Recent gamma-ray observations and radio observations put strong constraints on the parameters of dark matter annihilation. In this article, we derive new constraints for six standard model annihilation channels by using the recent radio data of the M31 galaxy. The new constraints are generally tighter than the constraints obtained from 6 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope gamma-ray observations of the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies. The conservative lower limits of dark matter mass annihilating via $b\overline{b}$, ${\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ and ${\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ channels are 90, 90 and 80 GeV respectively with the canonical thermal relic cross section and the Burkert profile being the dark matter density profile. Hence, our results do not favor the most popular models of the dark matter interpretation of the Milky Way GeV gamma-ray excess.

The solar disk is a bright gamma-ray source. Surprisingly, its flux is about 1 order of magnitude higher than predicted. As a first step toward understanding the physical origin of this discrepancy, we perform a new analysis in 1–100 GeV using 6 years of public Fermi-LAT data. Compared to the previous analysis by the Fermi Collaboration, which analyzed 1.5 years of data and detected the solar disk in 0.1–10 GeV, we find two new and significant results: (1) In the 1–10 GeV flux (detected at $>5\sigma$), we discover a significant time variation that anticorrelates with solar activity, and (2) we detect gamma rays in 10–30 GeV at $>5\sigma$ and in 30–100 GeV at $>2\sigma$. The time variation strongly indicates that solar-disk gamma rays are induced by cosmic rays and that solar atmospheric magnetic fields play an important role. Our results provide essential clues for understanding the underlying gamma-ray production processes, which may allow new probes of solar atmospheric magnetic fields, cosmic rays in the solar system, and possible new physics. Finally, we show that the Sun is a promising new target for ground-based TeV gamma-ray telescopes such as HAWC and LHAASO.

Relaxion models are an interesting new avenue to explain the radiative stability of the Standard Model scalar sector. They require very large field excursions, which are difficult to generate in a consistent UV completion and to reconcile with the compact field space of the relaxion. We propose an $N$-site model which naturally generates the large decay constant needed to address these issues. Our model offers distinct advantages with respect to previous proposals: the construction involves non-Abelian fields, allowing for controlled high-energy behavior and more model building possibilities, both in particle physics and inflationary models, and also admits a continuum limit when the number of sites is large, which may be interpreted as a warped extra dimension.

We advocate the possibility that the observed diphoton excess at 750 GeV at the LHC can be addressed by the scalar field that is a part of the $SU(5)$ symmetry breaking sector. The field in question is the Standard Model singlet that resides in the adjoint representation that breaks $SU(5)$ down to $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$. We also show that the required production and subsequent decay to two photons of this singlet can be induced by individual or combined contribution of two scalar multiplets $S_3$ and $R_2$ that transform as ($\mathbf{3},\mathbf{3},-1/3$) and ($\mathbf{3},\mathbf{2},7/6$) under $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$, respectively. The individual dominance of these multiplets is directly related to the issue of the charged fermion mass generation within the $SU(5)$ framework and can be unambiguously tested through the diboson decay signatures of the Standard Model singlet field.

The diphoton excess around $m_X=750\mathrm{GeV}$ observed by ATLAS and CMS can be interpreted as coming from a massive spin-2 excitation. We explore this possibility in the context of warped five-dimensional models with the Standard Model (SM) fields propagating in the bulk of the extra dimension. The 750 GeV resonance is identified with the first Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitation of the five-dimensional graviton that is parametrically lighter than KK resonances of SM fields. Our setup makes it possible to realize nonuniversal couplings of the spin-2 resonance to matter, and thus to explain nonobservation of the 750 GeV resonance in leptonic channels. Phenomenological predictions of the model depend on the localization of fields in the extra dimension. If, as required by naturalness arguments, the zero modes of the Higgs and top fields are localized near the IR brane, one expects large branching fractions to $t\overline{t}$, $hh$, $W^{+}{W}^{-}$ and $ZZ$ final states. Decays to $Z\gamma$ can also be observable when the KK graviton couplings to the SM gauge fields are nonuniversal.

I present approximate next-to-next-to-leading-order (aNNLO) total and differential cross sections for charged Higgs production in association with a top quark at LHC energies. The aNNLO results for the process $bg\to t{H}^{-}$ are derived from next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NNLL) resummation of soft-gluon corrections. Scale and parton-distribution uncertainties for the cross sections are shown. The top-quark transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions are also calculated.

In this paper, we study leading neutron production in photon-hadron interactions that take place in $pp$ and $pA$ collisions at large impact parameters. Using a model that describes the recent leading neutron data at HERA, we consider exclusive vector meson production in association with a leading neutron in $pp/pA$ collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The total cross sections and rapidity distributions of $\rho$, $\varphi$, and $J/\mathrm{\Psi }$ produced together with a leading neutron are computed. Our results indicate that the study of these processes is feasible and that it can be used to improve the understanding of leading neutron processes and of exclusive vector meson production.

