arXiv subjects

S. Monteil

Publications and source records attributed to S. Monteil.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Search for Very-Short-Baseline Oscillations of Reactor Antineutrinos with the SoLid Detector

In this letter we report the first scientific result based on antineutrinos emitted from the BR2 reactor at SCK CEN. The SoLid experiment uses a novel type of highly granular detector whose basic detection unit combines two scintillators, PVT and 6LiF:ZnS(Ag), to measure antineutrinos via their inverse-beta-decay products. An advantage of PVT is its highly linear response as a function of deposited particle energy. The full-scale detector comprises 12800 voxels and operates over a very short 6.3--8.9 m baseline from the reactor core. The detector segmentation and its 3D imaging capabilities facilitate the extraction of the positron energy from the rest of the visible energy, allowing the latter to be utilised for signal-background discrimination. We present a result based on 280 reactor-on days (55 MW mean power) and 172 reactor-off days, respectively, of live data-taking. A total of 29479 $\pm$ 603 (stat.) antineutrino candidates have been selected, corresponding to an average rate of 105 events per day and a signal-to-background ratio of 0.27. A search for disappearance of antineutrinos to a sterile state has been conducted using complementary model-dependent frequentist and Bayesian fits, providing constraints on the allowed region of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly.

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arXiv2020

Calibration and performance of the LHCb calorimeters in Run 1 and 2 at the LHC

The calibration and performance of the LHCb Calorimeter system in Run 1 and 2 at the LHC are described. After a brief description of the sub-detectors and of their role in the trigger, the calibration methods used for each part of the system are reviewed. The changes which occurred with the increase of beam energy in Run 2 are explained. The performances of the calorimetry for $\gamma$ and $\pi^0$ are detailed. A few results from collisions recorded at $\sqrt {s}$ = 7, 8 and 13 TeV are shown.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

New physics in $B$ meson mixing: future sensitivity and limitations

The mixing of neutral mesons is sensitive to some of the highest scales probed in laboratory experiments. In light of the planned LHCb Upgrade II, a possible upgrade of Belle II, and the broad interest in flavor physics in the tera-$Z$ phase of the proposed FCC-ee program, we study constraints on new physics contributions to $B_d$ and $B_s$ mixings which can be obtained in these benchmark scenarios. We explore the limitations of this program, and identify the measurement of $|V_{cb}|$ as one of the key ingredients in which progress beyond current expectations is necessary to maximize future sensitivity. We speculate on possible solutions to this bottleneck. Given the current tension with the standard model (SM) in semileptonic $B$ decays, we explore how its resolution may impact the search for new physics in mixing. Even if new physics has the same CKM and loop suppressions of flavor changing processes as the SM, the sensitivity will reach 2 TeV, and it can be much higher if any SM suppressions are lifted. We illustrate the discovery potential of this program.

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arXiv2020

SoLid: A short baseline reactor neutrino experiment

The SoLid experiment, short for Search for Oscillations with a Lithium-6 detector, is a new generation neutrino experiment which tries to address the key challenges for high precision reactor neutrino measurements at very short distances from a reactor core and with little or no overburden. The primary goal of the SoLid experiment is to perform a precise measurement of the electron antineutrino energy spectrum and flux and to search for very short distance neutrino oscillations as a probe of eV-scale sterile neutrinos. This paper describes the SoLid detection principle, the mechanical design and the construction of the detector. It then reports on the installation and commissioning on site near the BR2 reactor, Belgium, and finally highlights its performance in terms of detector response and calibration.

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arXiv2018

Design and performance of the LHCb trigger and full real-time reconstruction in Run 2 of the LHC

The LHCb collaboration has redesigned its trigger to enable the full offline detector reconstruction to be performed in real time. Together with the real-time alignment and calibration of the detector, and a software infrastructure to make persistent the high-level physics objects produced during real-time processing, this redesign enabled the widespread deployment of real-time analysis during Run 2. We describe the design of the Run 2 trigger and real-time reconstruction, and present data-driven performance measurements for a representative sample of LHCb's physics programme.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2018

Commissioning and Operation of the Readout System for the SoLid Neutrino Detector

