Abstract: Neutrinos can play an important role in the evolution of the Universe, modifying some of the cosmological observables. We describe how the precision of present cosmological data can be used to learn about neutrino properties, in particular their mass. We show how the analysis of current cosmological observations provides an upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses, with improved sensitivity from future cosmological measurements.

Abstract: By introducing three Higgs fields that are SU(2) doublets and a flavor permutational symmetry, S(3), in the theory, we extend the concepts of flavor and generations to the Higgs sector and formulate a Minimal S(3)-Invariant Extension of the Standard Model. The mass matrices of the neutrinos and charged leptons are re-parameterized in terms of their eigenvalues, then the neutrino mixing matrix, V(PMNS), is computed and exact, explicit analytical expressions for the neutrino mixing angles as functions of the masses of neutrinos and charged leptons are obtained in excellent agreement with the latest experimental data. We also compute the branching ratios of some selected flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) processes, as well as the contribution of the exchange of neutral flavor-changing scalars to the anomaly of the magnetic moment of the muon, as functions of the masses of charged leptons and the neutral Higgs bosons. We find that the S(3) x Z(2) flavor symmetry and the strong mass hierarchy of the charged leptons strongly suppress the FCNC processes in the leptonic sector, well below the present experimental bounds by many orders of magnitude. The contribution of FCNC's to the anomaly of the muon's magnetic moment is small, but not negligible.

Abstract: We report on a CDF measurement of the total cross section and rapidity distribution, d sigma/dy, for gamma*/Z -> e(+)e(-) events in the Z boson mass region (66 < M-ee < 116 GeV/c(2)) produced in p (p) over bar collisions at root s = 1.96 TeV with 2.1 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity. The measured cross section of 257 +/- 16 pb and d sigma/dy distribution are compared with Next-to-Leading-Order (NLO) and Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order (NNLO) QCD theory predictions with CTEQ and MRST/MSTW parton distribution functions (PDFs). There is good agreement between the experimental total cross section and d sigma/dy measurements with theoretical calculations with the most recent NNLO PDFs.

Abstract: A search is made for massive highly ionising particles with lifetimes in excess of 100 ns, with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, using 3.1 pb(-1) of pp collision data taken at root s = 7 TeV. The signature of energy loss in the ATLAS inner detector and electromagnetic calorimeter is used. No such particles are found and limits on the production cross section for electric charges 6e <= vertical bar q vertical bar <= 17e and masses 200 GeV <= m <= 1000 GeV are set in the range 1-12 pb for different hypotheses on the production mechanism.

Abstract: Neutron rich nuclei around Ca-48 have been measured with the CLARA-PRISMA setup, making use of Ca-48 on Ni-64 binary reactions, at 5.9 MeV/A. Angular distributions of gamma rays give evidence, in several transfer channels, for a large spin alignment (approximate to 70%) perpendicular to the reaction plane, making it possible to firmly establish spin and parities of the excited states. In the case of Ca-49, states arising from different types of particle-core couplings are, for the first time, unambiguously identified on basis of angular distribution, polarization and lifetime measurements. Shell model and particle-vibration coupling calculations are used to pin down the nature of the states. Evidence is found for the presence, in the same excitation energy region, of two types of coupled states, i.e. single particle coupled to either Ca-48 or Ca-50 simple configurations, and particle-vibration coupled states based on the 3- phonon of Ca-48.