Abstract: We provide a comprehensive analysis of the Type-I Seesaw family of neutrino mass models, including the conventional type-I seesaw and its low-scale variants, namely the linear and inverse seesaws. We establish that all these models essentially correspond to a particular form of the type-I seesaw in the context of explicit lepton number violation. We then focus into the more interesting scenario of spontaneous lepton number violation, systematically categorizing all inequivalent minimal models. Furthermore, we identify and flesh out specific models that feature a rich majoron phenomenology and discuss some scenarios which, despite having heavy mediators and being invisible in processes such as μ-> e gamma, predict sizable rates for decays including the majoron in the final state.

Abstract: We study the space-time geometry generated by coupling a free scalar field with a noncanonical kinetic term to general relativity in (2+1) dimensions. After identifying a family of scalar Lagrangians that yield exact analytical solutions in static and circularly symmetric scenarios, we classify the various types of solutions and focus on a branch that yields asymptotically flat geometries. We show that the solutions within such a branch can be divided in two types, namely naked singularities and nonsingular objects without a center. In the latter, the energy density is localized around a maximum and vanishes only at infinity and at an inner boundary. This boundary has vanishing curvatures and cannot be reached by any time-like or null geodesic in finite affine time. This allows us to consistently interpret such solutions as nonsingular, lump-like, static compact scalar objects whose eventual extension to the (3+1)-dimensional context could provide structures of astrophysical interest.

Abstract: The inclusion of an additional U(1) gauge L-mu – L-tau symmetry would release the tension between the measured and the predicted value of the anomalous muon magnetic moment: this paradigm assumes the existence of a new, light Z ' vector boson, with dominant coupling to μand tau leptons and interacting with electrons via a loop mechanism. The L-mu – L-tau model can also explain the Dark Matter relic abundance, by assuming that the Z ' boson acts as a “portal” to a new Dark Sector of particles in Nature, not charged under known interactions. In this work we present the results of the Z ' search performed by the NA64-e experiment at CERN SPS, that collected similar to 9 x 10(11) 100 GeV electrons impinging on an active thick target. Despite the suppressed Z ' production yield with an electron beam, NA64-e provides the first accelerator-based results excluding the g – 2 preferred band of the Z ' parameter space in the 1 keV < m(Z ') less than or similar to 2 MeV range, in complementarity with the limits recently obtained by the NA64-mu experiment with a muon beam.

Abstract: If present in the early universe, primordial black holes (PBHs) would have accreted matter and emitted high-energy photons, altering the statistical properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This mechanism has been used to constrain the fraction of dark matter that is in the form of PBHs to be much smaller than unity for PBH masses well above one solar mass. Moreover, the presence of dense dark matter mini -halos around the PBHs has been used to set even more stringent constraints, as these would boost the accretion rates. In this work, we critically revisit CMB constraints on PBHs taking into account the role of the local ionization of the gas around them. We discuss how the local increase in temperature around PBHs can prevent the dark matter mini -halos from strongly enhancing the accretion process, in some cases significantly weakening previously derived CMB constraints. We explore in detail the key ingredients of the CMB bound and derive a conservative limit on the cosmological abundance of massive PBHs.

Abstract: Fiducial and total W+ and Z boson cross sections, their ratios and the ratio of top-antitop-quark pair and.. -boson fiducial cross sections are measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13.6 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 29 fb(-1) of data collected in 2022 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The measured fiducial cross-section values for W+ -> l(+) v, W- -> l(-) v- <overline>, and Z -> l(+)l(-) (l =e or mu) boson productions are 4250 +/- 150 pb, 3310 +/- 120 pb, and 744 +/- 20 pb, respectively, where the uncertainty is the total uncertainty, including that arising from the luminosity of about 2.2%. The measurements are in agreement with Standard-Model predictions calculated at next-to-next-to-leading-order in alpha(s) ,next-to-nextto-leading logarithmic accuracy and next-to-leading-order electroweak accuracy.