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Failure-mode index

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A searchable index of real negative results, null findings, and replication failures from the published literature — so you can learn what didn't work before repeating it.

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record (title, authors, DOI) compiled from open scholarly databases, with the abstract shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed (e.g. Creative Commons); otherwise a short excerpt is shown for reference under fair use. WASTE classifies each work by failure type; classifications are automated and approximate.

19866 results in Negative / Null Result Report · page 393 of 663

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Hunting for super-heavy dark matter with the highest-energy cosmic rays

Esteban Alcantara, Luis A. Anchordoqui, Jorge F. Soriano · 2019 · arXiv

In 15 years of data taking the Pierre Auger Observatory has observed no events beyond $10^{11.3}$ GeV. This null result translates into an upper bound on the flux of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays implying $J (> 10^{11.3}$ GeV) $< 3.6 \times 10^{-5}$ km$^{-2}$ sr$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$, at the 90\%C.L. We interpret this bound as a constraint on extreme-energy photons originating in the decay super-heavy dark matter (SHDM) particles clustered in the Galactic halo. Armed with this constraint we derive the strongest lower limit on the lifetime of hadronically decaying SHDM particles with masses in the ra

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Microlensing Searches for Extrasolar Planets: Current Status and Future Prospects

B. Scott Gaudi · 2002 · arXiv

I review results from, and future prospects for, microlensing searches for extrasolar planets. Analyses of well-sampled microlensing light curves by several collaborations have demonstrated that current searches are sensitive to Jupiter-mass planets with few AU separations from M-dwarfs in the Galactic bulge. To date, however, no unambiguous planetary detections have been made. Detailed analysis has shown that this null result implies that <33% of typical stars (i.e. M-dwarfs) in the Galactic bulge have Jupiter-mass companions with separations between 1.5 and 4 AU, and <45% have three-Jupiter-

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

DAMA confronts null searches in the effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions

Riccardo Catena, Alejandro Ibarra, Sebastian Wild · 2016 · arXiv

We examine the dark matter interpretation of the modulation signal reported by the DAMA experiment from the perspective of effective field theories displaying Galilean invariance. We consider the most general effective coupling leading to the elastic scattering of a dark matter particle with spin 0 or 1/2 off a nucleon, and we analyze the compatibility of the DAMA signal with the null results from other direct detection experiments, as well as with the non-observation of a high energy neutrino flux in the direction of the Sun from dark matter annihilation. To this end, we develop a novel semi-

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Constraining meV Axion Dark Matter with ALMA Observations of the Galactic Center Magnetar SGR 1745-2900

Javier De Miguel, Evanthia Hatziminaoglou, Frédéric Poidevin et al. · 2025 · arXiv

We report a mm-wave search for axion dark matter from SGR 1745-2900, based on 4.8 h of ALMA observations. No candidate features are found between 133.99-135.78, 135.91-137.70, 145.99-147.78, and 147.99-149.78~GHz, corresponding to 0.55-0.62 meV. Interpreting this null result within a state-of-the-art stellar framework, we derive sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling at the level of $g_γ\gtrsim 2\times10^{-11}$ GeV$^{-1}$ under a standard Navarro-Frenk-White profile; down to $g_γ\gtrsim 2\times10^{-13}$ GeV$^{-1}$ upon accounting for a dense dark-matter spike around Sagittarius A*, probing t

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Suppression of spontaneous currents in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ by surface disorder

Samuel Lederer, Wen Huang, Edward Taylor et al. · 2014 · arXiv

A major challenge to the chiral $p$-wave hypothesis for the pairing symmetry of the unconventional superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ is the null result of sensitive scanning magnetometry experiments designed to detect the expected spontaneous charge currents. Motivated by junction tunneling conductance measurements which indicate the quenching of superconductivity at the surfaces of even high-purity samples, we examine the spontaneous currents in a chiral $p$-wave superconductor near a normal metal / superconductor interface using the lattice Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations and Ginzburg-Landau theor

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

High-scale SUSY from an R-invariant New Inflation in the Landscape

Masahiro Kawasaki, Masaki Yamada, Tsutomu T. Yanagida et al. · 2015 · arXiv

We provide an anthropic reason that the supersymmetry breaking scale is much higher than the electroweak scale as indicated by the null result of collider experiments and observed 125 GeV Higgs boson. We focus on a new inflation model as a typical low-scale inflation model that may be expected in the string landscape. In this model, the R-symmetry is broken at the minimum of the inflaton potential and its breaking scale is related to the reheating temperature. Once we admit that the anthropic principle requires thermal leptogenesis, we obtain a lower bound on gravitino mass, which is related t

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Identification of Error Sources in High Precision Weight Measurements of Gyroscopes

