Physical Review D

We measure the rate of D⁰-D̅ ⁰ mixing with the observable y_CP=(τ_Kπ/τ_KK)-1, where τ_KK and τ_Kπ are, respectively, the mean lifetimes of CP-even D⁰→K⁺K^- and CP-mixed D⁰→K^-π⁺ decays, using a data sample of 384  fb^-1 collected by the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-en...

We have developed an efficient simulation algorithm for strongly interacting relativistic fermions in two-dimensional field theories based on a formulation as a loop gas. It essentially eliminates critical slowing down by sampling two-point correlation functions and allows simulations directly in th...

D_s mesons are investigated in a semiclassic flux tube model where the spin-orbit interaction is taken into account. Spectrum of D-wave D_s is predicted. The predicted spectrum is much lower than most previous predictions. Analysis of some D_s candidates is made. D_sJ(2632)⁺ may be a 1^- j^P=3 / 2^...

We combine measurements of the top quark pair production cross section in pp̅ collisions in the ℓ+jets, ℓℓ, and τℓ final states (where ℓ is an electron or muon) at a center of mass energy of sqrt[s] =1.96  TeV in 1  fb^-1 of data collected with the D0 detector. For a top ...

Recently dispersion relations have been applied to hard exclusive processes such as deeply virtual Compton scattering, and a holographic principle was proposed that maps out the generalized parton distributions entering the soft matrix elements for the processes from their values on a given kinemati...

We propose a new mechanism for generating small neutrino masses which predicts the relation m_ν∼v⁴/M³, where v is the electroweak scale, rather than the conventional seesaw formula m_ν∼v²/M. Such a mass relation is obtained via effective dimension seven operators LLHH(H^†H)/M³, which arise when...

We present a search for associated production of the standard model Higgs boson and a Z boson where the Z boson decays to two leptons and the Higgs decays to a pair of b quarks in pp̅ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron. We use event probabilities based on standard model matrix elements to...

We examine various direct and indirect constraints on the lepton-specific two-Higgs-doublet model and scrutinize the property of the Higgs bosons in the allowed parameter space. We find that in the allowed parameter space the CP-odd Higgs boson A is rather light (m_Alt;30  GeV with 95% possibili...

We present a search for charged Higgs bosons in decays of top quarks, in the mass range 80lt;m_H^±lt;155  GeV, assuming the subsequent decay H⁺→τ⁺ν_τ (and its charge conjugate). Using 0.9  fb^-1 of lepton+jets data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron pp̅ col...

We compute the entropy density of the confined phase of QCD without quarks on the lattice to very high accuracy. The results are compared to the entropy density of free glueballs, where we include all the known glueball states below the two-particle threshold. We find that an excellent, parameter-fr...

We present a generic method for improving the effectiveness of heavy particle searches in hadronic channels at the Large Hadron Collider. By selectively removing, or pruning, protojets from the substructure provided by a k_T-type jet algorithm, we improve the mass resolution for heavy decays and decr...

Using a sample of 2.59×10⁷ ψ(2S) decays collected by the CLEO-c detector, we present results of a search for the decay chain ψ(2S)→π⁰h_c, h_c→n(π⁺π^-)π⁰, n=1, 2, 3. We observe no significant signals for n=1 and n=3 and set upper limits for the corresponding decay rates. First evidence for th...

We report the observation of the baryonic B-decay B̅ ⁰→Λ_c⁺p̅ K^-π⁺, excluding contributions from the decay B̅ ⁰→Λ_c⁺Λ̅ K^-. Using a data sample of 467×10⁶ BB̅ pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage ring at SLAC, the measured ...

Recent measurements of the top quark charge asymmetry at Tevatron disfavor the existence of flavor universal axigluons and colorons at 2σ. In this letter, we explore the possibility of reconciling the data with these models and use the charge asymmetry and the invariant mass distribution of top-ant...

The shape of the beta-decay energy distribution is sensitive to the mass of the electron neutrino. Attempts to measure the endpoint shape of tritium decay have so far seen no distortion from the zero-mass form, thus placing an upper limit of m_νβlt;2.3  eV. Here, we show that a new type of ele...

We present the first measurement of the mass of the top quark in a sample of tt̅ →ℓν̅ bb̅ qq̅ events (where ℓ=e,μ) selected by identifying jets containing a muon candidate from the semileptonic decay of heavy-flavor hadrons (soft muon b tagging). The pp̅...