The SoLid experiment aims to measure neutrino oscillation at a baseline of 6.4 m from the BR2 nuclear reactor in Belgium. Anti-neutrinos interact via inverse beta decay (IBD), resulting in a positron and neutron signal that are correlated in time and space. The detector operates in a surface building, with modest shielding, and relies on extremely efficient online rejection of backgrounds in order to identify these interactions. A novel detector design has been developed using 12800 5 cm cubes for high segmentation. Each cube is formed of a sandwich of two scintillators, PVT and 6LiF:ZnS(Ag), allowing the detection and identification of positrons and neutrons respectively. The active volume of the detector is an array of cubes measuring 80x80x250 cm (corresponding to a fiducial mass of 1.6 T), which is read out in layers using two dimensional arrays of wavelength shifting fibres and silicon photomultipliers, for a total of 3200 readout channels. Signals are recorded with 14 bit resolution, and at 40 MHz sampling frequency, for a total raw data rate of over 2 Tbit/s. In this paper, we describe a novel readout and trigger system built for the experiment, that satisfies requirements on: compactness, low power, high performance, and very low cost per channel. The system uses a combination of high price-performance FPGAs with a gigabit Ethernet based readout system, and its total power consumption is under 1 kW. The use of zero suppression techniques, combined with pulse shape discrimination trigger algorithms to detect neutrons, results in an online data reduction factor of around 10000. The neutron trigger is combined with a large per-channel history time buffer, allowing for unbiased positron detection. The system was commissioned in late 2017, with successful physics data taking established in early 2018.

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arXiv2018

Development of a Quality Assurance Process for the SoLid Experiment

The SoLid experiment has been designed to search for an oscillation pattern induced by a light sterile neutrino state, utilising the BR2 reactor of SCK$\bullet$CEN, in Belgium. The detector leverages a new hybrid technology, utilising two distinct scintillators in a cubic array, creating a highly segmented detector volume. A combination of 5 cm cubic polyvinyltoluene cells, with $^6$LiF:ZnS(Ag) sheets on two faces of each cube, facilitate reconstruction of the neutrino signals. % The polyvinyltoluene scintillator is used as an $\overline{\nu}_e$ target for the inverse beta decay of ($\overline{\nu}_e + p \rightarrow e^{+}+n$), with the $^6$LiF:ZnS(Ag) sheets used for associated neutron detection. Scintillation signals are read out by a network of wavelength shifting fibres connected to multipixel photon counters. Whilst the high granularity provides a powerful toolset to discriminate backgrounds; by itself the segmentation also represents a challenge in terms of homogeneity and calibration, for a consistent detector response. The search for this light sterile neutrino implies a sensitivity to distortions of around $\mathcal{O}$(10)\% in the energy spectrum of reactor $\overline{\nu}_e$. Hence, a very good neutron detection efficiency, light yield and homogeneous detector response are critical for data validation. The minimal requirements for the SoLid physics program are a light yield and a neutron detection efficiency larger than 40 PA/MeV/cube and 50 \% respectively. In order to guarantee these minimal requirements, the collaboration developed a rigorous quality assurance process for all 12800 cubic cells of the detector. To carry out the quality assurance process, an automated calibration system called CALIPSO was designed and constructed.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Physics case for an LHCb Upgrade II - Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

The LHCb Upgrade II will fully exploit the flavour-physics opportunities of the HL-LHC, and study additional physics topics that take advantage of the forward acceptance of the LHCb spectrometer. The LHCb Upgrade I will begin operation in 2020. Consolidation will occur, and modest enhancements of the Upgrade I detector will be installed, in Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC (2025) and these are discussed here. The main Upgrade II detector will be installed in long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030) and will build on the strengths of the current LHCb experiment and the Upgrade I. It will operate at a luminosity up to $ 2 \times 10^{34} \rm cm^{-2}s^{-1}$, ten times that of the Upgrade I detector. New detector components will improve the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. An Expression Of Interest proposing Upgrade II was submitted in February 2017. The physics case for the Upgrade II is presented here in more depth. $CP$-violating phases will be measured with precisions unattainable at any other envisaged facility. The experiment will probe $b\to s \ell^+\ell^-$ and $b\to d \ell^+\ell^-$ transitions in both muon and electron decays in modes not accessible at Upgrade I. Minimal flavour violation will be tested with a precision measurement of the ratio of $B(B^0\to\mu^+\mu^-)/B(B_s^0\to \mu^+\mu^-)$. Probing charm $CP$ violation at the $10^{-5}$ level may result in its long sought discovery. Major advances in hadron spectroscopy will be possible, which will be powerful probes of low energy QCD. Upgrade II potentially will have the highest sensitivity of all the LHC experiments on the Higgs to charm-quark couplings. Generically, the new physics mass scale probed, for fixed couplings, will almost double compared with the pre-HL-LHC era; this extended reach for flavour physics is similar to that which would be achieved by the HE-LHC proposal for the energy frontier.