I. Lőrincz, M. Tajmar · 2015 · arXiv

A number of weight anomalies have been reported in the past with respect to gyroscopes. Much attention was gained from a paper in Physical Review Letters, when Japanese scientists announced that a gyroscope loses weight up to $0.005\%$ when spinning only in the clockwise rotation with the gyroscope's axis in the vertical direction. Immediately afterwards, a number of other teams tried to replicate the effect, obtaining a null result. It was suggested that the reported effect by the Japanese was probably due to a vibration artifact, however, no final conclusion on the real cause has been obtain

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Results of the Search for Strange Quark Matter and Q-balls with the SLIM Experiment

S. Cecchini, M. Cozzi, D. Di Ferdinando et al. · 2008 · arXiv

The SLIM experiment at the Chacaltaya high altitude laboratory was sensitive to nuclearites and Q-balls, which could be present in the cosmic radiation as possible Dark Matter components. It was sensitive also to strangelets, i.e. small lumps of Strange Quark Matter predicted at such altitudes by various phenomenological models. The analysis of 427 m^2 of Nuclear Track Detectors exposed for 4.22 years showed no candidate event. New upper limits on the flux of downgoing nuclearites and Q-balls at the 90% C.L. were established. The null result also restricts models for strangelets propagation th

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Hunting for Axionlike Dark Matter by Searching for an Oscillating Neutron Electric Dipole Moment

N. J. Ayres · 2018 · arXiv

We report on a search for ultra-low-mass axion-like dark matter by analysing the ratio of the spin-precession frequencies of stored ultracold neutrons and $^{199}$Hg atoms for an axion-induced oscillating electric dipole moment of the neutron and an axion-wind spin-precession effect. No signal consistent with dark matter is observed for the axion mass range $10^{-24}~\textrm{eV} \le m_a \le 10^{-17}~\textrm{eV}$. Our null result sets the first laboratory constraints on the coupling of axion dark matter to gluons, which improve on astrophysical limits by up to 3 orders of magnitude, and also im

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Search for the lepton flavor violating $τ$ $\to$ 3$μ$ decay in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

CMS Collaboration · 2023 · arXiv

A search for the lepton flavor violating $τ$ $\to$ 3$μ$ decay is performed using proton-proton collision events at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2017-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 97.7 fb$^{-1}$. Tau leptons produced in both heavy-flavor hadron and W boson decays are exploited in the analysis. No evidence for the decay is observed. The results of this search are combined with an earlier null result based on data collected in 2016 to obtain a total integrated luminosity of 131 fb$^{-1}$. The observed (expected) upper limits

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Limits on the cosmological abundance of supermassive compact objects from a search for multiple imaging in compact radio sources

P. N. Wilkinson, D. R. Henstock, I. W. A. Browne et al. · 2001 · arXiv

Using Very Long Baseline Interferometry we have searched a sample of 300 compact radio sources for examples of multiple imaging produced by gravitational lensing; no multiple images were found with separations in the angular range 1.5--50 milliarcsec. This null result allows us to place a limit on the cosmological abundance of intergalactic supermassive compact objects in the mass range $\sim 10^{6}$ to $\sim 10^{8}$M$_{\odot}$; such objects cannot make up more than $\sim 1%$ of the closure density (95% confidence). A uniformly distributed population of supermassive black holes forming soon af

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Leggett-Garg tests of macrorealism: checks for non-invasiveness and generalizations to higher-order correlators

J. J. Halliwell · 2019 · arXiv

In the tests for macrorealism proposed by Leggett and Garg, the temporal correlation functions of a dichotomic variable Q must be measured in a non-invasive way to rule out alternative classical explanations of Leggett-Garg inequality violations. Ideal negative measurements, in which a null result is argued to be a non-invasive determination of the system's state, are often used. From a quantum-mechanical perspective, such a measurement collapses the wave function and will therefore typically be found to be invasive under any experimental check. Here, a simple modified ideal negative measureme

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Probing Dark Energy Inhomogeneities with Supernovae

Michael Blomqvist, Edvard Mortsell, Serena Nobili · 2008 · arXiv

We discuss the possibility to identify anisotropic and/or inhomogeneous cosmological models using type Ia supernova data. A search for correlations in current type Ia peak magnitudes over a large range of angular scales yields a null result. However, the same analysis limited to supernovae at low redshift, shows a feeble anticorrelation at the two sigma level at angular scales of about 40 degrees. Upcoming data from, e.g., the SNLS (Supernova Legacy Survey) and the SDSS-II (SDSS: Sloan Digital Sky Survey) supernova searches will improve our limits on the size of - or possibly detect - possible

