A search for flavour-changing neutral-current processes in top-quark decays is presented. Data collected with the ATLAS detector from proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), are analysed. The search is performed using top-quark pair events, with one top quark decaying through the t -> qZ (q = u, c) flavour-changing neutral-current channel, and the other through the dominant Standard Model mode t -> bW. Only Z boson decays into charged leptons and leptonic W boson decays are considered as signal. Consequently, the final-state topology is characterized by the presence of three isolated charged leptons (electrons or muons), at least two jets, one of the jets originating from a b-quark, and missing transverse momentum from the undetected neutrino. The data are consistent with Standard Model background contributions, and at 95% confidence level the search sets observed (expected) upper limits of 1.7 x 10(-4) (2.4 x 10(-4)) on the t -> uZ branching ratio and 2.4 x 10(-4) (3.2 x 10(-4)) on the t -> cZ branching ratio, constituting the most stringent limits to date.

To understand the formation and evolution of galaxies at redshifts 0 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 10, one must invariably introduce specific models (e.g., for the star formation) in order to fully interpret the data. Unfortunately, this tends to render the analysis compliant to the theory and its assumptions, so consensus is still some-what elusive. Nonetheless, the surprisingly early appearance of massive galaxies challenges the standard model, and the halo mass function estimated from galaxy surveys at z greater than or similar to 4 appears to be inconsistent with the predictions of Lambda CDM, giving rise to what has been termed "The Impossibly Early Galaxy Problem" by some workers in the field. A simple resolution to this question may not be forthcoming. The situation with the halos themselves, however, is more straightforward and, in this paper, we use linear perturbation theory to derive the halo mass function over the redshift range 0 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 10 for the R-h = ct universe. We use this predicted halo distribution to demonstrate that both its dependence on mass and its very weak dependence on redshift are compatible with the data. The difficulties with Lambda CDM may eventually be overcome with refinements to the underlying theory of star formation and galaxy evolution within the halos. For now, however, we demonstrate that the unexpected early formation of structure may also simply be due to an incorrect choice of the cosmology, rather than to yet unknown astrophysical issues associated with the condensation of mass fluctuations and subsequent galaxy formation.

We calculate the parameters describing elastic I = 1, P-wave pp scattering using lattice QCD with 2 + 1 flavors of clover fermions. Our calculation is performed with a pion mass of m(pi) approximate to 320 MeV and a lattice size of L approximate to 3.6 fm. We construct the two-point correlation matrices with both quark-antiquark and two-hadron interpolating fields using a combination of smeared forward, sequential and stochastic propagators. The spectra in all relevant irreducible representations for total momenta vertical bar(P) over right arrow vertical bar <= root 32 pi/L are extracted with two alternative methods: a variational analysis as well as multiexponential matrix fits. We perform an analysis using Luscher's formalism for the energies below the inelastic thresholds, and investigate several phase shift models, including possible nonresonant contributions. We find that our data are well described by the minimal Breit-Wigner form, with no statistically significant nonresonant component. In determining the rho resonance mass and coupling we compare two different approaches: fitting the individually extracted phase shifts versus fitting the t-matrix model directly to the energy spectrum. We find that both methods give consistent results, and at a pion mass of am(pi) = 0.18295(36)(stat) obtain g(rho pi pi) = 5.69(13)(stat)(16)(sys), am(rho) = 0.4609(16)(stat)(14)(sys), and am(rho)/am(N) = 0.7476(38)(stat)(23)(sys), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is the systematic uncertainty due to the choice of fit ranges.

A search for supersymmetric partners of top quarks decaying as (t) over tilde (1) -> c (chi) over tilde (0)(1)and supersymmetric partners of charm quarks decaying as (c) over tilde (1) -> c (chi) over tilde (0 )(1)where (chi) over tilde (0)(1) is the lightest neutralino, is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb(-1) pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and is performed in final states with jets identified as containing charm hadrons. Assuming a 100% branching ratio to c (chi) over tilde (0)(1), top and charm squarks with masses up to 850 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest neutralino. For m (t) over tilde (1,(c) over tilde1) - m((chi) over tilde 10)< 100 GeV, top and charm squark masses up to 500 GeV are excluded.

A generic byproduct of many theories beyond the Standard Model is the appearance of light scalar fields known as moduli. These moduli should be copiously produced in the early universe but have dangerously long lifetimes, leading to their excessive domination of the late-time energy density - an issue known as the "cosmological moduli problem". In this talk, we discuss a number of new effects which have direct relevance for the cosmological moduli problem and which, depending on circumstances, can either unexpectedly amerliorate it or worsen it, often by many orders of magnitude. As described more fully in Ref. [1], these effects arise in theories containing multiple moduli which mix amongst themselves in the presence of a mass-generating phase transition.

Splashback refers to the process of matter that is accreting onto a dark matter halo reaching its first orbital apocenter and turning around in its orbit. The clustercentric radius at which this process occurs, r(sp), defines a halo boundary that is connected to the dynamics of the cluster. A rapid decline in the halo profile is expected near rsp. We measure the galaxy number density and weak lensing mass profiles around REDMAPPER galaxy clusters in the first-year Dark Energy Survey (DES) data. For a cluster sample with mean M-200m mass approximate to 2.5 x 10(14)M(circle dot), we find strong evidence of a splashback-like steepening of the galaxy density profile and measure r(sp) = 1.13 +/- 0.07 h(-1) Mpc, consistent with the earlier Sloan Digital Sky Survey measurements of More et al. and Baxter et al. Moreover, our weak lensing measurement demonstrates for the first time the existence of a splashback-like steepening of the matter profile of galaxy clusters. We measure r(sp) = 1.34 +/- 0.21 h(-1) Mpc from the weak lensing data, in good agreement with our galaxy density measurements. For different cluster and galaxy samples, we find that, consistent with.CDM simulations, rsp scales with R-200m and does not evolve with redshift over the redshift range of 0.3-0.6. We also find that potential systematic effects associated with the REDMAPPER algorithm may impact the location of rsp. We discuss the progress needed to understand the systematic uncertainties and fully exploit forthcoming data from DES and future surveys, emphasizing the importance of more realistic mock catalogs and independent cluster samples.

