Current state of the Prunetalia spinosae communities in the centre and south of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal)

This paper re-examines the Rhamno-Prunetea class in the centre and south of the Iberian Peninsula, especially in Andalusia. The paper also deals with the alliances Pruno-Rubion ulmifolii Lonicero-Berberidion hispanicae in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, and Berberidion vulgaris (Berberidenion seroi) in the area of Cuenca. Our analysis of 225 relevés arranged in 22 phytosociological tables helped us to re-organize the available information and subsequently propose three associations and two subassociations: Clematido vitalbae-Rosetum micranthae nova; Berberido hispanicae- Buxetum sempervirentis nova; Roso siculae-Berberidetum hispanicae Mota nova subas. prunetosum ramburii Mota nova; Lonicero arboreae-Rhamnetum cathartici Martínez-Parras and Molero 1983 subas. prunetosum ranburii nova. As a result of the study, a total of 18 syntaxa with the rank of association and four with the rank of subassociation are proposed for the south of the Iberian Peninsula

Symmetryless Dark Matter

It is appealing to stabilize dark matter by the same discrete symmetry that is used to explain the structure of quark and lepton mass matrices. However, to generate the observed fermion mixing patterns, any flavor symmetry must necessarily be broken, rendering dark matter unstable. We study singlet, doublet and triplet SU(2) multiplets of both scalar and fermion dark matter candidates and enumerate the conditions under which no d < 6 dark matter decay operators are generated even in the case if the flavor symmetry is broken to nothing. We show that the VEVs of flavon scalars transforming as higher multiplets (e.g. triplets) of the flavor group must be at the electroweak scale. The most economical way for that is to use SM Higgs boson(s) as flavons. Such models can be tested by the LHC experiments. This scenario requires the existence of additional Froggatt-Nielsen scalars that generate hierarchies in Yukawa couplings. We study the conditions under which large and small flavor breaking parameters can coexist without destabilizing the dark matter.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Littlest Inverse Seesaw Model

We propose a minimal predictive inverse seesaw model based on two right-handed neutrinos and two additional singlets, leading to the same low energy neutrino mass matrix as in the Littlest Seesaw (LS) (type I) model. In order to implement such a Littlest Inverse Seesaw (LIS) model, we have used an $S_{4}$ family symmetry, together with other various symmetries, flavons and driving fields. The resulting LIS model leads to an excellent fit to the low energy neutrino parameters, including the prediction of a normal neutrino mass ordering, exactly as in the usual LS model. However, unlike the LS model, the LIS model allows charged lepton flavour violating (CLFV) processes and lepton conversion in nuclei within reach of the forthcoming experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. Published versio

A phytosociological survey of the boreal forest (Vaccinio-Piceetea) in North America

A survey of syntaxa of vegetation of North American boreal forests (class Vaccinio-Piceetea) is presented. This phytosociological survey, carried out combining the Braun-Blanquet method with numerical syntaxonomical analyses (cluster and correspondence analysis), describes the associations of the North American boreal forests, which have several species, varieties or vicariant species in common with their Eurasian counterparts, and can be placed in the class Vaccinio-Piceetea. By means of tabular and multivariate analyses, 2084 North American relevés were compared with 3273 relevés from European, Japanese and Korean boreal forest, to describe and typify 4 orders, 10 alliances and 37 associations. Diagnostic tables, ordination, clustering, and climatic, edaphic and biogeographical data were used to show floristic affinities among these syntaxa and interpret their distribution areas. Syntaxa were briefly characterized by their floristic composition, physiognomy, succession, zonation, and biogeographical distribution

Dark matter within the minimal flavour violation ansatz

Minimal Flavour Violation hypothesis can provide an attractive framework for Dark Matter (DM). We consider scalar DM candidates carrying flavour quantum numbers and whose representation under the flavour group guarantees DM stability. They interact with the Standard Model fields through Higgs portal at renormalisable level and also to quarks through dimension-6 operators. We provide a systematic analysis of the viable parameter space for the DM fields, which are triplet of the flavour group, considering several DM-quark interactions. In this framework, we analyse in which cases the viable parameter space differs from Higgs portal models thanks to the underlying flavour structure. In contrast to minimal Higgs portal scenarios, we find that light DM in the GeV mass range as well as heavier candidates above Higgs resonance could be allowed by colliders, direct and indirect DM detection searches as well as flavour constraints. The large mass regime above the top mass could even be beyond the reach of future experiments such as Xenon 1T.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; v2: references added, version published on Phys.Lett.