Abstract: We compare the discovery potential of the LHC for lepton number violating (LNV) signals with the sensitivity of current and future double beta decay experiments, assuming 0 nu beta beta decay is dominated by heavy particle exchange. We consider charged scalar, leptoquark and diquark mechanisms of 0 nu beta beta decay, covering the 0 nu beta beta decay operators with both, the smallest and largest, possible rates. We demonstrate, if 0 nu beta beta decay were found with a half-life below 10(26)-10(27) years a positive signal should show up at the LHC, except for some particular cases of the leptoquark mechanism, and vice versa, if the LHC does not find any hints for LNV, a “short-range” explanation for a finite 0 nu beta beta decay half-life will be ruled out in most cases. We argue, if a positive LNV signal were found at the LHC, it is possible to identify the dominant contribution to 0 nu beta beta. Two different kinds of observables which could provide such “model discriminating” power are discussed: different invariant mass peaks and the charge asymmetry.

Abstract: The production of K(S)(0) and Lambda hadrons is studied in pp collision data at root s = 0.9 and 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a minimum-bias trigger. The observed distributions of transverse momentum, rapidity, and multiplicity are corrected to hadron level in a model-independent way within well-defined phase-space regions. The distribution of the production ratio of (Lambda) over bar to Lambda baryons is also measured. The results are compared with various Monte Carlo simulation models. Although most of these models agree with data to within 15% in the K(S)(0) distributions, substantial disagreements are found in the Lambda distributions of transverse momentum.

Abstract: A search has been performed for photons originating in the decay of a neutral long-lived particle, exploiting the capabilities of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter to make precise measurements of the flight direction of photons, as well as the calorimeter's excellent time resolution. The search has been made in the diphoton plus missing transverse energy final state, using the full data sample of 4.8 fb(-1) of 7 TeV proton-proton collisions collected in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. No excess is observed above the background expected from Standard Model processes. The results are used to set exclusion limits in the context of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models, with the lightest neutralino being the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and decaying with a lifetime in excess of 0.25 ns into a photon and a gravitino.

Abstract: A search is performed for a long-lived particle decaying into a final state that includes a pair of muons of opposite-sign electric charge, using proton-proton collision data collected at root s = 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 32.9 fb(-1). No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits at 95% confidence level on the lifetime of the long-lived particle are presented in models of new phenomena including gauge-mediated supersymmetry or decay of the Higgs boson, H, to a pair of dark photons, Z(D). Lifetimes in the range c tau = 1-2400 cm are excluded, depending on the parameters of the model. In the supersymmetric model, the lightest neutralino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, with a relatively long lifetime due to its weak coupling to the gravitino, the lightest supersymmetric particle. The lifetime limits are determined for very light gravitino mass and various assumptions for the neutralino mass in the range 300-1000 GeV. In the dark photon model, the lifetime limits are interpreted as exclusion contours in the plane of the coupling between the Z(D) and the Standard Model Z boson versus the Z(D) mass (in the range 20-60 GeV), for various assumptions for the H -> Z(D)Z(D) branching fraction.

Abstract: We present a study of the decays B(+) -> DK(+) with D mesons reconstructed in the K(+)pi(-)pi(0) or K(-)pi(+)pi(0) final states, where D indicates a D(0) or a (D) over bar (0) meson. Using a sample of 474 x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP- II asymmetric- energy e(+)e(-) collider at SLAC, we measure the ratios R +/- equivalent to Gamma(B(+)->[K(-/+)pi(+)pi(0)](D)K(+))/Gamma(B(+)->[K(+)pi(-/+)pi(0)](D) K(+)). We obtain R+ = (5(-10)(+12)(stat)(4)(2)(syst)) X 10(-3) and R(-) = (12(-10)(+12)(stat)(-5)(+3)(syst)) X 10(-3), from which we extract the upper limits at 90% probability: R(+) < 23 X 10(-3) and R- < 29 X 10(-3). Using these measurements, we obtain an upper limit for the ratio r(B) of the magnitudes of the b -> u and b -> c amplitudes r(B) < 0.13 at 90% probability.