Abstract: Several extensions of the standard model predict associated production of dark-matter particles with a Higgs boson. Such processes arc searched for in final states with missing transverse momentum and a Higgs boson decaying to a b (b) over bar pair with the ATLAS detector using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at a center-of mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC. The observed data are in agreement with the standard model predictions and limits are placed on the associated production of dark-matter particles and a Higgs boson.

Abstract: We present a novel mode of neutrinoless double-beta decay with emission of a light Majoron-like scalar particle phi. We assume it couples via an effective seven-dimensional operator with a (V + A) lepton current and (V +/- A) quark currents leading to a long-range contribution that is unsuppressed by the light neutrino mass. We calculate the total double-beta decay rate and determine the fully differential shape for this mode. We find that future double-beta decay searches are sensitive to scales of the order Lambda(NP) approximate to 1 TeV for the effective operator and a light scalar m(phi) < 0.2 MeV, based on ordinary double-beta decay Majoron searches. The angular and energy distributions can deviate considerably from that of two-neutrino double-beta decay, which is the main background. We point out possible ultraviolet completions where such an effective operator can emerge.

Abstract: The optical appearance of a body compact enough to feature an unstable bound orbit, when surrounded by an accretion disk, is expected to be dominated by a luminous ring of radiation enclosing a central brightness depression typically known as the shadow. Despite observational limitations, the rough details of this picture have been now confirmed by the results of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration on the imaging of the M87 and Milky Way supermassive central objects. However, the precise characterization of both features-ring and shadow-depends on the interaction between the background geometry and the accretion disk, thus being a fertile playground to test our theories on the nature of compact objects and the gravitational field itself in the strong-field regime. In this work we use both features in order to test a continuous family of solutions interpolating between regular black holes and horizonless compact objects, which arise within the Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld theory of gravity, a viable extension of Einstein's general relativity (GR). To this end we consider seven distinctive classes of such configurations (five black holes and two traversable wormholes) and study their optical appearances under illumination by a geometrically and optically thin accretion disk, emitting monochromatically with three analytic intensity profiles previously suggested in the literature. We build such images and consider the sub-ring structure created by light rays crossing the disk more than once and existing on top of the main ring of radiation. We discuss in detail the modifications as compared to their GR counterparts, the Lyapunov exponents of unstable nearly-bound orbits, as well as the differences between black hole and traversable wormholes for the three intensity profiles. In addition we use the claim by the EHT Collaboration on the radius of the bright ring acting (under proper calibrations) as a proxy for the radius of the shadow itself to explore the parameter space of our solutions compatible with such a result.

Abstract: This letter presents a measurement of the nuclear modification factor of large-radius jets in root sNN=5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collisions by the ATLAS experiment. The measurement is performed using 1.72nb^{-1} and 257pb^{-1} of Pb+Pb and pp data, respectively. The large-radius jets are reconstructed with the anti-k{t} algorithm using a radius parameter of R=1.0, by reclustering anti-k{t} R=0.2 jets, and are measured over the transverse momentum (p{T}) kinematic range of 158<p{T}<1000GeV and absolute pseudorapidity |y|<2.0. The large-radius jet constituents are further reclustered using the k{t} algorithm in order to obtain the splitting parameters, sqrt[d{12}] and DeltaR{12}, which characterize the transverse momentum scale and angular separation for the hardest splitting in the jet, respectively. The nuclear modification factor, R{AA}, obtained by comparing the Pb+Pb jet yields to those in pp collisions, is measured as a function of jet transverse momentum (p{T}) and sqrt[d{12}] or DeltaR{12}. A significant difference in the quenching of large-radius jets having single subjet and those with more complex substructure is observed. Systematic comparison of jet suppression in terms of R{AA} for different jet definitions is also provided. Presented results support the hypothesis that jets with hard internal splittings lose more energy through quenching and provide a new perspective for understanding the role of jet structure in jet suppression.

Abstract: The ratio of branching fractions R(D*(-)) equivalent to B(B-0 -> D*(-) iota(+)v(iota))/B(B-0 -> D*(-) mu+ v(mu)) is measured using a data sample of proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). For the first time, R(D*-) is determined using the iota-lepton decays with three charged pions in the final state. The B-0 -> D*(-) iota+ v(iota) yield is normalized to that of the B-0 -> D*(-) pi(+) pi(-) pi(+) mode, providing a measurement B-0 -> D*(-) iota+ v(iota) / B(B-0 -> D*(-) pi(+) pi(-) pi(+)) = 1.97 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.18, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The value of (B-0 -> D*(-) iota+ v(iota)) = (1.42 +/- 0.094 +/- 0.129 +/- 0.054)% is obtained, where the third uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the branching fraction of the normalization mode. Using the well-measured branching fraction of the B-0 -> D*(-) mu+ v(mu) decay, a value of R(D*(-)) = 0.291 +/- 0.019 +/- 0.026 +/- 0.013 is established, where the third uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the branching fractions of the normalization and B-0 -> D*(-) mu+ v(mu) modes. This measurement is in agreement with the standard model prediction and with previous results.