The Trends of Financing and Commercialization in the System of Higher Education in Ireland

The aim of the article is to determine the current trends in financing the higher education system in Ireland and identify the applied basis for the commercialization of the results of university research. The processes of modernization of the higher education system in the Republic of Ireland are analyzed. The role of higher education and science in ensuring economic growth of the country is disclosed. It is determined that the key vector in the modernization of the Irish higher education system is the improvement of the quality of educational services. Particular attention is paid to studying the financial aspects of the development of higher education in Ireland. Taking into account the pan-European tendency to reduce the amount of financing from the state budget, the necessity of diversifying the sources of financing for activities of Irish universities is substantiated. Under conditions of information economy, there is a growing demand of the business sector for results of scientific research. The authors note the priority of intensifying the commercialization processes, transferring innovation developments and inventions of university scientists to the real sector of the national economy. Prospects for further research are studying the leading experience of countries of the world in the effective modernization of the system of higher education; identifying the best world practices for the commercialization of research results of higher education institutions; defining approaches to their adaptation and directions of effective implementation in Ukraine

Search for heavy neutral lepton production in K+K^+ decays

A search for heavy neutral lepton production in $K^+$ decays using a data sample collected with a minimum bias trigger by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2015 is reported. Upper limits at the $10^{-7}$ to $10^{-6}$ level are established on the elements of the extended neutrino mixing matrix $|U_{\ell 4}|^2$ ($\ell=e,\mu$) for heavy neutral lepton mass in the range $170-448~{\rm MeV}/c^2$. This improves on the results from previous production searches in $K^+$ decays, setting more stringent limits and extending the mass range.A search for heavy neutral lepton production in K+ decays using a data sample collected with a minimum bias trigger by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2015 is reported. Upper limits at the 10−7 to 10−6 level are established on the elements of the extended neutrino mixing matrix |Ue4|2 and |Uμ4|2 for heavy neutral lepton mass in the ranges 170–448 MeV/ c2 and 250–373 MeV/ c2 , respectively. This improves on the previous limits from HNL production searches over the whole mass range considered for |Ue4|2 , and above 300 MeV/ c2 for |Uμ4|2

Search for leptonic decays of the dark photon at NA62

International audienceThe NA62 experiment at CERN, configured in beam-dump mode, has searched for dark photon decays in flight to electron-positron pairs using a sample of $1.4\times 10^{17}$ protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed. The combined result for dark photon searches in lepton-antilepton final states is presented and a region of the parameter space is excluded at 90% CL, improving on previous experimental limits for dark photon mass values between 50 and 600 MeV$/c^2$ and coupling values in the range $10^{-6}$ to $4\times10^{-5}$. An interpretation of the $e^+ e^-$ search result in terms of the emission and decay of an axion-like particle is also presented

Search for dark photon decays to μ+μ−\mu^+\mu^- at NA62

International audienceThe NA62 experiment at CERN, designed to study the ultra-rare decay $K^+ \to \pi^+\nu\overline{\nu}$, has also collected data in beam-dump mode. In this configuration, dark photons may be produced by protons dumped on an absorber and reach a decay volume beginning 80 m downstream. A search for dark photons decaying in flight to $\mu^+\mu^-$ pairs is reported, based on a sample of $1.4 \times 10^{17}$ protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed. A region of the parameter space is excluded at 90% CL, improving on previous experimental limits for dark photon masses between 215 and 550 MeV$/c^2$

Search for leptonic decays of the dark photon at NA62

International audienceThe NA62 experiment at CERN, configured in beam-dump mode, has searched for dark photon decays in flight to electron-positron pairs using a sample of $1.4\times 10^{17}$ protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed. The combined result for dark photon searches in lepton-antilepton final states is presented and a region of the parameter space is excluded at 90% CL, improving on previous experimental limits for dark photon mass values between 50 and 600 MeV$/c^2$ and coupling values in the range $10^{-6}$ to $4\times10^{-5}$. An interpretation of the $e^+ e^-$ search result in terms of the emission and decay of an axion-like particle is also presented

First search for K+→π+ννˉK^+\rightarrow\pi^+\nu\bar{\nu} using the decay-in-flight technique

