Abstract: A search for long-lived charginos produced either directly or in the cascade decay of heavy prompt gluino states is presented. The search is based on proton- proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV between 2015 and 2018 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb(-1). Long-lived charginos are characterised by a distinct signature of a short and then disappearing track, and are reconstructed using at least four measurements in the ATLAS pixel detector, with no subsequent measurements in the silicon-microstrip tracking volume nor any associated energy deposits in the calorimeter. The final state is complemented by a large missing transverse-momentum requirement for triggering purposes and at least one high-transversemomentum jet. No excess above the expected backgrounds is observed. Exclusion limits are set at 95% confidence level on the masses of the chargino and gluino for different chargino lifetimes. Chargino masses up to 660 (210) GeV are excluded in scenarios where the chargino is a pure wino (higgsino). For charginos produced during the cascade decay of a heavy gluino, gluinos with masses below 2.1 TeV are excluded for a chargino mass of 300 GeV and a lifetime of 0.2 ns.

Abstract: The holographic graviton soft-wall model, introduced to describe the spectrum of scalar and tensor glueballs, is improved to incorporate the realization of chiral-symmetry as in QCD. Such a goal is achieved by including the longitudinal dynamics of QCD into the scheme. Using the relation between AdS/QCD and light-front dynamics, we construct the appropriate wave function for the pion which is used to calculate several pion observables. The comparison of our results with phenomenology is remarkably successful.

Abstract: This article presents the results of two studies of Higgs boson properties using the WW*(-> e nu μnu)jj final state, based on a dataset corresponding to 36.1fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The first study targets Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion and constrains the CP properties of the effective Higgs-gluon interaction. Using angular distributions and the overall rate, a value of tan (alpha) = 0.0 +/- 0.4(stat.) +/- 0.3(syst.) is obtained for the tangent of the mixing angle for CP-even and CP-odd contributions. The second study exploits the vector-boson fusion production mechanism to probe the Higgs boson couplings to longitudinally and transversely polarised W and Z bosons in both the production and the decay of the Higgs boson; these couplings have not been directly constrained previously. The polarisation-dependent coupling-strength scale factors are defined as the ratios of the measured polarisation-dependent coupling strengths to those predicted by the Standard Model, and are determined using rate and kinematic information to be a(L) = 0.91(-0.18)(+0.10)(stat.)(-0.17)(+0.09)(syst.) and a(T) = 1.2 +/- 0.4(stat.)(-0.3)(+0.2)(syst.). These coupling strengths are translated into pseudo-observables, resulting in kappa(VV) = 0.91(-0.18)(+0.10)(stat.)(-0.17)(+0.09)(syst.) and epsilon(VV) = 0.13(-0.20)(+0.28)(stat.)(-0.10)(+0.08)(syst.). All results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.

Abstract: The ss decays of the ground state (gs) and isomeric state (m) of Y-96 have been studied with the total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy technique at the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line facility. The separation of the 8(+) isomeric state from the 0(-) ground state was achieved thanks to the purification capabilities of the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap system. The ss-intensity distributions of both decays have been independently determined. In the analyses the deexcitation of the 1581.6 keV level in Zr-96, in which conversion electron emission competes with pair production, has been carefully considered and found to have significant impact on the ss-detector efficiency, influencing the ss-intensity distribution obtained. Our results for Y-96gs (0(-)) confirm the large ground state to ground state ss-intensity probability, although a slightly larger value than reported in previous studies was obtained, amounting to 96.6(-2.1)(+0.3) % of the total ss intensity. Given that the decay of Y-96gs is the second most important contributor to the reactor antineutrino spectrum between 5 and 7 MeV, the impact of the present results on reactor antineutrino summation calculations has been evaluated. In the decay of Y-96m (8(+)), previously undetected ss intensity in transitions to states above 6 MeV has been observed. This shows the importance of total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements of ss decays with highly fragmented deexcitation patterns. Y-96m (8(+)) is a major contributor to reactor decay heat in uranium-plutonium and thorium-uranium fuels around 10 s after fission pulses, and the newly measured average ss and gamma energies differ significantly from the previous values in evaluated databases. The discrepancy is far above the previously quoted uncertainties. Finally, we also report on the successful implementation of an innovative total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy analysis of the module-multiplicity gated spectra, as a first proof of principle to distinguish between decaying states with very different spin-parity values.

Abstract: The field of particle physics is at the crossroads. The discovery of a Higgs-like boson completed the Standard Model (SM), but the lacking observation of convincing resonances Beyond the SM (BSM) offers no guidance for the future of particle physics. On the other hand, the motivation for New Physics has not diminished and is, in fact, reinforced by several striking anomalous results in many experiments. Here we summarise the status of the most significant anomalies, including the most recent results for the flavour anomalies, the multi-lepton anomalies at the LHC, the Higgs-like excess at around 96 GeV, and anomalies in neutrino physics, astrophysics, cosmology, and cosmic rays. While the LHC promises up to 4 ab(-1) of integrated luminosity and far-reaching physics programmes to unveil BSM physics, we consider the possibility that the latter could be tested with present data, but that systemic shortcomings of the experiments and their search strategies may preclude their discovery for several reasons, including: final states consisting in soft particles only, associated production processes, QCD-like final states, close-by SM resonances, and SUSY scenarios where no missing energy is produced. New search strategies could help to unveil the hidden BSM signatures, devised by making use of the CERN open data as a new testing ground. We discuss the CERN open data with its policies, challenges, and potential usefulness for the community. We showcase the example of the CMS collaboration, which is the only collaboration regularly releasing some of its data. We find it important to stress that individuals using public data for their own research does not imply competition with experimental efforts, but rather provides unique opportunities to give guidance for further BSM searches by the collaborations. Wide access to open data is paramount to fully exploit the LHCs potential.