Future precision measurements of the Standard Model (SM) parameters at the proposed Z-factories and Higgs factories may have significant impacts on new physics beyond the Standard Model in the electroweak sector. We illustrate this by focusing on the Type-II two Higgs doublet model (Type-II 2HDM). The contributions from the heavy Higgs bosons at the tree-level and at the one-loop level are included in a full model parameter space. We perform a multiple variable global fit and study the extent to which the parameters of non-alignment and non-degenerate masses can be probed by the precision measurements. We find that the allowed parameter ranges are tightly constrained by the future Higgs precision measurements, especially for small and large values of tan . Indirect limits on the masses of heavy Higgs can be obtained, which can be complementary to the direct searches of the heavy Higgs bosons at hadron colliders. We also find that the expected accuracies at the Z-pole and at a Higgs factory are quite complementary in constraining mass splittings of heavy Higgs bosons. The typical results are | cos( - )| < 0.008, |m(phi)| < 200 GeV, and tan approximate to 0.2 - 5. The reaches from CEPC, FCC-ee and ILC are also compared, for both Higgs and Z-pole precision measurements.

Measurements of the Hubble constantH(z) are increasingly being used to test the expansion rate predicted by various cosmological models. But the recent application of two-point diagnostics, such as Om(zi, zj) and Omh(2)(zi, zj), has produced considerable tension between Lambda CDM's predictions and several observations, with other models faring even worse. Part of this problem is attributable to the continued mixing of truly model-independent measurements using the cosmic-chronometer approach, and model-dependent data extracted from baryon acoustic oscillations. In this paper, we advance the use of two-point diagnostics beyond their current status, and introduce new variations, which we call Delta h(zi, zj), that are more useful for model comparisons. But we restrict our analysis exclusively to cosmic-chronometer data, which are truly model independent. Even for these measurements, however, we confirm the conclusions drawn by earlier workers that the data have strongly non-Gaussian uncertainties, requiring the use of both 'median' and 'mean' statistical approaches. Our results reveal that previous analyses using two-point diagnostics greatly underestimated the errors, thereby misinterpreting the level of tension between theoretical predictions and H(z) data. Instead, we demonstrate that as of today, only Einstein-de Sitter is ruled out by the two-point diagnostics at a level of significance exceeding similar to 3s. The R-h = ct universe is slightly favoured over the remaining models, including Lambda cold dark matter and Chevalier-Polarski-Linder, though all of them (other than Einstein-de Sitter) are consistent to within 1 sigma with the measured mean of the Delta h(zi, zj) diagnostics.

The production of a top quark in association with a Z boson is investigated. The proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015 and 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Events containing three identified leptons (electrons and/or muons) and two jets, one of which is identified as a b-quark jet are selected. The major backgrounds are diboson, tt($)over-bar and Z + jets production. A neural network is used to improve the background rejection and extract the signal. The resulting significance is 4.2 sigma in the data and the expected significance is 5.4 sigma. The measured cross-section for tZq production is 600 +/- 170(stat.)+/- 140(syst.)fb. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Background: Live-cell fluorescence microscopy (LCFM) is a powerful tool used to investigate cellular dynamics in real time. However, the capacity to simultaneously measure DNA content in cells being tracked over time remains challenged by dye-associated toxicities. The ability to measure DNA content in single cells by means of LCFM would allow cellular stage and ploidy to be coupled with a variety of imaging directed analyses. Here we describe a widely applicable nontoxic approach for measuring DNA content in live cells by fluorescence microscopy. This method relies on introducing a live-cell membrane-permeant DNA fluorophore, such as Hoechst 33342, into the culture medium of cells at the end of any live-cell imaging experiment and measuring each cell's integrated nuclear fluorescence to quantify DNA content. Importantly, our method overcomes the toxicity and induction of DNA damage typically caused by live-cell dyes through strategic timing of adding the dye to the cultures; allowing unperturbed cells to be imaged for any interval of time before quantifying their DNA content. We assess the performance of our method empirically and discuss adaptations that can be implemented using this technique. Results: Presented in conjunction with cells expressing a histone 2B-GFP fusion protein (H2B-GFP), we demonstrated how this method enabled chromosomal segregation errors to be tracked in cells as they progressed through cellular division that were later identified as either diploid or polyploid. We also describe and provide an automated Matlab-derived algorithm that measures the integrated nuclear fluorescence in each cell and subsequently plots these measurements into a cell cycle histogram for each frame imaged. The algorithm's accurate assessment of DNA content was validated by parallel flow cytometric studies. Conclusions: This method allows the examination of single-cell dynamics to be correlated with cellular stage and ploidy in a high-throughput fashion. The approach is suitable for any standard epifluorescence microscope equipped with a stable illumination source and either a stage-top incubator or an enclosed live-cell incubation chamber. Collectively, we anticipate that this method will allow high-resolution microscopic analysis of cellular processes involving cell cycle progression, such as checkpoint activation, DNA replication, and cellular division.