Abstract: We present the results of a search for the rare flavor-changing neutral-current decays B -> pi l(+)l(-) (pi = pi(+), pi(0) and l = e, mu) and B-0 -> eta l(+)l(-) using a sample of e(+)e(-) -> Upsilon(4S) -> B (B) over bar decays corresponding to 428 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected by the BABAR detector. No significant signal is observed, and we set an upper limit on the isospin and lepton-flavor averaged branching fraction of B(B -> pi l(+)l(-)) < 5.9 x 10(-8) and a lepton-flavor averaged upper limit of B(B-0 -> eta l(+)l(-)) < 6.4 x 10(-8), both at the 90% confidence level. We also report 90% confidence level branching fraction upper limits for the individual modes B+ -> pi(+)e(+)e(-), B-0 -> pi(0)e(+)e(-), B-0 -> pi(+)mu(+)mu(-), B-0 -> pi(+)mu(+)mu(-), B-0 -> pi(0)mu(+)mu(-), B-0 -> eta e(+)e(-), and B-0 ->eta mu(+)mu(-).

Abstract: Inclusive production cross sections of pi(+/-), K-+/- and p/(p) over bar per hadronic e(+)e(-) annihilation event are measured at a center-of-mass energy of 10.54 GeV, using a relatively small sample of very high quality data from the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II B-factory at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The drift chamber and Cherenkov detector provide clean samples of identified pi(+/-), K-+/-, and p/(p) over bar over a wide range of momenta. Since the center-of-mass energy is below the threshold to produce a B (B) over bar pair, with B a bottom-quark meson, these data represent a pure e(+)e(-) -> q (q) over bar sample with four quark flavors, and are used to test QCD predictions and hadronization models. Combined with measurements at other energies, in particular at the Z(0) resonance, they also provide precise constraints on the scaling properties of the hadronization process over a wide energy range.

Abstract: The dynamics of isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV has been studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using an integrated luminosity of 37 pb(-1). Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet bin-averaged cross sections are presented as functions of photon transverse energy, jet transverse momentum and jet rapidity. In addition, the bin-averaged cross sections as functions of the difference between the azimuthal angles of the photon and the jet, the photon jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon jet centre-of-mass frame have been measured. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations are compared to the measurements and provide a good description of the data, except for the case of the azimuthal opening angle.

Abstract: A novel contribution to the leptonic CP asymmetries in type II seesaw leptogenesis scenarios is obtained for the cases in which flavor effects are relevant for the dynamics of leptogenesis. In the so-called flavored leptogenesis regime, the interference between the tree-level amplitude of the scalar triplet decaying into two leptons and the one-loop wave function correction with leptons in the loop, leads to a new nonvanishing CP asymmetry contribution. The latter conserves total lepton number but violates lepton flavor. Cases in which this novel contribution may be dominant in the generation of the baryon asymmetry are briefly discussed.

Abstract: Cosmological constraints on the sum of neutrino masses and on the effective number of neutrino species in standard and nonstandard scenarios are computed using the most recent available cosmological data. Our cosmological data sets include the measurement of the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the data release 9 CMASS sample of the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey. We study in detail the different degeneracies among the parameters, as well as the impact of the different data sets used in the analyses. When considering bounds on the sum of the three active neutrino masses, the information in the BAO signal from galaxy clustering measurements is approximately equally powerful as the shape information from the matter power spectrum. The most stringent bound we find is Sigma m(nu) < 0.32 eV at 95% C.L. When nonstandard neutrino scenarios with N-eff massless or massive neutrino species are examined, power spectrum shape measurements provide slightly better bounds than the BAO signal only, due to the breaking of parameter degeneracies. Cosmic microwave background data from high multipoles from the South Pole Telescope turns out to be crucial for extracting the number of effective neutrino species. Recent baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey data combined with cosmic microwave background and Hubble Space Telescope measurements give N-eff = 3.66(-0.21-0.69)(+0.20+0.73) in the massless neutrino scenario, and similar results are obtained in the massive case. The evidence for extra radiation N-eff > 3 often claimed in the literature therefore remains at the 2 sigma level when considering up-to-date cosmological data sets. Measurements from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe combined with a prior on the Hubble parameter from the Hubble Space Telescope are very powerful in constraining either the sum of the three active neutrino masses or the number of massless neutrino species. If the former two parameters are allowed to freely vary, however, the bounds from the combination of these two cosmological probes get worse by an order of magnitude.