Abstract: The design study of the AGATA array began with the development of the AGATA simulation code using GEANT4. The latter played a key part in the final design of the array and provided a cost effective solution for the early development of the tracking algorithm. The code has since been maintained and developed by the collaboration to provide more realistic simulations, with reaction chambers, ancillary detectors and surrounding mechanical structures completing the entire setup.

Abstract: The framed standard model (FSM), constructed initially for explaining the existence of three fermion generations and the hierarchical mass and mixing patterns of quarks and leptons,(1,2) suggests also a “hidden sector” of particles(3) including some dark matter candidates. It predicts in addition a new vector boson G, with mass of order TeV, which mixes with the gamma and Z of the standard model yielding deviations from the standard mixing scheme, all calculable in terms of a single unknown parameter mG. Given that standard mixing has been tested already to great accuracy by experiment, this could lead to contradictions, but it is shown here that for the three crucial and testable cases so far studied (i) m(Z) – m(W), (ii) Gamma(Z -> l(+)l(-)), (iii) Gamma(Z -> hadrons), the deviations are all within the present stringent experimental bounds provided m(G) > 1 TeV, but should soon be detectable if experimental accuracy improves. This comes about because of some subtle cancellations, which might have a deeper reason that is not yet understood. By virtue of mixing, G can be produced at the LHC and appear as a l(+)l(-) anomaly. If found, it will be of interest not only for its own sake but serve also as a window on to the “hidden sector” into which it will mostly decay, with dark matter candidates as most likely products.

Abstract: The framed Standard Model (FSM) predicts a 0(+) boson with mass around 20 MeV in the “hidden sector,” which mixes at tree level with the standard Higgs hW and hence acquires small couplings to quarks and leptons which can be calculated in the FSM apart from the mixing parameter rho Uh. The exchange of this mixed state U will contribute to g – 2 and to the Lamb shift. By adjusting rho Uh alone, it is found that the FSM can satisfy all present experimental bounds on the g – 2 and Lamb shift anomalies for μand e, and for the latter for both hydrogen and deuterium. The FSM predicts also a 1(-) boson in the “hidden sector” with a mass of 17 MeV, that is, right on top of the Atomki anomaly X. This mixes with the photon at 1-loop level and couples thereby like a dark photon to quarks and leptons. It is however a compound state and is thought likely to possess additional compound couplings to hadrons. By adjusting the mixing parameter and the X's compound coupling to nucleons, the FSM can reproduce the production rate of the X in beryllium decay as well as satisfy all the bounds on X listed so far in the literature. The above two results are consistent in that the U, being 0(+), does not contribute to the Atomki anomaly if parity and angular momentum are conserved, while X, though contributing to g – 2 and Lamb shift, has smaller couplings than U and can, at first instance, be neglected there. Thus, despite the tentative nature of the three anomalies in experiment on the one hand and of the FSM as theory on the other, the accommodation of the former in the latter has strengthened the credibility of both. Indeed, if this FSM interpretation were correct, it would change the whole aspect of the anomalies from just curiosities to windows into a vast hitherto hidden sector comprising at least in part the dark matter which makes up the bulk of our universe.

Abstract: The next to leading order chiral corrections to the SU(2) x SU(2) Gell-Mann-Oakes- Renner (GMOR) relation are obtained using the pseudoscalar correlator to five-loop order in perturbative QCD, together with new finite energy sum rules (FESR) incorporating polynomial, Legendre type, integration kernels. The purpose of these kernels is to suppress hadronic contributions in the region where they are least known. This reduces considerably the systematic uncertainties arising from the lack of direct experimental information on the hadronic resonance spectral function. Three different methods are used to compute the FESR contour integral in the complex energy (squared) s-plane, i.e. Fixed Order Perturbation Theory, Contour Improved Perturbation Theory, and a fixed renormalization scale scheme. We obtain for the corrections to the GMOR relation, delta(pi), the value delta(pi) = (6.2 +/- 1.6)%. This result is substantially more accurate than previous determinations based on QCD sum rules; it is also more reliable as it is basically free of systematic uncertainties. It implies a light quark condensate < 0 vertical bar(u) over baru vertical bar 0 > similar or equal to < 0 vertical bar(d) over bard vertical bar 0 > < 0 vertical bar(q) over barq vertical bar 0 >vertical bar(2GeV) = (-267 +/- 5MeV)(3). As a byproduct, the chiral perturbation theory (unphysical) low energy constant H-2(r) is predicted to be H-2(r)(nu(X) = M-p) = -(5.1 +/- 1.8) x10(-3), or H-2(r) (nu(X) = M-eta) = -(5.7 +/- 2.0) x10(-3).

Abstract: It is suggested that the Higgs boson may have a branching ratio into the c (c) over bar c mode suppressed by several orders of magnitude compared with conventional predictions and in addition some small but detectable flavour-violating modes such as b (s) over bar and tau(mu) over bar. The suggestion is based on a scheme proposed and tested earlier for explaining the mixing pattern and mass hierarchy of fermions in terms of a rotating mass matrix. If confirmed, the effects would cast new light on the geometric origin of fermion generations and of the Higgs field itself.