This article reports world averages of measurements of b-hadron, c-hadron, and tau-lepton properties obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group (HFAG) using results available through the end of 2011. In some cases results available in the early part of 2012 are included. For the averaging, common input parameters used in the various analyses are adjusted (rescaled) to common values, and known correlations are taken into account. The averages include branching fractions, lifetimes, neutral meson mixing parameters, CP violation parameters, parameters of semileptonic decays and CKM matrix elements.

/pdf/averages-of-b-hadron-c-hadron-and-tau-lepton-properties-as-29qrkk2j2g.pdf

Averages of b-hadron, c-hadron, and tau-lepton properties as of early 2012

A measurement of the Higgs boson mass is presented based on the combined data samples of the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN LHC in the H→γγ and H→ZZ→4l decay channels. The results are obtained from a simultaneous fit to the reconstructed invariant mass peaks in the two channels and for the two experiments. The measured masses from the individual channels and the two experiments are found to be consistent among themselves. The combined measured mass of the Higgs boson is mH=125.09±0.21 (stat)±0.11 (syst)  GeV.

/pdf/combined-measurement-of-the-higgs-boson-mass-in-pp-3ml7f5avlr.pdf

Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in pp Collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, $\tau \to 3\mu $ and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals—scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.

/pdf/a-facility-to-search-for-hidden-particles-at-the-cern-sps-3pxaggnjt6.pdf

A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case.

http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/46123/1/0811.4169v4.pdf

HiggsBounds: Confronting arbitrary Higgs sectors with exclusion bounds from LEP and the Tevatron

Averages of B-Hadron, C-Hadron, and tau-lepton properties as of early 2012

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/20604/1/FullText.pdf

Precision electroweak measurements on the Z resonance

We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electron-positron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLD experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, $\MZ$ and $\GZ$, and its couplings to fermions, for example the $\rho$ parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle, are precisely measured. The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840+/-0.0082. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model. Electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forward-backward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its Standard Model expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative corrections evaluated in the framework of the Standard Model, the masses of the top quark and the W Boson are predicted. These indirect constraints are compared to the direct measurements, providing a stringent test of the Standard Model. Using in addition the direct measurements of $\Mt$ and $\MW$, the mass of the as yet unobserved Standard Model Higgs boson is predicted.

heavy flavour groups

Papers

Precision electroweak measurements on the Z resonance

Precision Electroweak Measurements on the Z Resonance