Abstract: We perform the baseline and energy optimization of the Neutrino Factory including the latest simulation results on the magnetized iron detector (MIND). We also consider the impact of tau decays, generated by v(mu) -> v(tau) or v(e) -> v(tau) appearance, on the mass hierarchy, CP violation, and theta(13) discovery reaches, which we find to be negligible for the considered detector. For the baseline-energy optimization for small sin(2) 2 theta(13), we qualitatively recover the results with earlier simulations of the MIND detector. We find optimal baselines of about 2 500km to 5 000km for the CP violation measurement, where now values of E-mu as low as about 12 GeV may be possible. However, for large sin(2) 2 theta(13), we demonstrate that the lower threshold and the backgrounds reconstructed at lower energies allow in fact for muon energies as low as 5 GeV at considerably shorter baselines, such as FNAL-Homestake. This implies that with the latest MIND analysis, low-and high-energy versions of the Neutrino Factory are just two different versions of the same experiment optimized for different parts of the parameter space. Apart from a green-field study of the updated detector performance, we discuss specific implementations for the two-baseline Neutrino Factory, where the considered detector sites are taken to be currently discussed underground laboratories. We find that reasonable setups can be found for the Neutrino Factory source in Asia, Europe, and North America, and that a triangular-shaped storage ring is possible in all cases based on geometrical arguments only.

Abstract: Bilinear R-parity violation (BRPV) provides the simplest intrinsically supersymmetric neutrino mass generation scheme. While neutrino mixing parameters can be probed in high energy accelerators, they are unfortunately not predicted by the theory. Here we propose a model based on the discrete flavor symmetry Lambda(4) with a single R-parity violating parameter, leading to (i) correct Cabbibo mixing given by the Gatto-Sartori-Tonin formula, and a successful unification-like b-tau mass relation, and (ii) a correlation between the lepton mixing angles theta(13) and theta(23) in agreement with recent neutrino oscillation data, as well as a (nearly) massless neutrino, leading to absence of neutrinoless double beta decay.

Abstract: A search for a heavy Standard Model Higgs boson decaying via H -> ZZ -> l(+)l(-)q (q) over bar, where l = e or mu, is presented. The search uses a data set of pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) collected in 2011 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC. No significant excess of events above the estimated background is found. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the production cross section of a Higgs boson with a mass in the range between 200 and 600 GeV are derived. A Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass in the range 300 GeV <= m(H) 322 <= GeV or 353 GeV <= m(H) <= 410 GeV is excluded at 95% CL The corresponding expected exclusion range is 351 GeV <= m(H) <= 404 GeV at 95% CL.

Abstract: We present the first unquenched, continuum limit, lattice QCD results for the matrix elements of the operators describing neutral kaon oscillations in extensions of the Standard Model. Owing to the accuracy of our calculation on Delta S = 2 weak Hamiltonian matrix elements, we are able to provide a refined Unitarity Triangle analysis improving the bounds coming from model independent constraints on New Physics. In our non-perturbative computation we use a combination of N-f = 2 maximally twisted sea quarks and Osterwalder-Seiler valence quarks in order to achieve both O(a)-improvement and continuum-like renormalization properties for the relevant four-fermion operators. The calculation of the renormalization constants has been performed non-perturbatively in the RI-MOM scheme. Based on simulations at four values of the lattice spacing and a number of quark masses we have extrapolated/interpolated our results to the continuum limit and physical light/strange quark masses.

Abstract: We discuss the systematic decomposition of the dimension nine neutrinoless double beta decay operator, focusing on mechanisms with potentially small contributions to neutrino mass, while being accessible at the LHC. We first provide a (d = 9 tree-level) complete list of diagrams for neutrinoless double beta decay. From this list one can easily recover all previously discussed contributions to the neutrinoless double beta decay process, such as the celebrated mass mechanism or “exotics”, such as contributions from left-right symmetric models, R-parity violating supersymmetry and leptoquarks. More interestingly, however, we identify a number of new possibilities which have not been discussed in the literature previously. Contact to earlier works based on a general Lorentz-invariant parametrisation of the neutrinoless double beta decay rate is made, which allows, in principle, to derive limits on all possible contributions. We furthermore discuss possible signals at the LHC for mediators leading to the short-range part of the amplitude with one specific example. The study of such contributions would gain particular importance if there were a tension between different measurements of neutrino mass such as coming from neutrinoless double beta decay and cosmology or single beta decay.