We report constraints on sub-GeV dark matter particles interacting with electrons from the first underground operation of DAMIC-M detectors. The search is performed with an integrated exposure of ...85.23 g days, and exploits the subelectron charge resolution and low level of dark current of DAMIC-M charge-coupled devices (CCDs). Dark-matter-induced ionization signals above the detector dark current are searched for in CCD pixels with charge up to 7e^{-}. With this dataset we place limits on dark matter particles of mass between 0.53 and 1000 MeV/c^{2}, excluding unexplored regions of parameter space in the mass ranges 1.6,1000 MeV/c^{2} and 1.5,15.1 MeV/c^{2} for ultralight and heavy mediator interactions, respectively.
The first measurement of lepton-jet momentum imbalance and azimuthal correlation in lepton-proton scattering at high momentum transfer is presented. These data, taken with the H1 detector at HERA, ...are corrected for detector effects using an unbinned machine learning algorithm (multifold), which considers eight observables simultaneously in this first application. The unfolded cross sections are compared with calculations performed within the context of collinear or transverse-momentum-dependent factorization in quantum chromodynamics as well as Monte Carlo event generators.
The strong coupling constant
α
s
is determined from inclusive jet and dijet cross sections in neutral-current deep-inelastic
ep
scattering (DIS) measured at HERA by the H1 collaboration using ...next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD predictions. The dependence of the NNLO predictions and of the resulting value of
α
s
(
m
Z
)
at the
Z
-boson mass
m
Z
are studied as a function of the choice of the renormalisation and factorisation scales. Using inclusive jet and dijet data together, the strong coupling constant is determined to be
α
s
(
m
Z
)
=
0.1157
(
20
)
exp
(
29
)
th
. Complementary,
α
s
(
m
Z
)
is determined together with parton distribution functions of the proton (PDFs) from jet and inclusive DIS data measured by the H1 experiment. The value
α
s
(
m
Z
)
=
0.1142
(
28
)
tot
obtained is consistent with the determination from jet data alone. The impact of the jet data on the PDFs is studied. The running of the strong coupling is tested at different values of the renormalisation scale and the results are found to be in agreement with expectations.
Dark matter (DM) particles with sufficiently large cross sections may scatter as they travel through Earth's bulk. The corresponding changes in the DM flux give rise to a characteristic daily ...modulation signal in detectors sensitive to DM-electron interactions. Here, we report results obtained from the first underground operation of the DAMIC-M prototype detector searching for such a signal from DM with MeV-scale mass. A model-independent analysis finds no modulation in the rate of 1 e^{-} events with sidereal period, where a DM signal would appear. We then use these data to place exclusion limits on DM in the mass range 0.53,2.7 MeV/c^{2} interacting with electrons via a dark photon mediator. Taking advantage of the time-dependent signal we improve by ∼2 orders of magnitude on our previous limit obtained from the total rate of 1 e^{-} events, using the same dataset. This daily modulation search represents the current strongest limit on DM-electron scattering via ultralight mediators for DM masses around 1 MeV/c^{2}.
A
bstract
The cross section of the diffractive process
e
+
p
→
e
+
Xp
is measured at a centre-of-mass energy of 318 GeV, where the system
X
contains at least two jets and the leading final state ...proton
p
is detected in the H1 Very Forward Proton Spectrometer. The measurement is performed in photoproduction with photon virtualities
Q
2
<
2 GeV
2
and in deep-inelastic scattering with 4 GeV
2
< Q
2
<
80 GeV
2
. The results are compared to next- to-leading order QCD calculations based on diffractive parton distribution functions as extracted from measurements of inclusive cross sections in diffractive deep-inelastic scattering.
A
bstract
A measurement is presented of single- and double-differential dijet cross sections in diffractive deep-inelastic
ep
scattering at HERA using data collected by the H1 experiment ...corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 290 pb
−1
. The investigated phase space is spanned by the photon virtuality in the range of 4
< Q
2
<
100 GeV
2
and by the fractional proton longitudinal momentum loss
x
ℙ
<
0
.
03. The resulting cross sections are compared with next-to-leading order QCD predictions based on diffractive parton distribution functions and the value of the strong coupling constant is extracted.
Measurements of normalised cross sections for the production of photons and neutrons at very small angles with respect to the proton beam direction in deep-inelastic
e
p
scattering at HERA are ...presented as a function of the Feynman variable
x
F
and of the centre-of-mass energy of the virtual photon-proton system
W
. The data are taken with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of
131
pb
-
1
. The measurement is restricted to photons and neutrons in the pseudorapidity range
η
>
7.9
and covers the range of negative four momentum transfer squared at the positron vertex
6
<
Q
2
<
100
GeV
2
, of inelasticity
0.05
<
y
<
0.6
and of
70
<
W
<
245
GeV. To test the Feynman scaling hypothesis the
W
dependence of the
x
F
dependent cross sections is investigated. Predictions of deep-inelastic scattering models and of models for hadronic interactions of high energy cosmic rays are compared to the measured cross sections.
Experimental results on pion decays obtained with the PIBETA spectrometer at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) are reviewed. For pion beta decay π
+
→ π
0
е
+
ν (πβ), a precision measurement of ...relative probability yields Г(πβ) = 1.036 ± 0.004(stat) ± 0.004(syst) ± 0.003(π
+
→е
+
ν) × 10
–8
, which implies
V
ud
= 0.9728(30) for the corresponding element of the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa mixing matrix. Using a sample of 65 × 10
3
events, relative probability of the π
+
→е
+
νγ radiative pion decay (RPD) in the kinematic region of
E
γ
> 10 MeV and
θ
eγ
> 40° is measured as
B
exp
= 73.86(54) × 10
–8
. A statistical analysis of measured
E
e
+
and
E
γ
distributions for this decay yield the values
F
V
= 0.0258(17) and
F
A
= 0.0117(17) for the pion weak formfactors. Assuming that
F
V
linearly depends on the е
+
ν invariant mass
q
2
as
F
V
(
q
2
) =
F
V
(0)(1 +
aq
2
), the slope parameter is extracted as
а
= 0.10(6). The pion polarizability and neutral-pion lifetime are estimated as
α
E
= 2.78(10) × 10
–4
fm
3
and τ(π
0
) = (8.5 ± 1.1) × 10
–17
s, respectively. The data for decays π
+
→ е
+
ν and
μ
+
→
e
+
v
v
¯
γ
have been collected and are being processed. The follow-up PEN experiment aims at reducing the uncertainty on the π
+
→ е
+
ν relative probability by almost an order of magnitude (to 5 × 10
–4
).