The observation of a resonance structure in the opening angle of the electron-positron pairs in the $$^{7}$$ Li(p,e $$^+$$ e $$^-$$ ) $$^{8}$$ Be reaction was claimed and interpreted as the production and subsequent decay of a hypothetical particle (X17). Similar excesses, consistent with this particle, were later observed in processes involving $$^{4}$$ He and $$^{12}$$ C nuclei with the same experimental technique. The MEG II apparatus at PSI, designed to search for the $$\mu ^+ \rightarrow \textrm{e}^+ \gamma $$ decay, can be exploited to investigate the existence of this particle and study its nature. Protons from a Cockroft–Walton accelerator, with an energy up to 1.1 MeV, were delivered on a dedicated Li-based target. The $$\gamma $$ and the e $$^{+}$$ e $$^{-}$$ pair emerging from the $$^8\textrm{Be}^*$$ transitions were studied with calorimeters and a spectrometer, featuring a broader angular acceptance than previous experiments. We present in this paper the analysis of a four-week data-taking in 2023 with a beam energy of 1080 keV, resulting in the excitation of two different resonances with Q-value 17.6 and 18.1 MeV. No significant signal was found, and limits at 90% C.L. on the branching ratios (relative to the $$\gamma $$ emission) of the two resonances to X17 were set, $$R_{17.6} <{1.8}\,\times \,10^{-6}$$ and $$R_{18.1} < {1.2}\,\times \,10^{-5}$$ in the mass range between $${16.5}\hbox { MeV}/\hbox {c}^{2}$$ and $${17.1}\hbox { MeV}/\hbox {c}^{2}$$ .

Russia

K. Afanaciev

Italy

A. Baldini

Japan

S. Ban

H. Benmansour

G. Boca

P. Cattaneo

G. Cavoto

F. Cei

M. Chiappini

A. Corvaglia

Switzerland

G. Maso

A. Bari

M. Gerone

L. Barusso

M. Francesconi

L. Galli

G. Gallucci

F. Gatti

L. Gerritzen

F. Grancagnolo

E. Grandoni

M. Grassi

D. Grigoriev

M. Hildebrandt

United Kingdom

F. Ignatov

F. Ikeda

T. Iwamoto

S. Karpov

P. Kettle

N. Khomutov

A. Kolesnikov

N. Kravchuk

V. Krylov

N. Kuchinskiy

F. Leonetti

W. Li

V. Malyshev

A. Matsushita

M. Meucci

S. Mihara

United States

W. Molzon

T. Mori

D. Nicolò

H. Nishiguchi

A. Ochi

W. Ootani

A. Oya

D. Palo

M. Panareo

A. Papa

V. Pettinacci

A. Popov

F. Renga

S. Ritt

M. Rossella

A. Rozhdestvensky

S. Scarpellini

P. Schwendimann

G. Signorelli

M. Takahashi

Y. Uchiyama

A. Venturini

B. Vitali

C. Voena

K. Yamamoto

R. Yokota

T. Yonemoto

Search for the X17 particle in $$^{7}\textrm{Li}(\textrm{p},\textrm{e}^+ \textrm{e}^{-}) ^{8}\textrm{Be}$$ processes with the MEG II detector

The real Higgs singlet extension of the Standard Model (SM) without $\textit{Z}$ symmetry, the RxSM, is the simplest extension of the SM that features a First Order Electroweak Phase Transition (FOEWPT) in the early universe. The FOEWPT is one of the requirements needed for electroweak baryogenesis to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU). Thus, the RxSM is a perfect example to study features related to the FOEWPT at current and future collider experiments. The RxSM has two $$ \mathcal{CP} $$ -even Higgs bosons, $\textit{h}$ and $\textit{H}$, with masses $\textit{m}$ $\textit{< m}$ , where we assume that $\textit{h}$ corresponds to the Higgs boson discovered at the LHC. Our analysis is based on a benchmark plane that ensures the occurence of a strong FOEWPT, where $\textit{m}$ $\textit{>}$ 2$\textit{m}$ is found. In a first step we analyze the di-Higgs production at the (HL-)LHC, $\textit{gg → hh}$, with a focus on the impact of the trilinear Higgs couplings (THCs), $\textit{λ}$ and $\textit{λ}$ . The interferences of the resonant $\textit{H}$-exchange diagram involving $\textit{λ}$ and the non-resonant diagrams result in a characteristic peak-dip (or dip-peak) structure in the $\textit{m}$ distribution. We analyze how $\textit{λ}$ can be accessed, taking into account the experimental smearing and binning. We also demonstrate that the approximation used by ATLAS and CMS for the resonant di-Higgs searches may fail to capture the relevant effects and lead to erroneous results. In a second step we analyze the benchmark plane at a future high-energy $\textit{e}$ $\textit{e}$ collider with $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 1000 GeV (ILC1000). We analyze the potential sensitivity to $\textit{λ}$ via an experimental determination at the ILC1000 and demonstrate that it is nearly independent of the heavy Higgs-boson mass, as long as it is kinematically accessible.

