Abstract: The production cross-section of J/psi pairs in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13TeV is measured using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.2 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment. The measurement is performed with both J/psi mesons in the transverse momentum range 0 < p(T) < 14 GeV/c and rapidity range 2.0 < y < 4.5. The cross-section of this process is measured to be 16.36 +/- 0.28 (stat) +/- 0.88 (syst) nb. The contributions from single-parton scattering and double-parton scattering are separated based on the dependence of the cross-section on the absolute rapidity difference Delta y between the two J/psi mesons. The effective cross-section of double-parton scattering is measured to be sigma(eff) = 13.1 +/- 1.8 (stat) +/- 2.3 (syst) mb. The distribution of the azimuthal angle phi(CS) of one of the J/psi mesons in the Collins-Soper frame and the p(T)-spectrum of the J/psi pairs are also measured for the study of the gluon transverse-momentum dependent distributions inside protons. The extracted values of < cos4 phi(CS)> and < cos2 phi(CS)> are consistent with zero, but the presence of azimuthal asymmetry at a few percent level is allowed.

Abstract: The primary scientific goal of neutrino telescopes is the detection and study of cosmic neutrino signals. However, the range of physics topics that these instruments can tackle is exceedingly wide and diverse. Neutrinos coming from outside the Earth, in association with other messengers, can contribute to clarify the question of the mechanisms that power the astrophysical accelerators which are known to exist from the observation of high-energy cosmic and gamma rays. Cosmic neutrinos can also be used to bring relevant information about the nature of dark matter, to study the intrinsic properties of neutrinos and to look for physics beyond the Standard Model. Likewise, atmospheric neutrinos can be used to study an ample variety of particle physics issues, such as neutrino oscillation phenomena, the determination of the neutrino mass ordering, non-standard neutrino interactions, neutrino decays and a diversity of other physics topics. In this article, we review a selected number of these topics, chosen on the basis of their scientific relevance and the involvement in their study of the Spanish physics community working in the KM3NeT and ANTARES neutrino telescopes.

Abstract: We study the impact of gas accretion on the orbital evolution of black-hole binaries initially at large separation in the band of the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We focus on two sources: (i).stellar-origin black-hole binaries.(SOBHBs) that can migrate from the LISA band to the band of ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) observatories within weeks/months; and (ii) intermediate-mass black-hole binaries.(IMBHBs) in the LISA band only. Because of the large number of observable GW cycles, the phase evolution of these systems needs to be modeled to great accuracy to avoid biasing the estimation of the source parameters. Accretion affects the GW phase at negative (-4) post-Newtonian order, being thus dominant for binaries at large separations. Accretion at the Eddington or at super-Eddington rate will leave a detectable imprint on the dynamics of SOBHBs. For super-Eddington rates and a 10 yr mission, a multiwavelength strategy with LISA and a ground-based interferometer can detect about 10 (a few) SOBHB events for which the accretion rate can be measured at 50% (10%) level. In all cases, the sky position can be identified within much less than 0.4 deg(2) uncertainty. Likewise, accretion at greater than or similar to 100% of the Eddington rate can be measured in IMBHBs up to redshift z approximate to 0.1, and the position of these sources can be identified within less than 0.01 deg(2) uncertainty. Altogether, a detection of SOBHBs or IMBHBs would allow for targeted searches of electromagnetic counterparts to black-hole mergers in gas-rich environments with future X-ray detectors (such as Athena) and/or radio observatories (such as SKA).

Abstract: This paper presents a search for a new Z' vector gauge boson with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using pp collision data collected at root s = 13TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). The new gauge boson Z' is predicted by L-mu – L-tau models to address observed phenomena that can not be explained by the Standard Model. The search examines the four-muon (4 mu) final state, using a deep learning neural network classifier to separate the Z' signal from the Standard Model background events. The di-muon invariant masses in the 4 μevents are used to extract the Z' resonance signature. No significant excess of events is observed over the predicted background. Upper limits at a 95% confidence level on the Z' production cross-section times the decay branching fraction of pp -> Z' μμ-> 4 μare set from 0.31 to 4.3 fb for the Z' mass ranging from 5 to 81 GeV. The corresponding common coupling strengths, g(Z'), of the Z' boson to the second and third generation leptons above 0.003 – 0.2 have been excluded.

Abstract: We discuss the possibility to predict the QCD axion mass in the context of grand unified theories. We investigate the implementation of the DFSZ mechanism in the context of renormalizable SU(5) theories. In the simplest theory, the axion mass can be predicted with good precision in the range m(a) = (2-16) neV, and there is a strong correlation between the predictions for the axion mass and proton decay rates. In this context, we predict an upper bound for the proton decay channels with antineutrinos, tau(p -> K+(nu) over bar) less than or similar to 4 x 10(37) yr and tau(p -> pi(+)(nu) over bar) less than or similar to 2 x 10(36) yr. This theory can be considered as the minimal realistic grand unified theory with the DFSZ mechanism and it can be fully tested by proton decay and axion experiments.