Abstract: We present a numeric method for the analysis of the fermion mass matrices predicted in flavour models. The method does not require any previous algebraic work, it offers a chi(2) comparison test and an easy estimate of confidence intervals. It can also be used to study the stability of the results when the predictions are disturbed by small perturbations. We have applied the method to the case of two-zero neutrino mass textures using the latest available fits on neutrino oscillations, derived the available parameter space for each texture and compared them. Textures A(1) and A(2) seem favoured because they give a small chi(2), allow for large regions in parameter space and give neutrino masses compatible with Cosmology limits. The other “allowed” textures remain allowed although with a very constrained parameter space, which, in some cases, could be in conflict with Cosmology. We have also revisited the “forbidden” textures and studied the stability of the results when the texture zeroes are not exact. Most of the forbidden textures remain forbidden, but textures F-1 and F-3 are particularly sensitive to small perturbations and could become allowed.

Abstract: We present the technical/physical foundations of a new imaging technique that combines ordinary radiographic information (generated by conventional X-ray settings) with the patient's volume to derive densitometric images. Traditionally, these images provide quantitative information about tissues densities. In our approach, they graphically enhance either soft or bony regions. After measuring the patient's volume with contour recognition devices, the physical traversed lengths within it (as the Roentgen beam intersects the patient) are calculated and pixel-wise associated with the original radiograph (X). In order to derive this map of lengths (L), the camera equations of the X-ray system and the contour sensor are determined. The patient's surface is also translated to the point-of-view of the X-ray beam and all its entrance/exit points are sought with the help of ray-casting methods. The derived L is applied to X as a physical operation (subtraction), obtaining soft tissue-(D-S) or bone-enhanced (D'(B)) figures. In the D-S type, the contained graphical information can be linearly mapped to the average electronic density (traversed by the X-ray beam). This feature represents an interesting proof-of-concept of associating density data to radiographs, but most important, their intensity histogram is objectively compressed, i.e., the dynamic range is more shrunk (compared against the corresponding X). This leads to other advantages: improvement in the visibility of border/edge areas (high gradient), extended manual window level/width manipulations during screening, and immediate correction of underexposed X instances. In the D-B' type, high-density elements are highlighted and easier to discern. All these results can be achieved with low-energy beam exposures, saving costs and dose. Future work will deepen this clinical side of our research. In contrast with other image-based modifiers, the proposed method is grounded on the measurement of a physical entity: the span of the X-ray beam within a body while undertaking a radiographic examination.

Abstract: A search for a narrow scalar resonance decaying into an opposite-sign muon pair produced in events with and without b-tagged jets is presented in this paper. The search uses 36.1 fb(-1) of =13 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. No significant excess of events above the expected Standard Model background is observed in the investigated mass range of 0.2 to 1.0 TeV. The observed upper limits at 95% confidence level on the cross section times branching ratio for b-quark associated production and gluon-gluon fusion are between 1.9 and 41 fb and 1.6 and 44 fb respectively, which is consistent with expectations.

Abstract: Using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb, collected with the LHCb detector between 2011 and 2018, a new narrow charmonium state, the X(3842) resonance, is observed in the decay modes X(3842) ! D0 D 0 and X(3842) ! D+D. The mass and the natural width of this state are measured to be where the fi rst uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The observed mass and narrow natural width suggest the interpretation of the new state as the unobserved spin-3 3 1 3 D 3 charmonium state. In addition, prompt hadroproduction of the (3770) and 2 (3930) states is observed for the fi rst time, and the parameters of these states are measured to be m (3770) = 3778 : 1 0 : 7 0 : 6MeV where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.

Abstract: The PTOLEMY project aims to develop a scalable design for a Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) detector, the first of its kind and the only one conceived that can look directly at the image of the Universe encoded in neutrino background produced in the first second after the Big Bang. The scope of the work for the next three years is to complete the conceptual design of this detector and to validate with direct measurements that the non-neutrino backgrounds are below the expected cosmological signal. In this paper we discuss in details the theoretical aspects of the experiment and its physics goals. In particular, we mainly address three issues. First we discuss the sensitivity of PTOLEMY to the standard neutrino mass scale. We then study the perspectives of the experiment to detect the CNB via neutrino capture on tritium as a function of the neutrino mass scale and the energy resolution of the apparatus. Finally, we consider an extra sterile neutrino with mass in the eV range, coupled to the active states via oscillations, which has been advocated in view of neutrino oscillation anomalies. This extra state would contribute to the tritium decay spectrum, and its properties, mass and mixing angle, could be studied by analyzing the features in the beta decay electron spectrum.