Abstract: It is suggested that the Higgs boson may have a branching ratio into the c (c) over bar c mode suppressed by several orders of magnitude compared with conventional predictions and in addition some small but detectable flavour-violating modes such as b (s) over bar and tau(mu) over bar. The suggestion is based on a scheme proposed and tested earlier for explaining the mixing pattern and mass hierarchy of fermions in terms of a rotating mass matrix. If confirmed, the effects would cast new light on the geometric origin of fermion generations and of the Higgs field itself.

Abstract: The next to leading order chiral corrections to the SU(2) x SU(2) Gell-Mann-Oakes- Renner (GMOR) relation are obtained using the pseudoscalar correlator to five-loop order in perturbative QCD, together with new finite energy sum rules (FESR) incorporating polynomial, Legendre type, integration kernels. The purpose of these kernels is to suppress hadronic contributions in the region where they are least known. This reduces considerably the systematic uncertainties arising from the lack of direct experimental information on the hadronic resonance spectral function. Three different methods are used to compute the FESR contour integral in the complex energy (squared) s-plane, i.e. Fixed Order Perturbation Theory, Contour Improved Perturbation Theory, and a fixed renormalization scale scheme. We obtain for the corrections to the GMOR relation, delta(pi), the value delta(pi) = (6.2 +/- 1.6)%. This result is substantially more accurate than previous determinations based on QCD sum rules; it is also more reliable as it is basically free of systematic uncertainties. It implies a light quark condensate < 0 vertical bar(u) over baru vertical bar 0 > similar or equal to < 0 vertical bar(d) over bard vertical bar 0 > < 0 vertical bar(q) over barq vertical bar 0 >vertical bar(2GeV) = (-267 +/- 5MeV)(3). As a byproduct, the chiral perturbation theory (unphysical) low energy constant H-2(r) is predicted to be H-2(r)(nu(X) = M-p) = -(5.1 +/- 1.8) x10(-3), or H-2(r) (nu(X) = M-eta) = -(5.7 +/- 2.0) x10(-3).

Abstract: We propose an extension of the hypothesis of Minimal Flavour Violation (MFV) to general multi-Higgs models without the assumption of Natural Flavour Conservation (NFC) in the Higgs sector. We study in detail under what conditions the neutral Higgs couplings are only functions of V-CKM and propose a MFV expansion for the neutral Higgs couplings to fermions.

Abstract: In the harsh environment of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (design luminosity of 10(34) cm(-2) s(-1)) efficient reconstruction of vertices is crucial for many physics analyses. Described in this paper is the expected performance of the vertex reconstruction used in the ATLAS experiment. The algorithms for the reconstruction of primary and secondary vertices as well as for finding photon conversions and vertex reconstruction in jets are described. The implementation of vertex algorithms which follows a very modular design based on object-oriented C++ is presented. A user-friendly concept allows event reconstruction and physics analyses to compare and optimize their choice among different vertex reconstruction strategies. The performance of implemented algorithms has been studied on a variety of Monte Carlo samples and results are presented.

Abstract: We calculate the radiative decay widths, two-photon (gamma gamma) and one-photon-one-vector meson (V gamma), of the dynamically generated resonances from vector-meson -vector-meson interaction in a unitary approach based on the hidden-gauge Lagrangians. In the present paper we consider the following dynamically generated resonances: f(0)(1370), f(0)(1710), f(2)(1270), f(2)'(1525) K-2*(1430), two strangeness 0 and isospin 1 states, and two strangeness 1 and isospin 1= 2 states. For the f(0)(1370) and f(2)(1270) we reproduce the previous results for the two-photon decay widths and further calculate their one-photon -one-vector decay widths. For the f(0)(1710) and f(2)'(1525) the calculated two-photon decay widths are found to be consistent with data. The rho 0 gamma, omega gamma and phi gamma decay widths of the f0(1370), f(2)'(1270) f(0)(1710), f(2)'(1525) are compared with the results predicted by other approaches. The K*(+)gamma and K*(0)gamma decay rates of the K-2*(1430) are also calculated and compared with the results obtained in the framework of the covariant oscillator quark model. The results for the two states with strangeness 0, isospin 1 and two states with strangeness 1, isospin 1/ 2 are predictions that need to be tested by future experiments.