We consider the possible detection of parity violation at the linear level in gravity using polarized anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background. Since such a parity violation would lead to nonzero temperature-$B$ modes ($TB$) and $E$ modes-$B$ modes (EB) correlations, this makes those odd-parity angular power spectra a potential probe of parity violation in the gravitational sector. These spectra are modeled incorporating the impact of lensing and we explore their possible detection in the context of small-scale (balloon-borne or ground-based) experiments and a future satellite mission dedicated to $B$-mode detection. We assess the statistical uncertainties on their reconstruction using mode counting and a (more realistic) pure pseudospectrum estimator approach. Those uncertainties are then translated into constraints on the level of parity asymmetry. We found that detecting chiral gravity is impossible for ongoing small-scale experiments. However, for a satellite-like mission, a parity asymmetry of 50% could be detected at 68% of confidence level (C.L.) (at least, depending on the value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio), and a parity asymmetry of 100% is measurable with at least a confidence level of 95%. We also assess the impact of a possible miscalibration of the orientation of the polarized detectors, leading to spurious $TB$ and $EB$ cross correlations. We show that in the context of pseudospectrum estimation of the angular power spectra, self calibration of this angle could significantly reduce the statistical significance of the measured level of parity asymmetry (by e.g. a factor $\sim 2.4$ for a miscalibration angle of 1 degree). For chiral gravity and assuming a satellite mission dedicated to primordial $B$ mode, a nondetection of the $TB$ and $EB$ correlation would translate into an upper bound on parity violation of 39% at 95% confidence level for a tensor-to-scalar ratio of 0.2, excluding values of the (imaginary) Barbero-Immirzi parameter comprised between 0.2 and 4.9 at 95% C.L.

We propose a simple scheme to improve the Polyakov–Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model by including an explicit chemical-potential dependence in the Polyakov-loop potential. In the improved model, both the dynamical chiral symmetry restoration and the deconfinement are crossovers at high temperature $T$ and small chemical potential $\mu$, while they are first-order phase transitions at low $T$ and large $\mu$. We locate the critical end points and chart the phase diagrams of the associated phase transitions on the $T\text{−}\mu$ plane. Our result suggests that the dynamical chiral symmetry restoration and the deconfinement phase transitions almost coincide with each other on the $T\text{−}\mu$ plane.

Braneworld scenarios predict very strong high-frequency gravitational waves (HFGWs) in the GHz to THz band. The observation of such HFGWs would provide dynamical evidence for an extra dimension of space. In this paper, we for the first time analytically calculate the electromagnetic (EM) response to HFGWs via the interaction of the HFGWs from the braneworld with the galactic-extragalactic magnetic fields appearing in all galaxies and galaxy clusters, which would give rise to a significant spatial accumulation effect (caused by the synchro-propagation of the HFGWs and perturbed EM waves) and lead to possibly detectable EM signals. Our results show that the power of EM signals at the Earth can theoretically reach $\sim {10}^{-21}$ to $\sim {10}^{-5}\mathrm{W}$ with parameters in the typical range expected by contemporary studies and observations (from the lower values for the HFGW amplitude $h\sim {10}^{-26}$ at ${10}^9\mathrm{Hz}$ and the galactic magnetic field $B^{(0)}\sim {10}^{-11}\mathrm{T}$, to the higher values of $h\sim {10}^{-22}$ at ${10}^{12}\mathrm{Hz}$ and $B^{(0)}\sim {10}^{-10}\mathrm{T}$), and the estimated upper bound of these signals may surpass the minimum level detectable by current technology.

We investigate an anisotropic model of superconductors in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory with a charged scalar field. It is found that the critical temperature decreases as the anisotropy becomes large. We then estimate the energy gap of the superconductor, and find that the ratio of the energy gap to the critical temperature increases as the anisotropy increases and so it is larger than that in the isotropic case. We also find that pseudogap appears due to the anisotropy.

If low-energy supersymmetry (SUSY) exists, LHC data favors a high mass scale for scalar superpartners (above a TeV), while sfermions and the dark matter can be parametrically lighter—leading to a so-called split spectrum. When combining this fact with the motivation from fundamental theory for shift-symmetric scalars (moduli) prior to SUSY breaking, this leads to a nonthermal history for the early universe. Such a history implies different expectations for the microscopic properties of dark matter, as well as the possibility of dark radiation and a cosmic axion background. In this paper we examine how correlated and mixed isocurvature perturbations are generated in such models, as well as the connection to dark radiation. WMAP constraints on multiple correlated isocurvature modes allow up to half of the primordial perturbations to be isocurvature, contrary to the case of a single isocurvature mode where perturbations must be dominantly adiabatic. However, such bounds are strongly prior dependent, and have not been investigated with the latest Planck data. In this paper we use the example of a SUSY nonthermal history to establish theoretical priors on cosmological parameters. Of particular interest, we find that priors on dark radiation are degenerate with those on the total amount of isocurvature—they are inversely correlated. Dark radiation is tightly constrained in the early universe and has been used recently to place stringent constraints on string-based approaches to beyond the standard model. Our results suggest such constraints can require more input from theory. Specifically, we find that in many cases constraints on dark radiation are avoidable because the density can be reduced at the expense of predicting an amount of multicomponent isocurvature. The latter are poorly constrained by existing probes, and lead to the interesting possibility that such models could have new predictions for the next generation of observations. Our results are not only important for establishing the postinflationary universe in the presence of SUSY, but also suggest that data from cosmological probes—such as Planck—can help guide model building in models of the minimal SUSY standard model, split SUSY, and beyond. Our model also demonstrates the utility of UV models in constructing cosmological priors.

The fast (ms) radio bursts reported by Lorimer et al. Science 318, 777 (2007) and Thornton et al. Science 341, 53 (2013) have extremely high brightness temperatures if at the inferred cosmological distances. This implies coherent emission by “bunches” of charges. Fast radio bursts, like the giant pulses of the Crab pulsar, display banded spectra that may be harmonics of plasma frequency emission by plasma turbulence and are inconsistent with emission by charge distributions moving relativistically. We model the emission region as a screen of half-wave dipole radiators resonant around the frequencies of observation, the maximally bright emission mechanism of nonrelativistic charges, and calculate the implied charge bunching. From this we infer the minimum electron energy required to overcome electrostatic repulsion. If fast radio bursts are the counterparts of Galactic events, their Galactic counterparts may be detected from any direction above the horizon by radio telescopes in their far sidelobes or by small arrays of dipoles.

Theoretically, some works have proposed the hadronic resonances ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c(2800)$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c(2940{)}^{+}$ to be $S$-wave $DN$ and $D^{*}N$ molecular candidates, respectively. In the framework of QCD sum rules, we investigate whether ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c(2800)$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c(2940{)}^{+}$ could be explained as the $S$-wave $DN$ state with $J^P={\frac{1}{2}}^{-}$ and the $S$-wave $D^{*}N$ state with $J^P={\frac{3}{2}}^{-}$, respectively. Technically, contributions of operators up to dimension 12 are included in the operator product expansion. The final results are $3.64\pm 0.33\mathrm{GeV}$ and $3.73\pm 0.35\mathrm{GeV}$ for the $S$-wave $DN$ state of $J^P={\frac{1}{2}}^{-}$ and the $S$-wave $D^{*}N$ state of $J^P={\frac{3}{2}}^{-}$, respectively. They are somewhat bigger than the experimental data of ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c(2800)$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c(2940{)}^{+}$, respectively. Since corresponding molecular currents are constructed from local operators of hadrons, the possibility of ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c(2800)$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c(2940{)}^{+}$ as molecular states cannot be arbitrarily excluded merely from these disagreements between molecular masses using local currents and experimental data. But then these results imply that ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_c(2800)$ and ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c(2940{)}^{+}$ could not be compact states. This may suggest a limitation of the QCD sum rule using the local current to determine whether some state is a molecular state or not. As by-products, masses for their bottom partners are predicted to be $6.97\pm 0.34\mathrm{GeV}$ for the $S$-wave $\overline{B}N$ state of $J^P={\frac{1}{2}}^{-}$ and $6.98\pm 0.34\mathrm{GeV}$ for the $S$-wave ${\overline{B}}^{*}N$ state of $J^P={\frac{3}{2}}^{-}$.

