Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Luke D. Conlin, Eric Kuo, Nicole R. Hallinen · 2018 · arXiv
A central aim of physics education research is to understand the processes of learning and use that understanding to inform instruction. To this end, researchers often conduct studies to measure the effect of classroom interventions on student learning outcomes. Many of these intervention studies have provided an empirical foundation of reformed teaching techniques, such as active engagement. However, many times there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that the intervention had the intended effect, and these null results often end up in the file drawer. In this paper, we argue that null re
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Daniel Angerhausen, Amedeo Balbi, Andjelka B. Kovačević et al. · 2025 · arXiv
Future telescopes will survey temperate, terrestrial exoplanets to estimate the frequency of habitable ($η_{\text{Hab}}$) or inhabited ($η_{\text{Life}}$) planets. This study aims to determine the minimum number of planets ($N$) required to draw statistically significant conclusions, particularly in the case of a null result (i.e., no detections). Using a Bayesian framework, we analyzed surveys of up to $N=100$ planets to infer the frequency of a binary observable feature ($η_{\text{obs}}$) after null results. Posterior best fits and upper limits were derived for various survey sizes and compa
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Pedro Augusto, Peter N. Wilkinson · 2000 · arXiv
A radio-based search for strong gravitational lensing, with image separations in the range 160-300 milliarcsec (mas), has yielded a null result for a sample of 1665 sources (Augusto, Wilkinson & Browne 1998) whose mean redshift is estimated to be ~1.3. The lensing rate for this previously-unexplored separation range, <1:555 at the 95% confidence level, is less than on arcsecond-scales - as expected from models of lensing galaxy populations. Lensing on 160-300 mas scales is expected to arise predominantly from spiral galaxies at a rate dependent on the disk-halo mass ratio and the evolving numb
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
Andy Hocker · 1999 · arXiv
The most recently available results from searches conducted by the four LEP experiments at 189 GeV center-of-mass energy for Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) are presented. No evidence for a signal has been observed, and the null result is used by the experiments, both individually and collectively, to exclude regions of the MSSM parameter space and to set lower limits on Higgs boson masses at 95% confidence level in constrained MSSM scenarios.
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
G. He, R. Belanger, P. H. Hguyen et al. · 2018 · arXiv
The influence of long-range dipole interactions on two dimensional magnetism has been studied extensively in the spin-reorientation transition of ferromagnetic ultrathin films. Although there is a great deal of experimental information on the perpendicular domain phase that is stabilized by dipole interactions, the transitions to or from the domain phase are subtle and difficult to characterize experimentally. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show no divergence in the vicinity of the spin-reorientation transition as a function of thickness -- a null result that is difficult to interpret wi
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
G. Kaelbermann, J. M. Eisenberg, Andreas Schaefer · 1994 · arXiv
It is well known that in lowest order the skyrmion model of the nucleon gives vanishing spin content. With new data indicating a proton spin content $ΔΣ= 0.22\pm 0.14,$ it is an increasing challenge to find ways in which the skyrmion can move away from the null result. We show here that a particular term in the skyrmion lagrangian in SU(3) involving six derivatives of the field can, with plausible parameters, yield a spin content consistent with present experiment.
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Anand Bhattacharya, Igor Zutic, Oriol T. Valls et al. · 1998 · arXiv
The angular dependence of the nonlinear transverse magnetic moment of untwinned high-quality single crystals of optimally doped YBCO have been studied at a temperature of 2.5K using a low frequency AC technique. The absence of any signature at angular period 2π/4is analyzed in light of the numerical predictions of such a signal for a pure d-wave order parameter with line nodes. Implications of this null result for the existence of a non-zero gap at all angles on the Fermi surface are discussed.
