Abstract: This article presents measurements of the t-channel single top-quark ((t) over bart) and top-antiquark ( t) total production cross sections sdtq and sd tq, their ratio Rt sdtq= sd tq, and a measurement of the inclusive production cross section sdtq tq in proton-proton collisions at ffiffiffi ps = 7 TeV at the LHC. Differential cross sections for the tq and tq processes are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and the absolute value of the rapidity of t and t, respectively. The analyzed data set was recorded with the ATLAS detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.59 fb-1. Selected events contain one charged lepton, large missing transverse momentum, and two or three jets. The cross sections are measured by performing a binned maximum-likelihood fit to the output distributions of neural networks. The resulting measurements are sdtq 46 = 1dstat = 6dsyst pb, sd tq = 23 +/- 1dstat = 3dsyst pb, Rt = 2.04 0.13dstat +/-=0.12dsyst, and sdtq tq = 68 +/-= 2dstat = 8dsyst pb, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. The uncertainty on the measured cross sections is dominated by systematic uncertainties, while the uncertainty on Rt is mainly statistical. Using the ratio of sdtq tq_ to its theoretical prediction, and assuming that the top-quark-related CKM matrix elements obey the relation jVtbj = jVtsj; jVtdj, we determine jVtbj = 1.02 = 0.07.

Abstract: We extend a recent approach to describe the B-0 and B-s(0) decays into J/psi f(0)(500) and J/psi f(0)(980), relating it to the B-0 and B-s(0) decays into J/psi and a vector meson, phi, rho, K*. In addition, the B-0 and B-s(0) decays into J/psi and kappa(800) are evaluated and compared to the K* vector production. The rates obtained are in agreement with the available experiment while predictions are made for the J/psi plus kappa(800) decay.

Abstract: We present up-to-date cosmological bounds on the sum of active neutrino masses as well as on extended cosmological scenarios with additional thermal relics, as thermal axions or sterile neutrino species. Our analyses consider all the current available cosmological data in the beginning of year 2014, including the very recent and most precise baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. In the minimal three-active-neutrino scenario, we find Sigma m(nu) < 0.22 eV at 95% C.L. from the combination of cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the Hubble constant. A nonzero value for the sum of the three active neutrino masses of similar to 0.3 eV is significantly favored at more than three standard deviations when adding the constraints on s 8 and Om from the Planck cluster catalog on galaxy number counts. This preference for nonzero thermal relic masses disappears almost completely in both the thermal axion and massive sterile neutrino schemes. Extra light species contribute to the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, parametrized via N-eff. We found that when the recent detection of B mode polarization from the BICEP2 experiment is considered, an analysis of the combined CMB data in the framework of LCDM + r models gives N-eff = 3.90 +/- 0.42, suggesting the presence of an extra relativistic relic at more than 95% C.L. from CMB-only data.