THE SCARAB BEETLES (COLEOPTERA : SCARABAEIDAE) OF PARQUE BICENTENARIO, EL SALVADOR

Parque Bicentenario in the Area Natural Protegida El Espino-Bosque Los Pericos, considered the "last green lung of San Salvador", is the most important forested area in central El Salvador. We performed a survey to provide the first inventory of scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae) of the park. Collections were conducted monthly for one year (August 2018-July 2019) by using baited pitfall, aerial, and ultraviolet light traps. Four subfamilies, nine tribes, 14 genera, 20 species (8% of the total richness of the family in El Salvador), and 1,584 individuals were captured. The most abundantly collected species in the park were the scarabaeines Onthophagus batesi Howden and Cartwright, Onthophagus belorhinus (Bates), Dichotomius centralis (Harold), Coprophanaeus corythus (Harold), Dichotomius yucatanus (Bates), and Coprophanaeus boucardi (Nevinson).Peer reviewe

Functional-group approach with scarab beetles (Coleoptera : Scarabaeidae): a low-cost alternative for monitoring biodiversity in El Salvador

Planning, implementing, and systematic revision of conservation policies are necessary to protect the biodiversity of a territory. This is critical in countries heavily impacted by anthropogenic activities, like El Salvador, where conserving biodiversity remnants must be a priority. Monitoring indicator groups represents a feasible option to review the status of biodiversity and the processes taking place in the country's conservation areas. We evaluated the suitability of Scarabaeidae beetle functional groups as ecological indicators to detect differences in the conservation status of two protected areas in El Salvador. We conducted monthly sampling for one year at each site, using pitfall, aerial, and UV-light traps to capture beetles. We detected differences in species richness, abundance, species composition, and turnover between the two areas. The results suggest the possibility of using this approach to monitor protected areas, to estimate the forest conservation status, and to evaluate the conservation strategies implemented to date. For the future, it is essential to determine if this is possible by replicating studies throughout the territory using standardized methodologies to obtain comparable results. The cost-benefit ratio of using a single indicator group is key in countries like El Salvador, where the economic aspect is a limiting factor for biological prospecting.Peer reviewe

Search for bottom quark associated production of the standard model Higgs boson in final states with leptons in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceThis Letter presents the first search for bottom quark associated production of the standard model Higgs boson, in final states with leptons. Higgs boson decays to pairs of tau leptons and pairs of leptonically decaying W bosons are considered. The search is performed using data collected from 2016 to 2018 by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb${-1}$. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the signal strength for Higgs boson production in association with bottom quarks; the observed (expected) upper limit is 3.7 (6.1) times the standard model prediction

Search for light long-lived particles decaying to displaced jets in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13.6 TeV

International audienceA search for light long-lived particles decaying to displaced jets is presented, using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.7 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2022. Novel trigger, reconstruction, and machine-learning techniques were developed for and employed in this search. After all selections, the observations are consistent with the background predictions. Limits are presented on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to long-lived particles that subsequently decay to quark pairs or tau lepton pairs. An improvement by up to a factor of 10 is achieved over previous limits for models with long-lived particle masses smaller than 60 GeV and proper decay lengths smaller than 1 m. The first constraints are placed on the fraternal twin Higgs and folded supersymmetry models, where the lower bounds on the top quark partner mass reach up to 350 GeV for the fraternal twin Higgs model and 250 GeV for the folded supersymmetry model

Measurement of the Bs0^0_\mathrm{s}→\to J/ψ\psiKS0^0_\mathrm{S} effective lifetime from proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceThe effective lifetime of the B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ meson in the decay B$^0_\mathrm{s}$$\to$ J/$\psi$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ is measured using data collected during 2016-2018 with the CMS detector in $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The effective lifetime is determined by performing a two-dimensional unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ meson invariant mass and proper decay time distributions. The resulting value of 1.59 $\pm$ 0.07 (stat) $\pm$ 0.03 (syst) ps is the most precise measurement to date and is in good agreement with the expected value

Measurement of inclusive and differential cross sections of single top quark production in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13.6 TeV

International audienceThe first measurement of the inclusive and normalised differential cross sections of single top quark production in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV is presented. The data were recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2022, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34.7 fb$^{-1}$. The analysed events contain one muon and one electron in the final state. For the inclusive measurement, multivariate discriminants exploiting the kinematic properties of the events are used to separate the signal from the dominant top quark-antiquark production background. A cross section of 82.3 $\pm$ 2.1 (stat) ${}^{+9.9}_{-9.7}$ (syst) $\pm$ 3.3 (lumi) pb is obtained, consistent with the predictions of the standard model. A fiducial region is defined according to the detector acceptance to perform the differential measurements. The resulting differential distributions are unfolded to particle level and show good agreement with the predictions at next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics

Search for dark matter produced in association with a pair of bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at s= \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A search for dark matter (DM) particles produced in association with bottom quarks is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed in the final state with large missing transverse momentum and a pair of jets originating from bottom quarks. No significant excess of data is observed with respect to the standard model expectation. Results are interpreted in the context of a type-II two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional light pseudoscalar (2HDM+a). An upper limit is set on the mass of the lighter pseudoscalar, excluding masses up to 260 GeV at 95% confidence level. This is the first search at the LHC to probe DM produced in association with two nonresonant bottom quarks in the 2HDM+a model. Sensitivity to the parameter space with the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs doublets, $\tan\beta$, greater than 15 is achieved, capitalizing on the enhancement of couplings between pseudoscalars and bottom quarks with high $\tan\beta$.A search for dark matter (DM) particles produced in association with bottom quarks is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed in the final state with large missing transverse momentum and a pair of jets originating from bottom quarks. No significant excess of data is observed with respect to the standard model expectation. Results are interpreted in the context of a type-II two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional light pseudoscalar (2HDM+a). An upper limit is set on the mass of the lighter pseudoscalar, excluding masses up to 260 GeV at 95% confidence level. This is the first search at the LHC to probe DM produced in association with two nonresonant bottom quarks in the 2HDM+a model. Sensitivity to the parameter space with the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs doublets, $\tan\beta$, greater than 15 is achieved, capitalizing on the enhancement of couplings between pseudoscalars and bottom quarks with high $\tan\beta$

Search for long-lived heavy neutral leptons in proton-proton collision events with a lepton-jet pair associated with a secondary vertex at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search for long-lived heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC is presented. Events are selected with a charged lepton originating from the primary vertex associated with the proton-proton interaction, as well as a second charged lepton and a hadronic jet associated with a secondary vertex that corresponds to the semileptonic decay of a long-lived HNL. No excess of events above the standard model expectation is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are evaluated for HNLs that mix with electron and/or muon neutrinos. Limits are presented in the mass range of 1-16.5 GeV, with excluded square mixing parameter values reaching as low as 2 $\times$ 10$^{-7}$. For masses above 11 GeV, the presented limits exceed all previous results in the semileptonic decay channel, and for some of the considered scenarios are the strongest to date