Abstract: Recently it has been demonstrated that QCD corrections are numerically important for short-range mechanisms (SRM) of neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) mediated by heavy particle exchange. This is due to the effect of color mismatch for certain effective operators, which leads to mixing between different operators with vastly different nuclear matrix elements (NMEs). In this note we analyze the QCD corrections for long-range mechanisms (LRM), due to diagrams with light-neutrino exchange between a Standard Model (V-A)chi(V-A) and a beyond the SM lepton number violating vertex. We argue that in contrast to the SRM in the LRM case, there is no operator mixing from color-mismatched operators. This is due to a combined effect of the nuclear short-range correlations and color invariance. As a result, the QCD corrections to the LRM amount to an effect no more than 60%, depending on the operator in question. Although less crucial, taken into account QCD running makes theoretical predictions for 0 nu beta beta-decay more robust also for LRM diagrams. We derive the current experimental constraints on the Wilson coefficients for all LRM effective operators.

Abstract: Measurements of the W-+/- -> l(+/-) v and Z -> l(+)l(-) production cross sections (where l(+/-) = e(+/-), mu(+/-)) in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV are presented using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 81 pb(-1). The total inclusive W+-boson production cross sections times the single-lepton-flavour branching ratios are sigma(tot)(w+) = 11.83 +/- 0.02 (stat) +/- 0.32 (sys) +/- 0.25 (lumi) nb and sigma(tot)(W-) = 8.79 +/- 0.02 (stat) +/- 0.24 (sys) +/- 0.18 (lumi) nb for W+ and W-, respectively. The total inclusive Z-boson production cross section times leptonic branching ratio, within the invariant mass window 66 < m(tt) < 116 GeV, is sigma(tot)(Z) = 1.981 +/- 0.007 (stat) +/- 0.038 (sys) +/- 0.042 (lumi) nb. The W+, W-, and Z-boson production cross sections and cross-section ratios within a fiducial region defined by the detector acceptance are also measured. The cross-section ratios benefit from significant cancellation of experimental uncertainties, resulting in sigma(fid)(W+)/sigma(fid)(W-) = 1.295 +/- 0.003 (stat) +/- 0.010 (sys) and sigma(fid)(W +/-)/sigma(fid)(Z) = 10.31 +/- 0.04 (stat) +/- 0.20 (sys). Theoretical predictions, based on calculations accurate to next-to-next-to-leading order for quantum chromodynamics and to next-to-leading order for electroweak processes and which employ different parton distribution function sets, are compared to these measurements.

Abstract: The extended electroweak SU(3)(c) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) symmetry framework “explaining” the number of fermion families is revisited. While 331-based schemes can not easily be unified within the conventional field theory sense, we show how to do it within an approach based on D-branes and (un)oriented open strings, on Calabi-Yau singularities. We show how the theory can be UV-completed in a quiver setup, free of gauge and string anomalies. Lepton and baryon numbers are perturbatively conserved, so neutrinos are Dirac-type, and their lightness results from a novel TeV scale seesaw mechanism. Dynamical violation of baryon number by exotic instantons could induce neutron-antineutron oscillations, with proton decay and other dangerous R-parity violating processes strictly forbidden. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

Abstract: A search for the decays of the B-c(+) meson to p (p) over bar pi(+) is performed for the first time using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. No signal is found and an upper limit, at 95% confidence level, is set, f(c)/f(u) x B(B-c(+) -> p (p) over bar pi(+)) < 3.6 x 10(-8) in the kinematic region m(p<(p)over bar>) < 2.85 GeV/c(2), p(T)(B) < 20 GeV/c and 2.0 < y(B) < 4.5, where B is the branching fraction and f(c)(f(u)) is the fragmentation fraction of the b quark into a B-c+(B+) meson.

Abstract: Searches for high-mass resonances in the dijet invariant mass spectrum with one or two jets identified as b-jets are performed using an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of root S = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of anomalous phenomena is observed in the data, which are used to exclude, at 95% credibility level, excited b* quarks with masses from 1.1 TeV to 2.1 TeV and leptophobic Z' bosons with masses from 1.1 TeV to 1.5 TeV. Contributions of a Gaussian signal shape with effective cross sections ranging from approximately 0.4 to 0.001 pb are also excluded in the mass range 1.5-5.0 TeV.