Abstract: We study the relic abundance of several stable particles from a generic dark sector, including the possible presence of dark asymmetries. After discussing the different possibilities for stabilising multi-component dark matter, we analyse the final relic abundance of the symmetric and asymmetric dark matter components, paying special attention to the role of the unavoidable conversions between dark matter states. We find an exponential dependence of the asymmetries of the heavier components on annihilations and conversions. We conclude that having similar symmetric and asymmetric components is a natural outcome in many scenarios of multi-component dark matter. This has novel phenomenological implications, which we briefly discuss.

Abstract: In several extensions of the Standard Model, the top quark can decay into a bottom quark and a light charged Higgs boson H+, t -> bH(+), in addition to the Standard Model decay t -> bW. Since W bosons decay to the three lepton generations equally, while H+ may predominantly decay into tau nu, charged Higgs bosons can be searched for using the violation of lepton universality in top quark decays. The analysis in this paper is based on 4.6 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Signatures containing leptons (e or mu) and/or a hadronically decaying tau (tau(had)) are used. Event yield ratios between e+ tau(had) and e + mu, as well as between μ+ tau(had) and μ+ e, final states are measured in the data and compared to predictions from simulations. This ratio-based method reduces the impact of systematic uncertainties in the analysis. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed. With the assumption that the branching fraction B(H+ -> tau nu) is 100%, upper limits in the range 3.2%-4.4% can be placed on the branching fraction B(t -> bH(+)) for charged Higgs boson masses m(H+) in the range 90-140 GeV. After combination with results from a search for charged Higgs bosons in t (t) over bar decays using the tau(had) + jets final state, upper limits on B(t -> bH(+)) can be set in the range 0.8%-3.4%, for m(H+) in the range 90-160 GeV.

Abstract: Electric dipole moments are extremely sensitive probes for additional sources of CP violation in new physics models. Specifically, they have been argued in the past to exclude new CP-violating phases in two-Higgs-doublet models. Since recently models including such phases have been discussed widely, we revisit the available constraints in the presence of mechanisms which are typically invoked to evade flavour-changing neutral currents. To that aim, we start by assessing the necessary calculations on the hadronic, nuclear and atomic/molecular level, deriving expressions with conservative error estimates. Their phenomenological analysis in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models yields strong constraints, in some cases weakened by a cancellation mechanism among contributions from neutral scalars. While the corresponding parameter combinations do not yet have to be unnaturally small, the constraints are likely to preclude large effects in other CP-violating observables. Nevertheless, the generically expected contributions to electric dipole moments in this class of models lie within the projected sensitivity of the next-generation experiments.

Abstract: One of the basic propositions of quantum field theory is Lorentz invariance. The spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry at a high energy scale can be studied at low energy extensions like the Standard model in a model-independent way through effective field theory (EFT). The present and future Long-baseline neutrino experiments can give a scope to observe such a Planck-suppressed physics of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). A proposed long baseline experiment, Protvino to ORCA (dubbed “P2O”) with a baseline of 2595 km, is expected to provide good sensitivities to unresolved issues, especially neutrino mass ordering. P2O can offer good statistics even with a moderate beam power and runtime, owing to the very large (similar to 6 Mt) detector volume at KM3NeT/ ORCA. Here we discuss in detail, how the individual LIV parameters affect neutrino oscillations at P2O and DUNE baselines at the level of probability and derive analytical expressions to understand interesting degeneracies and other features. We estimate increment Delta chi(2) sensitivities to the LIV parameters, analyzing their correlations among each other, and also with the standard oscillation parameters. We calculate these results for P2O alone and also carry out a combined analysis of P2O with DUNE. We point out crucial features in the sensitivity contours and explain them qualitatively with the help of the relevant probability expressions derived here. Finally we estimate constraints on the individual LIV parameters at 95% confidence level (C.L.) intervals stemming from the combined analysis of P2O and DUNE datasets, and highlight the improvement over the existing constraints. We also find out that the additional degeneracy induced by the LIV parameter a(ee) around -22 x 10(-23) GeV is lifted by the combined analysis at 95% C.L.

Abstract: We study the differences in the gamma-ray spectra simulated by four Monte Carlo event generator packages developed in particle physics. Two different versions of PYTHIA and two of HERWIG are analyzed, namely PYTHIA 6.418 and HERWIG 6.5.10 in Fortran and PYTHIA 8.165 and HERWIG 2.6.1 in C++. For all the studied channels, the intrinsic differences between them are shown to be significative and may play an important role in misunderstanding dark matter signals.