Abstract: We study the constraints imposed by neutrino oscillation experiments on the minimal extension of the Standard Model that can explain neutrino masses, which requires the addition of just two singlet Weyl fermions. The most general renormalizable couplings of this model imply generically four massive neutrino mass eigenstates while one remains massless: it is therefore a minimal 3+2 model. The possibility to account for the confirmed solar, atmospheric and long-baseline oscillations, together with the LSND/MiniBooNE and reactor anomalies is addressed. We find that the minimal model can fit oscillation data including the anomalies better than the standard 3 nu model and similarly to the 3 + 2 phenomenological models, even though the number of free parameters is much smaller than in the latter. Accounting for the anomalies in the minimal model favours a normal hierarchy of the light states and requires a large reactor angle, in agreement with recent measurements. Our analysis of the model employs a new parametrization of seesaw models that extends the Casas-Ibarra one to regimes where higher order corrections in the light-heavy mixings are significant.

Abstract: A search for a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying via H -> ZZ -> l(+)l(-) nu(nu) over bar, where l represents electrons or muons, is presented. It is based on proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during 2011 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1). The data agree with the expected Standard Model backgrounds. Upper limits on the Higgs boson production cross section are derived for Higgs boson masses between 200 GeV and 600 GeV and the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass in the range 319-558 GeV is excluded at the 95% confidence level.

Abstract: In the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model, the alignment of Yukawa matrices in flavour space guarantees the absence of tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents, while allowing at the same time for new sources of CP violation, implying potentially large effects in many low-energy processes. In this work we study the constraints from exclusive radiative B -> V gamma decays, where V denotes a light vector meson. The current experimental data on the CP-averaged branching ratios and the direct CP and isospin asymmetries are analyzed. It is found that, while the branching ratios and direct CP asymmetries do not constrain the parameter space much further compared to the inclusive B -> X-s,X-d gamma decays, complementary constraints can be obtained from the isospin asymmetries Delta(K*gamma) and Delta(rho gamma). In addition, correlations between the various observables in exclusive B -> V gamma and inclusive B -> X-s,X-d gamma decays are investigated in detail, and predictions are made for several so far unmeasured observables.

Abstract: Motivated by the ATLAS and CMS discovery of a Higgs-like boson with a mass around 125 GeV, and by the need of explaining neutrino masses, we analyse the three canonical SUSY versions of the seesaw mechanism (type I, II and III) with CMSSM boundary conditions. In type II and III cases, SUSY particles are lighter than in the CMSSM (or the constrained type I seesaw), for the same set of input parameters at the universality scale. Thus, to explain m(h0) similar or equal to 125 GeV at low energies, one is forced into regions of parameter space with very large values of m(0), M-1/2 or A(0). We compare the squark and gluino masses allowed by the ATLAS and CMS ranges for m(h0) (extracted from the 2011-2012 data), and discuss the possibility of distinguishing seesaw models in view of future results on SUSY searches. In particular, we briefly comment on the discovery potential of LHC upgrades, for squark/gluino mass ranges required by present Higgs mass constraints. A discrimination between different seesaw models cannot rely on the Higgs mass data alone, therefore we also take into account the MEG upper limit on BR(mu -> e gamma) and show that, in some cases, this may help to restrict the SUSY parameter space, as well as to set complementary limits on the seesaw scale.

Abstract: We analyse the possible presence of New Physics (NP) in the Flavour Sector and evaluate its potential for solving the tension between the experimental values of A(J/Psi KS) and Br(B+ -> tau(+)v(tau)) with respect to the Standard Model (SM) expectations. Updated model independent analyses, where NP contributions are allowed in B-d(0) – (B) over bar (0)(d) and B-s(0) – (B) over bar (0)(s) transitions, suggest the need of New Physics in the bd sector. A detailed analysis of recent Flavour data is then presented in the framework of a simple extension of the SM, where a Q = 2/3 vector-like isosinglet quark is added to the spectrum of the SM. Special emphasis is given to the implications of this model for correlations among various measurable quantities. We include constraints from all the relevant quark flavour sectors and give precise predictions for selected rare processes. We find important deviations from the SM in observables in the bd sector like the semileptonic asymmetry A(SL)(d), B-d(0) -> mu(+)mu(-) and A(SL)(s) – A(SL)(d). Other potential places where NP can show up include A(J/Psi Phi), gamma, K-L(0) -> pi(0)v (v) over bar, t -> Zq and D-0 -> mu(+)mu(-) among others. The experimental data favours in this model the existence of an up vector-like quark with a mass below 600(1000) GeV at 1(2) sigma.