We report measurements of charmless hadronic B⁰ decays into the π⁺π^-K⁺π^- final state. The analysis uses a sample of 657×10⁶ BB̅ pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e⁺e^- collider at the resonance. The decay B⁰→ρ⁰K⁺π^- is observed for the first time; ...

Using data collected near the D_s^*±D_s^∓ peak production energy E_cm=4170  MeV by the CLEO-c detector, we search for D_s⁺ exclusive hadronic decays involving ω. We find B(D_s⁺→π⁺ω)=(0.21±0.09±0.01)%, B(D_s⁺→π⁺π⁰ω)=(2.78±0.65±0.25)%, B(D_s⁺→π⁺π⁺π^-ω)=(1.58±0.45±0.09)%, B(D_s⁺→π⁺...

We present a search for decays of B mesons to final states with a b₁ meson and a ρ or K^*(892) meson. The search is based on a data sample consisting of 465 million BB̅ pairs collected by the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We do not observe any statistically si...

The first measurements of the coherence factors (R_Kππ⁰ and R_K3π) and the average strong-phase differences (δ_D^Kππ0 and δ_D^K3π) for D⁰→K^-π⁺π⁰ and D⁰→K^-π⁺π⁺π^- are presented. These parameters can be used to improve the determination of the unitarity triangle angle γ in B^-→DK^- decays, ...

The gauge-mediated model of supersymmetry breaking implies that stable nontopological solitons, Q-balls, could form in the early Universe and comprise the dark matter. It is shown that the inclusion of the effects from gravity-mediation set an upper limit on the size of Q-balls. When in a dense bary...

Hořava-Lifshitz theory has been recently put forth as a proposal for a renormalizable theory of quantum gravity . It explicitly breaks Lorentz invariance, introducing an apparent extra scalar degree of freedom. I show that the low energy limit of (non-projectible) Hořava-Lifshitz gravity is unique...

It has recently been argued that the PAMELA, ATIC, and PPB-BETS data showing an anomalous excess of high-energy cosmic ray positrons and electrons might be explained by dark matter annihilating in the Galactic halo with a cross section resonantly enhanced compared to its value in the primeval plasma...

The full moments expansion of the joint probability distribution of an isotropic random field, its gradient, and invariants of the Hessian are presented in 2 and 3D. It allows for explicit expression for the Euler characteristic in ND and computation of extrema counts as functions of the excursion s...

Bekenstein’s tensor-vector-scalar (TeVeS) theory has had considerable success as a relativistic theory of modified Newtonian dynamics. However, recent work suggests that the dynamics of the theory are fundamentally flawed and numerous authors have subsequently begun to consider a generalization of...

If the dark matter sector in the Universe is composed by metastable particles, galaxies and galaxy clusters are expected to undergo significant secular evolution from high to low redshift. We show that the decay of dark matter, with a lifetime compatible with cosmological constraints, can be at the ...

We propose an unified model of dark matter and baryon asymmetry in a leptophilic world above the electroweak scale. We provide an example where the inflaton decay products subsequently generate a lepton asymmetry and a dark matter abundance with an unique coupling in the early Universe, while the pr...

D=11 supergravity near a spacelike singularity admits a cosmological billiard description based on the hyperbolic Kac-Moody group E₁₀. The quantization of this system via the supersymmetry constraint is shown to lead to wave functions involving automorphic (Maass wave) forms under the modular group ...

We propose a new approach, based on the puncture method, to construct black hole initial data in the so-called trumpet geometry, i.e. on slices that asymptote to a limiting surface of nonzero areal radius. Our approach is easy to implement numerically and, at least for nonspinning black holes, does ...

We show that within the class of f(R) gravity theories, Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker power-law perfect fluid solutions only exist for Rⁿ gravity. This significantly restricts the set of exact cosmological solutions which have similar properties to what is found in standard general relativity...

The exchange of electroweak gauginos in the t or u channel allows squark pair production at hadron colliders without color exchange between the squarks. This can give rise to events where little or no energy is deposited in the detector between the squark decay products. We discuss the potential for...

The potential for a precise measurement of the unitarity triangle angle γ in future experiments from the decay B⁰→DK^*0 is well known. It has recently been suggested that the sensitivity can be significantly enhanced by analyzing the B⁰→DK⁺π^- Dalitz plot to extract amplitudes relative to those ...

