Abstract: Neutrino non-standard interactions (NSI) with electrons are known to alter the picture of neutrino de coupling from the cosmic plasma. NSI modify both flavour oscillations through matter effects, and the annihilation and scattering between neutrinos and electrons and positrons in the thermal plasma. In view of the forthcoming cosmological observations, we perform a precision study of the impact of non universal and flavour-changing NSI on the effective number of neutrinos, Neff. We present the variation of Neff arising from the different NSI parameters and discuss the existing degeneracies among them, from cosmology alone and in relation to the current bounds from terrestrial experiments. Even though cosmology is generally less sensitive to NSI than these experiments, we find that future cosmological data would provide competitive and complementary constraints for some of the couplings and their combinations.

Abstract: Lattice QCD has reached a mature status. State of the art lattice computations include u, d, s (and even the c) sea quark effects, together with an estimate of electromagnetic and isospin breaking corrections for hadronic observables. This precise and first principles description of the standard model at low energies allows the determination of multiple quantities that are essential inputs for phenomenology and not accessible to perturbation theory. One of the fundamental parameters that are determined from simulations of lattice QCD is the strong coupling constant, which plays a central role in the quest for precision at the LHC. Lattice calculations currently provide its best determinations, and will play a central role in future phenomenological studies. For this reason we believe that it is timely to provide a pedagogical introduction to the lattice determinations of the strong coupling. Rather than analysing individual studies, the emphasis will be on the methodologies and the systematic errors that arise in these determinations. We hope that these notes will help lattice practitioners, and QCD phenomenologists at large, by providing a self-contained introduction to the methodology and the possible sources of systematic error. The limiting factors in the determination of the strong coupling turn out to be different from the ones that limit other lattice precision observables. We hope to collect enough information here to allow the reader to appreciate the challenges that arise in order to improve further our knowledge of a quantity that is crucial for LHC phenomenology. Crown Copyright & nbsp;(c) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The first measurement of longitudinal decorrelations of harmonic flow amplitudes v(n) for n = 2-4 in Xe + Xe collisions at root s(NN) = 5.44 TeV is obtained using 3 μb(-1) of data with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The decorrelation signal for v(3) and v(4) is found to be nearly independent of collision centrality and transverse momentum (p(T)) requirements on fmal-state particles, but for v(2) a strong centrality and p(T) dependence is seen. When compared with the results from Pb + Pb collisions at. root s(NN) = 5.02 TcV, the longitudinal decorrelation signal in midcentral Xe + Xe collisions is found to be larger for v(2), but smaller for v(3). Current hydrodynamic models reproduce the ratios of the v(n) measured in Xe + Xe collisions to those in Pb + Pb collisions but fail to describe the magnitudes and trends of the ratios of longitudinal flow decorrelations between Xe + Xe and Pb + Pb. The results on the system-size dependence provide new insights and an important lever arm to separate effects of the longitudinal structure of the initial state from other early and late time effects in heavy-ion collisions.