W+W− production at NNLO+PS with MINNLOPS

We consider W+W− production in hadronic collisions and present the computation of next-to-next-to-leading order accurate predictions consistently matched to parton showers (NNLO+PS) using the MiNNLOPS method. Spin correlations, interferences and off-shell effects are included by calculating the full process pp → e+νeμ−$$ \overline{\nu} $$ ν ¯ μ. This is the first NNLO+PS calculation for W+W− production that does not require an a-posteriori multi-differential reweighting. The evaluation time of the two-loop contribution has been reduced by more than one order of magnitude through a four-dimensional cubic spline interpolation. We find good agreement with the inclusive and fiducial cross sections measured by ATLAS and CMS. Both NNLO corrections and matching to parton showers are important for an accurate simulation of the W+W− signal, and their matching provides the best description of fully exclusive W+W− events to date.

On improving NLO merging for $$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{W} $$ production

We introduce an improvement to the FxFx matrix element merging procedure for pp →$$ t\overline{t}W $$ t t ¯ W production at NLO in QCD with one and/or two additional jets. The main modification is an improved treatment of jets that are not logarithmically enhanced in the low transverse-momentum regime. We provide predictions for the inclusive cross section and the $$ t\overline{t}W $$ t t ¯ W differential distributions including parton-shower effects. Taking also the NLO EW corrections into account, this results in the most-accurate predictions for this process to date. We further proceed to include the on-shell LO decays of the $$ t\overline{t}W $$ t t ¯ W including the tree-level spin correlations within the narrow-width approximation, focusing on the multi-lepton signatures studied at the LHC. We find a ∼30% increase over the NLO QCD prediction and large non-flat K-factors to differential distributions.

Time-reversal asymmetries and angular distributions in Λb → ΛV

We study the spin correlations to probe time-reversal (T) asymmetries in the decays of Λb→ ΛV (V = ϕ, ρ0, ω, K∗0). The eigenstates of the T-odd operators are obtained along with definite angular momenta. We obtain the T-odd spin correlations from the complex phases among the helicity amplitudes. We give the angular distributions of Λb→ Λ(→ pπ−)V (→ PP′) and show the corresponding spin correlations, where P(′) are the pseudoscalar mesons. Due to the helicity conservation of the s quark in Λ, we deduce that the polarization asymmetries of Λ are close to −1. Since the decay of Λb→ Λϕ in the standard model (SM) is dictated by the single weak phase from the product of CKM elements, $$ {V}_{tb}{V}_{ts}^{\ast } $$ V tb V ts ∗ , the true T and CP asymmetries are suppressed, providing a clean background to test the SM and search for new physics. In the factorization approach, as the helicity amplitudes in the SM share the same complex phase, T-violating effects are absent. Nonetheless, the experimental branching ratio of Br(Λb→ Λϕ) = (5.18 ± 1.29) × 10−6 suggests that the nonfactorizable effects or some new physics play an important role. By parametrizing the nonfactorizable contributions with the effective color number, we calculate the branching ratios and direct CP asymmetries. We also explore the possible T-violating effects from new physics.

Antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic spintronics and the role of in-chain and inter-chain interaction on spin transport in the Heisenberg ferromagnet

Spin-transport and current-induced torques in ferromagnet heterostructures given by a ferromagnetic domain wall are investigated. Furthermore, the continuum spin conductivity is studied in a frustrated spin system given by the Heisenberg model with ferromagnetic in-chain interaction $$J_1<0$$ J 1 < 0 between nearest neighbors and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor in-chain interaction $$J_2>0$$ J 2 > 0 with aim to investigate the effect of the phase diagram of the critical ion single anisotropy $$D_c$$ D c as a function of $$J_2$$ J 2 on conductivity. We consider the model with the moderate strength of the frustrating parameter such that in-chain spin-spin correlations that are predominantly ferromagnetic. In addition, we consider two inter-chain couplings $$J_{\perp ,y}$$ J ⊥ , y and $$J_{\perp ,z}$$ J ⊥ , z , corresponding to the two axes perpendicular to chain where ferromagnetic as well as antiferromagnetic interactions are taken into account.

Critical 1- and 2-point spin correlations for the O(2) model in 3d bounded domains

We study the critical properties of the 3d O(2) universality class in bounded domains through Monte Carlo simulations of the clock model. We use an improved version of the latter, chosen to minimize finite-size corrections at criticality, with 8 orientations of the spins and in the presence of vacancies. The domain chosen for the simulations is the slab configuration with fixed spins at the boundaries. We obtain the universal critical magnetization profile and two-point correlations, which favorably compare with the predictions of the critical geometry approach based on the Yamabe equation. The main result is that the correlations, once the dimensionful contributions are factored out with the critical magnetization profile, are shown to depend only on the distance between the points computed using a metric found solving the corresponding fractional Yamabe equation. The quantitative comparison with the corresponding results for the Ising model at criticality is shown and discussed. Moreover, from the magnetization profiles the critical exponent η is extracted and found to be in reasonable agreement with up-to-date results.

Observing $$t{\bar{t}}Z$$ spin correlations at the LHC

Spin correlations in the production of top-antitop quark ($$t{\bar{t}}$$ t t ¯ ) pairs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are an experimentally verified prediction of the Standard Model. In this paper, we compute the full spin density matrix for $$t{\bar{t}}Z$$ t t ¯ Z production at next-to-leading order precision in QCD, for center-of-mass energies of 13 and 14 $$\text {TeV}$$ TeV . We find that the additional emission of a Z boson leads to significantly different spin correlations with respect to the $$t{\bar{t}}$$ t t ¯ case, and induces small longitudinal polarisations of the top quarks. We further propose an analysis strategy that could lead to the observation of spin correlations in $$t{\bar{t}}Z$$ t t ¯ Z events at the end of Run 3 of the LHC, or possibly earlier by combining the ATLAS and CMS datasets. In addition, we show that the pure angular information contained in the spin density matrix provides novel constraints on the dimension-6 effective field theory operators relevant to the t-Z interaction, without any reference to the total production rates.