We perform a χ² analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (NPDFs) using neutral current charged-lepton (ℓ^±A) deeply inelastic scattering (DIS), and Drell-Yan data for several nuclear targets. The nuclear A dependence of the NPDFs is extracted in a next-to-leading order fit. We compare th...

We study the effect of soft gluon emission in the hadroproduction of gluino-gluino and squark-antisquark pairs at the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy within the framework of the minimal supersymmetric model. We present the calculation of the one-loop soft anomalous dimension matrices controllin...

We combine the analyses for flavor changing neutral current processes and dark matter solutions in minimal-type supersymmetric grand unified theory models, SO(10) and SU(5), with a large B_s-B̅ _s mixing phase and large tan⁡β. For large tan⁡β, the double-penguin diagram dominates the su...

We construct a model of an unparticle sector consisting of a supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theory with the number of flavors in the Seiberg conformal window. We couple this sector to the minimal supersymmetric standard model via heavy messengers. The resulting low energy theory has a Higgs coupling to ...

We determine the first independent part of the g⁶ coefficient in the weak coupling expansion of the QCD pressure at high temperatures, the one proportional to the maximal power of the number of quark flavors N_f. In addition to introducing and developing computational methods that can be used in eval...

The MAGIC Collaboration has provided new observational data pertaining to the TeV J2032+4130 gamma-ray source (within the Cygnus OB2 region), for energies E_γgt;400  GeV. It is then appropriate to update the impact of these data on gamma-ray production mechanisms in stellar associations. We con...

We constrain the one-parameter (α) class of TeVeS models by testing the theory against both rotation curve and strong gravitational lensing data on galactic scales, remaining fully relativistic in our formalism. The upshot of our analysis is that—at least in its simplest original form, which is t...

We present and analyze a gauge-invariant quantum theory of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with dust. We construct the reduced phase space spanned by gauge-invariant quantities by using the so-called relational formalism at the classical level. The reduced phase space thereby obtained can be...

We use N-body simulations to study the nonlinear structure formation in brane-induced gravity, developing a new method that requires alternate use of Fast Fourier Transforms and relaxation. This enables us to compute the nonlinear matter power spectrum and bispectrum, the halo mass function, and the...

We study the growth of subhorizon perturbations in brane-induced gravity using perturbation theory. We solve for the linear evolution of perturbations taking advantage of the symmetry under gauge transformations along the extra-dimension to decouple the bulk equations in the quasistatic approximatio...

In loop quantum gravity the classical point of departure is the Einstein-Hilbert action modified by the addition of the so-called Holst term. Classically, this term does not affect the equations of motion, but it induces a well-known quantization ambiguity in the quantum theory, parametrized by the ...

We evaluate the Casimir energy and force for a massive fermionic field in the geometry of two parallel plates on background of Minkowski spacetime with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified spatial dimensions. The bag boundary conditions are imposed on the plates and periodicity conditions ...

PT-symmetrization of quantum graphs is proposed as an innovation where an adjustable, tunable nonlocality is admitted. The proposal generalizes the PT-symmetric square-well models of Ref. [M. Znojil, Phys. Rev. D 80, 045022 (2009).] (with real spectrum and with a variable fundamental length θ) whi...

In this work we derive the analytical solution of the geodesic equations of Gödel’s universe for both particles and light in a special set of coordinates, which reveals the physical properties of this spacetime in a very transparent way. We also recapitulate the equations of isometric transport f...

The properties of matter at ultrahigh densities, low temperatures, and with a significant asymmetry between protons and neutrons can be studied exclusively through astrophysical observations of neutron stars. We show that measurements of the masses and radii of neutron stars can lead to tight constr...

We consider a model of the Universe in which the matter content is in the form of discrete islands, rather than a continuous fluid. In the appropriate limits the resulting large-scale dynamics approach those of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe. The optical properties of such a space-time,...

It is quite possible that the reheat temperature of the Universe is extremely low close to the scale of big bang nucleosynthesis, i.e. T_R∼1–10  MeV. At such low reheat temperatures generating matter, antimatter asymmetry and synthesizing dark matter particles are challenging issues which nee...

We consider a gravitational theory of a scalar field ϕ with nonminimal derivative coupling to curvature. The coupling terms have the form κ₁Rϕ_,μϕ^,μ and κ₂R_μνϕ^,μϕ^,ν, where κ₁ and κ₂ are coupling parameters with dimensions of length squared. In general, field equations of the theory con...

