Abstract: The first measurement of heavy-flavor production by the LHCb experiment in its fixed-target mode is presented. The production of J/psi and D-0 mesons is studied with beams of protons of different energies colliding with gaseous targets of helium and argon with nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of root s(NN) = 86.6 and 110.4 GeV, respectively. The J/psi and D-0 production cross sections in pHe collisions in the rapidity range [2, 4.6] are found to be sigma(J/psi) = 652 +/- 33(stat) +/- 42(syst) nb/nucleon and sigma(D0) = 80.8 +/- 2.4(syst) +/- 6.3(syst) μb/nucleon, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. No evidence for a substantial intrinsic charm content of the nucleon is observed in the large Bjorken-x region.

Abstract: We have made a study of the J/psi -> eta'h(1), eta h(1) [with h(1) being /11(1170) and h(1)(1380)1 and P/psi ->pi(0)b(1) 171(1235)(0) assuming the axial vector mesons to be dynamically generated from the pseudoscalar-vectormeson interaction. We have taken the needed input from previous studies of the J/psi -> phi pi pi, omega pi pi reactions. We obtain fair agreement with experimental data and provide an explanation on why the recent experiment on J/psi -> eta'h(1)(1380), h(1)(1380) -> K*K-+(-) + c.c. observed in the K+K-pi(0) mode observes the peak of the h(1)(1380) at a higher energy than its nominal mass.

Abstract: Dark matter interactions with massless or very light standard model particles, as photons or neutrinos, may lead to a suppression of the matter power spectrum at small scales and of the number of low mass haloes. Bounds on the dark matter scattering cross section with light degrees of freedom in such interacting dark matter (IDM) scenarios have been obtained from e.g., early time cosmic microwave background physics and large scale structure observations. Here we scrutinize dark matter microphysics in light of the claimed 21 cm EDGES 78 MHz absorption signal. IDM is expected to delay the 21 cm absorption features due to collisional damping effects. We identify the astrophysical conditions under which the existing constraints on the dark matter scattering cross section could be largely improved due to the IDM imprint on the 21 cm signal, providing also an explicit comparison to the WDM scenario.

Abstract: We present a comprehensive analysis of low-energy signals of hypothetical scalar leptoquark interactions in lepton and kaon transitions. We derive the most general effective four-fermion Lagrangian induced by tree-level scalar leptoquark exchange and identify the Wilson coefficients predicted by the five possible types of scalar leptoquarks. The current constraints on the leptoquark Yukawa couplings arising from lepton and kaon processes are worked out, including also loop-induced transitions with only leptons (or quarks) as external states. In the presence of scalar leptoquark interactions, we also derive the differential distributions for flavour-changing neutral-current transitions in semileptonic kaon modes, including all known effects within the Standard Model. Their interference with the new physics contributions could play a significant role in future improvements of those constraints that are currently hampered by poorly-determined non-perturbative parameters.

Abstract: The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a leading experiment in neutrino physics which is presently under construction. DUNE aims to measure the yet unknown parameters in the three flavor oscillation scenario which includes discovery of leptonic CP violation, determination of the mass hierarchy and determination of the octant of theta(23). Additionally, the ancillary goals of DUNE include probing the subdominant effects induced by new physics. A widely studied new physics scenario is that of nonstandard neutrino interactions (NSI) in propagation which impacts the oscillations of neutrinos. We consider some of the essential NSI parameters impacting the oscillation signals at DUNE and explore the space of NSI parameters as well as study their correlations among themselves and with the yet unknown CP violating phase, delta appearing in the standard paradigm. The experiment utilizes a wide band beam and provides us with a unique opportunity to utilize different beam tunes at DUNE. We demonstrate that combining information from different beam tunes (low energy and medium energy) available at DUNE impacts the ability to probe some of these parameters and leads to altering the allowed regions in two-dimensional space of parameters considered.