We present the results of a search for dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the mass range below 20  GeV/c^{2} using a target of low-radioactivity argon with a 6786.0 kg d exposure. The data were obtained using the DarkSide-50 apparatus at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The analysis is based on the ionization signal, for which the DarkSide-50 time projection chamber is fully efficient at 0.1  keVee. The observed rate in the detector at 0.5  keVee is about 1.5  event/keVee/kg/d and is almost entirely accounted for by known background sources. We obtain a 90% C.L. exclusion limit above 1.8  GeV/c^{2} for the spin-independent cross section of dark matter WIMPs on nucleons, extending the exclusion region for dark matter below previous limits in the range 1.8-6  GeV/c^{2}.

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We present new constraints on sub-GeV dark-matter particles scattering off electrons based on 6780.0 kg d of data collected with the DarkSide-50 dual-phase argon time projection chamber. This analysis uses electroluminescence signals due to ionized electrons extracted from the liquid argon target. The detector has a very high trigger probability for these signals, allowing for an analysis threshold of three extracted electrons, or approximately 0.05 keVee. We calculate the expected recoil spectra for dark matter-electron scattering in argon and, under the assumption of momentum-independent scattering, improve upon existing limits from XENON10 for dark-matter particles with masses between 30 and 100  MeV/c^{2}.

decay, with a statistical significance exceeding six standard deviations, and the best measurement so far of its branching fraction. Furthermore, we obtained evidence for the B 0 ? m 1 m 2 decay with a statistical significance of three standard deviations. Both measurements are statistically compatible with standard model predictions and allow stringent constraints to be placed on theories beyond the standard model. The LHC experiments will resume taking data in 2015, recording proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 teraelectronvolts, which will approximately double the production rates of B 0 s and B 0 mesons and lead to further improvements in the precision of these crucial tests of the standard model.Experimental particle physicists have been testing the predictions of the standard model of particle physics (SM) with increasing precision since the 1970s. Theoretical developments have kept pace by improving the accuracy of the SM predictions as the experimental results gained in precision. In the course of the past few decades, the SM has passed critical tests derived from experiment, but it does not address some profound questions about the nature of the Universe. For example, the existence of dark matter, which has been confirmed by cosmological data 3 , is not accommodated by the SM. It also fails to explain the origin of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter, which after the Big Bang led to the survival of the tiny amount of matter currently present in the Universe Fig. 1c, is forbidden at the elementary level because the Z 0 cannot couple directly to quarks of different flavours, that is, there are no direct 'flavour changing neutral currents'. However, it is possible to respect this rule and still have this decay occur through 'higher order' transitions such as those shown in Fig. 1d and e. These are highly suppressed because each additional interaction vertex reduces their probability of occurring significantly. They are also helicity and CKM suppressed. Consequently, the branching fraction for the B 0 s ?m z m { decay is expected to be very small compared to the dominant b antiquark to c antiquark transitions. The corresponding decay of the B 0 meson, where a d quark replaces the s quark, is even more CKM suppressed because it requires a jump across two quark generations rather than just one.The branching fractions, B, of these two decays, accounting for higher-order electromagnetic and strong interaction effects, and using lattice quantum chromodynamics to compute the B 8,9 , such as in the diagrams shown in Fig. 1f and g, that can considerably modify the SM branching fractions. In particular, theories with additional Higgs bosons 10,11 predict possible enhancements to the branching fractions. A significant deviation of either of the two branching fraction measurements from the SM predictions would give insight on how the SM should be extended. Alternatively, a measurement compatible with the SM could provide strong constraints on BSM theories. . Both CMS and LHCb later ...

A search for narrow resonances and quantum black holes is performed in inclusive and b-tagged dijet mass spectra measured with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data set corresponds to 5 fb −1 of integrated luminosity collected in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV. No narrow resonances or quantum black holes are observed. Modelindependent upper limits at the 95% confidence level are obtained on the product of the cross section, branching fraction into dijets, and acceptance for three scenarios: decay into quark-quark, quark-gluon, and gluon-gluon pairs. Specific lower limits are set on the mass of string resonances (4.31 TeV), excited quarks (3.32 TeV), axigluons and colorons (3.36 TeV), scalar color-octet resonances (2.07 TeV), E 6 diquarks (3.75 TeV), and on the masses of W (1.92 TeV) and Z (1.47 TeV) bosons. The limits on the minimum mass of quantum black holes range from 4 to 5.3 TeV. In addition, b-quark tagging is applied to the two leading jets and upper limits are set on the production of narrow dijet resonances in a model-independent fashion as a function of the branching fraction to b-jet pairs.