Germany

F. Arco

Spain

S. Heinemeyer

M. Mühlleitner

A. Parra Arnay

N. Rivero González

A. Verduras Schaeidt

Sensitivity to triple Higgs couplings via di-Higgs production in the RxSM at the (HL-)LHC and future $\textit{e}$

We investigate Λ production in the ( <math altimg='si146.svg'><msup><mrow><mi>&#960;</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>, <math altimg='si3.svg'><msup><mrow><mi>K</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>) reaction on a 6Li target at <math altimg='si4.svg'><msub><mrow><mi>p</mi></mrow><mrow><msup><mrow><mi>&#960;</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></mrow></msub><mo linebreak='goodbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>=</mo><mn>1.05</mn></math> GeV/ <italic>c</italic>, using the distorted-wave impulse approximation (DWIA) with the Fermi-averaged <math altimg='si5.svg'><msup><mrow><mi>&#960;</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup><mi>n</mi><mo stretchy='false'>&#8594;</mo><msup><mrow><mi>K</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></math> amplitudes. The calculated spectrum is in good agreement with the experimental data, suggesting that <math altimg='si1.svg'><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>He</mi></mrow><mprescripts /><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts></math>- <italic>d</italic> configurations play a key role in describing the &#923; continuum states of <math altimg='si23.svg'><msubsup><mrow /><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>6</mn></mrow></msubsup></math>Li near and above the <math altimg='si8.svg'><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>He</mi></mrow><mprescripts /><none /><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts><mo linebreak='goodbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo><mi>d</mi><mo linebreak='goodbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></math> threshold. Our analysis shows that the <math altimg='si1.svg'><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>He</mi></mrow><mprescripts /><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts></math> hypernucleus as a hyperfragment is prominently produced through <italic>D</italic>-wave resonances with <math altimg='si9.svg'><msup><mrow><mi>J</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>P</mi></mrow></msup><mo linebreak='goodbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>=</mo><msup><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>, <math altimg='si10.svg'><msup><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>, and <math altimg='si11.svg'><msup><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math> in the <math altimg='si108.svg'><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>He</mi></mrow><mprescripts /><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts><mo linebreak='goodbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo><mi>d</mi></math> channel at a large momentum transfer <math altimg='si13.svg'><mi>q</mi><mo>&#8771;</mo><mn>360</mn></math>&#8211;400 MeV/ <italic>c</italic>. These findings provide theoretical evidence for the production of a <math altimg='si1.svg'><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>He</mi></mrow><mprescripts /><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts></math> hyperfragment via a cluster-like mechanism in the 6Li( <math altimg='si146.svg'><msup><mrow><mi>&#960;</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>, <math altimg='si3.svg'><msup><mrow><mi>K</mi></mrow><mrow><mo linebreak='badbreak' linebreakstyle='after'>+</mo></mrow></msup></math>) reaction.

Toru Harada

Yoshiharu Hirabayashi

Evidence for <math altimg='si1.svg'><mmultiscripts><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>He</mi></mrow><mprescripts /><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>&#923;</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></mmultiscripts></math> hyperfragment production in the 6Li( <italic>&#960;</italic> +, <italic>K</italic> +) reaction

We search for the leptonic decay $ D^+\to e^+\nu_{e} $ using an $ e^+e^- $ collision data sample with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb $ ^{-1} $ collected with the BESIII detector at a center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV. Significant signal is not observed, and an upper limit on the branching fraction of $ D^+\to e^+\nu_{e} $ is set as $ 9.7 \times 10^{-7} $ , at a confidence level of 90%. Our upper limit is an order of magnitude smaller than the previous limit for this decay mode.

