Abstract: The results of a search for vector-like top quarks using events with exactly one lepton, at least four jets, and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search is optimised for pair production of vector-like top quarks in the Z(->nu nu) t + X decay channel. LHC pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of root S = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is seen and upper limits on the production cross-section of a vector-like T quark pair as a function of the T quark mass are derived. The observed (expected) 95% CL lower limits on the T mass are 870 GeV (890 GeV) for the weak-isospin singlet model, 1.05 TeV (1.06 TeV) for the weak-isospin doublet model and 1.16 TeV (1.17 TeV) for the pure Zt decay mode. Limits are also set on the mass as a function of the decay branching ratios, excluding large parts of the parameter space for masses below 1 TeV.

Abstract: Inclusive jet production cross-sections are measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The total integrated luminosity of the analysed data set amounts to 20.2 fb(-1). Double-differential cross-sections are measured for jets defined by the anti-k(t) jet clustering algorithm with radius parameters of R = 0.4 and R = 0.6 and are presented as a function of the jet transverse momentum, in the range between 70 GeV and 2.5 TeV and in six bins of the absolute jet rapidity, between 0 and 3.0. The measured cross-sections are compared to predictions of quantum chromodynamics, calculated at next-to-leading order in perturbation theory, and corrected for non-perturbative and electroweak effects. The level of agreement with predictions, using a selection of different parton distribution functions for the proton, is quantified. Tensions between the data and the theory predictions are observed.

Abstract: A search for direct top squark pair production resulting in events with either a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair with invariant mass compatible with a Z boson or a pair of jets compatible with a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson (h) is presented. Requirements on the missing transverse momentum, together with additional selections on leptons, jets, jets identified as originating from b-quarks are imposed to target the other decay products of the top squark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 20152016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). No excess is observed in the data with respect to the SM predictions. The results are interpreted in two sets of models. In the first set, direct production of pairs of lighter top squarks ((t) over tilde (1)) with long decay chains involving Z or Higgs bosons is considered. The second set includes direct pair production of the heavier top squark pairs ((t) over tilde (2)) decaying via (t) over tilde (2) -> Z (t) over tilde (1) or (t) over tilde (2) -> h (t) over tilde (1). The results exclude at 95% confidence level (t) over tilde (2) and (t) over tilde (1) masses up to about 800 GeV, extending the exclusion region of supersymmetric parameter space covered by previous LHC searches.

Abstract: Massive neutrinos demand to ask whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles. Majorana neutrinos are an irrefutable proof of physics beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinoless double electron capture is not a process but a virtual Delta L = 2 mixing between a parent (A)Z atom and a daughter (A)(Z – 2) excited atom with two electron holes. As a mixing between two neutral atoms and the observable signal in terms of emitted two-hole X-rays, the strategy, experimental signature and background are different from neutrinoless double beta decay. The mixing is resonantly enhanced for almost degeneracy and, under these conditions, there is no irreducible background from the standard two-neutrino channel. We reconstruct the natural time history of a nominally stable parent atom since its production either by nature or in the laboratory. After the time periods of atom oscillations and the decay of the short-lived daughter atom, at observable times the relevant 'stationary" states are the mixed metastable long-lived state and the non-orthogonal short-lived excited state, as well as the ground state of the daughter atom. We find that they have a natural population inversion which is most appropriate for exploiting the bosonic nature of the observed atomic transitions radiation. Among different observables of the atom Majorana mixing, we include the enhanced rate of stimulated X-ray emission from the long-lived metastable state by a high-intensity X-ray beam: a gain factor of 100 can be envisaged at current XFEL facilities. On the other hand, the historical population of the daughter atom ground state can be probed by exciting it with a current pulsed optical laser, showing the characteristic absorption lines: the whole population can be excited in a shorter time than typical pulse duration.

Abstract: The charmless three-body decays B-(s)(0) -> K(S)(0)h(+)h '(-) (where h((')) – pi, K) are analysed using a sample of pp collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). The branching fractions are measured relative to that of the B-0 -> K-S(0) pi(+)pi(-) decay, and are determined to be: B(B-0 -> (KSK +/-)-K-0 pi(-/+))/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) = 0.123 +/- 0.009 (stat) +/- 0.015 (syst), B(B-0 -> (KSK+K-)-K-0)/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) = 0.549 +/- 0.018 (stat) +/- 0.033 (syst), B(B-S(0) -> K-S(0) pi(+)pi(-))/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-)) = 0.191 +/- 0.027 (stat) +/- 0.031 (syst) +/- 0.011 (f(s)/f(d)), B(B-0 -> (KSK +/-)-K-0 pi(-/+))/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) = 1.70 +/- 0.07 (stat) +/- 0.11 (syst) +/- 0.10 (f(s)/f(d)), B(B-0 -> (KSK+K-)-K-0)/B(B-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) is an element of [0.008 – 0.051] at 90% confidence level, where f(s)/f(d) represents the ratio of hadronisation fractions of the B-s(0) and B-0 mesons.