Abstract: We study discovery prospects for long-lived sterile neutrinos at the LHC with multitrack displaced vertices, with masses below the electroweak scale. We reinterpret current displaced vertex searches making use of publicly available, parametrized selection efficiencies for modeling the detector response to displaced vertices. We focus on the production of right-handed WR bosons and neutrinos N in a left-right symmetric model, and find poor sensitivity. After proposing a different trigger strategy ( considering the prompt lepton accompanying the neutrino displaced vertex) and optimized cuts in the invariant mass and track multiplicity of the vertex, we find that the LHC with root s = 13 TeV and 300 fb(-1) is able to probe sterile neutrino masses between 10 GeV < m(N) < 20 GeV ( for a right-handed gauge boson mass of 2 TeV < m(WR) < 3.5 TeV). To probe higher masses up to m(N) similar to 30 GeV and m(WR) < 5 TeV, 3000 fb(-1) will be needed. This work joins other efforts in motivating dedicated experimental searches to target this low sterile neutrino mass region.

Abstract: We present a detailed study of the subtle interplay transpiring at the level of two integral equations that are instrumental for the dynamical generation of a gluon mass in pure Yang-Mills theories. The main novelty is the joint treatment of the Schwinger-Dyson equation governing the infrared behavior of the gluon propagator and of the integral equation that controls the formation of massless bound-state excitations, whose inclusion is instrumental for obtaining massive solutions from the former equation. The self-consistency of the entire approach imposes the requirement of using a single value for the gauge coupling entering in the two key equations; its fulfilment depends crucially on the details of the three-gluon vertex, which contributes to both of them, but with different weight. In particular, the characteristic suppression of this vertex at intermediate and low energies enables the convergence of the iteration procedure to a single gauge coupling, whose value is reasonably close to that extracted from related lattice simulations.

Abstract: A search for the associated production of the Higgs boson with a top quark pair ((tt) over barH) is reported. The search is performed in multilepton final states using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at a center-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. Higgs boson decays to WW*, tau tau, and ZZ* are targeted. Seven final states, categorized by the number and flavor of charged-lepton candidates, are examined for the presence of the Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeVand a pair of top quarks. An excess of events over the expected background from Standard Model processes is found with an observed significance of 4.1 standard deviations, compared to an expectation of 2.8 standard deviations. The best fit for the (tt) over barH production cross section is sot (tt) over barH) = 790(-210)(+230) fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 507(-50)(+35) fb. The combination of this result with other t <overline> tH searches from the ATLAS experiment using the Higgs boson decay modes to b (b) over bar, gamma gamma and ZZ* -> 4l, has an observed significance of 4.2 standard deviations, compared to an expectation of 3.8 standard deviations. This provides evidence for the (tt) over barH production mode.