Abstract: The first implementation of the AGATA spectrometer consisting of five triple germanium detector clusters has been installed at Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, INFN. This setup has two major goals, the first one is to validate the gamma-tracking concept and the second is to perform an experimental physics program using the stable beams delivered by the Tandem-PIAVE-ALPI accelerator complex. A large variety of physics topics will be addressed during this campaign, aiming to investigate both neutron and proton-rich nuclei. The setup has been designed to be coupled with the large-acceptance magnetic-spectrometer PRISMA. Therefore, the in-beam prompt gamma rays detected with AGATA will be measured in coincidence with the products of multinucleon-transfer and deep-inelastic reactions measured by PRISMA. Moreover, the setup is versatile enough to host ancillary detectors, including the heavy-ion detector DANTE, the gamma-ray detector array HELENA, the Cologne plunger for lifetime measurements and the Si-pad telescope TRACE. In this paper the design; characteristics and performance figures of the setup will be described.

Abstract: We use a consistent SU(6) extension of the meson-baryon chiral Lagrangian within a coupled channel unitary approach in order to calculate the T matrix for meson-baryon scattering in the s wave. The building blocks of the scheme are the pi and N octets, the rho nonet and the UDELTA; decuplet. We identify poles in this unitary T matrix and interpret them as resonances. We study here the nonexotic sectors with strangeness S = 0, -1, -2, -3 and spin J = 1/2, 3/2 and 5/2. Many of the poles generated can be asociated with known N, UDELTA;, sigma, Lambda, Xi and Omega resonances with negative parity. We show that most of the low-lying three and four star odd-parity baryon resonances with spin 1/2 and 3/2 can be related to multiplets of the spin-flavor symmetry group SU(6). This study allows us to predict the spin-parity of the Xi (1620), Xi (1690), Xi (1950), Xi (2250), Omega (2250) and Omega (2380) resonances, which have not been determined experimentally yet.

Abstract: We present measurements of the branching fractions, longitudinal polarization, and direct CP-violation asymmetries for the decays B+ -> rho K-0*(+) and B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+) with a sample of (467 +/- 5) x 10(6)B (B) over bar pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We observe B+ -> rho K-0*(+) with a significance of 5: 3 sigma and measure the branching fraction B(B+ -> rho K-0*(+)) = (4.6 +/- 1.0 +/- 0.4) x 10(-6), the longitudinal polarization f(L) = 0.78 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.03, and the CP-violation asymmetry A(CP) = 0.31 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.03. We observe B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+) and measure the branching fraction B(B+ -> f(0)(980)K*(+)) x B(f(0)(980) -> pi(+)pi(-)) = (4.2 +/- 0.6 +/- 0.3) x 10(-6) and the CP-violation asymmetry A(CP) = 0.15 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.03. The first uncertainty quoted is statistical and the second is systematic.

Abstract: Sterile massive neutrinos are a natural extension of the standard model of elementary particles. The energy density of the extra sterile massive states affects cosmological measurements in an analogous way to that of active neutrino species. We perform here an analysis of current cosmological data and derive bounds on the masses of the active and the sterile neutrino states, as well as on the number of sterile states. The so-called (3 + 2) models, with three sub-eV active massive neutrinos plus two sub-eV massive sterile species, is well within the 95% CL allowed regions when considering cosmological data only. If the two extra sterile states have thermal abundances at decoupling, big bang nucleosynthesis bounds compromise the viability of (3 + 2) models. Forecasts from future cosmological data on the active and sterile neutrino parameters are also presented. Independent measurements of the neutrino mass from tritium beta-decay experiments and of the Hubble constant could shed light on sub-eV massive sterile neutrino scenarios.

Abstract: The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is a very active field in which the number of proposals for next-generation experiments has proliferated. In this paper we attempt to address both the sense and the sensitivity of such proposals. Sensitivity comes first, by means of proposing a simple and unambiguous statistical recipe to derive the sensitivity to a putative Majorana neutrino mass, m(beta beta). In order to make sense of how the different experimental approaches compare, we apply this recipe to a selection of proposals, comparing the resulting sensitivities. We also propose a “physics-motivated range” (PMR) of the nuclear matrix elements as a unifying criterium between the different nuclear models. The expected performance of the proposals is parametrized in terms of only four numbers: energy resolution, background rate (per unit time, isotope mass and energy), detection efficiency, and beta beta isotope mass. For each proposal, both a reference and an optimistic scenario for the experimental performance are studied. In the reference scenario we find that all the proposals will be able to partially explore the degenerate spectrum, without fully covering it, although four of them (KamLAND-Zen, CUORE, NEXT and EXO) will approach the 50 meV boundary. In the optimistic scenario, we find that CUORE and the xenon-based proposals (KamLAND-Zen, EXO and NEXT) will explore a significant fraction of the inverse hierarchy, with NEXT covering it almost fully. For the long term future, we argue that Xe-136-based experiments may provide the best case for a 1-ton scale experiment, given the potentially very low backgrounds achievable and the expected scalability to large isotope masses.