We report on a numerical study of real-time dynamics of electromagnetically interacting chirally imbalanced lattice Dirac fermions within the classical statistical field theory approach. Namely, we perform exact simulations of the real-time quantum evolution of fermionic fields coupled to classical electromagnetic fields, which are in turn coupled to the vacuum expectation value of the fermionic electric current. We use Wilson-Dirac Hamiltonian for fermions, and noncompact action for the gauge field. In general, we observe that the backreaction of fermions on the electromagnetic field prevents the system from acquiring chirality imbalance. In the case of chirality pumping in parallel electric and magnetic fields, the electric field is screened by the produced on-shell fermions and the accumulation of chirality is hence stopped. In the case of evolution with initially present chirality imbalance, axial charge tends to transform to helicity of the electromagnetic field. By performing simulations on large lattices we show that in most cases this decay process is accompanied by the inverse cascade phenomenon, which transfers energy from short-wavelength to long-wavelength electromagnetic fields. In some simulations, however, we observe a very clear signature of inverse cascade for the helical magnetic fields that is not accompanied by the axial charge decay. This suggests that the relation between the inverse cascade and axial charge decay is not as straightforward as predicted by the simplest form of anomalous Maxwell equations.

We show that known entropy bounds constrain the information carried off by radiation to null infinity. We consider distant, planar null hypersurfaces in asymptotically flat spacetime. Their focusing and area loss can be computed perturbatively on a Minkowski background, yielding entropy bounds in terms of the energy flux of the outgoing radiation. In the asymptotic limit, we obtain boundary versions of the quantum null energy condition, of the generalized Second Law, and of the quantum Bousso bound.

Rank-$d$ tensorial group field theories are quantum field theories (QFTs) defined on a group manifold $G^{\times d}$, which represent a nonlocal generalization of standard QFT and a candidate formalism for quantum gravity, since, when endowed with appropriate data, they can be interpreted as defining a field theoretic description of the fundamental building blocks of quantum spacetime. Their renormalization analysis is crucial both for establishing their consistency as quantum field theories and for studying the emergence of continuum spacetime and geometry from them. In this paper, we study the renormalization group flow of two simple classes of tensorial group field theories (TGFTs), defined for the group $G=\mathbb{R}$ for arbitrary rank, both without and with gauge invariance conditions, by means of functional renormalization group techniques. The issue of IR divergences is tackled by the definition of a proper thermodynamic limit for TGFTs. We map the phase diagram of such models, in a simple truncation, and identify both UV and IR fixed points of the RG flow. Encouragingly, for all the models we study, we find evidence for the existence of a phase transition of condensation type.

$f(R)$ modification of Einstein’s gravity is an interesting possibility to explain the late-time acceleration of the Universe. In this work we explore the cosmological viability of one such $f(R)$ modification proposed by Kruglov [Phys. Rev. D 89, 064004 (2014)]. We show that the model violates fifth-force constraints. The model is also plagued with the issue of a curvature singularity in a spherically collapsing object, where the effective scalar field reaches the point of diverging scalar curvature.

We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of marginally stable circular orbits (MSCOs) of test particles in a stationary axisymmetric (SAS) spacetime which possesses a reflection symmetry with respect to the equatorial plane; photon orbits and marginally bound orbits (MBOs) are also addressed. Energy and angular momentum are shown to decouple from metric quantities, rendering a purely geometric characterization of circular orbits for this general class of metrics. The subsequent system is analyzed using resultants, providing an algorithmic approach for finding MSCO conditions. MSCOs, photon orbits and MBOs are explicitly calculated for concrete examples of physical interest.

Several quantum gravity theories predict a minimal length at the order of magnitude of the Planck length, under which the concepts of space and time lose their physical meaning. In quantum mechanics, the insurgence of such a minimal length can be described by introducing a modified position-momentum commutator, which in turn yields a generalized uncertainty principle, where the uncertainty on position measurements has a lower bound. The value of the minimal length is not predicted by theories and must be estimated experimentally. In this paper, we address the quantum bound to the estimability of the minimal uncertainty length by performing measurements on a harmonic oscillator, which is analytically solvable in the deformed algebra induced by the deformed commutation relations.

In this paper, we consider the timelike and null geodesics around the static (GMGHS, magnetically charged GMGHS, electrically charged GMGHS) and the rotating (Kerr-Sen dilaton-axion) dilaton black holes. The geodesic equations are solved in terms of Weierstrass elliptic functions. To classify the trajectories around the black holes, we use the analytical solution and effective potential techniques and then characterize the different types of the resulting orbits in terms of the conserved energy and angular momentum. Also, using the obtained results we study astrophysical applications.

