Abstract: The MoEDAL experiment at Point 8 of the LHC ring is the seventh and newest LHC experiment. It is dedicated to the search for highly-ionizing particle avatars of physics beyond the Standard Model, extending significantly the discovery horizon of the LHC. A MoEDAL discovery would have revolutionary implications for our fundamental understanding of the Microcosm. MoEDAL is an unconventional and largely passive LHC detector comprised of the largest array of Nuclear Track Detector stacks ever deployed at an accelerator, surrounding the intersection region at Point 8 on the LHC ring. Another novel feature is the use of paramagnetic trapping volumes to capture both electrically and magnetically charged highly-ionizing particles predicted in new physics scenarios. It includes an array of TimePix pixel devices for monitoring highly-ionizing particle backgrounds. The main passive elements of the MoEDAL detector do not require a trigger system, electronic readout, or online computerized data acquisition. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the MoEDAL physics reach, which is largely complementary to the programs of the large multipurpose LHC detectors ATLAS and CMS.

Abstract: We build a class of invisible axion models with tree-level Flavor Changing Neutral Currents completely controlled by the fermion mixing matrices. The scalar sector of these models contains three-Higgs doublets and a complex scalar gauge singlet, with the same fermionic content as in the Standard Model. A horizontal Peccei-Quinn symmetry provides a solution to the strong CP problem and predicts the existence of a very light and weakly coupled pseudo-Goldstone boson, the invisible axion or familon. A phenomenological analysis is performed taking into account familon searches in rare kaon and muon decays, astrophysical considerations and axion searches via axion-photon conversion. Drastic differences are found in the axion properties of different models due to the strong hierarchy of the CKM matrix, making some of the models considered much more constrained than others. We also obtain that a rich variety of these models avoid the domain wall problem. A possible mechanism to protect the solution to the strong CP problem against gravitational effects is also discussed.

Abstract: Electric dipole moments are extremely sensitive probes for additional sources of CP violation in new physics models. Specifically, they have been argued in the past to exclude new CP-violating phases in two-Higgs-doublet models. Since recently models including such phases have been discussed widely, we revisit the available constraints in the presence of mechanisms which are typically invoked to evade flavour-changing neutral currents. To that aim, we start by assessing the necessary calculations on the hadronic, nuclear and atomic/molecular level, deriving expressions with conservative error estimates. Their phenomenological analysis in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models yields strong constraints, in some cases weakened by a cancellation mechanism among contributions from neutral scalars. While the corresponding parameter combinations do not yet have to be unnaturally small, the constraints are likely to preclude large effects in other CP-violating observables. Nevertheless, the generically expected contributions to electric dipole moments in this class of models lie within the projected sensitivity of the next-generation experiments.

Abstract: The results of a search for charged Higgs bosons decaying to a T lepton and a neutrino. H-+/- -> T-+/-nu, are presented. The analysis is based on 19.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Charged Higgs bosons are searched for in events consistent with top-quark pair production or in associated production with a top quark, depending on the considered H-+/- mass. The final state is characterised by the presence of a hadronic T decay, missing transverse momentum, b-tagged jets, a hadronically decaying W boson, and the absence of any isolated electrons or unions with high transverse momenta. The data are consistent with the expected background from Standard Model processes. A statistical analysis leads to 95% confidence-level upper limits on the product of branching ratios B(t -> bH(+/-)) x B(H-+/- -> T-+/-nu), between 0.23% and 1.3% for charged Higgs boson masses in the range 80 160 GeV. lit also leads to 95% confidence-level upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio, sigma(pp -> tH(+/-) + X) x B(H-+/--> T(+/-)v), between 0.76 pb and 4.5 fb, for charged Higgs boson masses ranging from 180 GeV to 1000 GeV. In the context of different scenarios of the Minimal Supersymnietric Standard Model, these results exclude nearly all values of tan beta above one for charged Higgs boson masses between 80 GeV and 160 GeV, and exclude a region of parameter space with high tan beta for H-+/- masses between 200 GeV and 250 GeV.

Abstract: We systematically analyze the d = 5 Weinberg operator at 2-loop order. Using a diagrammatic approach, we identify two different interesting categories of neutrino mass models: (i) Genuine 2-loop models for which both, tree-level and 1-loop contributions, are guaranteed to be absent. And (ii) finite 2-loop diagrams, which correspond to the 1-loop generation of some particular vertex appearing in a given 1-loop neutrino mass model, thus being effectively 2-loop. From the large list of all possible 2-loop diagrams, the vast majority are infinite corrections to lower order neutrino mass models and only a moderately small number of diagrams fall into these two interesting classes. Moreover, all diagrams in class (i) are just variations of three basic diagrams, with examples discussed in the literature before. Similarly, we also show that class (ii) diagrams consists of only variations of these three plus two more basic diagrams. Finally, we show how our results can be consistently and readily used in order to construct two-loop neutrino mass models.