We presented updated predictions for top quark-antiquark pair production at the LHC in the threshold region. We presented results for the invariant mass differential distribution of the final state, also accounting for Coulomb resummation within the NRQCD framework.

The all-sky very-high-energy (104 − 106 GeV) atmospheric muon flux measured by IceCube shows a spectral hardening at the highest energies, indicating the presence of a prompt component. IceCube has also measured the atmospheric muon neutrino flux at high energy. However, since this flux is dominated by astrophysical neutrinos, only an upper bound can be placed on the prompt atmospheric ν_μ+ν_μ contribution. In this work, we provide a new evaluation of the prompt atmospheric muon flux including an intrinsic charm component in the cosmic ray-air interactions. The latter enhances the forward production of D^0 , D−, and Λc, which subsequently decay into final states containing muons and muon neutrinos. We show how the increase in the prompt muon flux due to intrinsic charm is accompanied by a corresponding enhancement in the prompt muon neutrino flux. We implement different intrinsic charm production models in MCEq to calculate the resulting lepton fluxes. We discuss the challenges of achieving predictions that are simultaneously consistent with both IceCube’s high-energy atmospheric muon flux measurements and IceCube upper bounds on the prompt muon neutrino flux, and we quantify the resulting discrepancies. As possible solutions, we explore scaling of the unflavored meson contributions to the prompt atmospheric muon flux to assess how such adjustments can reconcile these differences. The tensions emphasized in our work call for a refinement of the hadronic interaction models, especially the production of unflavored mesons, and for new experimental data sensitive to unflavored meson and heavy flavor production with reliable estimates of the associated uncertainties. We suggest that the energy and zenith angle dependence of muon and neutrino flux ratios from future neutrino telescope measurements may help to disentangle different scenarios.

In all previous calculations of the nonlocal subleading contribution to the inclusive penguin decay B & strns; -* Xs gamma due to the interference of the electroweak operators Oc1 - O7 gamma the local Voloshin term was subtracted. In view of the ongoing analysis at order alpha s, we present a calculation of the complete nonlocal contribution which takes into account the high correlation between the uncertainties of the local Voloshin and the nonlocal term of the previous analyses. The new calculation has a high impact on the range of the nonlocal contribution.

We study theoretical uncertainties in predicting top-quark pair-production near threshold at the LHC using the non-relativistic QCD framework. We include variations in the top-quark mass and width, the strong coupling α_s, renormalization and factorization scales, and parton distribution functions, as well as uncertainties from the color-singlet and octet Green's functions that describe quasi-bound toponium formation. These uncertainties are compared with those from standard fixed-order QCD predictions, and implications for ATLAS and CMS analyses are discussed. For the LHC at 13 TeV center-of-mass energy, the integral of the top-quark pair invariant-mass distribution from 340 to 350 GeV is 11.67 pb with ^+1.43_-1.47 pb uncertainty. The corresponding excess after subtracting the POWHEG-BOX result is 4.15 pb with the same uncertainties.

We provide an update on QCD predictions for top-quark pair production close to threshold including bound state effects at the Large Hadron Collider. We compute the top-quark pair invariant mass distribution dσ/dMtt¯, including Coulomb resummation for bound-state effects, as well as threshold resummation for emissions of soft and collinear gluons. We discuss uncertainty estimates and present a proposal for the use of these predictions in experimental analyses.

The all-sky very-high energy (10^4-10^6 GeV) atmospheric muon flux is most recently measured by IceCube, where in the higher energy range, the spectrum hardens indicating a prompt component. IceCube also measures the atmospheric muon neutrino flux at high energy. Since this is dominated by the astrophysical flux, they are only able to set an upper bound on the prompt atmospheric muon neutrino flux contribution. We provide a new evaluation of the prompt atmospheric muon flux including for the first time an intrinsic charm component to colliding nucleons. This increases forward production of D̅^0, D^- and Λ_c which decay into final states that can contain muons and muon neutrinos. We show how the increase in the prompt muon flux due to intrinsic charm has an associated increase in the prompt muon neutrino flux. We consider the Regge ansatz for intrinsic charm production that we implement in MCEq used for the calculation of the lepton fluxes. We discuss the challenges of obtaining predictions that are simultaneously consistent with both IceCube's high energy atmospheric muon flux measurements and their upper bound on the prompt muon neutrino flux. We quantify the discrepancies.

