Abstract: The sensitivity of cosmology to the total neutrino mass scale E m & nu; is approaching the minimal values required by oscillation data. We study quantitatively possible tensions between current and forecasted cosmological and terrestrial neutrino mass limits by applying suitable statistical tests such as Bayesian suspiciousness, parameter goodness-of-fit tests, or a parameter difference test. In particular, the tension will depend on whether the normal or the inverted neutrino mass ordering is assumed. We argue, that it makes sense to reject inverted ordering from the cosmology/oscillation comparison only if data are consistent with normal ordering. Our results indicate that, in order to reject inverted ordering with this argument, an accuracy on the sum of neutrino masses & sigma;(m & nu;) of better than 0.02 eV would be required from future cosmological observations.

Abstract: A search for the doubly charmed baryon Omega(+)(cc) with the decay mode Omega(+)(cc) -> Xi K-+(c)-pi(+) is performed using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the LHCb experiment from 2016 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb(-1). No significant signal is observed within the invariant mass range of 3.6 to 4.0GeV/c(2). Upper limits are set on the ratio R of the production cross-section times the total branching fraction of the Omega(+)(cc) -> Xi K-+(c)-pi(+) decay with respect to the Xi(++)(cc) -> Lambda K-+(c)-pi(+)pi(+) decay. Upper limits at 95% credibility level for R in the range 0.005 to 0.11 are obtained for different hypotheses on the Omega(+)(cc) mass and lifetime in the rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and transverse momentum range from 4 to 15 GeV/c.

Abstract: The electromagnetic coupling axion-photon in a microwave cavity is revisited with the Boundary Integral-Resonant Mode Expansion (BI-RME) 3D technique. Such full-wave modal technique has been applied for the rigorous analysis of the excitation of a microwave cavity with an axion field. In this scenario, the electromagnetic field generated by the axion-photon coupling can be assumed to be driven by equivalent electrical charge and current densities. These densities have been inserted in the general BI-RME 3D equations, which express the RF electromagnetic field existing within a cavity as an integral involving the Dyadic Green's functions of the cavity (under Coulomb gauge) as well as such densities. This method is able to take into account any arbitrary spatial and temporal variation of both magnitude and phase of the axion field. Next, we have obtained a simple network driven by the axion current source, which represents the coupling between the axion field and the resonant modes of the cavity. With this approach, it is possible to calculate the extracted and dissipated RF power as a function of frequency along a broad band and without Cauchy-Lorentz approximations, obtaining the spectrum of the electromagnetic field generated in the cavity, and dealing with modes relatively close to the axion resonant mode. Moreover, with this technique we have a complete knowledge of the signal extracted from the cavity, not only in magnitude but also in phase. This can be an interesting issue for future analysis where the axion phase is an important parameter.

Abstract: The Phenomenologically Emergent Dark Energy model, a dark energy model with the same number of free parameters as the flat Lambda CDM, has been proposed as a working example of a minimal model which can avoid the current cosmological tensions. A straightforward question is whether or not the inclusion of massive neutrinos and extra relativistic species may spoil such an appealing phenomenological alternative. We present the bounds on M-nu and N-eff and comment on the long standing H-0 and sigma(8) tensions within this cosmological framework with a wealth of cosmological observations. Interestingly, we find, at 95% confidence level, and with the most complete set of cosmological observations, M-nu similar to 0.21(-0.14)(+0.15) eV and N-eff = 3.03 +/- 0.32 i.e. an indication for a non-zero neutrino mass with a significance above 2 sigma. The well known Hubble constant tension is considerably easened, with a significance always below the 2 sigma level. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: We study the propagation of light in the presence of a parity-violating coupling between photons and axion-like particles (ALPs). Naively, this interaction could lead to a split of light rays into two separate beams of different polarization chirality and with different refraction angles. However, by using the eikonal method we explicitly show that this is not the case and that ALP clumps do not produce any spatial birefringence. This happens due to non-trivial variations of the photon's frequency and wavevector, which absorb time-derivatives and gradients of the ALP field. We argue that these variations represent a new way to probe the ALP-photon coupling with precision frequency measurements.