Theories that attempt to explain the observed cosmic acceleration by modifying general relativity all introduce a new scalar degree of freedom that is active on large scales, but is screened on small scales to match experiments. We demonstrate that if such screening occurs via the chameleon mechanis...

We consider the asymptotic-safety scenario for quantum gravity which constructs a nonperturbatively renormalizable quantum gravity theory with the help of the functional renormalization group (RG). We verify the existence of a non-Gaussian fixed point and include a running curvature-ghost coupling a...

We present test results for the smooth lattice method using an Oppenheimer-Snyder spacetime. The results are in excellent agreement with theory and numerical results from other authors.

The little hierarchy problem encountered in the constrained minimal supersymmetric model can be ameliorated in supersymmetric models based on the gauge symmetry G₄₂₂≡SU(4)_c×SU(2)_L×SU(2)_R. The standard assumption in the constrained minimal supersymmetric model [and in SU(5) and SO(10)] of univers...

Observing charge-parity (CP) or time-reversal (T) violations in the leptonic sector will give useful information to elucidate the nature of neutrinos. CP-violating couplings in charged leptonic currents carry out the weak phases necessary to break these symmetries. Here we study the interference of W and H bosons mediated amplitudes as the origin of possible CP and T violation in semileptonic decays of K mesons and t leptons. We use the experimental bound on the T-odd transverse polarization asymmetry in K+m3 decays to predict an upper limit on the CP violating effects in t K pn decays. In the framework of this model with scalar-mediated interactions, we find that current limits on the former process indicate that the CP violating effects in the latter are much smaller than the limits reported so far.

We describe a novel use of the Dalitz plot to probe nbsp;symmetry in three-body modes of B and D mesons. It is based on an observable inspired by astronomers' practice, namely the significance in the difference between corresponding Dalitz plot bins. It provides a model independent mapping of local nbsp;asymmetries. We illustrate the method for probing nbsp;symmetry in the two complementary cases of B and D decays: in the former sizable or even large effects can be expected, yet have to be differentiated against leading Standard Model contributions, while in the latter one cannot count on sizable effects, yet has to deal with much less Standard Model background.

We present measurements of the branching fraction nbsp;and longitudinal polarization fraction nbsp;for nbsp;decays, with . The data sample, collected with the nbsp;detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, represents 465 times;106 produced nbsp;pairs. We measure \BrBapam times;[\Braunopnbsp;]2 = \RapamP and \fL = 0.31 0.22 0.10, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The decay mode is measured with a significance of 5.0 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties.

The imbalance of dijets produced in hadronic collisions has been used to extract the average transverse momentum of partons inside the hadrons. In this paper we discuss new contributions to the dijet imbalance that could complicate or even hamper this extraction. They are due to polarization of initial state partons inside unpolarized hadrons that can arise in the presence of nonzero parton transverse momentum. Transversely polarized quarks and linearly polarized gluons produce specific azimuthal dependences of the two jets that in principle are not suppressed. Their effects cannot be isolated just by looking at the angular deviation from the back-to-back situation, rather they enter jet broadening observables. In this way they directly affect the extraction of the average transverse momentum of unpolarized partons that is thought to be extracted. We discuss appropriately weighted cross sections to isolate the additional contributions.

We study scalar glueballs and scalar mesons at T 0 in the soft wall holographic QCD model. We find that, using the Anti-de Sitter-Black Hole metric for all values of the temperature, the masses of the hadronic states decrease and the widths become broader when T increases, and there are temperatures for which the states disappear from the scalar glueball and scalar meson spectral functions. However, the values of the temperatures in correspondence of which such phenomena occur are low, of the order of 40-60 MeV. A consistent holographic description of in-medium effects on hadron properties should include the Hawking-Page transition, which separates the phase with the Anti-de Sitter metric at small temperatures from the phase with Anti-de Sitter-Black Hole metric at high temperatures.

A study of the J/ypp and J/yK [`K] systems, treating them as coupled channels, has been made by solving the Faddeev equations, with the purpose of investigating the possibility of generation of the JPC = 1-, Y(4260) resonance due to the interaction between these three mesons. In order to do this, we start by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the two pseudoscalar and for the vector-pseudocalar meson systems using the amplitudes obtained from the lowest order chiral Lagrangians as potentials. With the t-matrices generated from these potentials, which contain the poles of the s, f0(980) and a0(980) resonances for the pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar system and the pole of the X(3872), alongwith other new charmed resonant states, for the vector-pseudoscalar system, we solve the Faddeev equations. As a result, we get a peak around 4150 MeV with a width ~ 90 MeV when the invariant mass of the two pseudoscalars is close to that of the f0 (980).

