京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第23721号 / 理博第4811号 / 新制||理||1689(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科化学専攻 / (主査)教授 北川 宏, 教授 吉村 一良, 教授 竹腰 清乃理 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第24177号 / 理博第4868号 / 新制||理||1697(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科化学専攻 / (主査)教授 北川 宏, 教授 有賀 哲也, 教授 吉村 一良 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Nesta dissertação, tratamos do espalhamento de partículas (elétrons e éxcitons) em sistemas nos quais o potencial espalhador está acoplado a modos vibracionais. Os efeitos do acoplamento, no espalhamento das partículas, são estudados em dois problemas particularmente interessantes, a saber: o tunelamento de elétrons em heterojunções e o espelhamento de excitações em sólidos. Em ambos há a possibilidade de ocorrência de espalhamento inelástico/ressonante assistido por fônons. Verifica-se que a interação com modos vibracionais induz o aparecimento de estruturas bastante peculiares nos coeficientes de transmissão e seções de choque. Tais estruturas decorrem da existência de espalhamento inelástico (abertura de novos canais) e de efeitos de interferência, construtiva destrutiva, característicos de sistemas nos quais se tem acoplamento entre um nível discreto e o contínuo. / In this work we consider the scattering of excitations in systems in which a local scatterer center is coupled to single vibrational mode. The effects of the coupling are studied in two particular systems, namely, the tunneling of electrons in heterojunctions and the scattering of excitations by impurities in solids. In both cases inelastic scattering is observed and peculiar structures in transmission amplitudes and cross sections are observed. Such structures are a direct consequence from the newly open scattering channels and from interference effects resulting from the coupling of the discret with the continuum.

The hunt for Dark Matter plays a truly critical role in contemporary physics. At both the largest and smallest scales, deep questions are being raised about the fundamental nature of the universe - questions that confirmation and then characterisation of particle dark matter will provide many answers to. This thesis presents some of the world's most sensitive searches to date for certain types of axion dark matter, axion-like particles, and two-neutrino double electron capture. These have been conducted using the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment. Evidence for dark matter and physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics is described in Chapter 1, while Chapter 2 gives an overview of proposed candidates for particle dark matter. The various experimental approaches being used to detect particle dark matter are presented in Chapter 3. Direct detection with time projection chambers plays a major role in this thesis, with particular interest in the LUX detector, that is described in its components and operations. Chapter 4 presents LUX direct searches for weakly interacting massive particles. Although I have contributed to these analyses, they are included for completeness only, as they are not part of my central work. The LUX collaboration's searches for axion dark matter and axion-like particle have delivered world-leading results on the axion-electron coupling constant. These results, that I personally led and which have been published in Physics Review Letters, are presented in Chapter 5, along with sensitivity studies, also led by me, made for the future LUX-ZEPLIN experiment. Finally, a search for two-neutrino double electron capture of 124Xe, that I performed using LUX data to extract a limit on the half life of the process, is presented in Chapter 6. Although being allowed by the Standard Model, two-neutrino double electron capture shares the matrix element calculation framework with the neutrinoless channel of the same process, becoming of great interest in the scope of neutrino physics. Conclusions follow and close the thesis.

Nesta dissertação, tratamos do espalhamento de partículas (elétrons e éxcitons) em sistemas nos quais o potencial espalhador está acoplado a modos vibracionais. Os efeitos do acoplamento, no espalhamento das partículas, são estudados em dois problemas particularmente interessantes, a saber: o tunelamento de elétrons em heterojunções e o espelhamento de excitações em sólidos. Em ambos há a possibilidade de ocorrência de espalhamento inelástico/ressonante assistido por fônons. Verifica-se que a interação com modos vibracionais induz o aparecimento de estruturas bastante peculiares nos coeficientes de transmissão e seções de choque. Tais estruturas decorrem da existência de espalhamento inelástico (abertura de novos canais) e de efeitos de interferência, construtiva destrutiva, característicos de sistemas nos quais se tem acoplamento entre um nível discreto e o contínuo. / In this work we consider the scattering of excitations in systems in which a local scatterer center is coupled to single vibrational mode. The effects of the coupling are studied in two particular systems, namely, the tunneling of electrons in heterojunctions and the scattering of excitations by impurities in solids. In both cases inelastic scattering is observed and peculiar structures in transmission amplitudes and cross sections are observed. Such structures are a direct consequence from the newly open scattering channels and from interference effects resulting from the coupling of the discret with the continuum.

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