Abstract: The IceCube neutrino telescope at the South Pole has measured the atmospheric muon neutrino spectrum as a function of zenith angle and energy in the approximate 320 GeV to 20 TeV range, to search for the oscillation signatures of light sterile neutrinos. No evidence for anomalous nu(mu) or (nu) over bar (mu) disappearance is observed in either of two independently developed analyses, each using one year of atmospheric neutrino data. New exclusion limits are placed on the parameter space of the 3 + 1 model, in which muon antineutrinos experience a strong Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein-resonant oscillation. The exclusion limits extend to sin(2)2 theta(24) <= 0.02 at Delta m(2) similar to 0.3 eV(2) at the 90% confidence level. The allowed region from global analysis of appearance experiments, including LSND and MiniBooNE, is excluded at approximately the 99% confidence level for the global best-fit value of vertical bar U-e4 vertical bar(2).

Abstract: The CP asymmetry in the mixing of B-s(0) and (B) over bar (0)(s) mesons is measured in proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. Semileptonic B-s(0) and (B) over bar (s) (0) decays are studied in the inclusive mode D-s(-/+)mu(+/-)nu((-)) X-mu with the D-s(-/+) mesons reconstructed in the K+K-pi(-/+) final state. Correcting the observed charge asymmetry for detection and background effects, the CP asymmetry is found to be a(sl)(s) = (0.39 +/- 0.26 +/- 0.20)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. This is the most precise measurement of a(sl)(s) to date. It is consistent with the prediction from the standard model and will constrain new models of particle physics.

Abstract: The energy-dependent cross section of the (7)Bed(n,alpha)He-4 reaction, of interest for the so-called cosmological lithium problem in big bang nucleosynthesis, has been measured for the first time from 10 meV to 10 keV neutron energy. The challenges posed by the short half-life of Be-7 and by the low reaction cross section have been overcome at nTOF thanks to an unprecedented combination of the extremely high luminosity and good resolution of the neutron beam in the new experimental area (EAR2) of the nTOF facility at CERN, the availability of a sufficient amount of chemically pure Be-7, and a specifically designed experimental setup. Coincidences between the two alpha particles have been recorded in two Si-Be-7-Si arrays placed directly in the neutron beam. The present results are consistent, at thermal neutron energy, with the only previous measurement performed in the 1960s at a nuclear reactor. The energy dependence reported here clearly indicates the inadequacy of the cross section estimates currently used in BBN calculations. Although new measurements at higher neutron energy may still be needed, the n_TOF results hint at a minor role of this reaction in BBN, leaving the long-standing cosmological lithium problem unsolved.

Abstract: The B-s(0)pi(+/-) invariant mass distribution is investigated in order to search for possible exotic meson states. The analysis is based on a data sample recorded with the LHCb detector corresponding to 3 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s 7 and 8 TeV. No significant excess is found, and upper limits are set on the production rate of the claimed X(5568) state within the LHCb acceptance. Upper limits are also set as a function of the mass and width of a possible exotic meson decaying to the B-s(0)pi(+/-) final state. The same limits also apply to a possible exotic meson decaying through the chain B-s(*0)pi(+/-), B-s(*0) -> B-s(0) gamma where the photon is excluded from the reconstructed decays.

Abstract: The Fe-54 nucleus was populated from a Fe-56 beam impinging on a Be target with an energy of E/A = 500 MeV. The internal decay via gamma-ray emission of the 10(+) metastable state was observed. As the structure of this isomeric state has to involve at least four unpaired nucleons, it cannot be populated in a simple two-neutron removal reaction from the Fe-56 ground state. The isomeric state was produced in the low-momentum (-energy) tail of the parallel momentum (energy) distribution of Fe-54, suggesting that it was populated via the decay of the Delta(0) resonance into a proton. This process allows the population of fournucleon states, such as the observed isomer. Therefore, it is concluded that the observation of this 10(+) metastable state in Fe-54 is a consequence of the quark structure of the nucleons.