Abstract: In this paper, we explore in detail the cosmological implications of an abelian L – L gauge extension of the Standard Model featuring a light and weakly coupled Z. Such a scenario is motivated by the longstanding approximate to 4 sigma discrepancy between the measured and predicted values of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment, (g – 2), as well as the tension between late and early time determinations of the Hubble constant. If sufficiently light, the Z population will decay to neutrinos, increasing the overall energy density of radiation and altering the expansion history of the early universe. We identify two distinct regions of parameter space in this model in which the Hubble tension can be significantly relaxed. The first of these is the previously identified region in which a approximate to 10 – 20 MeV Z reaches equilibrium in the early universe and then decays, heating the neutrino population and delaying the process of neutrino decoupling. For a coupling of g (-) similar or equal to (3 – 8) x 10(-4), such a particle can also explain the observed (g – 2) anomaly. In the second region, the Z is very light (mZ approximate to 1eV to MeV) and very weakly coupled (g (-) approximate to 10(-13) to 10(-9)). In this case, the Z population is produced through freeze-in, and decays to neutrinos after neutrino decoupling. Across large regions of parameter space, we predict a contribution to the energy density of radiation that can appreciably relax the reported Hubble tension, N-eff similar or equal to 0.2.

Abstract: We extend the adiabatic regularization method by introducing an arbitrary mass scale μin the construction of the subtraction terms. This allows us to obtain, in a very robust way, the running of the coupling constants by demanding mu-invariance of the effective semiclassical (Maxwell-Einstein) equations. In particular, we get the running of the electric charge of perturbative quantum electrodynamics. Furthermore, the method brings about a renormalization of the cosmological constant and the Newtonian gravitational constant. The running obtained for these dimensionful coupling constants has new relevant (non-logarithmic) contributions, not predicted by dimensional regularization.

Abstract: The doubly Cabibbo- suppressed decay Xi(+)(c) -> p phi with ! K+K is observed for the fi rst time, with a statistical signi fi cance of more than fi fteen standard deviations. The data sample used in this analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb recorded with the LHCb detector in pp collisions at a centre- of- mass energy of 8TeV. The ratio of branching fractions between the decay + c ! p and the singly Cabibbo- suppressed decay + c ! pK is measured to be B (Xi(+)(c) -> p phi) B (Xi(+)(c) -> p phi) = (19 : 8 0 : 7 0 : 9 0 : 2) 10 where the fi rst uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third due to the knowledge of the Xi(+)(c) -> pK(+)pi(+) branching fraction.

Abstract: We present a comprehensive analysis of low-energy signals of hypothetical scalar leptoquark interactions in lepton and kaon transitions. We derive the most general effective four-fermion Lagrangian induced by tree-level scalar leptoquark exchange and identify the Wilson coefficients predicted by the five possible types of scalar leptoquarks. The current constraints on the leptoquark Yukawa couplings arising from lepton and kaon processes are worked out, including also loop-induced transitions with only leptons (or quarks) as external states. In the presence of scalar leptoquark interactions, we also derive the differential distributions for flavour-changing neutral-current transitions in semileptonic kaon modes, including all known effects within the Standard Model. Their interference with the new physics contributions could play a significant role in future improvements of those constraints that are currently hampered by poorly-determined non-perturbative parameters.

Abstract: A search for Higgs boson pair production in the bbWW decay mode is performed in the bb`qq fi nal state using 36.1 fb of proton-proton collision data at a centreof- mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of events beyond the background expectation is found. Upper limits on the non-resonant pp ! HH production cross section of 10 pb and on the resonant production cross section as a function of the HH invariant mass are obtained. Resonant production limits are set for scalar and spin-2 graviton hypotheses in the mass range 500 to 3000 GeV.