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

The conceptualization of time and the constancy of the speed of light

Vasco Guerra, Rodrigo de Abreu · 2005 · arXiv

In this work we show that the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment in vacuum is deeply connected with the notion of time. It can be deduced without any mathematics only from the assumption that all good clocks can be used to measure time with the same results, independently of the machinery involved in their manufacturing. A second important assumption, intrinsic to the very notion of time, is that clocks measure time in the same way in different frames, i.e., the notion of time is the same in all inertial frames. Under this assumption, we point out that the "postulate" of constancy

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

On $ε$-mechanism driven pulsations in VV 47

Paulina Sowicka, Gerald Handler, David Jones · 2018 · arXiv

We report new observations of the central star of the planetary nebula VV 47 carried out to verify earlier assertions that the short-period pulsation modes detected in the star are driven by the $ε$ mechanism. In our data, VV 47 was not variable up to a limit of 0.52 mmag in the Fourier amplitude spectrum up to the Nyquist frequency of 21.7 mHz. Given this null result we re-analyzed the data set in which oscillations were claimed. After careful data reduction, photometry, extinction correction, and analysis with a conservative criterion of S/N $\geq$ 4 in the Fourier amplitude spectrum, we fou

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

SEARCH FOR VERY LOW MASS OBJECTS IN THE GALACTIC HALO

EROS collaboration, E. Aubourg, P. Bareyre et al. · 1995 · arXiv

We present results from a search for gravitational microlensing of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud by low mass objects in the Galactic Halo. The search uses the CCD light curves of about 82,000 stars with up to 46 measurements per night over a period of 10 months. No light curve exhibits a form that is consistent with a microlensing event of maximum amplification greater than 1.2. This null result makes it unlikely that the Halo is dominated by objects in the mass range $5 10^{-8}M_{\odot} < M <5 10^{-4}M_{\odot} $. keywords{Galaxy : Halo, kinematics and dynamics, stellar content -- Cosmol

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Probing Leptophilic Dark Sectors at Electron Beam-Dump Facilities

L. Marsicano, M. Battaglieri, A. Celentano et al. · 2018 · arXiv

Medium-energy electron beam-dump experiments provide an intense sources of secondary muons. These particles can be used to search for muon-coupling light dark scalars that may explain the $(g-2)_μ$ anomaly. We applied this idea to SLAC E137 experiment deriving new exclusion limits and evaluated the expected sensitivity for the planned Jefferson Lab BDX experiment (in case of null result report). The calculation is based on numerical simulations that include a realistic description of secondary muons generation in the dump, dark scalar production, propagation, and decay, and, finally, the decay

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Sweet Spot Supersymmetry

Masahiro Ibe, Ryuichiro Kitano · 2007 · arXiv

We find that there is no supersymmetric flavor/CP problem, mu-problem, cosmological moduli/gravitino problem or dimension four/five proton decay problem in a class of supersymmetric theories with O(1) GeV gravitino mass. The cosmic abundance of the non-thermally produced gravitinos naturally explains the dark matter component of the universe. A mild hierarchy between the mass scale of supersymmetric particles and electroweak scale is predicted, consistent with the null result of a search for the Higgs boson at the LEP-II experiments. A relation to the strong CP problem is addressed. We propose

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

On the neutrino non-detection of GRB 130427A

Shan Gao, Kazumi Kashiyama, Peter Meszaros · 2013 · arXiv

The recent gamma-ray burst GRB 130427A has an isotropic electromagnetic energy $E^{iso}\sim10^{54}$ erg, suggesting an ample supply of target photons for photo-hadronic interactions, which at its low redshift of $z\sim0.34$ would appear to make it a promising candidate for neutrino detection. However, the IceCube collaboration has reported a null result based on a search during the prompt emission phase. We show that this neutrino non-detection can provide valuable information about this GRB's key physical parameters such as the emission radius $R_{d}$, the bulk Lorentz factor $Γ$ and the ener

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Testing isotropy of the universe using the Ramsey resonance technique on ultracold neutron spins

I. Altarev, G. Ban, G. Bison et al. · 2010 · arXiv

Physics at the Planck scale could be revealed by looking for tiny violations of fundamental symmetries in low energy experiments. In 2008, a sensitive test of the isotropy of the Universe using has been performed with stored ultracold neutrons (UCN), this is the first clock-comparison experiment performed with free neutrons. During several days we monitored the Larmor frequency of neutron spins in a weak magnetic field using the Ramsey resonance technique. An non-zero cosmic axial field, violating rotational symmetry, would induce a daily variation of the precession frequency. Our null result

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

First Constraints on Nuclear Coupling of Axionlike Particles from the Binary Neutron Star Gravitational Wave Event GW170817