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arXiv2018

The HeRSCheL detector: high-rapidity shower counters for LHCb

The HeRSCheL detector consists of a set of scintillating counters, designed to increase the coverage of the LHCb experiment in the high-rapidity regions on either side of the main spectrometer. The new detector improves the capabilities of LHCb for studies of diffractive interactions, most notably Central Exclusive Production. In this paper the construction, installation, commissioning, and performance of HeRSCheL are presented.

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arXiv2017

Lepton polarization asymmetries in rare semi-tauonic $ b \rightarrow s $ exclusive decays at FCC-$ee$

We consider measurements of exclusive rare semi-tauonic $b$-hadron decays, mediated by the $b \rightarrow s \tau^+ \tau^-$ transition, at a future high energy circular electron-positron collider (FCC-$ee$). We argue that the high boosts of $b$-hadrons originating from on-shell $Z$ boson decays allow for a full reconstruction of the decay kinematics in hadronic $\tau$ decay modes (up to discrete ambiguities). This, together with the potentially large statistics of $Z\to b\bar b$, opens the door for the experimental determination of $\tau$ polarizations in these rare $b$-hadron decays. In light of the current experimental situation on lepton flavor universality in rare semileptonic $B$ decays, we discuss the complementary short-distance physics information carried by the $\tau$ polarizations and suggest suitable theoretically clean observables in the form of single- and double-$\tau$ polarization asymmetries.

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arXiv2015

Current status of the Standard Model CKM fit and constraints on $ΔF=2$ New Physics

This letter summarises the status of the global fit of the CKM parameters within the Standard Model performed by the CKMfitter group. Special attention is paid to the inputs for the CKM angles $α$ and $γ$ and the status of $B_s\toμμ$ and $B_d\to μμ$ decays. We illustrate the current situation for other unitarity triangles. We also discuss the constraints on generic $ΔF=2$ New Physics. All results have been obtained with the CKMfitter analysis package, featuring the frequentist statistical approach and using Rfit to handle theoretical uncertainties.

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arXiv2014

Indirect searches for sterile neutrinos at a high-luminosity Z-factory

A future high-luminosity $Z$-factory will offer the possibility to study rare $Z$ decays, as those leading to lepton flavour violating final states. Processes such as $Z \to \ell_1^\mp \ell_2^\pm$ are potentially complementary to low-energy (high-intensity) observables of lepton flavour violation. In this work we address the impact of new sterile fermions on lepton flavour violating $Z$ decays, focusing on potential searches at FCC-ee (TLEP), and taking into account experimental and observational constraints on the sterile states. We consider a minimal extension of the Standard Model by one sterile fermion state, and two well-motivated frameworks of neutrino mass generation, the Inverse Seesaw embedded into the Standard Model, and the $ν$MSM. Our study shows that sterile neutrinos can give rise to contributions to BR($Z \to \ell_1^\mp \ell_2^\pm$) within reach of the FCC-ee. We also discuss the complementarity between a high-luminosity $Z$-factory and low-energy charged lepton flavour violation facilities.

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arXiv2013

The LHCb Trigger and its Performance in 2011

This paper presents the design of the LHCb trigger and its performance on data taken at the LHC in 2011. A principal goal of LHCb is to perform flavour physics measurements, and the trigger is designed to distinguish charm and beauty decays from the light quark background. Using a combination of lepton identification and measurements of the particles' transverse momenta the trigger selects particles originating from charm and beauty hadrons, which typically fly a finite distance before decaying. The trigger reduces the roughly 11\,MHz of bunch-bunch crossings that contain at least one inelastic $pp$ interaction to 3\,kHz. This reduction takes place in two stages; the first stage is implemented in hardware and the second stage is a software application that runs on a large computer farm. A data-driven method is used to evaluate the performance of the trigger on several charm and beauty decay modes.

