Abstract: We reconsider the phenomenological implications of two texture zeros in symmetric neutrino mass matrices in the light of the recent T2K results for the reactor angle and the new global analysis which gives also best fit values for the Dirac CP phase delta. The most important results of the analysis are: Among the viable cases classified by Frampton etal, only A(1) and A(2) predict theta(13) to be different from zero at 3 sigma. Furthermore these two cases are compatible only with a normal mass spectrum in the allowed region for the reactor angle. At the best fit value A(1) and A(2) predict 0.024 >= sin(2)theta(13) >= 0.012 and 0.014 <= sin(2)theta(13) <= 0.032, respectively, where the bounds on the right and the left correspond to cos delta = -1 and cos delta = 1, respectively. The cases B-1, B-2, B-3 and B-4 predict nearly maximal CP violation, i.e. cos delta approximate to 0.

Abstract: The Minimal Supersymmetric Extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) is able to explain the current data from neutrino physics. Unfortunately Split Supersymmetry as low energy approximation of this theory fails to generate a solar square mass difference, including after the addition of bilinear R-Parity Violation. In this work, it is shown how one can derive an effective low energy theory from the MSSM in the spirit of Split Supersymmetry, which has the potential of explaining the neutrino phenomenology. This is achieved by going beyond leading order in the process of integrating out heavy scalars from the original theory, which results in non-renormalizable operators in the effective low energy theory. It is found that in particular a d = 8 operator is crucial for the generation of the neutrino mass differences.

Abstract: We calculate the density matrix for the decay of a polarised top quark into a polarised W boson and a massive 17 quark, for the most general Wth vertex arising from dimension-six gauge-invariant effective operators. We show that, in addition to the well-known W helicity fractions, for polarised top decays it is worth defining and studying the transverse and normal W polarisation fractions, that is, the W polarisation alone two directions orthogonal to its momentum. In particular, a rather simple forward-backward asymmetry in the normal direction is found to be very sensitive to complex phases in one of the Wth anomalous couplings. This asymmetry, which indicates a normal W polarisation, can be generated for example by a P-odd. T-odd transition electric dipole moment. We also investigate the angular distribution of decay products in the top quark rest frame, calculating the spin analysing powers for a general Wth vertex. Finally we show that, using a combined fit to top decay observables and the t W cross section, at LHC it will be possible to obtain model-independent measurements of all the (complex) Wth couplings as well as the single top polarisation. Implications for spin correlations in top pair production are also discussed.

Abstract: We present our new measurement of the cross-section for charm dimuon production in neutrino iron interactions based upon the full statistics collected by the NOMAD experiment. After background subtraction we observe 15 344 charm dimuon events, providing the largest sample currently available. The analysis exploits the large inclusive charged current sample – about 9 x 10(6) events after all analysis cuts – and the high resolution NOMAD detector to constrain the total systematic uncertainty on the ratio of charm dimuon to inclusive Charged Current (CC) cross-sections to similar to 2%. We also perform a fit to the NOMAD data to extract the charm production parameters and the strange quark sea content of the nucleon within the NLO QCD approximation. We obtain a value of m(c)(m(c)) = 1.159 +/- 0.075 GeV/c(2) for the running mass of the charm quark in the (MS) over bar scheme and a strange quark sea suppression factor of kappa(s) = 0.591 +/- 0.019 at Q(2) = 20 GeV2/c(2).

Abstract: We use the expansion of superalgebras procedure (summarized in the text) to derive Chem-Simons (CS) actions for the (p, q)-Poincare supergravities in three-dimensional spacetimes. After deriving the action for the (p, 0)-Poincare supergravity as a CS theory for the expansion osp(p vertical bar 2: R)(2, 1) of osp(p vertical bar 2: R), we find the general (p, q)-Poincare superalgebras and their associated D = 3 supergravity actions as CS gauge theories from an expansion of the simple osp(p + q vertical bar 2, R) superalgebras, namely osp(p + q vertical bar 2, R)(2, 1, 2).