Abstract: We explore the constraints and phenomenology of possibly the simplest scenario that could account at the same time for the active neutrino masses and the dark matter in the Universe within a gauged U(1)(B-L) symmetry, namely right-handed neutrino dark matter. We find that null searches from lepton and hadron colliders require dark matter with a mass below 900 GeV to annihilate through a resonance. Additionally, the very strong constraints from high-energy dilepton searches fully exclude the model for 150 GeV < m(z') < 3 TeV. We further explore the phenomenology in the high mass region (i.e. masses greater than or similar to O(1) TeV) and highlight theoretical arguments, related to the appearance of a Landau pole or an instability of the scalar potential, disfavoring large portions of this parameter space. Collectively, these considerations illustrate that a minimal extension of the Standard Model via a local U(1)(B-L) symmetry with a viable thermal dark matter candidate is difficult to achieve without fine-tuning. We conclude by discussing possible extensions of the model that relieve tension with collider constraints by reducing the gauge coupling required to produce the correct relic abundance.

Abstract: Charged Higgs bosons produced either in top-quark decays or in association with a top-quark, subsequently decaying via H-+/-! -> tau(+/-)nu(tau), are searched for in 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 13TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. Depending on whether the top-quark produced together with H-+/- decays hadronically or leptonically, the search targets tau+jets and tau+lepton fi nal states, in both cases with a hadronically decaying tau-lepton. No evidence of a charged Higgs boson is found. For the mass range of m(H)+/- = 90-2000 GeV, upper limits at the 95% con fi dence level are set on the production cross-section of the charged Higgs boson times the branching fraction B (H-+/-->tau(+/-)nu(tau)) in the range 4.2-0.0025 pb. In the mass range 90{160 GeV, assuming the Standard Model cross-section for tit production, this corresponds to upper limits between 0.25% and 0.031% for the branching fraction B (t -> bH(+/-)) x B (H-+/- -> tau(+/-)nu(tau)).

Abstract: We study the sensitivity to physics beyond the standard model of precise top-quark pair production measurements at future lepton colliders. A global effective-field-theory approach is employed, including all ten dimension-six operators of the Warsaw basis which involve a top-quark and give rise to tree-level amplitudes that interfere with standard-model e+e-tt ones in the limit of vanishing b-quark mass. Four-fermion and CP-violating contributions are taken into account. Circular-collider-, ILC- and CLIC-like benchmark run scenarios are examined. We compare the constraining power of various observables to a set of statistically optimal ones which maximally exploit the information contained in the fully differential bW+ distribution. The enhanced sensitivity gained on the linear contributions of dimension-six operators leads to bounds that are insensitive to quadratic ones. Even with statistically optimal observables, two centre-of-mass energies are required for constraining simultaneously two- and four-fermion operators. The impact of the centre-of-mass energy lever arm is discussed, that of beam polarization as well. A realistic estimate of the precision that can be achieved in ILC- and CLIC-like operating scenarios yields individual limits on the electroweak couplings of the top quark that are one to three orders of magnitude better than constraints set with Tevatron and LHC run I data, and three to two hundred times better than the most optimistic projections made for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. Clean global constraints can moreover be obtained at lepton colliders, robustly covering the multidimensional effective-field-theory space with minimal model dependence.