A measurement of the four-lepton invariant mass spectrum is made with the ATLAS detector, using an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV delivered by the Large Hadron Collider. The differential cross-section is measured for events containing two same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pairs. It exhibits a rich structure, with different mass regions dominated in the Standard Model by single Z boson production, Higgs boson production, and Z boson pair production, and non-negligible interference effects at high invariant masses. The measurement is compared with state-of-the-art Standard Model calculations, which are found to be consistent with the data. These calculations are used to interpret the data in terms of gg -> ZZ -> 4l and Z -> 4l subprocesses, and to place constraints on a possible contribution from physics beyond the Standard Model.

The dark matter (DM) blind spots in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) refer to the parameter regions where the couplings of the DM particles to the Z-boson or the Higgs boson are almost zero, leading to vanishingly small signals for the DM direct detections. In this paper, we carry out comprehensive analyses for the DM searches under the blind-spot scenarios in MSSM. Guided by the requirement of acceptable DM relic abundance, we explore the complementary coverage for the theory parameters at the LHC, the projection for the future underground DM direct searches, and the indirect searches from the relic DM annihilation into photons and neutrinos. We find that (i) the spin-independent (SI) blind spots may be rescued by the spin-dependent (SD) direct detection in the future underground experiments, and possibly by the indirect DM detections from IceCube and SuperK neutrino experiments; (H) the detection of gamma rays from Fermi-LAT may not reach the desirable sensitivity for searching for the DM blind spot regions; (Hi) the SUSY searches at the LHC will substantially extend the discovery region for the blind-spot parameters. The dark matter blind spots thus may be unblinded with the collective efforts in future DM searches.

Measurements of normalized differential cross-sections of top-quark pair production are presented as a function of the top-quark, t (t) over bar system and event-level kinematic observables in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV. The observables have been chosen to emphasize the t (t) over bar production process and to be sensitive to effects of initial-and final-state radiation, to the different parton distribution functions, and to non-resonant processes and higher-order corrections. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1), recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in the lepton+jets channel, requiring exactly one charged lepton and at least four jets with at least two of the jets tagged as originating from a b-quark. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations. The results are in fair agreement with the predictions over a wide kinematic range. Nevertheless, most generators predict a harder top-quark transverse momentum distribution at high values than what is observed in the data. Predictions beyond NLO accuracy improve the agreement with data at high top-quark transverse momenta. Using the current settings and parton distribution functions, the rapidity distributions are not well modelled by any generator under consideration. However, the level of agreement is improved when more recent sets of parton distribution functions are used.

This paper presents measurements of tt (t) over bar production in association with additional b-jets in pp collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Fiducial cross-section measurements are performed in the dilepton and lepton-plus-jets tt (t) over bar decay channels. Results are presented at particle level in the form of inclusive cross-sections of tt final states with three and four b-jets as well as differential cross-sections as a function of global event properties and properties of b-jet pairs. The measured inclusive fiducial cross-sections generally exceed the t (t) over barb (b) over bar predictions from various next-to-leading-order matrix element calculations matched to a parton shower but are compatible within the total uncertainties. The experimental uncertainties are smaller than the uncertainties in the predictions. Comparisons of state-of-the-art theoretical predictions with the differential measurements are shown and good agreement with data is found for most of them.

We extend the prediction range of Pionless Effective Field Theory with an analysis of the ground state of O-16 in leading order. To renormalize the theory, we use as input both experimental data and lattice QCD predictions of nuclear observables, which probe the sensitivity of nuclei to increased quark masses. The nuclear many-body Schrodinger equation is solved with the Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo method. For the first time in a nuclear quantum Monte Carlo calculation, a linear optimization procedure, which allows us to devise an accurate trial wave function with a large number of variational parameters, is adopted. The method yields a binding energy of He-4 which is in good agreement with experiment at physical pion mass and with lattice calculations at larger pion masses. At leading order we do not find any evidence of a O-16 state which is stable against breakup into four He-4, although higher-order terms could bind O-16. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

