Abstract: Invariant mass distributions of B (+) pi (-) and B (0) pi (+) combinations are investigated in order to study excited B mesons. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb(-1) of pp collision data, recorded by the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. Precise measurements of the masses and widths of the B (1)(5721)(0,+) and B (2)(5747)(0,+) states are reported. Clear enhancements, particularly prominent at high pion transverse momentum, are seen over background in the mass range 5850-6000 MeV in both B (+) pi (-) and B (0) pi (+) combinations. The structures are consistent with the presence of four excited B mesons, labelled B (J) (5840)(0,+) and B (J) (5960)(0,+), whose masses and widths are obtained under different hypotheses for their quantum numbers.

Abstract: We employ state-of-the art cosmological observables including supernova surveys and BAO information to provide constraints on the mass and mixing angle of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino species, showing that cosmology can effectively rule out sterile neutrinos which decay between BBN and the present day. The decoupling of an additional heavy neutrino species can modify the time dependence of the Universe's expansion between BBN and recombination and, in extreme cases, lead to an additional matter-dominated period; while this could naively lead to a younger Universe with a larger Hubble parameter, it could later be compensated by the extra radiation expected in the form of neutrinos from sterile decay. However, recombination-era observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the shift parameter R-CMB and the sound horizon r(s) from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) severely constrain this scenario. We self-consistently include the full time-evolution of the coupled sterile neutrino and standard model sectors in an MCMC, showing that if decay occurs after BBN, the sterile neutrino is essentially bounded by the constraint sin(2) theta less than or similar to 0.026(m(s)/eV)(-2).

Abstract: We present D = 3 and D = 4 world-line models for massive particles moving in a new type of enlarged spacetime, with D-1 additional vector coordinates, which after quantization lead to towers of massive higher spin (HS) free fields. Two classically equivalent formulations are presented: one with a hybrid spacetime/bispinor variables and a second described by a free two-twistor dynamics with constraints. After first quantization in the D = 3 and D = 4 cases, the wave functions satisfying a massive version of Vasiliev's free unfolded equations are given as functions on the SL(2, R) and SL(2, C) group manifolds respectively, which describe arbitrary on-shell momenta and spin degrees of freedom. Further we comment on the D = 6 case, and possible supersymmetric extensions are mentioned as well. Finally, the description of interactions and the Ads/crr duality are briefly considered for massive IHS fields.