In this note, we explore the relation between crossing symmetry and modular invariance in conformal field theory and S-duality in gauge theory. It is shown that partition functions of different S dual theories of N=2 SU(2) gauge theory with four fundamentals can be derived from the crossing symmetry of the Liouville four point function. We also show that the partition function of N=4 SU(2) gauge theory can be derived from the Liouville partition function on torus.

The accretion process onto spinning objects in Kerr spacetimes is studied with numerical simulations. Our results show that accretion onto compact objects with Kerr parameter (characterizing the spin) |a| < M and |a| > M is very different. In the super-spinning case, for |a| moderately larger than M, the accretion onto the central object is extremely suppressed due to a repulsive force at short distance. The accreting matter cannot reach the central object, but instead is accumulated around it, forming a high density cloud that continues to grow. The radiation emitted in the accretion process will be harder and more intense than the one coming from standard black holes; e.g. g-rays could be produced as seen in some observations. Gravitational collapse of this cloud might even give rise to violent bursts. As |a| increases, a larger amount of accreting matter reaches the central object and the growth of the cloud becomes less efficient. Our simulations find that a quasi-steady state of the accretion process exists for |a|/M >~1.4, independently of the mass accretion rate at large radii. For such high values of the Kerr parameter, the accreting matter forms a thin disk at very small radii. We provide some analytical arguments to strengthen the numerical results; in particular, we estimate the radius where the gravitational force changes from attractive to repulsive and the critical value |a|/M 1.4 separating the two qualitatively different regimes of accretion. We briefly discuss the observational signatures which could be used to look for such exotic objects in the Galaxy and/or in the Universe.

We investigate the geodetic precession effect of a parallely transported spin-vector along a circular geodesic in the five-dimensional squashed Kaluza-Klein black hole spacetime. Then we derive the higher-dimensional correction of the precession angle to the general relativity. We find that the correction is proportional to the square of (size of extra dimension)/(gravitational radius of central object).

We study the spectrum \calpz and bispectrum Bz of the primordial curvature perturbation z when the latter is generated by scalar and vector field perturbations. The tree-level and one-loop contributions from vector field perturbations are worked out considering the possibility that the one-loop contributions may be dominant over the tree level terms (both (either) in \calpz and (or) in Bz) and viceversa. The level of non-gaussianity in the bispectrum, fNL, is calculated and related to the level of statistical anisotropy in the power spectrum, gz. For very small amounts of statistical anisotropy in the power spectrum, the level of non-gaussianity may be very high, in some cases exceeding the current observational limit.

Spherically symmetric thin-shell wormholes are studied within the framework of Einstein-Born-Infeld theory. We analyze the exotic matter content, and find that for certain values of the Born-Infeld parameter the amount of exotic matter on the shell can be reduced in relation with the Maxwell case. We also examine the mechanical stability of the wormhole configurations under radial perturbations preserving the spherical symmetry. Besides, in the appendix the repulsive or attractive character of the wormhole geometries is briefly discussed.

In the framework of phantom quintessence cosmology, we use the Noether Symmetry Approach to obtain general exact solutions for the cosmological equations. This result is achieved by the quintessential (phantom) potential determined by the existence of the symmetry itself. A comparison between the theoretical model and observations is worked out. In particular, we use type Ia supernovae and large scale structure parameters determined from the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS)and from the Wide part of the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). It turns out that the model is compatible with the presently available observational data. Moreover we extend the approach to include radiation. We show that it is compatible with data derived from recombination and it seems that quintessence do not affect nucleosynthesis results.

We discuss cosmological consequences of the existence of physics beyond the standard model that exhibits Banks-Zaks and unparticle behavior in the UV and IR respectively. We first derive the equation of state for unparticles and use it to obtain the temperature dependence of the corresponding energy and entropy densities. We then formulate the Boltzmann and Kubo equations for both the unparticles and the Banks-Zaks particles, and use these results to determine the equilibrium conditions between the standard model and the new physics. We conclude by obtaining the constraints on the effective number of degrees of freedom of unparticles imposed by Big-Bang nucleosynthesis.

