The Corona crisis and the stability of the European banking sector A repeat of the Great Financial Crisis? Bertelsmann Stiftung Repair and Prepare Strengthening Europe May 2020.

The Corona crisis1 has had a devastating effect on the global economy and could end up being worse than the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Some commentators have already suggested that the decline in economic activity could be the most marked for several centuries. Unlike the GFC, the Corona crisis was triggered by an external shock. Govern- ments responded to this shock by offering liquidity to the real economy, either directly or indirectly by guaranteeing new bank lending. So far European banks have weathered the storm but will they be able to withstand a prolonged economic down- turn? This paper suggests that the fortunes of European banking systems will depend on the economic recovery we experience. If we witness a “V-shaped” recovery as cur- rently forecast by the European Commission, for example, then banks in the majority of EU member states might be able to survive unscathed. The picture could look very dif- ferent if the recovery turns out to be more sluggish though. The paper suggests that capital ratios – one of the key benchmarks used to assess the stability of banking systems – could drop dramatically in a number of member states such as France and Spain to well below what super- visors generally consider to be “sound” even under stress conditions. With the situation looking less severe in other member states such as Germany or the Netherlands, this could renew political tensions seen last during the euro area sovereign debt crisis. The paper is structured as follows. Section “The Corona crisis” presents the latest economic forecasts and con- trasts the current crisis with the GFC. In Section “Could the Corona crisis undermine the financial stability of the Euro- pean banking sector?” the paper draws on the results of the 2018 EBA adverse stress test. Comparing the 2018 EBA adverse scenario with a plausible “ticked-shaped” recov- ery post-Corona, the paper presents illustrative impacts on capital ratios in a selected number of EU member states. Section “Concluding Comments” looks at the role of Euro- pean-wide policy responses to deal with the crisis and what the Corona crisis might mean for the future of the EU’s Banking Union and Capital Markets Union

Stellar Processes Near the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center

A massive black hole resides in the center of most, perhaps all galaxies. The one in the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, provides a uniquely accessible laboratory for studying in detail the connections and interactions between a massive black hole and the stellar system in which it grows; for investigating the effects of extreme density, velocity and tidal fields on stars; and for using stars to probe the central dark mass and probe post-Newtonian gravity in the weak- and strong-field limits. Recent results, open questions and future prospects are reviewed in the wider context of the theoretical framework and physical processes that underlie them. Contents: [1] Introduction (1.1) Astrophysical context (1.2) Science questions (1.3) Scope and connections to related topics [2] Observational overview: Stars in the Galactic center (2.1) The central 100 parsecs (2.2) The central parsec [3] Stellar dynamics at extreme densities (3.1) Physical processes and scales (3.2) The stellar cusp in the Galactic center (3.3) Mass segregation (3.4) Stellar Collisions [4] Probing the dark mass with stellar dynamics (4.1) Weighing and pinpointing the dark mass (4.2) Constraints on non-BH dark mass alternatives (4.3) Limits on MBH binarity (4.4) High-velocity runaway stars [5] Probing post-Newtonian gravity near the MBH (5.1) Relativistic orbital effects (5.2) Gravitational lensing [6] Strong star-MBH interactions (6.1) Tidal disruption (6.2) Dissipative interactions with the MBH [7] The riddle of the young stars (7.1) The difficulties of forming or importing stars near a MBH (7.2) Proposed solutions (7.3) Feeding the MBH with stellar winds [8] Outlook (8.1) Progress report (8.2) Future directionsComment: Invited review article, to appear in Physics Reports. 101 p

MUSiC : a model-unspecific search for new physics in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV

Results of the Model Unspecific Search in CMS (MUSiC), using proton-proton collision data recorded at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1), are presented. The MUSiC analysis searches for anomalies that could be signatures of physics beyond the standard model. The analysis is based on the comparison of observed data with the standard model prediction, as determined from simulation, in several hundred final states and multiple kinematic distributions. Events containing at least one electron or muon are classified based on their final state topology, and an automated search algorithm surveys the observed data for deviations from the prediction. The sensitivity of the search is validated using multiple methods. No significant deviations from the predictions have been observed. For a wide range of final state topologies, agreement is found between the data and the standard model simulation. This analysis complements dedicated search analyses by significantly expanding the range of final states covered using a model independent approach with the largest data set to date to probe phase space regions beyond the reach of previous general searches.Peer reviewe

Measurement of prompt open-charm production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

The production cross sections for prompt open-charm mesons in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeV are reported. The measurement is performed using a data sample collected by the CMS experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 29 nb(-1). The differential production cross sections of the D*(+/-), D-+/-, and D-0 ((D) over bar (0)) mesons are presented in ranges of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity 4 < p(T) < 100 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.1, respectively. The results are compared to several theoretical calculations and to previous measurements.Peer reviewe

Measurement of B-c(2S)(+) and B-c*(2S)(+) cross section ratios in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe