Abstract: We report results from an updated study of the suppressed decays We report results from an updated study of the suppressed decays B- -> DK- and B- -> D*K- followed by D -> K+ pi(-), where D-(*()0) indicates a D-(*()0)or a (D) over bar (()*()0) meson, and D* -> D pi(0) or D* -> D gamma. These decays are sensitive to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle angle gamma due to interference between the b -> c transition B- -> D-(*K-)0(-) followed by the doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decay D-0 -> K+ pi(-), and the b -> u transition B- -> (D) over bar (()*()0) K- followed by the Cabibbo-favored decay (D) over bar (0) -> K+ pi(-). We also report an analysis of the decay B- -> D-(*())pi(-) with the D decaying into the doubly Cabibbo-suppressed mode D -> K+ pi(-). Our results are based on 467 x 10(6) Gamma(4S) -> BB- decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We measure the ratios R-(*()) of the suppressed ([K+ pi(-)](D)K- / pi(-)) to favored ([K+ pi(-)](D)K- / pi(-)) branching fractions as well as the CP asymmetries A(()*()) of those modes. We see indications of signals for the B- -> DK- and B- -> D-D pi 0(()*()) K- suppressed modes, with statistical significances of 2.1 and 2.2 sigma, respectively, and we measure: R-DK = (1.1 +/- 0: 6 +/- 0.2) x 10(-2); A(DK) = -0.86 +/- 0: 47(-0.16)(+0.12), R-(D pi 0)K* = (1.8 +/- 0: 9 +/- 0: 4) x 10(-2); A ((D pi 0)K)* = +0.77 +/- 0: 35 +/- 0.12; R-(D gamma)K* = (1.3 +/- 1.4 +/- 0.8) x 10(-2); A((D gamma)K)* = +0.36 +/- 0: 94(-0.41)(+0.25), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. We use a frequentist approach to obtain the magnitude of the ratio r(B) equivalent to vertical bar A(B- -> (D) over bar 0K(-))/A(B- -> (DK-)-K-0)vertical bar = (9.5(-4.1)(+5.1))%, with r(B) < 16: 7% at 90% confidence level. In the case of B- -> D*K- we find r(B) equivalent to vertical bar A(B- -> <(D)over bar>0K(-))/A(B- -> (DK-)-K-0)vertical bar = (9.6(-5.1)(+3.5))%, with r(B)* < 15.0% at 90% confidence level.

Abstract: The alignment in flavour space of the Yukawa matrices of a general two-Higgs-doublet model results in the absence of tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents. In addition to the usual fermion masses and mixings, the aligned Yukawa structure only contains three complex parameters zeta(f), which are potential new sources of CP violation [1]. For particular values of these three parameters all known specific implementations of the model based on discrete Z(2) symmetries are recovered. One of the most distinctive features of the two-Higgs-doublet model is the presence of a charged scalar H-+/-. In this work, we discuss its main phenomenological consequences in flavour-changing processes at low energies and derive the corresponding constraints on the parameters of the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model.

Abstract: Dark matter (DM) is currently searched for with a variety of detection strategies. Accelerator searches are particularly promising, but even if weakly interacting massive particles are found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it will be difficult to prove that they constitute the bulk of the DM in the Universe Omega(DM). We show that a significantly better reconstruction of the DM properties can be obtained with a combined analysis of LHC and direct detection data, by making a simple Ansatz on the weakly interacting massive particles local density rho(0)((chi) over bar1), i.e., by assuming that the local density scales with the cosmological relic abundance, (rho(0)((chi) over bar1)/rho(DM)) = (Omega(0)((chi) over bar1)/Omega(DM)). We demonstrate this method in an explicit example in the context of a 24-parameter supersymmetric model, with a neutralino lightest supersymmetric particle in the stau coannihilation region. Our results show that future ton-scale direct detection experiments will allow to break degeneracies in the supersymmetric parameter space and achieve a significantly better reconstruction of the neutralino composition and its relic density than with LHC data alone.