Abstract: Current results of the MiniBooNE experiment show excess events that indicate neutrino oscillations, but only if one goes beyond the standard 3 family scenario. Recently a different explanation of the events has been given, not in terms of oscillations but by the production and decay of a massive sterile neutrino with large transition magnetic moment. We study the effect of such a sterile neutrino in the rare decays tau(-) -> mu(-)mu(+)pi(-)nu and tau(-) -> mu(-)mu(+)e(-)nu nu. We find that searches for these decays, featuring displaced vertices between the mu(-) and the other charged particles, constitute reliable tests for the existence of the sterile neutrino proposed to explain the MiniBooNE anomaly. These searches could be done with already existing experimental data.

Abstract: This paper describes a measurement of the W boson transverse momentum distribution using ATLAS pp collision data from the 2010 run of the LHC at root s = 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 31 pb(-1). Events form both W -> e nu and W -> μnu are used, and the transverse momentum of the W candidates is measured through the energy deposition in the calorimeter from the recoil of the W. The resulting distributions are unfolded to obtain the normalized differential cross sections as a function of the W boson transverse momentum. We present results for p(T)(W) < 300 GeV in the electron and muon channels as well as for their combination, and compare the combined results to the predictions of perturbative QCD and a selection of event generators.

Abstract: The gauge-invariant generation of an effective gluon mass proceeds through the well-known Schwinger mechanism, whose key dynamical ingredient is the nonperturbative formation of longitudinally coupled massless bound-state excitations. These excitations introduce poles in the vertices of the theory, in such a way as to maintain the Slavnov-Taylor identities intact in the presence of massive gluon propagators. In the present work we first focus on the modifications induced to the nonperturbative three-gluon vertex by the inclusion of massless two-gluon bound states into the kernels appearing in its skeleton expansion. Certain general relations between the basic building blocks of these bound states and the gluon mass are then obtained from the Slavnov-Taylor identities and the Schwinger-Dyson equation governing the gluon propagator. The homogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation determining the wave function of the aforementioned bound state is then derived, under certain simplifying assumptions. It is then shown, through a detailed analytical and numerical study, that this equation admits nontrivial solutions, indicating that the QCD dynamics support indeed the formation of such massless bound states. These solutions are subsequently used, in conjunction with the aforementioned relations, to determine the momentumdependence of the dynamical gluon mass. Finally, further possibilities and open questions are briefly discussed.

Abstract: The stability of systems containing six quarks or antiquarks is studied within a simple string model inspired by the strong-coupling regime of quantum chromodynamics and used previously for tetraquarks and pentaquarks. We discuss both six-quark (q(6)) and three-quark-three-antiquark (q(3)($) over bar (3)) states. The quarks are assumed to be distinguishable and thus not submitted to antisymmetrization. It is found that the ground state of (q(6)) is stable against dissociation into two isolated baryons. For the case of (q(3)($) over bar (3)), our results indicate the existence of a bound state very close to the threshold. The investigations are extended to (q(3)Q(3)) and (Q(3) ($) over bar (3)) systems with two different constituent masses, and their stability is discussed as a function of the mass ratio.

Abstract: In this paper we present the connection between scattering amplitudes in momentum space and wave functions in coordinate space, generalizing previous work done for s-waves to any partial wave. The relationship to the wave function of the residues of the scattering amplitudes at the pole of bound states or resonances is investigated in detail. A sum rule obtained for the couplings provides a generalization to coupled channels, any partial wave and bound or resonance states, of Weinberg's compositeness condition, which was only valid for weakly bound states in one channel and s-wave. An example, requiring only experimental data, is shown for the rho meson indicating that it is not a composite particle of pi pi and K (K) over bar but something else.