After a successful kick-off meeting in 2021. two workshops in 2022 and 2023 on the future Global Cosmic-Ray Observatory (GCOS) focused mainly on a straw man design of the detector and science possibilities for astro- and particle physics. About 100 participants gathered for in-person and hybrid panel discussions. In this report, we summarize these discussions, present a preliminary straw-man design for GCOS and collect short write-ups of the flash talks given during the focus sessions.

Muons offer a unique opportunity to build a compact high-energy electroweak collider at the 10 TeV scale. A Muon Collider enables direct access to the underlying simplicity of the Standard Model and unparalleled reach beyond it. It will be a paradigm-shifting tool for particle physics representing the first collider to combine the high-energy reach of a proton collider and the high precision of an electron-positron collider, yielding a physics potential significantly greater than the sum of its individual parts. A high-energy muon collider is the natural next step in the exploration of fundamental physics after the HL-LHC and a natural complement to a future low-energy Higgs factory. Such a facility would significantly broaden the scope of particle colliders, engaging the many frontiers of the high energy community. The last European Strategy for Particle Physics Update and later the Particle Physics Project Prioritisation Panel in the US requested a study of the muon collider, which is being carried on by the International Muon Collider Collaboration. In this comprehensive document we present the physics case, the state of the work on accelerator design and technology, and propose an R&D project that can make the muon collider a reality.

Measurements of the products of UHECR interactions with the Earth's atmosphere, as obtained in Extended Air Shower experiments, offer important information concerning hadronic interactions, which for some aspects overlaps and for many others complements the information extracted by measurements of collisions at human-made accelerators. In this contribution I discuss some of the constraints that the UHE astroparticle and accelerator fields exercise one over each other, emphasizing the importance of further new measurements, through new experiments or observations, in both fields.

This document is comprised of a collection of consolidated parameters for the key parts of the muon collider. These consolidated parameters follow on from the October 2024 Preliminary Parameters Report. Attention has been given to a high-level consistent set of baseline parameters throughout all systems of the complex, following a 10 TeV center-of-mass design. Additional details of the designs contributing to this baseline design are featured in the appendix. Likewise, explorative variations from this baseline set can be found in the appendix. The data is collected from a collaborative spreadsheet and transferred to overleaf.

In all previous calculations of the non-local sub-leading contribution to the inclusive penguin decay B̅→ X_s γ due to the interference of the electroweak operators O_1^c - O_7γ the local Voloshin term was subtracted. In view of the ongoing analysis at order α_s, we present a calculation of the complete non-local contribution which takes into account the high correlation between the uncertainties of the local Voloshin and the non-local term of the previous analyses.

Abstract We study the impact of state-of-the-art top-quark data collected at the large hadron collider on parton distribution functions (PDFs). Following the ABMP methodology, the fit extracts simultaneously proton PDFs, the strong coupling $$\alpha _s(M_Z)$$ α s ( M Z ) and heavy-quark masses at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in QCD. It includes recent high-statistics data on absolute total inclusive cross sections for $$t\bar{t}+X$$ t t ¯ + X , the sum of $$(t + X)$$ ( t + X ) and $$(\bar{t} + X)$$ ( t ¯ + X ) hadroproduction, and normalized inclusive data double-differential in the invariant mass and rapidity of the $$t\bar{t}$$ t t ¯ pair at $$\sqrt{S}=13$$ S = 13 TeV. The gluon PDF at large x and the top-quark mass value derived from these data are well compatible with the previous ABMP16 results, but with significantly smaller uncertainties, reduced by up to a factor of two. At NNLO in QCD we obtain for the strong coupling the value $$\alpha _s^{(n_f=5)}(M_Z)= 0.1150 \pm 0.0009$$ α s ( n f = 5 ) ( M Z ) = 0.1150 ± 0.0009 and for the top-quark mass in the $${\overline{\text{ MS }}}$$ MS ¯ -scheme $$m_t(m_t) = 160.6 \pm 0.6$$ m t ( m t ) = 160.6 ± 0.6 GeV, corresponding to $$m_t^\textrm{pole} = 170.2 \pm 0.7$$ m t pole = 170.2 ± 0.7 GeV in the on-shell scheme. The new fit, dubbed ABMPtt, is publicly released in grids in LHAPDF format.

