Is there evidence for additional neutrino species from cosmology?

It has been suggested that recent cosmological and flavor-oscillation data favor the existence of additional neutrino species beyond the three predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. We apply Bayesian model selection to determine whether there is indeed any evidence from current cosmological datasets for the standard cosmological model to be extended to include additional neutrino flavors. The datasets employed include cosmic microwave background temperature, polarization and lensing power spectra, and measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation scale and the Hubble constant. We also consider other extensions to the standard neutrino model, such as massive neutrinos, and possible degeneracies with other cosmological parameters. The Bayesian evidence indicates that current cosmological data do not require any non-standard neutrino properties.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. v3: replaced with version published in JCAP (typo fixes, including Figure 1 units

Study of semileptonic and nonleptonic decays of the Bc−B_c^- meson

We evaluate semileptonic and two--meson nonleptonic decays of the $B_c^-$ meson in the framework of a nonrelativistic quark model. The former are done in spectator approximation using one--body current operators at the quark level. Our model reproduces the constraints of heavy quark spin symmetry obtained in the limit of infinite heavy quark mass. For the two--meson nonleptonic decays we work in factorization approximation. We compare our results to the ones obtained in different relativistic approaches.Comment: Talk given at the IVth International Conference on Quarks an Nuclear Physics, Madrid, June 5th-10th 200

Masses and semileptonic decays of doubly heavy baryons in a nonrelativistic quark model

We evaluate masses and semileptonic decay widths for the ground state of doubly heavy $\Xi$ and $\Omega$ baryons in the framework of a nonrelativistic quark model. We solve the three-body problem by means of a variational ansatz made possible by heavy-quark spin symmetry constraints. Our masses are comparable to the ones obtained in relativistic calculations and we get one of the best agreements with lattice data. Our simple wave functions are used to evaluate semileptonic decays of doubly heavy $\Xi, \Xi'(J=1/2)$ and $\Omega, \Omega'(J=1/2)$ baryons. Our results for the decay widths are in reasonable agreement with calculations done in a relativistic calculation in the quark-diquark approximation. We also check that our wave functions comply with what it is expected in the infinite heavy quark mass limit.Comment: 3 latex pages, two tables. To appear in the INPC07 proceeding

Masses and semileptonic decays of doubly heavy baryons in a nonrelativistic quark model

We evaluate masses and semileptonic decay widths for the ground state of doubly heavy $\Xi$ and $\Omega$ baryons in the framework of a nonrelativistic quark model. We solve the three-body problem by means of a variational ansatz made possible by heavy-quark spin symmetry constraints. Our masses are comparable to the ones obtained in relativistic calculations and we get one of the best agreements with lattice data. Our simple wave functions are used to evaluate semileptonic decays of doubly heavy $\Xi, \Xi'(J=1/2)$ and $\Omega, \Omega'(J=1/2)$ baryons. Our results for the decay widths are in reasonable agreement with calculations done in a relativistic calculation in the quark-diquark approximation. We also check that our wave functions comply with what it is expected in the infinite heavy quark mass limit.Comment: 3 latex pages, two tables. To appear in the INPC07 proceeding

Strong one-pion decay of Σc\Sigma_c, Σc∗\Sigma_c^* and Ξc∗\Xi_c^*

Working in the framework of a nonrelativistic quark model we evaluate the widths for the strong one-pion decays $\Sigma_c\to\Lambda_c \pi$, $\Sigma_c^*\to\Lambda_c \pi$ and $\Xi_c^{*}\to\Xi_c \pi$. We take advantage of the constraints imposed by heavy quark symmetry to solve the three-body problem by means of a simple variational ansatz. We use partial conservation of the axial current hypothesis to get the strong vertices from weak axial current matrix elements. Our results are in good agreement with experimental data.Comment: 3 latex pages. Contribution to the Proceedings of the Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum VII Conference (QCHS7) Ponta Delgada (PT) Sept 2-7, 200

Tests for primordial non-Gaussianity

We investigate the relative sensitivities of several tests for deviations from Gaussianity in the primordial distribution of density perturbations. We consider models for non-Gaussianity that mimic that which comes from inflation as well as that which comes from topological defects. The tests we consider involve the cosmic microwave background (CMB), large-scale structure (LSS), high-redshift galaxies, and the abundances and properties of clusters. We find that the CMB is superior at finding non-Gaussianity in the primordial gravitational potential (as inflation would produce), while observations of high-redshift galaxies are much better suited to find non-Gaussianity that resembles that expected from topological defects. We derive a simple expression that relates the abundance of high-redshift objects in non-Gaussian models to the primordial skewness.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, MNRAS in press (minor changes to match the accepted version

Quark model study of the semileptonic B -> pi decay

The semileptonic decay B->pi is studied starting from a simple quark model and taking into account the effect of the B* resonance. A novel, multiply subtracted, Omn\`es dispersion relation has been implemented to extend the predictions of the quark model to all physical q^2 values. We find |V_{ub}|=0.0034 +/- 0.0003(exp.)+/- 0.0007(theory), in good agreement with experiment.Comment: Three pages, two figures. To appear in the proceedings of Quark Confinament and Hadron Spectrum VII. Azores, September 200