Abstract: The production of Z bosons with one or two isolated high-energy photons is studied using pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV. The analyses use a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) collected by the ATLAS detector during the 2012 LHC data taking. The Z gamma and Z gamma gamma production cross sections are measured with leptonic (e(+) e(-), mu(+) mu(-), nu(nu) over bar) decays of the Z boson, in extended fiducial regions defined in terms of the lepton and photon acceptance. They are then compared to cross-section predictions from the Standard Model, where the sources of the photons are radiation off initial-state quarks and radiative Z-boson decay to charged leptons, and from fragmentation of final-state quarks and gluons into photons. The yields of events with photon transverse energy E-T > 250 GeV from l(+) l(-) gamma events and with E-T > 400 GeV from nu(nu) over bar gamma events are used to search for anomalous triple gauge-boson couplings ZZ gamma and Z gamma gamma. The yields of events with diphoton invariant mass m(gamma gamma) > 200 GeV from l(+) l(-) gamma gamma events and with m(gamma gamma) > 300 GeV from nu(nu) over bar gamma gamma events are used to search for anomalous quartic gauge-boson couplings ZZ gamma gamma and Z gamma gamma gamma. No deviations from Standard Model predictions are observed and limits are placed on parameters used to describe anomalous triple and quartic gauge-boson couplings.

Abstract: We consider a five-dimensional model with geometry M = M-4 x S-1, with compactification radius R. The Standard Model particles are localized on a brane located at y = 0, with identical branes localized at different points in the extra dimension. Objects located on our brane can orbit around objects located on a brane at a distance d = y/R, with an orbit and a period significantly different from the standard Newtonian ones. We study the kinematical properties of the orbits, finding that it is possible to distinguish one motion from the other in a large region of the initial conditions parameter space. This is a warm-up to study if a SM-like mass distribution on one (or more) distant brane(s) may represent a possible dark matter candidate. After using the same technique to the study of orbits of objects lying on the same brane (d = 0), we apply this method to the detection of generic deviations from the inverse-square Newton law. We propose a possible experimental setup to look for departures from Newtonian motion in the micro-world, finding that an order of magnitude improvement on present bounds can be attained at the 95% CL under reasonable assumptions.

Abstract: The data sample of Lambda(0)(b) -> J/psi pK(-) decays acquired with the LHCb detector from 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1), is inspected for the presence of J/psi p or J/psi K- contributions with minimal assumptions about K(-)p contributions. It is demonstrated at more than nine standard deviations that Lambda(0)(b) -> J/psi pK(-) decays cannot be described with K- p contributions alone, and that J/psi K- contributions play a dominant role in this incompatibility. These model-independent results support the previously obtained model-dependent evidence for P-c(+)-> J/psi p charmonium-pentaquark states in the same data sample.

Abstract: A binned Dalitz plot analysis of the decays B (0) -> DK*(0), with D -> K (S) (0) pi(+)pi(-) and D -> K (S) (0) K+K-, is performed to measure the observables x(+/-) and y(+/-), which are related to the CKM angle gamma and the hadronic parameters of the decays. The D decay strong phase variation over the Dalitz plot is taken from measurements performed at the CLEO-c experiment, making the analysis independent of the D decay model. With a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment, the values of the CP violation parameters are found to be x(+) = 0.05 +/- 0.35 +/- 0.02, x(-) = -0.31 +/- 0.20 +/- 0.04, y(+) = -0.81 +/- 0.28 +/- 0.06 and y(-) = 0.31 +/- 0.21 +/- 0.05, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. These observables correspond to values gamma = (71 +/- 20)degrees, gamma(B0) = 0.56 +/- 0.17 and delta(B0) = (204(-20)(+21))degrees. The parameters gamma(B0) and delta(B0) are the magnitude ratio and strong phase difference between the suppressed and favoured B-0 decay amplitudes, and have been measured in a region of +/- 50 MeV/c(2) around the K*(892)(0) mass and with the magnitude of the cosine of the K*(892)(0) helicity angle larger than 0.4.

Abstract: Results obtained by various experiments show that the D-s0(*)(2317) and D-s1(2460) mesons are very narrow states located below the DK and D*K thresholds, respectively. This is markedly in contrast with the expectations of naive quark models and heavy quark symmetry. Motivated by a recent lattice study which addresses the mass shifts of the c _ s ground states with quantum numbers J(P) = 1+ [D-s1 (2317)] and JP = 1(+) [D-s1(2460)] due to their coupling with S-wave D-(*) K thresholds, we perform a similar analysis within a nonrelativistic constituent quark model in which quark-antiquark and meson-meson degrees of freedom are incorporated. The quark model has been applied to a wide range of hadronic observables, and thus the model parameters are completely constrained. The coupling between quark- antiquark and mesonmeson Fock components is done using a P-3(0) model in which its only free parameter gamma has been elucidated, performing a global fit to the decay widths of mesons that belong to different quark sectors, from light to heavy. We observe that the coupling of the 0(+)(1(+)) meson sector to the DK (D*K) threshold is the key feature to simultaneously lower the masses of the corresponding D-s0(*)(2317) and D-s1(2460) states predicted by the naive quark model and describe the D-s1(2536) meson as the 1(+)state of the j(q)(p) =3/2(+) doublet predicted by heavy quark symmetry, reproducing its strong decay properties. Our calculation allows us to introduce the coupling with the D- wave D*K channel and the computation of the probabilities associated with the different Fock components of the physical state.