Abstract: We develop a model for the pp -> pi(+)d reaction based on the pp -> Delta(1232)N transition followed by Delta(1232) -> pi N' decay and posterior fusion of NN' to give the deuteron. We show that the triangle diagram depicting this process develops a triangle singularity leading to a large cross section of this reaction compared to ordinary fusion reactions. The results of the calculation also show that the process is largely dominated by the pp system in L = 2 and S = 0, which transfers J = 2 to the final pi(+)d system. This feature is shown to be well suited to provide L = 2, S = 1, and J(tot) = 3 for np in the np(I = 0) pi(-)pp reaction followed by the pp -> pi(+)d reaction, which has been proposed recently, as a means of describing the so far assumed dibaryon d* (2380) peak.

Abstract: We present the nonrelativistic limit of the stellar structure equations of Ricci-based gravities, a family of metric-affine theories whose Lagrangian is built via contractions of the metric with the Ricci tensor of an a priori independent connection. We find that this limit is characterized by four parameters that arise in the expansion of several geometric quantities in powers of the stress-energy tensor of the matter fields. We discuss the relevance of this result for the phenomenology of nonrelativistic stars, such as main-sequence stars as well as several substellar objects.

Abstract: Two-particle long-range azimuthal correlations are measured in photonuclear collisions using 1.7 nb(-1) of 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Candidate events are selected using a dedicated high-multiplicity photonuclear event trigger, a combination of information from the zero-degree calorimeters and forward calorimeters, and from pseudorapidity gaps constructed using calorimeter energy clusters and charged-particle tracks. Distributions of event properties are compared between data and Monte Carlo simulations of photonuclear processes. Two-particle correlation functions are formed using charged-particle tracks in the selected events, and a template-fitting method is employed to subtract the nonflow contribution to the correlation. Significant nonzero values of the second-and third-order flow coefficients are observed and presented as a function of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum. The results are compared with flow coefficients obtained in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions in similar multiplicity ranges, and with theoretical expectations. The unique initial conditions present in this measurement provide a new way to probe the origin of the collective signatures previously observed only in hadronic collisions.

Abstract: The total cross section and differential cross sections for the production of B-c(+/-) mesons, times their branching fraction to J/psi pi(+/-), are measured relative to those for the production of B-+/- mesons, times their branching fraction to J/psi K-+/-. The data used for this study correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV. The measurement is performed differentially in bins of transverse momentum p(T) for 13 GeV < p(T)(B-c(+/-)) < 22 GeV and p(T)(B-c(+/-)) > 22 GeV and in bins of rapidity y for vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.75 and 0.75 < vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.3. The relative cross section times branching fraction for the full range p(T) > 13 GeV and vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.3 is (0.34 +/- 0.04(stat) (+0.06)(-0.02 sys) +/- 0.01(lifetime))%. The differential measurements suggest that the production cross section of the B-c(+/-) decreases faster with p(T) than the production cross section of the B-+/-, while no significant dependence on rapidity is observed.

Abstract: We study the prospects of characterising Dark Matter at colliders using Machine Learning (ML) techniques. We focus on the monojet and missing transverse energy (MET) channel and propose a set of benchmark models for the study: a typical WIMP Dark Matter candidate in the form of a SUSY neutralino, a pseudo-Goldstone impostor in the shape of an Axion-Like Particle, and a light Dark Matter impostor whose interactions are mediated by a heavy particle. All these benchmarks are tensioned against each other, and against the main SM background (Z+jets). Our analysis uses both the leading-order kinematic features as well as the information of an additional hard jet. We explore different representations of the data, from a simple event data sample with values of kinematic variables fed into a Logistic Regression algorithm or a Fully Connected Neural Network, to a transformation of the data into images related to probability distributions, fed to Deep and Convolutional Neural Networks. We also study the robustness of our method against including detector effects, dropping kinematic variables, or changing the number of events per image. In the case of signals with more combinatorial possibilities (events with more than one hard jet), the most crucial data features are selected by performing a Principal Component Analysis. We compare the performance of all these methods, and find that using the 2D images of the combined information of multiple events significantly improves the discrimination performance.