We study a scale-invariant model of quadratic gravity with a nonminimally coupled scalar field. We focus on cosmological solutions and find that scale invariance is spontaneously broken and a mass scale naturally emerges. Before the symmetry breaking, the Universe undergoes an inflationary expansion with nearly the same observational predictions of Starobinsky’s model. At the end of inflation, the Hubble parameter and the scalar field converge to a stable fixed point through damped oscillations and the usual Einstein-Hilbert action is recovered. The oscillations around the fixed point can reheat the Universe in various ways, and we study in detail some of these possibilities.

Within the derivative expansion of conformally reduced gravity, the modified split Ward identities are shown to be compatible with the flow equations if and only if either the anomalous dimension vanishes or the cutoff profile is chosen to have a power-law form. No solutions exist if the Ward identities are incompatible. In the compatible case, a clear reason is found for why Ward identities can still forbid the existence of fixed points; however, for any cutoff profile, a background independent (and parametrization independent) flow equation is uncovered. Finally, expanding in vertices, the combined equations are shown generically to become either overconstrained or highly redundant beyond the six-point level.

We investigate the feasibility of models of inflation with a large Gauss-Bonnet coupling at late times, which have been shown to modify and prevent the end of inflation. Despite the potential of Gauss-Bonnet models in predicting favorable power spectra, capable of greatly lowering the tensor-to-scalar ratio compared to now-disfavored models of standard chaotic inflation, it is important to also understand in what context it is possible for postinflationary (p)reheating to proceed and hence recover an acceptable late-time cosmology. We argue that in the previously studied inverse power law coupling case, reheating cannot happen due to a lack of oscillatory solutions for the inflaton, and that neither instant preheating nor gravitational particle production would avoid this problem due to the persistence of the inflaton’s energy density, even if it were to partially decay. Hence we proceed to define a minimal generalization of the model which can permit perturbative reheating and study the consequences of this, including heavily modified dynamics during reheating and predictions of the power spectra.

We construct high-precision models of the Universe that contain radiation, a cosmological constant, and periodically distributed inhomogeneous matter. The density contrasts in these models are allowed to be highly nonlinear, and the cosmological expansion is treated as an emergent phenomenon. This is achieved by employing a generalized version of the post-Newtonian formalism, and by joining together inhomogeneous regions of space-time at reflection symmetric junctions. Using these models, we find general expressions that precisely and unambiguously quantify the effect of small-scale inhomogeneity on the large-scale expansion of space (an effect referred to as “backreaction” in the literature). We then proceed to specialize our models to the case where the matter fields are given by a regular array of pointlike particles. This allows us to derive extremely simple expressions for the emergent Friedmann-like equations that govern the large-scale expansion of space. It is found that the presence of radiation tends to reduce the magnitude of backreaction effects, while the existence of a cosmological constant has only a negligible effect.

Astrophysical tests of the stability of dimensionless fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ and the proton-to-electron mass ratio $\mu$, are an optimal probe of new physics. There is a growing interest in these tests, following indications of possible spacetime variations at the few parts per million level. Here we make use of the latest astrophysical measurements, combined with background cosmological observations, to obtain improved constraints on Bekenstein-type models for the evolution of both couplings. These are arguably the simplest models allowing for $\alpha$ and $\mu$ variations, and are characterized by a single free dimensionless parameter, $\zeta$, describing the coupling of the underlying dynamical degree of freedom to the electromagnetic sector. In the former case we find that this parameter is constrained to be $|{\zeta }_{\alpha }|<4.8\times {10}^{-6}$ (improving previous constraints by a factor of 6), while in the latter (which we quantitatively compare to astrophysical measurements for the first time) we find ${\zeta }_{\mu }=(2.7\pm 3.1)\times {10}^{-7}$; both of these are at the 99.7% confidence level. For ${\zeta }_{\alpha }$ this constraint is about 20 times stronger than the one obtained from local weak equivalence principle tests, while for ${\zeta }_{\mu }$ it is about 2 orders of magnitude weaker. We also discuss the improvements on these constraints to be expected from the forthcoming ESPRESSO and ELT-HIRES spectrographs, conservatively finding a factor of around 5 for the former and around 50 for the latter.

Energetic radiation during thunderstorms is studied. The possibility to identify the high-energy lightning emission in the 10 s monitoring mode is demonstrated. Simultaneous measurements of gamma-ray emission, high-energy electrons, and neutron radiation in the triggering mode are fulfilled. Energy spectra of gamma emission and electrons are obtained. The intensity both of electrons and gamma rays in lightning discharge prevail the background emission by 1.5 to 2 orders of magnitude.