We describe the fits of the top-quark mass value at NNLO using as input the double-differential distributions in rapidity and invariant mass of tt̅ pairs obtained by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations from unfolding of their experimental data to the parton level, compared to NNLO theory predictions. We consider different state-of-the-art PDF sets, finding results of the fits compatible among each other within uncertainties. On the other hand, we observe some tension among the fits to different datasets.

We extract the top-quark mass value in the on-shell renormalization scheme from the comparison of theoretical predictions for pp → tt + X at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD accuracy with experimental data collected by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations for absolute total, normalized single-differential and double-differential cross-sections during Run 1, Run 2 and the ongoing Run 3 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). For the theory computations of heavy-quark pair-production we use the MATRIX framework, interfaced to PineAPPL for the generation of grids of theory predictions, which can be efficiently used a-posteriori during the fit, performed within xFitter. We take several state-of-the-art parton distribution functions (PDFs) as input for the fit and evaluate their associated uncertainties, as well as the uncertainties arising from renormalization and factorization scale variation. Fit uncertainties related to the datasets are also part of the extracted uncertainty of the top-quark mass and turn out to be of similar size as the combined scale and PDF uncertainty. Fit results from different PDF sets agree among each other within 1σ uncertainty, whereas some datasets related to tt decay in different channels (dileptonic vs. semileptonic) point towards top-quark mass values in slight tension among each other, although still compatible within 2.5 σ accuracy. Our results are compatible with the PDG 2022 top-quark pole-mass value. Our work opens the road towards more complex simultaneous NNLO fits of PDFs, the strong coupling αs(MZ) and the top-quark mass, using the currently most precise experimental data on tt + X total and multi-differential cross sections from the LHC.

This document is comprised of a collection of updated preliminary parameters for the key parts of the muon collider. The updated preliminary parameters follow on from the October 2023 Tentative Parameters Report. Particular attention has been given to regions of the facility that are believed to hold greater technical uncertainty in their design and that have a strong impact on the cost and power consumption of the facility. The data is collected from a collaborative spreadsheet and transferred to overleaf.

A multi-TeV muon collider offers a spectacular opportunity in the direct exploration of the energy frontier. Offering a combination of unprecedented energy collisions in a comparatively clean leptonic environment, a high energy muon collider has the unique potential to provide both precision measurements and the highest energy reach in one machine that cannot be paralleled by any currently available technology. The topic generated a lot of excitement in Snowmass meetings and continues to attract a large number of supporters, including many from the early career community. In light of this very strong interest within the US particle physics community, Snowmass Energy, Theory and Accelerator Frontiers created a cross-frontier Muon Collider Forum in November of 2020. The Forum has been meeting on a monthly basis and organized several topical workshops dedicated to physics, accelerator technology, and detector R D. Findings of the Forum are summarized in this report.

We investigate the kinematical regions that are important for producing prompt neutrinos in the atmosphere and in the forward region of the LHC, as probed by different experiments. We illustrate the results as a function of the center-of-mass nucleon-nucleon collision energies and rapidities of neutrinos and of the parent heavy-flavoured hadrons. We find overlap in part of the kinematic space.

We compare double-differential normalized production cross sections for top-antitop $+ X$ hadroproduction at NNLO QCD accuracy, as obtained through a customized version of the MATRIX framework interfaced to PineAPPL, with recent data by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. We take into account theory uncertainties due to scale variation and we see how predictions vary as a function of parton distribution function (PDF) choice and top-quark pole mass value, considering different state-of-the-art PDF fits with their uncertainties. Notwithstanding the overall reasonable good agreement, we observe discrepancies at the level of a few $\sigma$'s between data and theoretical predictions in some kinematical regions, which can be alleviated by refitting the top-quark mass value, and/or the PDFs and/or $\alpha_s(M_Z)$, considering the correlations between these three quantities. In a fit of top-quark mass standalone, we notice that, for all considered PDF + $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ sets used as input, some datasets point towards top-quark pole mass values lower by about $2\,\sigma$'s than those emerging from fitting other datasets, suggesting a possible tension between experimental measurements using different decay channels, and/or the need of better estimating uncertainties on the latter.

We describe our recent NNLO QCD extraction of the top-quark pole mass from fits to experimental data on total inclusive and normalized (multi)-differential cross sections for tt̅ + X hadroproduction, using as input various modern PDF + α_s(M_Z) sets. We find top-quark mass values compatible among each other and with the PDG 2024 preferred value.