Abstract: Structure of the decay B0s. J=.pp- is studied using data corresponding to 3 fb- 1 of integrated luminosity from pp collisions produced by the LHC and collected by the LHCb detector. Five interfering pp- states are required to describe the decay: F-0(980), F-0(1500), F-0(1790), F-2 (1270) and F-2(1525) An alternative model including these states and a nonresonant J=.pp- component also provides a good description of the data. Based on the different transversity components measured for the spin- 2 intermediate states, the final state is found to be compatible with being entirely CP odd. The CP- even part is found to be < 2.3% at a 95% confidence level. The f 0d500 state is not observed, allowing a limit to be set on the absolute value of the mixing angle with the f 0d980 of < 7.7 at a 90% confidence level, consistent with a tetraquark interpretation of the f(0)(980) substructure.

Abstract: This Letter presents a study of the flavor-changing neutral current radiative B-+/- -> K-+/-pi(-/+)pi(+/-)gamma decays performed using data collected in proton-proton collisions with the LHCb detector at 7 and 8 TeV center-of-mass energies. In this sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1), nearly 14 000 signal events are reconstructed and selected, containing all possible intermediate resonances with a K-+/-pi(-/+)pi(+/-) final state in the [1.1, 1.9] GeV/c(2) mass range. The distribution of the angle of the photon direction with respect to the plane defined by the final-state hadrons in their rest frame is studied in intervals of K-+/-pi(-/+)pi(+/-) mass and the asymmetry between the number of signal events found on each side of the plane is obtained. The first direct observation of the photon polarization in the b -> s(gamma) transition is reported with a significance of 5.2 sigma.

Abstract: Relic neutrinos play an important role in the evolution of the Universe, modifying some of the cosmological observables. We summarize the main aspects of cosmological neutrinos and describe how the precision of present cosmological data can be used to learn about neutrino properties. In particular, we discuss how cosmology provides information on the absolute scale of neutrino masses, complementary to beta decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments. We explain why the combination of Planck temperature data with measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation angular scale provides a strong bound on the sum of neutrino masses, 0.23 eV at the 95% confidence level, while the lensing potential spectrum and the cluster mass function measured by Planck are compatible with larger values. We also review the constraints from current data on other neutrino properties. Finally, we describe the very good perspectives from future cosmological measurements, which are expected to be sensitive to neutrino masses close to the minimum values guaranteed by flavour oscillations.

Abstract: The octet-baryon axial-vector charges and the g(1)/f(1) ratios measured in the semileptonic hyperon decays are studied up to O(p(3)) using the covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory with explicit decuplet contributions. We clarify the role of different low-energy constants and find a good convergence for the chiral expansion of the axial-vector charges of the baryon octet, g(1)(0), with O(p(3)) corrections typically around 20% of the leading ones. This is a consequence of strong cancellations between different next-to-leading- order terms. We show that considering only nonanalytic terms is not enough and that analytic terms appearing at the same chiral order play an important role in this description. The same effects still hold for the chiral extrapolation of the axial-vector charges and result in a rather mild quark-mass dependence. As a result, we report a determination of the leading-order chiral couplings, D = 0.623(61)(17) and F = 0.441(47)(2), as obtained from a completely consistent chiral analysis up to O(p(3)). Furthermore, we note that the appearance of an unknown low-energy constant precludes the extraction of the proton octet charge from semileptonic decay data alone, which is relevant for an analysis of the composition of the proton spin.

Abstract: An approach is presented to experimentally constrain previously unreachable (p,gamma) reaction rates on nuclei far from stability in the astrophysical rp process. Energies of all critical resonances in the Cu-57(p,gamma)Zn-58 reaction are deduced by populating states in Zn-58 with a (d, n) reaction in inverse kinematics at 75 MeV/u, and detecting.-ray-recoil coincidences with the state-of-the-art gamma-ray tracking array GRETINA and the S800 spectrograph at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The results reduce the uncertainty in the Cu-57(p,gamma) reaction rate by several orders of magnitude. The effective lifetime of Ni-56, an important waiting point in the rp process in x-ray bursts, can now be determined entirely from experimentally constrained reaction rates.