Abstract: A binned Dalitz plot analysis of B-+/- -> DK +/- decays, with D -> K-S(0) pi(+)pi(-) and D -> K0 S K + K -, is performed to measure the C P -violating observables x(+/-) and y(+/-), which are sensitive to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle gamma. The analysis exploits a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to 3.0 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment. Measurements from CLEO-c of the variation of the strong-interaction phase of the D decay over the Dalitz plot are used as inputs. The values of the parameters are found to be x(+) = (-7.7 +/- 2.4 +/- 1.0 +/- 0.4) x 10(-2), x(-) = (2.5 +/- 2.5 +/- 1.0 +/- 0.5) x 10(-2), y(+) = (-2.2 +/- 2.5 +/- 0.4 +/- 1.0) x 10-2, and y(-) = (7.5 +/- 2.9 +/- 0.5 +/- 1.4) x 10(-2). The first, second, and third uncertainties are the statistical, the experimental systematic, and that associated with the precision of the strong-phase parameters. These are the most precise measurements of these observables and correspond to +/- = (62(-14)(+15))degrees, with a second solution at gamma -> gamma + 180 degrees, and r(B) = 0.080(-0.021)(+0.019), where r(B) is the ratio between the suppressed and favoured B decay amplitudes.

Abstract: After discussing the OZI suppression of one light meson exchange in the interaction of with isospin I = 1 , we study the contribution of the two-pion exchange to the interaction and the exchange of heavy vectors, J/psi for diagonal transitions and D-* for transitions of to J/psi rho. We find these latter mechanisms to be weak, but enough to barely bind the system in J = 2 with a mass around 4000 MeV, while the effect of the two-pion exchange is a net attraction, though weaker than that from heavy-vector exchange. We discuss this state and try to relate it to the Z (c) (4025) state, above the threshold, claimed in an experiment at BES from an enhancement of the distribution close to threshold. Together with the results from a recent reanalysis of the BES experiment showing that it is compatible with a J = 2 state below threshold around 3990 MeV, we conclude that the BES experiment could show the existence of the state that we find in our approach.

Abstract: A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton and zero or one additional light leptons (electron/muon), has been performed using 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed in the various signal regions and 95% confidence level upper limits on the visible cross section for new phenomena are set. The results of the analysis are interpreted in several SUSY scenarios, significantly extending previous limits obtained in the same final states. In the framework of minimal gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, values of the SUSY breaking scale Lambda below 63 TeV are excluded, independently of tan beta. Exclusion limits are also derived for an mSUGRA/CMSSM model, in both the R-parity-conserving and R-parity-violating case. A further interpretation is presented in a framework of natural gauge mediation, in which the gluino is assumed to be the only light coloured sparticle and gluino masses below 1090 GeV are excluded.

Abstract: A search is presented for the production of new heavy quarks that decay to a Z boson and a third-generation Standard Model quark. In the case of a new charge +2/3 quark (T), the decay targeted is T -> Zt, while the decay targeted for a new charge -1/3 quark (B) is B -> Zb. The search is performed with a dataset corresponding to 20.3 fb(-1) of p p collisions at root s = 8TeV recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Selected events contain a high transverse momentum Z boson candidate reconstructed from a pair of oppositely charged same-flavor leptons (electrons or muons), and are analyzed in two channels defined by the absence or presence of a third lepton. Hadronic jets, in particular those with properties consistent with the decay of a b-hadron, are also required to be present in selected events. Different requirements are made on the jet activity in the event in order to enhance the sensitivity to either heavy quark pair production mediated by the strong interaction, or single production mediated by the electroweak interaction. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed, and lower limits are derived on the mass of vector-like T and B quarks under various branching ratio hypotheses, as well as upper limits on the magnitude of electroweak coupling parameters.

Abstract: We derive a sum rule which shows that the Froissart-Martin bound for the asymptotic behaviour of the pi pi total cross sections at high energies, if modulated by the Lukaszuk-Martin coefficient of the leading log(2)s behaviour, cannot be an optimal bound in QCD. We next compute the total cross sections for pi(+)pi(-), pi(+/-)pi(0) and pi(0)pi(0) scattering within the framework of the constituent chiral quark model (C chi QM) in the limit of a large number of colours N-c and discuss their asymptotic behaviours. The same pi pi cross sections are also discussed within the general framework of Large-N-c QCD and we show that it is possible to make an Ansatz for the isospin I = 1 and I = 0 spectrum which satisfy the Froissart-Martin bound with coefficients which, contrary to the Lukaszuk-Martin coefficient, are not singular in the chiral limit and have the correct Large-N-c counting. We finally propose a simple phenomenological model which matches the low energy behaviours of the sigma(total)(pi +/-pi 0)(s) cross section predicted by the CxQM with the high energy behaviour predicted by the Large-N-c Ansatz. The magnitude of these cross sections at very high energies is of the order of those observed for the pp and pp scattering total cross sections.