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
CDF Collaboration · 2006 · arXiv
We present the results of a search for new physics in the jets plus missing transverse energy data sample collected from 368 pb^{-1} of ppbar collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We compare the number of events observed in the data with a data-based estimate of the Standard Model backgrounds contributing to this signature. We observe no significant excess of events, and we interpret this null result in terms of lower limits on the fundamental Planck scale for a large extra dimensions scenario.
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
G. Sardin · 2004 · arXiv
Within the framework of test-experiments, an original pointing set-up based on speed-induced deflection of a light-beam and using a high-resolution opto-electronic array as a position detector, is proposed. The device would provide a new way to ratify the first order optical equivalency of inertial systems and to sound its causal groundwork. The type of test provided applies to any device using beams, but here it has been adapted for an up-dated check-up of Michelson's experiment and to bear out the interpretation derived from its null result. Rather than searching for a speed-induced phase-sh
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Jean Paul Mbelek, Herman J. Mosquera Cuesta · 2007 · arXiv
It has been claimed that during the late time history of our universe, the fine structure constant of electromagnetism, $α$, has been increasing (Webb et al. 2001; Murphy et al. 2003). The conclusion is achieved after looking at the separation between lines of ions like CIV, MgII, SiII, FeII, among others in the absorption spectra of very distant quasars, and comparing them with their counterparts obtained in the laboratory. However, in the meantime, other teams has claimed either a null result or a decreasing $α$ with respect to the cosmic time (Chand et al. 2004; Levshakov et al. 2004). Also
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
J. -M. Miralles, T. Erben, H. Haemmerle et al. · 2003 · arXiv
Following the detection of a cosmic shear signal at the 30'' scale using archival parallel data from the STIS CCD camera onboard HST in Haemmerle et al. (2002), we analyzed a larger data set obtained from an HST GO pure parallel program. Although this data set is considerably larger than the one analyzed previously, we do not obtain a significant detection of the cosmic shear signal. The potential causes of this null result are the multiple systematics that plague the STIS CCD data, and in particular the degradation of the CCD charge transfer efficiency after 4 years in space.
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
J. Adams · 1997 · arXiv
We searched for the appearance of pi+pi- pairs with invariant mass greater than 648 MeV in a neutral beam. Such an observation could signify the decay of a long-lived light neutral particle. We find no evidence for this decay. Our null result severely constrains the existence of an R0 hadron, which is the lightest bound state of a gluon and a light gluino, and thereby also the possibility of a light gluino. Depending on the photino mass, we exclude the R0 in the mass and lifetime ranges of 1.2 -- 4.6 GeV and 2E-10 -- 7E-4 seconds, respectively. (To Appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.)
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Davide Bigoni, Diego Misseroni, Andrea Piccolroaz · 2026 · arXiv
Two equal and opposite distributed dead loads are applied orthogonally to the axis of an elastic rod in its rectilinear reference configuration, one at the extrados and the other at the intrados, such that the resultant applied force per unit length is uniformly zero. In this configuration, the rod is subjected to a transverse (tensile or compressive) stress, which is usually believed to have no significant effect on the structural response and has therefore not been considered so far. Contrary to this common belief, the asymptotic behavior of an incrementally deformed elastic layer and three
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
K. E. Belle, N. Sanghi, S. B. Howell et al. · 2004 · arXiv
Circumbinary (CB) disks have been proposed as a mechanism to extract orbital angular momentum from cataclysmic variables (CVs) during their evolution. As proposed by Taam & Spruit, these disks extend outwards to several a.u. and should be detected observationally via their infrared flux or by absorption lines in the ultraviolet spectra of the CV. We have made use of archival HST/STIS spectra as well as our own near-IR imaging to search for observational evidence of such CB disks in seven CVs. Based on the null result, we place an upper limit on the column density of the disk of N_H~10^17 cm^-2
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
M. Rybak, L. Lemsom, A. Lundgren et al. · 2023 · arXiv
We report a non-detection of the [OI] 63-um emission line from the z = 6.03 galaxy G09.83808 using ALMA Band 9 observations, refuting the previously claimed detection with APEX by (Rybak et al. 2020); the new upper limit on the [OI] 63-um flux is almost 20-times lower. [OI] 63-um line could be a powerful tracer of neutral gas in the Epoch of Reionisation: yet our null result shows that detecting [OI] 63-um from z$\geq$6 galaxies is more challenging than previously hypothesised.
