Abstract: The accurate determination of the response function of organic scintillation neutron detectors complements their experimental characterization. Monte Carlo simulations with GEANT4 can reduce the effort and cost implied, especially for complex detection systems for which the characterization is more challenging. Previous studies have reported on the inaccuracy of GEANT4 in the calculation of the neutron response of organic scintillation detectors above 6 MeV, due to an incomplete description of the neutron-induced alpha production reactions on carbon. We have improved GEANT4 in this direction by incorporating models and data from NRESP, an excellent Monte Carlo simulation tool developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany, for the specific purpose of calculating the neutron response function of organic scintillation detectors. The results have been verified against simulations with NRESP and validated against Time-Of-Flight measurements with an NE213 detector at PTB. This work has potential applications beyond organic scintillation detectors, to other types of detectors where reactions induced by fast neutrons on carbon require an accurate description.

Abstract: The annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles accumulated in the Sun could produce a flux of neutrinos, which is potentially detectable with neutrino detectors/telescopes and the DM elastic scattering cross section can be constrained. Although the process of DM capture in astrophysical objects like the Sun is commonly assumed to be due to interactions only with nucleons, there are scenarios in which tree-level DM couplings to quarks are absent, and even if loop-induced interactions with nucleons are allowed, scatterings off electrons could be the dominant capture mechanism. We consider this possibility and study in detail all the ingredients necessary to compute the neutrino production rates from DM annihilationsin the Sun (capture, annihilation and evaporation rates) for velocity-independent and isotropic, velocity-dependent and isotropic and momentum-dependent scattering cross sections for DM interactions with electrons and compare them with the results obtained for the case of interactions with nucleons. Moreover, we improve the usual calculations in a number of ways and provide analytical expressions in three appendices. Interestingly, we find that the evaporation mass in the case of interactions with electrons could be below the GeV range, depending on the high-velocity tail of the DM distribution in the Sun, which would open a new mass window for searching for this type of scenarios.

Abstract: We present a precise lattice computation of pseudoscalar and vector heavy-light meson masses for heavy-quark masses ranging from the physical charm mass up to similar or equal to 4 times the physical b-quark mass. We employ the gauge configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration (ETMC) with N-f = 2 + 1 + 1 dynamical quarks at three values of the lattice spacing (a similar or equal to 0.062; 0.082; 0.089 fm) with pion masses in the range M-pi similar or equal to 210-450 MeV. The heavy-quark mass is simulated directly on the lattice up to similar or equal to 3 times the physical charm mass. The interpolation to the physical b-quark mass is performed using the ETMC ratio method, based on ratios of the meson masses computed at nearby heavy-quark masses, and adopting the kinetic mass scheme. The extrapolation to the physical pion mass and to the continuum limit yields m(b)(kin) (1 GeV) = 4.61(20) GeV, which corresponds to (m) over bar (b) ((m) over bar (b)) 4.26(18) GeV in the (MS) over bar scheme. The lattice data are analyzed in terms of the heavy-quark expansion (HQE) and the matrix elements of dimension-four and dimension-five operators are extracted with a good precision, namely,(Lambda) over bar = 0.552(26) GeV, mu(2)(pi) = 0.321(32) GeV2, and mu(2)(G)(m(b)) = 0.253(25) GeV2. The data also allow for a rough estimate of the dimension-six operator matrix elements. As the HQE parameters play a crucial role in the inclusive determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements V-ub and V-cb, their precise determination on the lattice may eventually validate and improve the analyses based on fits to the semileptonic moments.

Abstract: We present the calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections for top-quark pair production in association with an additional jet at hadron colliders, using the modified minimal subtraction scheme to renormalize the top- quark mass. The results are compared to measurements at the Large Hadron Collider run I. In particular, we determine the top-quark running mass from a tit of the theoretical results presented here to the LHC data.

Abstract: We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D- and B-meson physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the particle-physics community. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor f(+)(0), arising in the semileptonic K -> pi transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio fK / f pi and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements V-us and V-ud. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of SU(2) L x SU(2) R and SU(3) L x SU(3) R Chiral Perturbation Theory. We review the determination of the B-K parameter of neutral kaon mixing as well as the additional four B parameters that arise in theories of physics beyond the StandardModel. The latter quantities are an addition compared to the previous review. For the heavy-quark sector, we provide results for m(c) and m(b) (also new compared to the previous review), as well as those for D- and B-meson-decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters. These are the heavy-quark quantities most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. Finally, we review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant alpha(s).