Abstract: The data accumulated so far confirm the Higgs-like nature of the new boson discovered at the LHC. The Standard Model Higgs hypothesis is compatible with the collider results and no significant deviations from the Standard Model have been observed neither in the flavour sector nor in electroweak precision observables. We update the LHC and Tevatron constraints on CP-conserving two-Higgs-doublet models without tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents. While the relative sign between the top Yukawa and the gauge coupling of the 126 GeV Higgs is found be the same as in the SM, at 90% CL, there is a sign degeneracy in the determination of its bottom and tau Yukawa couplings. This results in several disjoint allowed regions in the parameter space. We show how generic sum rules governing the scalar couplings determine the properties of the additional Higgs bosons in the different allowed regions. The role of electroweak precision observables, low-energy flavour constraints and LHC searches for additional scalars to further restrict the available parameter space is also discussed.

Abstract: We extend to 10 GeV results from a microscopic calculation of charged-current neutrino-nucleus reactions that do not produce a pion in the final state. For the class of events coming from neutrino interactions with two nucleons producing two holes (2p2h), limiting the calculation to three-momentum transfers less than 1.2 GeV produces a two-dimensional distribution in momentum and energy transfer that is roughly constant as a function of energy. The cross section for 2p2h interactions approximately scales with the number of nucleons for isoscalar nuclei, similar to the quasi-elastic cross section. When limited to momentum transfers below 1.2 GeV, the cross section is 26% of the quasi-elastic cross section at 3 GeV, but 14% if we neglect a Delta(1232) resonance absorption component. The same quantities are 33% and 17% for antineutrinos. For the quasi-elastic interactions, the full nuclear model with long range correlations produces an even larger, but approximately constant distortion of the shape of the four-momentum transfer at all energies above 2 GeV. The 2p2h enhancement and long-range correlation distortions to the cross section for these interactions are significant enough they should be observable in precision experiments to measure neutrino oscillations and neutrino interactions at these energies, but also balance out and produce less total distortion than each effect does individually.

Abstract: A search is presented for direct chargino production based on a disappearing-track signature using 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking (AMSB) models, the lightest chargino is nearly mass degenerate with the lightest neutralino and its lifetime is long enough to be detected in the tracking detectors by identifying decays that result in tracks with no associated hits in the outer region of the tracking system. Some models with supersymmetry also predict charginos with a significant lifetime. This analysis attains sensitivity for charginos with a lifetime between 0.1 and 10 ns, and significantly surpasses the reach of the LEP experiments. No significant excess above the background expectation is observed for candidate tracks with large transverse momentum, and constraints on chargino properties are obtained. In the AMSB scenarios, a chargino mass below 270 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level.

Abstract: The distributions of event-by-event harmonic flow coefficients v (n) for n = 2- 4 are measured in = 2.76 TeV Pb + Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using charged particles with transverse momentum p (T) > 0.5 GeV and in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5 in a dataset of approximately 7 μb(-1) recorded in 2010. The shapes of the v (n) distributions suggest that the associated flow vectors are described by a two-dimensional Gaussian function in central collisions for v (2) and over most of the measured centrality range for v (3) and v (4). Significant deviations from this function are observed for v (2) in mid-central and peripheral collisions, and a small deviation is observed for v (3) in mid-central collisions. In order to be sensitive to these deviations, it is shown that the commonly used multi-particle cumulants, involving four particles or more, need to be measured with a precision better than a few percent. The v (n) distributions are also measured independently for charged particles with 0.5 < p (T) < 1 GeV and p (T) > 1 GeV. When these distributions are rescaled to the same mean values, the adjusted shapes are found to be nearly the same for these two p (T) ranges. The v (n) distributions are compared with the eccentricity distributions from two models for the initial collision geometry: a Glauber model and a model that includes corrections to the initial geometry due to gluon saturation effects. Both models fail to describe the experimental data consistently over most of the measured centrality range.

Abstract: Recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) results from the Planck satellite, combined with previous CMB data and Hubble constant measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope, provide a constraint on the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom 3.62(-0.48)(+0.50) at 95% CL. New Planck data provide a unique opportunity to place limits on models containing relativistic species at the decoupling epoch. We present here the bounds on sterile neutrino models combining Planck data with galaxy clustering information. Assuming N-eff active plus sterile massive neutrino species, in the case of a Planck+WP+HighL+HST analysis we find m(nu,sterile)(eff) < 0.36 eV and 3.14 < N-eff < 4.15 at 95% CL, while using Planck+WP+HighL data in combination with the full shape of the galaxy power spectrum from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey BOSS Data Relase 9 measurements, we find that 3.30 < N-eff < 4.43 and m(nu,sterile)(eff) < 0.33 eV both at 95% CL with the three active neutrinos having the minimum mass allowed in the normal hierarchy scheme, i.e. Sigma m(nu) similar to 0.06 eV. These values compromise the viability of the (3 + 2) massive sterile neutrino models for the parameter region indicated by global fits of neutrino oscillation data. Within the (3 + 1) massive sterile neutrino scenario, we find m(nu,sterile)(eff) < 0.34 eV at 95% CL. While the existence of one extra sterile massive neutrino state is compatible with current oscillation data, the values for the sterile neutrino mass preferred by oscillation analyses are significantly higher than the current cosmological bound. We review as well the bounds on extended dark sectors with additional light species based on the latest Planck CMB observations.