The exclusive $B_s\to \gamma l^{+}{l}^{-}$ decay is analyzed in the framework of a family nonuniversal $Z^{\prime }$ model by calculating the differential branching ratio, double lepton polarizations, and forward-backward asymmetries. Our results are compared against those of the Standard Model. The predictions of this work are hoped to be tested in the near future at LHCb.

The properties of a Higgs boson candidate are measured in the $H\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay channel, with $\ell =e$, $\mu$, using data from $pp$ collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.1{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ at the center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=7\mathrm{TeV}$ and $19.7{\mathrm{fb}}^{-\text{1}}$ at $\sqrt{s}=8\mathrm{TeV}$, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. The new boson is observed as a narrow resonance with a local significance of 6.8 standard deviations, a measured mass of $125.6\pm 0.4(\text{stat})\pm 0.2(\text{syst})\mathrm{GeV}$, and a total width $\le 3.4\mathrm{GeV}$ at the 95% confidence level. The production cross section of the new boson times its branching fraction to four leptons is measured to be ${0.93}_{-0.23}^{+0.26}{(\text{stat})}_{-0.09}^{+0.13}(\text{syst})$ times that predicted by the standard model. Its spin-parity properties are found to be consistent with the expectations for the standard-model Higgs boson. The hypotheses of a pseudoscalar and all tested spin-1 boson hypotheses are excluded at the 99% confidence level or higher. All tested spin-2 boson hypotheses are excluded at the 95% confidence level or higher.

Structure of the decay ${\overline{B}}_s^0\to J/\psi {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ is studied using data corresponding to $3{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity from $pp$ collisions produced by the LHC and collected by the LHCb detector. Five interfering ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ states are required to describe the decay: $f_0(980),f_0(1500),f_0(1790),f_2(1270)$, and $f_2^{\prime }(1525)$. An alternative model including these states and a nonresonant $J/\psi {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ component also provides a good description of the data. Based on the different transversity components measured for the spin-2 intermediate states, the final state is found to be compatible with being entirely $CP$ odd. The $CP$-even part is found to be $<2.3\%$ at a 95% confidence level. The $f_0(500)$ state is not observed, allowing a limit to be set on the absolute value of the mixing angle with the $f_0(980)$ of $<7.7^{°}$ at a 90% confidence level, consistent with a tetraquark interpretation of the $f_0(980)$ substructure.

We analyze the one-loop effective action of the Gribov-Zwanziger Lagrangian and use the local composite operator formalism to include the most general Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin dimension two mass operator for the localizing ghost fields. We show that the energetically favorable color channel corresponds to what is known as the $\mathcal{R}$ direction.

The recent indications for a tensor-to-scalar ratio $r\simeq 0.2$ from BICEP2 measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization present some tension with upper limits $r\lesssim 0.1$ from measurements of CMB temperature fluctuations. Here we point out that tensor perturbations can induce $B$ modes in the CMB polarization without inducing any temperature fluctuations nor $E$-mode polarization whatsoever, but only at the expense of violating the Copernican principle. We present this mathematical possibility as a new ingredient for the model-builder’s toolkit in case the tension between $B$ modes and temperature fluctuations cannot be resolved with more conventional ideas.