China

M. Ablikim

M.N. Achasov

Sweden

P. Adlarson

O. Afedulidis

X.C. Ai

R. Aliberti

A. Amoroso

Q. An

Y. Bai

O. Bakina

I. Balossino

Y. Ban

H.R. Bao

Poland

V. Batozskaya

Mongolia

K. Begzsuren

N. Berger

M. Berlowski

M. Bertani

D. Bettoni

F. Bianchi

E. Bianco

A. Bortone

I. Boyko

R.A. Briere

A. Brueggemann

H. Cai

X. Cai

A. Calcaterra

G.F. Cao

N. Cao

Türkiye

S.A. Cetin

X.Y. Chai

J.F. Chang

G.R. Che

Y.Z. Che

G. Chelkov

C. Chen

C.H. Chen

Chao Chen

G. Chen

H.S. Chen

H.Y. Chen

M.L. Chen

S.J. Chen

S.L. Chen

S.M. Chen

T. Chen

X.R. Chen

X.T. Chen

Y.B. Chen

Y.Q. Chen

Z.J. Chen

Z.Y. Chen

S.K. Choi

G. Cibinetto

F. Cossio

J.J. Cui

H.L. Dai

J.P. Dai

A. Dbeyssi

R.E. de Boer

D. Dedovich

C.Q. Deng

Z.Y. Deng

A. Denig

I. Denysenko

M. Destefanis

F. De Mori

B. Ding

X.X. Ding

Y. Ding

J. Dong

L.Y. Dong

M.Y. Dong

X. Dong

M.C. Du

S.X. Du

Y.Y. Duan

Z.H. Duan

P. Egorov

Y.H. Fan

J. Fang

S.S. Fang

W.X. Fang

Y. Fang

Y.Q. Fang

R. Farinelli

L. Fava

F. Feldbauer

G. Felici

C.Q. Feng

J.H. Feng

Y.T. Feng

M. Fritsch

C.D. Fu

J.L. Fu

Y.W. Fu

H. Gao

Search for the leptonic decay ${\boldsymbol D^{\bf +}{\bf\to}{\boldsymbol e}^{\bf +}\boldsymbol\nu_{\boldsymbol e}}$ * Supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFA1606000, 2020YFA0406400, 2020YFA0406300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC) (11635010, 11735014, 11935015, 11935016, 11875054, 11935018, 12025502, 12035009, 12035013, 12061131003, 12192260, 12192261, 12192262, 12192263, 12192264, 12192265, 12221005, 12225509, 12235017, 12361141819), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Large-Scale Scientific Facility Program, the CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics (CCEPP), the Joint Large-Scale Scientific Facility Funds of the NSFC and CAS (U2032104, U1832207), the 100 Talents Program of CAS, the Excellent Youth Foundation of Henan Scientific Commitee (242300421044), the Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (INPAC) and Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, the German Research Foundation DFG (FOR5327), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (2021.0174, 2021.0299), the Ministry of Development of Turkey (DPT2006K-120470), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022R1A2C1092335), the National Science and Technology Fund of Mongolia, the National Science Research and Innovation Fund (NSRF) via the Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research, and Innovation of Thailand (B16F640076, B50G670107), the Polish National Science Center (2019/35/O/ST2/02907), the Swedish Research Council (2019.04595), the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (CH2018-7756), and the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-05ER41374).

The di-top final state is an important search channel for additional Higgs bosons at the LHC. In this channel, large signal-background interference contributions can strongly distort a resonance peak as it would be expected from a pure signal contribution. Moreover, signal-signal interference effects can have a significant impact if more than one additional scalar particle is present. In this work, we perform a comprehensive model-independent analysis of the various interference contributions considering two additional heavy scalars that can mix with each other. We point out the importance of taking into account loop-level mixing between the scalars. A proper treatment of these mixing effects, which has not been previously carried out for the di-top final state, introduces additional relative phases between different parts of the amplitudes entering the interference contributions which we find to have a strong impact on the di-top invariant mass distribution. We study the interference effects both in an idealistic setting as well as taking into account experimental limitations using Monte-Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the emerging experimental signatures can be unexpected and difficult to interpret. In particular, we point out that an experimental signature manifesting itself as an excess near the $$ t\overline{t} $$ threshold may actually be caused by new scalar particles with much higher masses. We comment in this context on the recent excess that has been observed by the CMS collaboration near the $$ t\overline{t} $$ threshold in their searches in the di-top final state.

Henning Bahl

Romal Kumar

Georg Weiglein

Impact of interference effects on Higgs-boson searches in the di-top final state at the LHC

Generalized distribution amplitudes (GDAs) offer valuable insights into the three-dimensional structure of hadrons, delineating the amplitudes associated with the transition from a quark–antiquark pair to a hadron pair. Currently, hadron GDAs can be probed in electron–positron collisions, with experimental feasibility demonstrated at facilities such as Belle and BESIII. In this study, we put forth the proposition that hadron GDAs can also be investigated in electron–hadron collisions at forthcoming Electron-Ion Colliders (EICs), specifically through the subprocess $$\gamma ^*\gamma \rightarrow h_1 h_2.$$ In this framework, a quasi-real photon, emitted by the ion, exhibits a photon flux proportional to the square of the ion’s electric charge. Consequently, we anticipate that the cross sections in EICs will be substantially larger than those in electron–positron collisions. We present numerical calculations pertaining to di- $$\pi ^0$$ production employing the equivalent photon approximation (EPA). Our findings suggest that, within the same kinematic region, electron-proton ($\textit{e}$-$\textit{p}$) collisions at the EIC could yield an event rate comparable to that of Belle II, while electron-gold ($\textit{e}$-Au) collisions are expected to generate an even greater number of events. This enhanced event rate facilitates a high-precision examination of di- $$\pi ^0$$ GDAs at the EIC.

Bing’ang Guo

Di- $$\pi ^0$$ production and generalized distribution amplitudes at future electron-ion colliders