Abstract: Baryon number is an accidental symmetry of the Standard Model at the Lagrangian level. Its violation is arguably one of the most compelling phenomena predicted by physics beyond the Standard Model. Furthermore, there is a large experimental effort to search for it including the Hyper-K, DUNE, JUNO, and THEIA experiments. Therefore, an agnostic, model-independent, analysis of baryon number violation using the power of Effective Field Theory is very timely. In particular, in this work we study the contribution of dimension six and seven effective operators to |triangle(B – L)| = 0, 2 nucleon decays taking into account the effects of Renormalisation Group Evolution. We obtain lower limits on the energy scale of each operator and study the correlations between different decay modes. We find that for some operators the effect of running is very significant.

Abstract: We provide a comprehensive analysis of the Type-I Seesaw family of neutrino mass models, including the conventional type-I seesaw and its low-scale variants, namely the linear and inverse seesaws. We establish that all these models essentially correspond to a particular form of the type-I seesaw in the context of explicit lepton number violation. We then focus into the more interesting scenario of spontaneous lepton number violation, systematically categorizing all inequivalent minimal models. Furthermore, we identify and flesh out specific models that feature a rich majoron phenomenology and discuss some scenarios which, despite having heavy mediators and being invisible in processes such as μ-> e gamma, predict sizable rates for decays including the majoron in the final state.

Abstract: A binned Dalitz plot analysis of B-+/- -> DK +/- decays, with D -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) and D -> (KSK+K-)-K-0, is used to perform a measurement of the CP-violating observables x(+/-) and y(+/-), which are sensitive to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle gamma. The analysis is performed without assuming any D decay model, through the use of information on the strong-phase variation over the Dalitz plot from the CLEO collaboration. Using a sample of proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb experiment in 2015 and 2016, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb(-1), the values of the CP violation parameters are found to be x = (9.0 +/- 1.7 +/- 0.7 +/- 0.4) x 10(-2), y = (2.1 +/- 2.2 +/- 0.5 +/- 1.1) x 10(-2), x(+) = (-7.7 +/- 1.9 +/- 0.7 +/- 0.4) x 10(-2), and y(+) = (-1.0 +/- 1.9 +/- 0.4 +/- 0.9) x10(-2). The first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the uncertainty on the strong-phase measurements. These values are used to obtain gamma = (87(+)(12)(+11))degrees, r(B) = 0.086(-)(0.1)(43)(+0.013), and delta(B) = (101 +/- 11), where r(B) is the ratio between the suppressed and favoured B-decay amplitudes and delta(B) is the corresponding strong-interaction phase difference. This measurement is combined with the result obtained using 2011 and 2012 data collected with the LHCb experiment, to give gamma = (80(-9)(+10))degrees, r(B) = 0.080 +/- 0.011, and delta(B) = (110 +/- 10)degrees.

Abstract: The efficiency to identify jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) is measured using a high purity sample of dileptonic top quark-antiquark pairs (t (t) over bar) selected from the 36.1 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 from proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV. Two methods are used to extract the efficiency from t (t) over bar events, a combinatorial likelihood approach and a tag-and-probe method. A boosted decision tree, not using b-tagging information, is used to select events in which two b-jets are present, which reduces the dominant uncertainty in the modelling of the flavour of the jets. The efficiency is extracted for jets in a transverse momentum range from 20 to 300 GeV, with data-to-simulation scale factors calculated by comparing the efficiency measured using collision data to that predicted by the simulation. The two methods give compatible results, and achieve a similar level of precision, measuring data-to-simulation scale factors close to unity with uncertainties ranging from 2% to 12% depending on the jet transverse momentum.

Abstract: Mixed damping is a physical effect that occurs when a heavy species is coupled to a relativistic fluid which is itself free streaming. As a cross-case between collisional damping and free-streaming, it is crucial in the context of neutrino-dark matter interactions. In this work, we establish the parameter space relevant for mixed damping, and we derive an analytical approximation for the evolution of dark matter perturbations in the mixed damping regime to illustrate the physical processes responsible for the suppression of cosmological perturbations. Although extended Boltzmann codes implementing neutrino-dark matter scattering terms automatically include mixed damping, this effect has not been systematically studied. In order to obtain reliable numerical results, it is mandatory to reconsider several aspects of neutrino-dark matter interactions, such as the initial conditions, the ultra-relativistic fluid approximation and high order multiple moments in the neutrino distribution. Such a precise treatment ensures the correct assessment of the relevance of mixed damping in neutrino-dark matter interactions.