Jun Zhang, Zhenwei Lyu, Junwu Huang et al. · 2021 · arXiv

Light axion fields, if they exist, can be sourced by neutron stars due to their coupling to nuclear matter, and play a role in binary neutron star mergers. We report on a search for such axions by analysing the gravitational waves from the binary neutron star inspiral GW170817. We find no evidence of axions in the sampled parameter space. The null result allows us to impose constraints on axions with masses below $10^{-11} {\rm eV}$ by excluding the ones with decay constants ranging from $1.6\times10^{16} {\rm GeV}$ to $10^{18} {\rm GeV}$ at $3σ$ confidence level. Our analysis provides the fir

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Two-Higgs doublet solution to the LSND, MiniBooNE and muon $g-2$ anomalies

Waleed Abdallah, Raj Gandhi, Samiran Roy · 2020 · arXiv

We show that one of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model, the addition of a second Higgs doublet, when combined with a dark sector singlet scalar, allows us to: $i)$ explain the long-standing anomalies in the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) and MiniBooNE (MB) while maintaining compatibility with the null result from KARMEN, $ii)$ obtain, in the process, a portal to the dark sector, and $iii)$ comfortably account for the observed value of the muon $g-2$. Three singlet neutrinos allow for an understanding of observed neutrino mass-squared differences via a Type I seesaw, wi

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Disks in the sky: A reassessment of the WMAP "cold spot"

Ray Zhang, Dragan Huterer · 2009 · arXiv

We reassess the evidence that WMAP temperature maps contain a statistically significant "cold spot" by repeating the analysis using simple circular top-hat (disk) weights, as well as Gaussian weights of varying width. Contrary to previous results that used Spherical Mexican Hat Wavelets, we find no significant signal at any scale when we compare the coldest spot from our sky to ones from simulated Gaussian random, isotropic maps. We trace this apparent discrepancy to the fact that WMAP cold spot's temperature profile just happens to favor the particular profile given by the wavelet. Since rand

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Gyromagnetic Factors and Atomic Clock Constraints on the Variation of Fundamental Constants

Feng Luo, Keith A. Olive, Jean-Philippe Uzan · 2011 · arXiv

We consider the effect of the coupled variations of fundamental constants on the nucleon magnetic moment. The nucleon g-factor enters into the interpretation of the measurements of variations in the fine-structure constant, alpha, in both the laboratory (through atomic clock measurements) and in astrophysical systems (e.g. through measurements of the 21 cm transitions). A null result can be translated into a limit on the variation of a set of fundamental constants, that is usually reduced to alpha. However, in specific models, particularly unification models, changes in alpha are always accomp

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Hunting for Extragalactic Axion-like Dark Matter in a Decade-long Blazar Optical Polarimetry

Qiu-Ju Huang, Bao Wang, Jun-Jie Wei et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) are well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates whose coupling to photons induces periodic oscillations in the polarization angle of astrophysical light. This work reports the first search for such a signature using ten years of optical polarimetric monitoring of the blazar 1ES 1959+650. No statistically significant periodicity is detected using a Lomb-Scargle periodogram and Monte Carlo analysis. Assuming a central DM density in the host galaxy, this null result places tight upper limits on the ALP-photon coupling constant at $g_{aγ}<(5.8 \times 10^{-14}-1

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Supersymmetric CP violating Phases and the LSP relic density and detection rates

Shaaban Khalil, Qaisar Shafi · 1999 · arXiv

For varying values of $\tanβ$, we study the effect of CP violating phases from the soft supersymmetry breaking terms in string-inspired models on the relic abundance and detection rates of the lightest neutralino (LSP). We find that the phases have no significant effect on the LSP relic abundance but can have a substantial impact on the detection rates.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

An Absence of Hot Jupiter Planets in 47 Tucanae: Results of a Wide-Field Transit Search

David T. F Weldrake, Penny D Sackett, Kenneth C Freeman et al. · 2004 · arXiv

We present the results of a comprehensive wide field search for transiting ``Hot Jupiter'' planets (1d<P<16d) in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Motivated by the core null result of Gilliland and coworkers, this work further addresses the question of giant planet frequency in 47 Tuc by observing, from the ground, a 52'x52' field centered on the cluster for 30.4 nights. Hence this work is most sensitive to the uncrowded outer regions of the cluster and concentrates on 21,920 main sequence stars (~solar in mass). This work comprises the largest ground-based transit search of a globular cluster

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Lepton number violating muon decay and the LSND neutrino anomaly

K. S. Babu, Sandip Pakvasa · 2002 · arXiv

We show that lepton number violating muon decays, μ^+ -> e^+ + ν_e-bar + ν_i-bar (i=e, μor τ), can consistently explain the neutrino anomaly reported by the LSND experiment. Two effective operators in the Standard Model are identified which lead to just such decays and no other processes. The scale of new physics Λmust be relatively low, Λ< 500 GeV. Extensions of the Standard Model which realize these effective operators are presented. Since new physics affects only the decay of the muon, and not of π^+-, our scenario predicts a null result for ν_μ-bar - ν_e-bar oscillation searches at the Fer