Abstract: Using a sample of dilepton top-quark pair ((tt) over bar) candidate events, a study is performed of the production of top-quark pairs together with heavy-flavor (HF) quarks, the sum of (tt) over bar + b + X and (tt) over bar + c + X, collectively referred to as (tt) over bar + HF. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The presence of additional HF (b or c) quarks in the (tt) over bar sample is inferred by looking for events with at least three b-tagged jets, where two are attributed to the b quarks from the (tt) over bar decays and the third to additional HF production. The dominant background to (tt) over bar + HF in this sample is (tt) over bar + jet events in which a light-flavor jet is misidentified as a heavy-flavor jet. To determine the heavy-and light-flavor content of the additional b-tagged jets, a fit to the vertex mass distribution of b-tagged jets in the sample is performed. The result of the fit shows that 79 +/- 14 (stat) +/- 22 (syst) of the 105 selected extra b-tagged jets originate from HF quarks, 3 standard deviations away from the hypothesis of zero (tt) over bar + HF production. The result for extra HF production is quoted as a ratio (R-HF) of the cross section for (tt) over bar + HF production to the cross section for (tt) over bar production with at least one additional jet. Both cross sections are measured in a fiducial kinematic region within the ATLAS acceptance. R-HF is measured to be [6.2 +/- 1.1(stat) +/- 1.8 (syst)]% for jets with p(T) > 25 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5, in agreement with the expectations from Monte Carlo generators.

Abstract: Time-integrated CP asymmetries in D-0 decays to the final states K- K+ and pi(-) pi(+) are measured using proton-proton collisions corresponding to 3 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected at centre-of-mass energies of 7 TeV and 8 TeV. The D-0 mesons are produced in semileptonic b-hadron decays, where the charge of the accompanying muon is used to determine the initial flavour of the charm meson. The difference in CP asymmetries between the two final states is measured to be Delta A(CP) = A(CP)(K- K+) – A(CP)(pi(-) pi(+)) = (+0.14 +/- 0.16 (stat) +/- 0.08 (syst))% . A measurement of A(CP)(K- K+) is obtained assuming negligible CP violation in charm mixing and in Cabibbo-favoured D decays. It is found to be A(CP)(K- K+) = (-0.06 +/- 0.15 (stat) +/- 0.10 (syst))% , where the correlation coefficient between Delta A(CP) and A(CP)(K- K+) is rho = 0.28. By combining these results, the CP asymmetry in the D-0 -> pi(-) pi(+) channel is A(CP)(pi(-) pi(+)) = (-0.20 +/- 0.19 (stat) +/- 0.10 (syst))%.

Abstract: We present a new class of solutions describing charged black holes in massive (bi)gravity. For a generic choice of the parameters of the massive gravity action, the solution is the Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter metric written in the Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates for both metrics. We also study a special case of the parameters, for which the space of solutions contains an extra symmetry.

Abstract: We analyse the constraints and some of the phenomenological implications of a class of two Higgs doublet models where there are flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNC) at tree level but the potentially dangerous FCNC couplings are suppressed by small entries of the CKM matrix V. This class of models have the remarkable feature that, as a result of a discrete symmetry of the Lagrangian, the FCNC couplings are entirely fixed in the quark sector by V and the ratio v(2)/v(1) of the vevs of the neutral Higgs. The discrete symmetry is extended to the leptonic sector, so that there are FCNC in the leptonic sector with their flavour structure fixed by the leptonic mixing matrix. We analyse a large number of processes, including decays mediated by charged Higgs at tree level, processes involving FCNC at tree level, as well as loop induced processes. We show that in this class of models one has new physical scalars beyond the standard Higgs boson, with masses reachable at the next round of experiments.

Abstract: The behavior of the nucleon structure functions in lepton nuclei deep inelastic scattering, both polarized and unpolarized, due to nuclear structure effects is reanalyzed. The study is performed in two schemes: an x-rescaling approach, and one in which there is an increase of sea quark components in the in-medium nucleon, related to the low-energy N-N interaction. In view of a recent interesting experimental proposal to study the behavior of the proton spin structure functions in nuclei we proceed to compare these approaches in an effort to enlighten the possible phenomenological interest of such difficult experiment.