We study the galaxy populations in 74 Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect selected clusters from the South Pole Telescope survey, which have been imaged in the science verification phase of the Dark Energy Survey. The sample extends up to z similar to 1.1 with 4 x 10(14)M(circle dot) <= M-200 <= 3 x 10(15)M(circle dot). Using the band containing the 4000 angstrom break and its redward neighbour, we study the colour-magnitude distributions of cluster galaxies to similar to m(*) + 2, finding that: (1) The intrinsic rest frame g - r colour width of the red sequence (RS) population is similar to 0.03 out to z similar to 0.85 with a preference for an increase to similar to 0.07 at z = 1, and (2) the prominence of the RS declines beyond z similar to 0.6. The spatial distribution of cluster galaxies is well described by the NFW profile out to 4R(200) with a concentration of c(g) = 3.59(-0.18)(+0.20), 5.37(-0.24)(+0.27) and 1.38(-0.19)(+0.21) for the full, the RS and the blue non-RS populations, respectively, but with similar to 40 per cent to 55 per cent cluster to cluster variation and no statistically significant redshift or mass trends. The number of galaxies within the virial region N-200 exhibits a mass trend indicating that the number of galaxies per unit total mass is lower in the most massive clusters, and shows no significant redshift trend. The RS fraction within R-200 is (68 +/- 3) per cent at z = 0.46, varies from similar to 55 per cent at z = 1 to similar to 80 per cent at z = 0.1 and exhibits intrinsic variation among

Many models currently exist which attempt to interpret the excess of gamma rays emanating from the Galactic Center in terms of annihilating or decaying dark matter. These models typically exhibit a variety of complicated cascade mechanisms for photon production, leading to a nontrivial kinematics which obscures the physics of the underlying dark sector. In this paper, by contrast, we observe that the spectrum of the gamma-ray excess may actually exhibit an intriguing "energy-duality" invariance under E-gamma -> E-*(2)/E-gamma. for some E-*. As we shall discuss, such an energy duality points back to a remarkably simple alternative kinematics which in turn is realized naturally within the Dynamical Dark Matter framework. Observation of this energy duality could therefore provide considerable information about the properties of the dark sector from which the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess might arise, and highlights the importance of acquiring more complete data for the Galactic Center excess in the energy range around 1 GeV.

Flavor-twisted boundary conditions can be used for exponential reduction of finite volume artifacts in flavor-averaged observables in lattice QCD calculations with SU (N-f) light quark flavor symmetry. Finite volume artifact reduction arises from destructive interference effects in a manner closely related to the phase averaging which leads to large N-c volume independence. With a particular choice of flavor-twisted boundary conditions, finite volume artifacts for flavor-singlet observables in a hypercubic spacetime volume are reduced to the size of finite volume artifacts in a spacetime volume with periodic boundary conditions that is four times larger.

We present a study on perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with W as buffer and capping layers. A tunneling magnetoresistance of 138% and an interfacial magnetic anisotropy of 1.67 erg/cm(2) were obtained in optimally annealed samples. However, after extended annealing at 420 degrees C, junctions with W layers showed extremely small resistance due to interdiffusion of W into the MgO barrier. In contrast, in Ta-based junctions, the MgO barrier remained structurally stable despite disappearance of magnetoresistance after extended annealing due to loss of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Compared with conventional tunnel junctions with in-plane magnetic anisotropy, the evolution of tunneling conductance suggests that the relatively low magnetoresistance in perpendicular tunnel junctions is related to the lack of highly polarized Delta(1) conducting channel developed in the initial stage of annealing. Published by AIP Publishing.

Measurements are made of differential cross-sections of highly boosted pair-produced top quarks as a function of top-quark and t (t) over bar system kinematic observables using proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events with two large-radius jets in the final state, one with transverse momentum p(T) > 500 GeV and a second with p(T) > 350 GeV, are used for the measurement. The top-quark candidates are separated from the multijet background using jet substructure information and association with a b-tagged jet. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects to a particle-level fiducial phase space and a parton-level limited phase space, and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations by means of calculated chi(2) values. The cross-section for t (t) over bar production in the fiducial phase-space region is 292 +/- 7(stat) +/- 71(syst) tb, to be compared to the theoretical prediction of 384 +/- 36 fb.