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
Gabriel Di Lemos Santiago Lima, Rafael Chaves Souto Araujo, Sebastiao Alves Dias · 2009 · arXiv
We consider chiral fermions interacting minimally with abelian and non-abelian gauge fields. Using a path integral approach and exploring the consequences of a mechanism of symmetry restoration, we show that the gauge anomaly has null expectation value in the vacuum for both cases (abelian and non-abelian). We argue that the same mechanism has no possibility to cancel the chiral anomaly, what eliminates competition between chiral and gauge symmetry at full quantum level. We also show that the insertion of the gauge anomaly in arbitrary gauge invariant correlators gives a null result, which poi
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 accessComputer Science
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
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Isobel Falconer · 2016 · arXiv
In 1877 James Clerk Maxwell and his student Donald MacAlister refined Henry Cavendish's 1773 null experiment demonstrating the absence of electricity inside a charged conductor. This null result was a mathematical prediction of the inverse square law of electrostatics, and both Cavendish and Maxwell took the experiment as verifying the law. However, Maxwell had already expressed absolute conviction in the law, based on results of Michael Faraday's. So, what was the value to him of repeating Cavendish's experiment? After assessing whether the law was as secure as he claimed, this paper explores
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Chen Du, Yong-Feng Huang, Zhi-Bin Zhang et al. · 2023 · arXiv
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are bright radio transients with millisecond durations which typically occur at extragalactic distances. The association of FRB 20200428 with the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 strongly indicates that they could originate from neutron stars, which naturally leads to the expectation that periodicity connected with the spinning of magnetars should exist in the activities of repeating FRBs. However, previous studies have failed to find any signatures supporting such a conjecture. Here we perform a thorough search for short timescale periodicity in the four most active r
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Rodrigo de Abreu, Vasco Guerra · 2005 · arXiv
In a previous work we have shown that the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment in vacuum is deeply connected with the notion of time. The same is true for the the postulate of constancy of the two-way speed of light in vacuum in all frames independently of the state of motion of the emitting body. The argumentation formerly given is very general and has to be true not only within Special Relativity and its `equivalence' of all inertial frames, but as well as in Lorentz-Poincaré scenario of a preferred reference frame. This paper is the second of a trilogy intending to revisit the fou
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Jeremy Darling, Paul Goldsmith, Di Li et al. · 2003 · arXiv
We report the results of a search for 6.7 GHz methanol (CH3OH) maser emission in OH megamaser galaxies at 0.11<z<0.27. No detections were made in the 25 objects observed down to rms noise levels of roughly 0.6 mJy in 150 kHz channels. The OH megamaser sample includes OH emission of all observed types: narrow and broad, physically compact and extended, variable and quiescent, and from simple single lines to multi-component complexes to lines with high velocity wings. Our null result indicates, for the widest possible range of OH megamaser environments, that methanol masing does not scale with O
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science
C. Abel, N. J. Ayres, G. Ban et al. · 2017 · 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 accessPhysics
Diego F. Torres, Stephen Reucroft, Olaf Reimer et al. · 2003 · arXiv
With the aim of testing recent claims for a particularly strong correlation between ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), observed with the AGASA and the Yakutsk experiments, and a sample of BL Lacertae (BL Lacs), we here conduct a blind statistical assessment. We search for associations between the same set of BL Lac objects and the arrival directions of 33 relevant UHECRs observed with the Haverah Park and the Volcano Ranch experiments. Within the accuracy of angle determination, there are no positional coincidences. The probability that this null result arises as a statistical fluctuation
