Decays of a NMSSM CP-odd Higgs in the low-mass region

A popular regime in the NMSSM parameter space involves a light CP-odd Higgs $A_1$. This scenario has consequences for e.g. light singlino Dark Matter annihilating in the $A_1$-funnel. In order to confront the pseudoscalar to experimental limits such as flavour observables, Upsilon decays or Beam-Dump experiments, it is necessary to control the interactions of this particle with hadronic matter and derive the corresponding decays. The partonic description cannot be relied upon for masses close to $m_{A_1}\sim1$GeV and we employ a chiral lagrangian, then extended to a spectator model for somewhat larger masses, to describe the interplay of the CP-odd Higgs with hadrons. Interestingly, a mixing can develop between $A_1$ and neutral pseudoscalar mesons, leading to substantial hadronic decays and a coupling of $A_1$ to the chiral anomaly. Additionally, quartic $A_1$-meson couplings induce tri-meson decays of the Higgs pseudoscalar. We investigate these effects and propose an estimate of the Higgs widths for masses below $m_{A_1}\leq3$GeV. While we focus on the case of the NMSSM, our results are applicable to a large class of models.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, published versio

The new analysis of the KLOE data on the phi->eta pi0 gamma decay

In this paper we present the fit to the recent high-statistical KLOE data on the phi -> eta pi^0 gamma decay. This decay mainly goes through the a_0 gamma intermediate state. The obtained results differ from those of the previous fits: data prefer a high a_0 mass and a considerably large a_0 coupling to the K\bar K}.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

On leading charmed meson production in π\pi-nucleon interactions

It is shown that the D--meson, whose light quark is the initial-pion valence quark and whose charmed quark is produced in annihilation of valence quarks and has got a large enough momentum, is really a leading meson in reactions like $\pi^- p -> DX$. If such annihilation of valence quarks from initial hadrons is impossible there must be no distinct leading effect.Comment: 4 pages, 2.ps-figure

Prompt muon contribution to the flux underwater

We present high energy spectra and zenith-angle distributions of the atmospheric muons computed for the depths of the locations of the underwater neutrino telescopes. We compare the calculations with the data obtained in the Baikal and the AMANDA muon experiments. The prompt muon contribution to the muon flux underwater due to recent perturbative QCD-based models of the charm production is expected to be observable at depths of the large underwater neutrino telescopes. This appears to be probable even at rather shallow depths (1-2 km), provided that the energy threshold for muon detection is raised above $\sim 100$ TeV.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, 7 eps figures, final version to be published in Phys.Rev.D; a few changes made in the text and the figures, an approximation formula for muon spectra at the sea level, the muon zenith-angle distribution table data and references adde

Feynman scaling violation on baryon spectra in pp collisions at LHC and cosmic ray energies

A significant asymmetry in baryon/antibaryon yields in the central region of high energy collisions is observed when the initial state has non-zero baryon charge. This asymmetry is connected with the possibility of baryon charge diffusion in rapidity space. Such a diffusion should decrease the baryon charge in the fragmentation region and translate into the corresponding decrease of the multiplicity of leading baryons. As a result, a new mechanism for Feynman scaling violation in the fragmentation region is obtained. Another numerically more significant reason for the Feynman scaling violation comes from the fact that the average number of cutted Pomerons increases with initial energy. We present the quantitative predictions of the Quark-Gluon String Model (QGSM) for the Feynman scaling violation at LHC energies and at even higher energies that can be important for cosmic ray physics.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, and 1 table. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1107.1615, arXiv:1007.320

Heavy-quark contributions to the ratio F_L/F_2 at low x

We study the heavy-quark contribution to the proton structure functions F_2^i(x,Q^2) and F_L^i(x,Q^2), with i=c,b, for small values of Bjorken's x variable at next-to-lading order and provide compact formulas for their ratios R_i=F_L^i/F_2^i that are useful to extract F_2^i(x,Q^2) from measurements of the doubly differential cross section of inclusive deep-inelastic scattering at DESY HERA. Our approach naturally explains why R_i is approximately independent of x and the details of the parton distributions in the small-x regime.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur