Kinematic edges with flavor oscillation and non-zero widths
Kinematic edges in cascade decays provide a probe of the masses of new particles. In some new physics scenarios the decay chain involves intermediate particles of different flavors that can mix and oscillate. We discuss the implication of such oscillation, and in particular its interplay with the non-zero widths of the particles. We derive explicit formulae for differential decay rates involving both non-zero widths and oscillation, and show that in the case where the mass difference between the intermediate particle is of the order of their widths, both oscillation and width effects are important. An examination of the physical observables contained in these differential decay rates is provided. We calculate differential decay rates for cases in which the intermediate particles are either scalars or fermions.

title: Composite Dirac neutrinos
abstract: We present a mechanism that naturally produces light Dirac neutrinos. The basic idea is that the right-handed neutrinos are composite. Any realistic composite model must involve ‘hidden flavor’ chiral symmetries. In general some of these symmetries may survive confinement, and in particular, one of them manifests itself at low energy as an exact B − L symmetry. Dirac neutrinos are therefore produced. The neutrinos are naturally light due to compositeness. In general, sterile states are present in the model, some of them can naturally be warm dark matter candidates.

title: KeV warm dark matter and composite neutrinos
abstract: A bstractElementary keV sterile Dirac neutrinos can be a natural ingredient of the composite neutrino scenario. For a certain class of composite neutrino theories, these sterile neutrinos naturally have the appropriate mixing angles to be resonantly produced warm dark matter (WDM). Alternatively, we show these sterile neutrinos can be WDM produced by an entropy-diluted thermal freeze-out, with the necessary entropy production arising not from an out-of-equilibrium decay, but rather from the confinement of the composite neutrino sector, provided there is sufficient supercooling.

title: Lorentz symmetric quantum field theory for symplectic fermions
abstract: A free quantum field theory with Lorentz symmetry is derived for spin-half symplectic fermions in 2+1 dimensions. In particular, we show that fermionic spin-half fields may be canonically quantized in a free theory with a Klein–Gordon Lagrangian. This theory is shown to have all the required properties of a consistent free quantum field theory, namely, causality, unitarity, adherence to the spin-statistics theorem, CPT symmetry, and the Hermiticity and positive definiteness of the Hamiltonian. The global symmetry of the free theory is Sp(4)≃SO(5). Possible interacting theories of both the pseudo-Hermitian and Hermitian variety are then examined briefly.

title: Galactic center gamma-ray excess through a dark shower
abstract: The reported excess of $\gamma$-rays, emitted from an extended region around the galactic center, has a distribution and rate suggestive of an origin in dark matter (DM) annihilations. The conventional annihilation channels into standard model (SM) $b$ quarks or $\tau$ leptons may, however, be in tension with various experimental constraints on antiproton and positron fluxes. We present a framework that is free from such constraints. The key idea is that the mediators between the dark matter and the SM are themselves part of a strongly coupled sector: a hidden valley. In this scenario, the dark matter particles annihilate only into hidden quarks that subsequently shower and hadronize. Hidden quark effective couplings to SM hypercharge allow the lightest hidden bound states to subsequently decay into SM photons, producing the observed photon energy spectrum. Associated production of SM fermions is, in contrast, suppressed by electroweak, loop or helicity effects. We find that, generically, $\sim$ 10 GeV DM and a confinement scale $\sim$ 1 GeV provide a good fit to the observed spectrum. An $SU(2)$ hidden confining group is preferred over $SU(3)$ or higher rank gauge groups, up to uncertainties in the extraction of the astrophysical background. An explicit realization of this framework is also presented, and its phenomenology is discussed in detail, along with pertinent cosmological, astrophysical and collider bounds. This framework may be probed by model-independent searches, including future beam-dump experiments.

title: SU(3) sum rules for charm decay
abstract: A bstractWe present flavor SU(3) sum rules for D → PP and D → PV decay amplitudes, that are valid to second order in symmetry breaking by the strange quark mass spurion. Decay rate sum rules are also computed to this order. Particular attention is given to sum rules arising from the isospin and U-spin subgroups, the former providing sensitive tests for alternative sources of SU(3) breaking. We apply the latter together with the postulated ΔU = 0 rule for the large penguin picture to predict the ratio and difference of the direct CP asymmetries for D → KK∗ and D → πρ.