Passerini and Severini have recently shown that the Braunstein-Ghosh-Severini (BGS) entropy SG=-\tr[rGnbsp;logrG] of a certain density matrix rG naturally associated to a graph G, is maximized, among all graphs with a fixed number of links and nodes, by regular graphs. We ask if this result can play a role in quantum gravity, and be related to the apparent regularity of the physical geometry of space. We show that in Loop Quantum Gravity the matrix rG is precisely the Hamiltonian operator (suitably normalized) of a non-relativistic quantum particle interacting with the quantum gravitational field, if we restrict elementary area and volume eigenvalues to a fixed value. This operator provides a spectral characterization of the physical geometry, and can be interpreted as a state describing the spectral information about the geometry available when geometry is measured by its physical interaction with matter. It is then tempting to interpret its BGS entropy SG as a genuine physical entropy: we discuss the appeal and the difficulties of this interpretation.

We consider electrostatic field of a point charge coupled to Ho\checkrava-Lifshitz gravity and find an exact solution describing the space with a surplus (or deficit) solid angle. Although, theoretically in general relativity, a surplus angle is hardly to be obtained in the presence of ordinary matter with positive energy distribution, it seems natural in Ho\check rava-Lifshitz gravity. We present sudden disappearance and reappearance of a star image as an astrophysical effect of a surplus angle. We also consider matter configurations of all possible power law behaviors coupled to Ho\check rava-Lifshitz gravity and obtain a series of exact solutions.

We introduce a dynamical matrix model where the matrix is interpreted as a Hamiltonian representing interaction of a bosonic system with a single fermion. We show how a system of second-quantized fermions influences the ground state of the whole system by producing a gap between the highest eigenvalue of the occupied single-fermion states and the lowest eigenvalue of the unoccupied single-fermion states. We describe the development of the gap in both, strong and weak coupling regime, while for the intermediate coupling strength we expect formation of homolumo "kinks".

We discuss multiloop MHV amplitudes in the N=4 SYM theory in terms of effective gravity in the momentum space with IR regulator branes as degrees of freedom. Kinematical invariants of external particles yield the moduli spaces of complex or Kahler structures which are the playgrounds for the Kodaira-Spencer(KS) or Kahler type gravity. We suggest fermionic representation of the loop MHV amplitudes in the N=4 SYM theory assuming the identification of the IR regulator branes with KS fermions in the B model and Lagrangian branes in A model. The two-easy mass box diagram is related to the correlator of fermionic currents on the spectral curve in B model or hyperbolic volume in the A model and it plays the role of a building block in the whole picture. The BDS-like anzatz has the interpretation as the semiclassical limit of a fermionic correlator. It is argued that fermionic representation implies a kind of integrability on the moduli spaces. We conjecture the interpretation of the reggeon degrees of freedom in terms of the open strings stretched between the IR regulator branes.

By asymptotically matching a post-Newtonian (PN) metric to two perturbed Schwarzschild metrics, we generate approximate initial data (in the form of an approximate 4-metric) for a nonspinning black hole binary in a circular orbit. We carry out this matching through O(v4) in the binary's orbital velocity v, and thus the resulting data, like the O(v4) PN metric, are conformally curved. The matching procedure also fixes the quadrupole and octupole tidal deformations of the holes, including the 1PN corrections to the quadrupole fields. Far from the holes, we use the appropriate PN metric that accounts for retardation, which we construct using the highest-order PN expressions available to compute the binary's past history. The data set's uncontrolled remainders are thus O(v5) throughout the timeslice; we also generate an extension to the data set that has uncontrolled remainders of O(v6) in the purely PN portion of the timeslice (i.e., not too close to the holes). This extension also includes various other readily available higher-order terms. The addition of these terms decreases the constraint violations in certain regions, even though it does not increase the data's formal accuracy. The resulting data are smooth, since we join all the metrics together by smoothly interpolating between them. We perform this interpolation using transition functions constructed to avoid introducing excessive additional constraint violations. Due to their inclusion of tidal deformations and outgoing radiation, these data should substantially reduce both the high- and low-frequency components of the initial spurious ("junk") radiation observed in current simulations that use conformally flat initial data. Such reductions in the nonphysical components of the initial data will be necessary for simulations to achieve the accuracy required to supply Advanced LIGO and LISA with the templates necessary for parameter estimation.

