Abstract: We explore a mechanism for producing the baryon asymmetry and dark matter in models with multiple hidden sectors that are Standard -Model -like but with varying Higgs mass parameters. If the field responsible for reheating the Standard Model and the exotic sectors carries an asymmetry, it can be converted into a baryon asymmetry using the standard sphaleron process. A hidden sector with positive Higgs mass squared can accommodate dark matter with its baryon asymmetry, and the larger abundance of dark matter relative to baryons is due to dark sphalerons being active all the way down the hidden sector QCD scale. This scenario predicts that dark matter is clustered in large dark nuclei and gives a lower bound on the effective relativistic degrees of freedom, Delta N eff greater than or similar to 0 .05 , which may be observable in the nextgeneration cosmic microwave background experiment CMB-S4.

Abstract: Measurements of CP asymmetries in charmless three-body decays of B-+/- mesons are reported using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.9 fb(-1). The previously observed CP asymmetry in B-+/- -> pi(K+K-)-K-+/- decays is confirmed, and CP asymmetries are observed with a significance of more than five standard deviations in the B-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(+)pi and B-+/- -> (KK+K-)-K-+/- decays, while the CP asymmetry of B-+/- -> K-+/-pi(+)pi(-) decays is confirmed to be compatible with zero. The distributions of these asymmetries are also studied as a function of the three-body phase space and suggest contributions from rescattering and resonance interference processes. An indication of the presence of the decays B+ -> pi(+) chi(c0) (1P) in both B+ ->pi(+)pi(+)pi and B+ ->pi+K+K- decays is observed, as is CP violation involving these amplitudes.

Abstract: A search for the rare hadronic decay B-s(0) -> p (p) over bar is performed using proton-proton collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6 fb(-1). No evidence of the decay is found and an upper limit on its branching fraction is set at B(B-s(0) -> p (p) over bar) < 4.4(5.1)x 10(-9) at 90% (95%) confidence level; this is currently the world's best upper limit. The decay mode B-0 -> p<(p)over bar> is measured with very large significance, confirming the first observation by the LHCb experiment in 2017. The branching fraction is determined to be B(B-0 -> p (p) over bar) = (1.27 +/- 0.15 +/- 0.05 +/- 0.04) 10(-8), where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic and the third is due to the external branching fraction of the normalization channel B-0 -> K+pi(-). The combination of the two LHCb measurements of the B-0 -> p (p) over bar branching fraction yields B(B-0 -> p (p) over bar) (1.27 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.05 +/- 0.03) x 10(-8).

Abstract: Measurements of CP asymmetry in charmless B -> PV decays are presented, where P and V denote a pseudoscalar and a vector meson, respectively. Five different B -> PV decays from four final states, B-+/- -> pi(+/-)pi(+) pi(-), B-+/- -> K-+/-pi(+) pi(-), B-+/-->(KK+K-)-K-+/- and B-+/- -> pi(K+K-)-K-+/- are analyzed. The measurements are based on a method that does not require full amplitude analyses, and are performed using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by LHCb between 2015 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.9 fb(-1). In the pi(+) pi(-) P-wave, in the region dominated by the B-+/- -> rho(770)K-0(+/-) decay, a CP asymmetry of A(CP) = +0.150 +/- 0.019 +/- 0.011 is measured, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This is the first observation of CP violation in this process. For the other four decay channels, in regions dominated by the B-+/- -> rho(770)(0)pi(+/-), B-+/- -> K(-)*(892)(0) pi(+/-), B-+/- -> K(-)* (892)K-+/- and B-+/- -> (sic)(1020) K-+/- decays, CP asymmetries in the P-wave compatible with zero are measured.

Abstract: We discuss the importance of multiring images in the optical appearance of a horizonless spherically symmetric compact object, when illuminated by an optically thin accretion disk. Such an object corresponds to a subcase of an analytically tractable extension of the Kerr solution dubbed as the “eye of the storm” by Simpson and Visser in [J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 03 (2022) 011], which merits in removing curvature singularities via an asymptotically Minkowski core, while harboring both a critical curve and an infinite potential barrier at the center for null geodesics. This multiring structure is induced by light rays winding several times around the object, and whose luminosity is significantly boosted as compared to the Schwarzschild solution by the modified shape of the potential. Using three toy profiles for the emission of an infinitely thin disk, truncated at its inner edge (taking its maximum value there) and having different decays with the distance, we discuss the image created by up to eight rings superimposed on top of the direct emission of the disk as its edge is moved closer to the center of the object. Our results point to the existence of multiring images with a non-negligible luminosity in shadow observations when one allows for the existence of other compact objects in the cosmic zoo beyond the Schwarzschild solution. Such multiring images could be detectable within the future projects on very long baseline interferometry.