explore consequence of assuming a long-lived gluon-dominated phase, which we shall denote a gluon plasma (GP). As these consequences are naturally enhanced in a large systems, we assume and explore the extreme scenario in which a GP would be created in AA collisions and exist for significant time before the formation of a chemically-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The GP and its formation would be impossible to probe with light-quark hadrons, which are first produced later in this scenario. As charm quarks are produced early in the collision, they can circumvent the limitations of light quarks and we propose charm balance functions as an effective tool to test this idea and constrain the dynamics of the GP.

Determination of the up/down-quark mass within QCD sum rules in the scalar channel

In this work, we determine up/down-quark mass $$m_{q=u/d}$$ m q = u / d in the isoscalar scalar channel from both the Shifman–Vainshtein–Zakharov (SVZ) and the Monte-Carlo-based QCD sum rules. The relevant spectral function, including the contributions from the $$f_0(500)$$ f 0 ( 500 ) , $$f_0(980)$$ f 0 ( 980 ) and $$f_0(1370)$$ f 0 ( 1370 ) resonances, is determined from a sophisticated U(3) chiral study. Via the traditional SVZ QCD sum rules, we give the prediction to the average light-quark mass $$m_q(2 ~\text {GeV})=\frac{1}{2}(m_u(2 ~\text {GeV}) + m_d(2 ~\text {GeV}))=(3.46^{+0.16}_{-0.22} \pm 0.33) ~\text {MeV}$$ m q ( 2 GeV ) = 1 2 ( m u ( 2 GeV ) + m d ( 2 GeV ) ) = ( 3 . 46 - 0.22 + 0.16 ± 0.33 ) MeV . Meanwhile, by considering the uncertainties of the input QCD parameters and the spectral functions of the isoscalar scalar channel, we obtain $$m_q (2~\text {GeV}) = (3.44 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.32) ~\text {MeV}$$ m q ( 2 GeV ) = ( 3.44 ± 0.14 ± 0.32 ) MeV from the Monte-Carlo-based QCD sum rules. Both results are perfectly consistent with each other, and nicely agree with the Particle Data Group value within the uncertainties.

Anomalous Z′ bosons for anomalous B decays

Motivated by the intriguing discrepancies in b → sℓℓ transitions, the fermion mass problem, and a desire to preserve the accidental symmetries of the Standard Model (SM), we extend the SM by an anomalous U(1)X gauge symmetry where X = Y3 + a(Lμ− Lτ)/6. The heavy Z′ boson associated with spontaneously breaking U(1)X at the TeV scale mediates the b → sℓℓ anomalies via $$ {\mathcal{O}}_9^{\mu}\sim \frac{1}{\Lambda^2}\left(\overline{s}{\gamma}_{\rho }{P}_Lb\right)\left(\overline{\mu}{\gamma}^{\rho}\mu \right) $$ O 9 μ ~ 1 Λ 2 s ¯ γ ρ P L b μ ¯ γ ρ μ . We show that this model, which features mixed gauge anomalies involving U(1)X and hypercharge, can be made anomaly-free for any a ∈ ℤ by integrating in a pair of charged fermions whose masses naturally reside somewhere between 1 and 30 TeV. The gauge symmetry permits only the third family Yukawas at the renormalisable level, and so the light quark masses and mixings are controlled by accidental U(2)3 flavour symmetries which we assume are minimally broken alongside U(1)X. The lepton sector is not governed by U(2) symmetries, but rather one expects a nearly diagonal charged lepton Yukawa with me,μ « mτ. The model does not explain the hierarchy me « mμ, but it does possess high quality lepton flavour symmetries that are robust to the heavy physics responsible for generating me,μ. We establish the viability of these models by checking agreement with the most important experimental constraints. We comment on how the model could also explain neutrino masses and the muon g − 2.

