Abstract: In calculations of the elementary scalar spectra of spontaneously broken gauge theories there are a number of subtleties which, though it is often unnecessary to deal with them in the order-of-magnitude type of calculations, have to be taken into account if fully consistent results are sought for. Within the “canonical” effective-potential approach these are, for instance: the need to handle infinite series of nested commutators of derivatives of field-dependent mass matrices, the need to cope with spurious IR divergences emerging in the consistent leading-order approximation and, in particular, the need to account for the fine interplay between the renormalization effects in the one-and two-point Green functions which, indeed, is essential for the proper stable vacuum identification and, thus, for the correct interpretation of the results. In this note we illustrate some of these issues in the realm of the minimal Abelian Higgs model and two of its simplest extensions including extra heavy scalars in the spectrum in attempt to exemplify the key aspects of the usual “hierarchy problem” lore in a very specific and simple setting. We emphasize that, regardless of the omnipresent polynomial cut-off dependence in the one-loop corrections to the scalar two-point function, the physical Higgs boson mass is always governed by the associated symmetry-breaking VEV and, as such, it is generally as UV-robust as all other VEV-driven masses in the theory.

Abstract: The inclusive jet cross-section has been measured in proton-proton collisions at root s = 2.76 TeV in a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.20 pb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. Jets are identified using the anti-k(t) algorithm with two radius parameters of 0.4 and 0.6. The inclusive jet double-differential cross-section is presented as a function of the jet transverse momentum p(T) and jet rapidity y, covering a range of 20 <= p(T) < 430 GeV and vertical bar y vertical bar < 4.4. The ratio of the cross-section to the inclusive jet cross-section measurement at root s = 7 TeV, published by the ATLAS Collaboration, is calculated as a function of both transverse momentum and the dimensionless quantity x(T) = 2p(T)/root s, in bins of jet rapidity. The systematic uncertainties on the ratios are significantly reduced due to the cancellation of correlated uncertainties in the two measurements. Results are compared to the prediction from next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations corrected for non-perturbative effects, and next-to-leading order Monte Carlo simulation. Furthermore, the ATLAS jet cross-section measurements at root s = 2.76 TeV and root s = 7 TeV are analysed within a framework of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations to determine parton distribution functions of the proton, taking into account the correlations between the measurements.

Abstract: Atmospheric neutrinos are produced during cascades initiated by the interaction of primary cosmic rays with air nuclei. In this paper, a measurement of the atmospheric energy spectrum in the energy range 0.1-200 TeV is presented, using data collected by the ANTARES underwater neutrino telescope from 2008 to 2011. Overall, the measured flux is similar to 25 % higher than predicted by the conventional neutrino flux, and compatible with the measurements reported in ice. The flux is compatible with a single power-law dependence with spectral index gamma (meas)=3.58 +/- 0.12. With the present statistics the contribution of prompt neutrinos cannot be established.