We study gauge threshold corrections for local GUT models in IIB/F-theory. Consistency with holomorphy requirements of supergravity and the Kaplunovsky-Louis formula implies that the unification scale is enhanced by the bulk radius R from the string scale to MX = RMS. We argue that the stringy interpretation of this is via a locally uncancelled tadpole sourced by the hypercharge flux. This sources closed string modes propagating into the bulk; equivalently open string gauge coupling running up to the winding scale MX. The enhancement to RMs is tied to GUT breaking by a globally trivial hypercharge flux and will occur in all models realising this mechanism.

We investigate 1st order phase transitions in a general way, if not the single particle numbers of the system but only some particular charges like e.g.nbsp;baryon number are conserved. In addition to globally conserved charges we analyze the implications of locally conserved charge fractions, like e.g.nbsp;local electric charge neutrality or locally fixed proton or lepton fractions. The conditions for phase equilibrium are derived and it is shown, that the properties of a phase transformation do not depend on the locally conserved fractions but only on the number of globally conserved charges. Finally, the general formalism is applied to the liquid-gas phase transition of nuclear matter and the hadron-quark phase transition for typical astrophysical environments like in supernovae, proto-neutron or neutron stars. We demonstrate that the Maxwell construction known from cold-deleptonized neutron star matter with two locally charge neutral phases requires modifications and further assumptions concerning the applicability for hot lepton-rich matter. All possible combinations of local and global conservation laws are analyzed, and the physical meaningful cases are identified. Several new kinds of mixed phases are presented, as e.g.nbsp;a locally charge neutral mixed phase in proto-neutron stars which will disappear during the cooling and deleptonization of the proto-neutron star.

We estimate the sensitivity of various experiments detecting ultra-high-energy cosmic rays to primary photons with energies above 1019nbsp;eV. We demonstrate that the energy of a primary photon may be significantly (up to a factor of ~ 10) under- or overestimated for particular primary energies and arrival directions. We consider distortion of the reconstructed cosmic-ray spectrum for the photonic component. As an example, we use these results to constrain the parameter space of models of superheavy dark matter by means of both the observed spectra and available limits on the photon content. We find that a significant contribution of ultra-high-energy particles (photons and protons) from decays of superheavy dark matter is allowed by all these constraints.

We explore supersymmetry breaking in the light of a rich fixed-point structure of two-dimensional supersymmetric Wess-Zumino models with one supercharge using the functional renormalization group (RG). We relate the dynamical breaking of supersymmetry to an RG relevant control parameter of the superpotential which is a common relevant direction of all fixed points of the system. Supersymmetry breaking can thus be understood as a quantum phase transition analogously to similar transitions in correlated fermion systems. Supersymmetry gives rise to a new superscaling relation between the critical exponent associated with the control parameter and the anomalous dimension of the field - a scaling relation which is not known in standard spin systems.

We show that, by adding a gauge singlet scalar S to the Standard Model which is non-minimally coupled to gravity, S can act both as the inflaton and as thermal relic dark matter. We obtain the allowed region of the (ms,nbsp;mh) parameter space which gives a spectral index in agreement with observational bounds and also produces the observed dark matter density while not violating vacuum stability or non-perturbativity constraints. We show that, in contrast to the case of Higgs inflation, once quantum corrections are included the spectral index is significantly larger than the classical value (n = 0.966 for N = 60) for all allowed values of the Higgs mass mh. The range of Higgs mass compatible with the constraints is 145 \GeV <~mh <~170nbsp;GeV. The S mass lies in the range 45\GeV <~ms <~1 nbsp;TeV for the case of a real S scalar with large quartic self-coupling \ls, with a smaller upper bound for smaller \ls. A region of the parameter space is accessible to direct searches at the LHC via h SS, while future direct dark matter searches should be able to significantly constrain the model.

Three-dimensional massive gravity admits Lifshitz metrics with generic values of the dynamical exponent z as exact solutions. At the point z=3, exact black hole solutions which are asymptotically Lifshitz arise. These spacetimes are three-dimensional analogues of those that were recently proposed as gravity duals for anisotropic scale invariant fixed points.

The symmetry properties of a proposal to go beyond relativistic quantum field theory based on a modification of the commutation relations of fields are identified. Poincar#233; invariance in an auxiliary spacetime is found in the Lagrangian version of the path integral formulation. This invariance is contrasted with the idea of Doubly (or Deformed) Special Relativity (DSR). This analysis is then used to go from the free theory of a complex field to an interacting field theory.