Abstract: Following a model based on the SU(8) symmetry that treats heavy pseudoscalars and heavy vector mesons on an equal footing, as required by heavy quark symmetry, we study the interaction of baryons and mesons in coupled channels within an unitary approach that generates dynamically poles in the scattering T-matrix. We concentrate in the exotic channels with negative charm quantum number for which there is the experimental claim of one state.

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: The nature of dark matter is one of the most thrilling riddles for both cosmology and particle physics nowadays. While in the typical models the dark sector is composed only by weakly interacting massive particles, an arguably more natural scenario would include a whole set of gauge interactions which are invisible for the standard model but that are in contact with the dark matter. We present a method to constrain the number of massless gauge bosons and other relativistic particles that might be present in the dark sector using current and future cosmic microwave background data, and provide upper bounds on the size of the dark sector. We use the fact that the dark matter abundance depends on the strength of the interactions with both sectors, which allows one to relate the freeze-out temperature of the dark matter with the temperature of this cosmic background of dark gauge bosons. This relation can then be used to calculate how sizable is the impact of the relativistic dark sector in the number of degrees of freedom of the early Universe, providing an interesting and testable connection between cosmological data and direct/indirect detection experiments. The recent Planck data, in combination with other cosmic microwave background experiments and baryonic acoustic oscillations data, constrains the number of relativistic dark gauge bosons, when the freeze-out temperature of the dark matter is larger than the top mass, to be N less than or similar to 14 for the simplest scenarios, while those limits are slightly relaxed for the combination with the Hubble constant measurements to N less than or similar to 20. Future releases of Planck data are expected to reduce the uncertainty by approximately a factor of 3, which will reduce significantly the parameter space of allowed models.

Abstract: Here we update the global fit of neutrino oscillations in Refs. [T. Schwetz, M. Tortola, and J. W. F. Valle, New J. Phys. 13, 063004 (2011); T. Schwetz, M. Tortola, and J. W. F. Valle, New J. Phys. 13, 109401 (2011)] including the recent measurements of reactor antineutrino disappearance reported by the Double Chooz, Daya Bay, and RENO experiments, together with latest MINOS and T2K appearance and disappearance results, as presented at the Neutrino-2012 conference. We find that the preferred global fit value of theta(13) is quite large: sin(2)theta(13) similar or equal to 0.025 for normal and inverted neutrino mass ordering, with theta(13) = 0 now excluded at more than 10 sigma. The impact of the new theta(13) measurements over the other neutrino oscillation parameters is discussed as well as the role of the new long-baseline neutrino data and the atmospheric neutrino analysis in the determination of a non-maximal atmospheric angle theta(23).

Abstract: We suggest a minimal extension of the simplest A(4) flavor model that can induce a nonzero theta(13) value, as required by recent neutrino oscillation data from reactors and accelerators. The predicted correlation between the atmospheric mixing angle theta(23) and the magnitude of theta(13) leads to an allowed region substantially smaller than indicated by neutrino-oscillation global fits. Moreover, the scheme correlates CP violation in neutrino oscillations with the octant of the atmospheric mixing parameter theta(23) in such a way that, for example, maximal mixing necessarily violates CP. We briefly comment on other phenomenological features of the model.