Isospin-1/2 Dπ scattering and the lightest $$ {D}_0^{\ast } $$ resonance from lattice QCD

Isospin-1/2 Dπ scattering amplitudes are computed using lattice QCD, working in a single volume of approximately (3.6 fm)3 and with a light quark mass corresponding to mπ ≈ 239 MeV. The spectrum of the elastic Dπ energy region is computed yielding 20 energy levels. Using the Lüscher finite-volume quantisation condition, these energies are translated into constraints on the infinite-volume scattering amplitudes and hence enable us to map out the energy dependence of elastic Dπ scattering. By analytically continuing a range of scattering amplitudes, a $$ {D}_0^{\ast } $$ D 0 ∗ resonance pole is consistently found strongly coupled to the S-wave Dπ channel, with a mass m ≈ 2200 MeV and a width Γ ≈ 400 MeV. Combined with earlier work investigating the $$ {D}_{s0}^{\ast } $$ D s 0 ∗ , and $$ {D}_0^{\ast } $$ D 0 ∗ with heavier light quarks, similar couplings between each of these scalar states and their relevant meson-meson scattering channels are determined. The mass of the $$ {D}_0^{\ast } $$ D 0 ∗ is consistently found well below that of the $$ {D}_{s0}^{\ast } $$ D s 0 ∗ , in contrast to the currently reported experimental result.

Parton distributions in the SMEFT from high-energy Drell-Yan tails

The high-energy tails of charged- and neutral-current Drell-Yan processes provide important constraints on the light quark and anti-quark parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the large-x region. At the same time, short-distance new physics effects such as those encoded by the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) would induce smooth distortions to the same high-energy Drell-Yan tails. In this work, we assess for the first time the interplay between PDFs and EFT effects for high-mass Drell-Yan processes at the LHC and quantify the impact that the consistent joint determination of PDFs and Wilson coefficients has on the bounds derived for the latter. We consider two well-motivated new physics scenarios: 1) electroweak oblique corrections ($$ \hat{W},\hat{Y} $$ W ̂ , Y ̂ ) and 2) four-fermion interactions potentially related to the LHCb anomalies in R(K(*)). We account for available Drell-Yan data, both from unfolded cross sections and from searches, and carry out dedicated projections for the High-Luminosity LHC. Our main finding is that, while the interplay between PDFs and EFT effects remains moderate for the current dataset, it will become a significant challenge for EFT analyses at the HL-LHC.

Weak decays of bottom-charm baryons: $$\mathcal {B}_{bc}\rightarrow \mathcal {B}_bP$$

After the discovery of the double-charm baryon $$\Xi _{cc}^{++}$$ Ξ cc + + by LHCb, one of the most important topics is to search for the bottom-charm baryons which contain a b quark, a c quark and a light quark. In this work, we study the two-body non-leptonic weak decays of a bottom-charm baryon into a spin-1/2 bottomed baryon and a light pseudoscalar meson with the short-distance contributions calculated under the factorization hypothesis and the long-distance contributions considering the final-state-interaction effects. The branching fractions of all fifty-seven decay channels are estimated. The results indicate that $$\Xi _{bc}^+\rightarrow \Xi _b^0\pi ^+$$ Ξ bc + → Ξ b 0 π + , $$\Xi _{bc}^{0}\rightarrow \Xi _{b}^{-}\pi ^+$$ Ξ bc 0 → Ξ b - π + and $$\Omega _{bc}^0\rightarrow \Omega _b^-\pi ^+$$ Ω bc 0 → Ω b - π + decay modes have relatively large decay rates and thus could be used to experimentally search for the bottom-charm baryons. The topological diagrams and the SU(3) symmetry of bottom-charm baryon decays are discussed.

Quark, pion and axial condensates in three-flavor finite isospin chiral perturbation theory

We calculate the light-quark condensate, the strange-quark condensate, the pion condensate, and the axial condensate in three-flavor chiral perturbation theory ($$\chi $$ χ PT) in the presence of an isospin chemical potential at next-to-leading order at zero temperature. It is shown that the three-flavor $$\chi $$ χ PT effective potential and condensates can be mapped onto two-flavor $$\chi $$ χ PT ones by integrating out mesons with strange-quark content (kaons and eta), with renormalized couplings. We compare the results for the light-quark and pion condensates at finite pseudoscalar source with ($$2+1$$ 2 + 1 )-flavor lattice QCD, and we also compare the axial condensate at zero pseudoscalar and axial sources with lattice QCD data. We find that the light-quark, pion, and axial condensates are in very good agreement with lattice data. There is an overall improvement by including NLO effects.