Abstract: Chiral potentials are derived for the interactions between Goldstone bosons and pseudo-scalar charmed mesons up to next-to-next-to-leading order in a covariant chiral effective field theory with explicit vector charmed-meson degrees of freedom. Using the extended-on-mass-shell scheme, we demonstrate that the ultraviolet divergences and the so-called power counting breaking terms can be properly absorbed by the low-energy constants of the chiral Lagrangians. We calculate the scattering lengths by unitarizing the one-loop potentials and fit them to the data extracted from lattice QCD. The obtained results are compared to the ones without an explicit contribution of vector charmed mesons given previously. It is found that the difference is negligible for 5-wave scattering in the threshold region. This validates the use of D-*-less one-loop potentials in the study of the pertinent scattering lengths. We search for dynamically generated open-charm states with J(P) = 0(+) as poles of the 5-matrix on various Riemann sheets. The trajectories of those poles for varying pion masses are presented as well.

Abstract: PurposeA joint working group was created by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO), and the Australasian Brachytherapy Group (ABG) with the charge, among others, to develop a set of well-defined test case plans and perform calculations and comparisons with model-based dose calculation algorithms (MBDCAs). Its main goal is to facilitate a smooth transition from the AAPM Task Group No. 43 (TG-43) dose calculation formalism, widely being used in clinical practice for brachytherapy, to the one proposed by Task Group No. 186 (TG-186) for MBDCAs. To do so, in this work a hypothetical, generic high-dose rate (HDR) Ir-192 shielded applicator has been designed and benchmarked. MethodsA generic HDR Ir-192 shielded applicator was designed based on three commercially available gynecological applicators as well as a virtual cubic water phantom that can be imported into any DICOM-RT compatible treatment planning system (TPS). The absorbed dose distribution around the applicator with the TG-186 Ir-192 source located at one dwell position at its center was computed using two commercial TPSs incorporating MBDCAs (Oncentra((R)) Brachy with Advanced Collapsed-cone Engine, ACE, and BrachyVision ACUROS) and state-of-the-art Monte Carlo (MC) codes, including ALGEBRA, BrachyDose, egs_brachy, Geant4, MCNP6, and Penelope2008. TPS-based volumetric dose distributions for the previously reported source centered in water and source displaced test cases, and the new source centered in applicator test case, were analyzed here using the MCNP6 dose distribution as a reference. Volumetric dose comparisons of TPS results against results for the other MC codes were also performed. Distributions of local and global dose difference ratios are reported. ResultsThe local dose differences among MC codes are comparable to the statistical uncertainties of the reference datasets for the source centered in water and source displaced test cases and for the clinically relevant part of the unshielded volume in the source centered in applicator case. Larger local differences appear in the shielded volume or at large distances. Considering clinically relevant regions, global dose differences are smaller than the local ones. The most disadvantageous case for the MBDCAs is the one including the shielded applicator. In this case, ACUROS agrees with MC within [-4.2%, +4.2%] for the majority of voxels (95%) while presenting dose differences within [-0.12%, +0.12%] of the dose at a clinically relevant reference point. For ACE, 95% of the total volume presents differences with respect to MC in the range [-1.7%, +0.4%] of the dose at the reference point. ConclusionsThe combination of the generic source and generic shielded applicator, together with the previously developed test cases and reference datasets (available in the Brachytherapy Source Registry), lay a solid foundation in supporting uniform commissioning procedures and direct comparisons among treatment planning systems for HDR Ir-192 brachytherapy.

Abstract: A measurement of b-hadron pair production is presented, based on a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 11.4 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions recorded at root s = 8TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are selected in which a b-hadron is reconstructed in a decay channel containing J = psi -> μmu, and a second b-hadron is reconstructed in a decay channel containing a muon. Results are presented in a fiducial volume de fined by kinematic requirements on three muons based on those used in the analysis. The fiducial cross section is measured to be 17.7 +/- 0.1(stat.) +/- 2.0(syst.) nb. A number of normalised differential cross sections are also measured, and compared to predictions from the PYTHIA8, HERWIG++, MADGRAPH5_AMC@NLO+PYTHIA8 and SHERPA event generators, providing new constraints on heavy flavour production.

Abstract: Observables sensitive to the anomalous production of events containing hadronic jets and missing momentum in the plane transverse to the proton beams at the Large Hadron Collider are presented. The observables are defined as a ratio of cross sections, for events containing jets and large missing transverse momentum to events containing jets and a pair of charged leptons from the decay of a Z/gamma* boson. This definition minimises experimental and theoretical systematic uncertainties in the measurements. This ratio is measured differentially with respect to a number of kinematic properties of the hadronic system in two phase-space regions; one inclusive single-jet region and one region sensitive to vector-boson-fusion topologies. The data are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model predictions and used to constrain a variety of theoretical models for dark-matter production, including simplified models, effective field theory models, and invisible decays of the Higgs boson. The measurements use 3.2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV and are fully corrected for detector effects, meaning that the data can be used to constrain new-physics models beyond those shown in this paper.

Abstract: Motivated by discrete flavour symmetry models, we analyse Spontaneous CP Violation (SCPV) for potentials involving three or six Higgs fi elds (both electroweak doublets and singlets) which fall into irreducible triplet representations of discrete symmetries belonging to the Delta(3n(2)) and Delta(6n(2)) series, including A(4), S-4, Delta(27) and Delta(54). For each case, we give the potential and fi nd various global minima for di ff erent regions of the parameter space of the potential. Using CP-odd basis Invariants that indicate the presence of Spontaneous CP Violation we separate the VEVs into those that do or do not violate CP. In cases where CP is preserved we reveal a CP symmetry of the potential that is preserved by those VEVs, otherwise we display a non-zero CP-odd Invariant. Finally we identify interesting cases where there is Spontaneous Geometrical CP Violation in which the VEVs have geometrical phases.