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: 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: We present a full Bayesian analysis of the combination of current neutrino oscillation, neutrinoless double beta decay and Cosmic Microwave Background observations. Our major goal is to carefully investigate the possibility to single out one neutrino mass ordering, namely Normal Ordering or Inverted Ordering, with current data. Two possible parametrizations (three neutrino masses versus the lightest neutrino mass plus the two oscillation mass splittings) and priors (linear versus logarithmic) are exhaustively examined. We find that the preference for NO is only driven by neutrino oscillation data. Moreover, the values of the Bayes factor indicate that the evidence for NO is strong only when the scan is performed over the three neutrino masses with logarithmic priors; for every other combination of parameterization and prior, the preference for NO is only weak. As a by-product of our Bayesian analyses, we are able to (a) compare the Bayesian bounds on the neutrino mixing parameters to those obtained by means of frequentist approaches, finding a very good agreement; (b) determine that the lightest neutrino mass plus the two mass splittings parametrization, motivated by the physical observables, is strongly preferred over the three neutrino mass eigenstates scan and (c) find that logarithmic priors guarantee a weakly-to-moderately more efficient sampling of the parameter space. These results establish the optimal strategy to successfully explore the neutrino parameter space, based on the use of the oscillation mass splittings and a logarithmic prior on the lightest neutrino mass, when combining neutrino oscillation data with cosmology and neutrinoless double beta decay. We also show that the limits on the total neutrino mass Sigma m(nu) can change dramatically when moving from one prior to the other. These results have profound implications for future studies on the neutrino mass ordering, as they crucially state the need for self-consistent analyses which explore the best parametrization and priors, without combining results that involve different assumptions.