International audienceThe NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports the first search for K+→π+νν¯ using the decay-in-flight technique, based on a sample of 1.21×1011 K+ decays collected in 2016. The single event sensitivity is 3.15×10−10 , corresponding to 0.267 Standard Model events. One signal candidate is observed while the expected background is 0.152 events. This leads to an upper limit of 14×10−10 on the K+→π+νν¯ branching ratio at 95% CL

Development of a new CEDAR for kaon identification at the NA62 experiment at CERN

International audienceThe NA62 experiment at CERN utilises a differential Cherenkov counter with achromatic ring focus (CEDAR) for tagging kaons within an unseparated monochromatic beam of charged hadrons. The CEDAR-H detector was developed to minimise the amount of material in the path of the beam by using hydrogen gas as the radiator medium. The detector was shown to satisfy the kaon tagging requirements in a test-beam before installation and commissioning at the experiment. The CEDAR-H performance was measured using NA62 data collected in 2023

Measurement of the very rare K+→π+ννˉK^+\rightarrow\pi^+\nu\bar{\nu} decay

The NA62 experiment reports the branching ratio measurement BR$(K^+ \rightarrow \pi^+ \nu\bar{\nu}) = (10.6^{+4.0}_{-3.4} |_{\rm stat} \pm 0.9_{\rm syst}) \times 10 ^{-11}$ at 68% CL, based on the observation of 20 signal candidates with an expected background of 7.0 events from the total data sample collected at the CERN SPS during 2016-2018. This provides evidence for the very rare $K^+ \rightarrow \pi^+ \nu\bar{\nu}$ decay, observed with a significance of 3.4$\sigma$. The experiment achieves a single event sensitivity of $(0.839\pm 0.054)\times 10^{-11}$, corresponding to 10.0 events assuming the Standard Model branching ratio of $(8.4\pm1.0)\times10^{-11}$. This measurement is also used to set limits on BR($K^+ \to \pi^+ X$), where $X$ is a scalar or pseudo-scalar particle. Details are given of the analysis of the 2018 data sample, which corresponds to about 80% of the total data sample

Search for π0\pi^0 decays to invisible particles

The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports a study of a sample of $4 \times 10^9$ tagged $\pi^0$ mesons from $K^+ \to \pi^+ \pi^0 (\gamma)$, searching for the decay of the $\pi^0$ to invisible particles. No signal is observed in excess of the expected background fluctuations. An upper limit of $4.4 \times 10^{-9}$ is set on the branching ratio at 90% confidence level, improving on previous results by a factor of 60. This result can also be interpreted as a model-independent upper limit on the branching ratio for the decay $K^+ \to \pi^+ X$ where $X$ is a particle escaping detection with mass in the range $0.110–0.155$ GeV/$c^2$ and rest lifetime greater than 100 ps. Model- dependent upper limits are obtained assuming $X$ to be an axion-like particle with dominant fermion couplings or a dark scalar mixing with the Standard Model Higgs.The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports a study of a sample of $4 \times10^{9}$ tagged $\pi^0$ mesons from $K^+ \to \pi^+ \pi^0 (\gamma)$, searching for the decay of the $\pi^0$ to invisible particles. No signal is observed in excess of the expected background fluctuations. An upper limit of $4.4 \times10^{-9}$ is set on the branching ratio at 90% confidence level, improving on previous results by a factor of 60. This result can also be interpreted as a model-independent upper limit on the branching ratio for the decay $K^+ \to \pi^+ X$, where $X$ is a particle escaping detection with mass in the range 0.110-0.155 GeV$/c^2$ and rest lifetime greater than 100 ps. Model-dependent upper limits are obtained assuming $X$ to be an axion-like particle with dominant fermion couplings or a dark scalar mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson

A search for the K+→μ−νe+e+K^+\to\mu^-\nu e^+e^+ decay

A search for the $K^+\to\mu^-\nu e^+e^+$ decay, forbidden within the Standard Model by either lepton number or lepton flavour conservation depending on the flavour of the emitted neutrino, has been performed using the dataset collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2016--2018. An upper limit of $8.1\times 10^{-11}$ is obtained for the decay branching fraction at 90% CL, improving by a factor of 250 over the previous search