Abstract: A study of B-c(+) -> chi(c) pi(+) decays is reported using proton-proton collision data, collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb(-1). The decay B-c(+) -> chi(c2)pi(+) is observed for the first time, with a significance exceeding seven standard deviations. The relative branching fraction with respect to the B-c(+) -> J/psi pi(+) decay is measured to be BBc+ ->chi c2 pi+/BBc+ -> (J/psi pi+) = 0.37 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.02 +/- 0.01, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the knowledge of the chi(c2) -> J/psi gamma branching fraction. No significant B-c(+) -> chi(+)(c1 pi) signal is observed and an upper limit for the relative branching fraction for the B-c(+) -> chi(c1)pi(+) and B-c(+) -> chi(c2)pi(+) decays of BBc+ ->chi c1 pi+/BBc+ -> chi(c2)pi(+) < 0.49 is set at the 90% confidence level.

Abstract: The energy spectra of particles produced from dark matter (DM) annihilation or decay are one of the fundamental ingredients to calculate the predicted fluxes of cosmic rays and radiation searched for in indirect DM detection. We revisit the calculation of the source spectra for annihilating and decaying DM using the VINCIA shower algorithm in PYTHIA to include QED and QCD final state radiation and diagrams for the EW corrections with massive bosons, not present in the default PYTHIA shower model. We take into account the spin information of the particles during the entire EW shower and the off -shell contributions from massive gauge bosons. Furthermore, we perform a dedicated tuning of the VINCIA and PYTHIA parameters to LEP data on the production of pions, photons, and hyperons at the Z resonance and discuss the underlying uncertainties. To enable the use of our results in DM studies, we provide the tabulated source spectra for the most relevant cosmic messenger particles, namely antiprotons, positrons, gamma rays and the three neutrino flavors, for all the fermionic and bosonic channels and DM masses between 5 GeV and 100 TeV, on github.

Abstract: We examine the contribution of tensor modes, in addition to the dominant scalar ones, on the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). To this end, we analyze in detail the temperature two -point angular correlation function C(Theta) from the Planck 2018 dataset, focusing on large angles (Theta greater than or similar to 120 degrees) corresponding to small l multipoles. A hierarchical set of infrared cutoffs are naturally introduced to the scalar and tensor power spectra of the CMB by invoking an extra Kaluza-Klein spatial dimension compactifying at about the grand unified theory scale between the Planck epoch and the start of inflation. We associate this set of lower scalar and tensor cutoffs with the parity of the multipole expansion of the C(Theta) function. By fitting the Planck 2018 data we compute the multipole coefficients, thereby reproducing the well-known odd -parity preference in angular correlations seen by all three satellite missions: Cosmic Background Explorer, WMAP, and Planck. Our fits improve significantly once tensor modes are included in the analysis, hence providing a hint of the imprints of primordial gravitational waves on the temperature correlations observed in the CMB today. To conclude, we suggest a relationship between, on the one hand, the lack of (positive) large -angle correlations and the odd -parity dominance in the CMB and, on the other hand, the effect of primordial gravitational waves on the CMB temperature anisotropies.