title: Flavor tagged time-dependent angular analysis of the $B_s \rightarrow J/\psi \phi$ decay and extraction of $\Delta\Gamma$s and the weak phase $\phi_s$ in ATLAS
abstract: A measurement of the B0s→J/ψϕ decay parameters, updated to include flavor tagging is reported using 4.9  fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector from s√=7  TeV pp collisions recorded in 2011 at the LHC. The values measured for the physical parameters are 
ϕs0.12±0.25(stat)±0.05(syst)  radΔΓs0.053±0.021(stat)±0.010(syst)  ps−1Γs0.677±0.007(stat)±0.004(syst)  ps 1|A∥(0)|20.220±0.008(stat)±0.009(syst)|A0(0)|20.529±0.006(stat)±0.012(syst)δ⊥=3.89±0.47(stat)±0.11(syst)  rad 
where the parameter ΔΓs is constrained to be positive. The S-wave contribution was measured and found to be compatible with zero. Results for ϕs and ΔΓs are also presented as 68% and 95% likelihood contours, which show agreement with the Standard Model expectations.

title: Triggering on Long-Lived Neutral Particles in the ATLAS Detector
abstract: Neutral particles with long decay paths that decay to many-particle final states represent, from an experimental point of view, a challenge both for the trigger and for the reconstruction capabilities of the ATLAS apparatus. The Hidden Valley scenario serves as an excellent setting for the purpose of exploring the challenges to the trigger posed by long-lived particles.

title: The detector control system of the ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker during macro-assembly and integration
abstract: The ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) is one of the largest existing semiconductor detectors. It is situated between the Pixel detector and the Transition Radiation Tracker at one of the four interaction points of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). During 2006-2007 the detector was lowered into the ATLAS cavern and installed in its final position. For the assembly, integration and commissioning phase, a complete Detector Control System (DCS) was developed to ensure the safe operation of the tracker. This included control of the individual powering of the silicon modules, a bi-phase cooling system and various types of sensors monitoring the SCT environment and the surrounding test enclosure. The DCS software architecture, performance and operational experience will be presented in the view of a validation of the DCS for the final SCT installation and operation phase.

title: Search for nonpointing and delayed photons in the diphoton and missing transverse momentum final state in 8 TeV pp collisions at the LHC using the ATLAS detector
abstract: A search has been performed, using the full 20.3 fb(-1) data sample of 8 TeV proton-proton collisions collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, for photons originating from a displaced vertex due to the decay of a neutral long-lived particle into a photon and an invisible particle. The analysis investigates the diphoton plus missing transverse momentum final state, and is therefore most sensitive to pair production of long-lived particles. The analysis technique exploits the capabilities of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter to make precise measurements of the flight direction, as well as the time of flight, of photons. No excess is observed over the Standard Model predictions for background. Exclusion limits are set within the context of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models, with the lightest neutralino being the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and decaying into a photon and gravitino with a lifetime in the range from 250 ps to about 100 ns.

title: Design and performance of the ABCD3TA ASIC for readout of silicon strip detectors in the ATLAS semiconductor tracker
abstract: The ABCD3TA is a 128-channel ASIC with binary architecture for the readout of silicon strip particle detectors in the Semiconductor Tracker of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The chip comprises fast front-end and amplitude discriminator circuits using bipolar devices, a binary pipeline for first level trigger latency, a second level derandomising buffer and data compression circuitry based on CMOS
devices. It has been designed and fabricated in a BiCMOS radiation resistant process. Extensive testing of the
ABCD3TA chips assembled into detector modules show that the design meets the specifications and maintains the required performance after irradiation up to a total ionising dose of 10 Mrad and a 1-MeV neutron equivalent fluence of 2×1014 n/cm2, corresponding to 10 years of operation of the LHC at its design luminosity. Wafer screening and quality assurance procedures have been developed and implemented in large volume production to
ensure that the chips assembled into modules meet the rigorous acceptance criteria.