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arXiv2012

New Physics in B-Bbar mixing in the light of recent LHCb data

We perform model-independent statistical analyses of three scenarios accommodating New Physics (NP) in Delta F=2 flavour-changing neutral current amplitudes. In a scenario in which NP in B_d-B_d-bar and B_s-B_s-bar is uncorrelated, we find the parameter point representing the Standard-Model disfavoured by 2.4 standard deviations. However, recent LHCb data on B_s neutral-meson mixing forbid a good accommodation of the D0 data on the semileptonic CP asymmetry A_SL. We introduce a fourth scenario with NP in both M_12^d,s and Gamma_12^d,s, which can accommodate all data. We discuss the viability of this possibility and emphasise the importance of separate measurements of the CP asymmetries in semileptonic B_d and B_s decays. All results have been obtained with the CKMfitter analysis package, featuring the frequentist statistical approach and using Rfit to handle theoretical uncertainties.

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arXiv2011

Predictions of selected flavour observables within the Standard Model

This letter gathers a selection of Standard Model predictions issued from the metrology of the CKM parameters performed by the CKMfitter group. The selection includes purely leptonic decays of neutral and charged B, D and K mesons. In the light of the expected measurements from the LHCb experiment, a special attention is given to the radiative decay modes of B mesons as well as to the B-meson mixing observables, in particular the semileptonic charge asymmetries a^d,s_SL which have been recently investigated by the D0 experiment at Tevatron. Constraints arising from rare kaon decays are addressed, in light of both current results and expected performances of future rare kaon experiments. All results have been obtained with the CKMfitter analysis package, featuring the frequentist statistical approach and using Rfit to handle theoretical uncertainties.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Anatomy of New Physics in B-Bbar mixing

We analyse three different New Physics scenarios for Delta F=2 flavour-changing neutral currents in the quark sector in the light of recent data on neutral-meson mixing. We parametrise generic New Physics contributions to B_q-Bbar_q mixing (q=d,s), in terms of one complex quantity Delta_q, while three parameters Delta_K^tt, Delta_K^ct and Delta_K^cc are needed to describe K-Kbar mixing. In Scenario I, we consider uncorrelated New Physics contributions in the B_d, B_s, and K sectors. In this scenario, it is only possible to constrain the parameters Delta_d and Delta_s whereas there are no non-trivial constraints on the kaon parameters. In Scenario II, we study the case of Minimal Flavour Violation (MFV) and small bottom Yukawa coupling and Scenario III is the generic MFV case with large bottom Yukawa couplings. Our quantitative analyses consist of global CKM fits within the Rfit frequentist statistical approach, determining the Standard Model parameters and the new physics parameters of the studied scenarios simultaneously. We find that the recent measurements indicating discrepancies with the Standard Model are well accomodated in Scenarios I and III with new mixing phases, with a slight preference for Scenario I that permits different new CP phases in the B_d and B_s systems. Within our statistical framework, we find evidence of New Physics in both B_d and B_s systems. The Standard-Model hypothesis Delta_d=Delta_s=1 is disfavoured with p-values of 3.6 sigma and 3.3 sigma in Scenarios I and III, respectively. We also present an exhaustive list of numerical predictions in each scenario. In particular, we predict the CP phase in B_s -> J psi phi and the difference between the B_s and B_d semileptonic asymmetries, which will be both measured by the LHCb experiment.

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arXiv2010

The Two Higgs Doublet of Type II facing flavour physics data

We discuss tests of the charged Higgs sector of the Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) of Type II in the light of recent flavour physics data. Particular attention is paid to recent measurement of purely leptonic decays of heavy-light mesons, which depart more or less significantly from the Standard Model (SM) predictions. We derive constraints on the parameters of the 2HDM type II from leptonic and semileptonic $ΔF=1$ decays as well as loop processes ($b \to s γ$, $B\bar{B}$ mixing or $Z\to\bar{b}b$) sensitive to charged Higgs contributions. The outcome of this work is that while 2HDM Type II can fit individual observable through fine-tuning schemes, in a combined analysis it does not perform better than the SM by favouring a decoupling solution. Assuming that 2HDM Type II is realized in Nature, constraints on its parameters ($m_{H^+}$ and $\tan β$) are derived. A limit on the charged Higgs mass $m_{H^+} > 316 \; {\rm GeV}$ at $95\%$~CL is obtained irrespective of the value of $\tan β$. This limit is dominated by the $b\rightarrow s γ$ branching ratio measurement. All results have been obtained with the \ckmfitter\ analysis package, featuring the frequentist statistical approach \rfit\ to handle theoretical uncertainties.

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