The holographic principle asserts that the complete description of the interior of a sphere is a theory which not only lives on the surface of the sphere, but also has $A/4$ binary degrees of freedom. In this context we revisit the question of whether AdS/CFT is fully holographic. We construct states which are localized deep in the interior yet are encoded on short scales in the conformal field theory, seemingly in conflict with the UV/IR prescription. We make a proposal to address the more basic question of which conformal field theory states are sufficient to describe physics within a certain region of the bulk.

We study the effects of disorder on a holographic superconductor by introducing a random chemical potential on the boundary. We consider various realizations of disorder and find that the critical temperature for superconductivity is enhanced. We also present evidence for a precise form of renormalization in this system. Namely, when the random chemical potential is characterized by a Fourier spectrum of the form $k^{-2\alpha }$ we find that the spectra of the condensate and the charge density are again power laws, whose exponents are accurately and universally governed by linear functions of $\alpha$.

We present the first Dyson–Schwinger calculation of the three-gluon vertex in Landau-gauge QCD in which its full covariant structure is back-coupled self-consistently. We truncate a Bose-symmetrized version of the Dyson–Schwinger equation at the level of one-loop diagrams, model the four-gluon vertex, and neglect terms that contain nonprimitively divergent $n$-point functions; the ghost-gluon vertex is taken bare to good approximation. Fit functions for the ghost and gluon propagators that interpolate between scaling and decoupling are presented. In all aspects of our study, Bose symmetry is manifest, from the truncation to the basis decomposition and to the momentum invariants. We explore the uniform and soft-collinear infrared limits and obtain the expected infrared exponents. The presence of a zero crossing in the tree-level component of the vertex is confirmed for both scaling- and decoupling-type scenarios. The zero crossing appears at a scale $\sim 1\mathrm{GeV}$; however, its location might be sensitive to the four-gluon vertex and missing components in the Dyson–Schwinger equation.

We show that the Nielsen-Olesen instability of the Savvidy vacuum with a homogeneous chromomagnetic condensation disappears in the framework of the functional renormalization group. This result follows from our observations: (i) the vanishing imaginary part of the effective average action is realized for arbitrary infrared cutoff as a novel fixed point solution of the flow equation for the complex-valued effective average action and (ii) an approximate analytical solution for the effective average action is obtained without the pure imaginary part for large infrared cutoff. This result suggests that there exists a physical mechanism for maintaining the stability or staying on the fixed point even for sufficiently small infrared cutoff. We argue that dynamical gluon mass generation (related to two-gluon bound states identified with glueballs) occurs due to the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin-invariant vacuum condensate of mass dimension two without causing instability.

We discuss the origins of temperature dependence of the axial vortical effect, i.e., generation of an axial current in a rotating chiral medium along the rotation axis. We show that the corresponding transport coefficient depends, in general, on the number of light weakly interacting degrees of freedom, rather than on the gravitational anomaly. We also comment on the role of low-dimensional defects in the rotating medium, and appearance of the chiral vortical effect due to them.

In the background of a sufficiently strong magnetic field the vacuum was suggested to become an ideal electric conductor (highly anisotropic superconductor) due to an interplay between the strong and electromagnetic forces. The superconducting ground state resembles an Abrikosov lattice state in an ordinary type-II superconductor: it is an inhomogeneous structure made of a (charged vector) quark-antiquark condensate pierced by vortices. In this paper the acoustic (phonon) vibrational modes of the vortex lattice are studied at zero temperature. Using an effective model based on a vector meson dominance, we show that in the infrared limit the longitudinal (transverse) acoustic vibrations of the vortex lattice possess a linear (quadratic) dispersion relation corresponding to type-I (type-II) Nambu-Goldstone modes.

We discuss the $U(1)$ gauged version of the $3+1$ dimensional Faddeev-Skyrme model supplemented by the Maxwell term. We show that there exist axially symmetric static solutions coupled to the noninteger toroidal flux of magnetic field, which revert to the usual Hopfions ${\mathcal{A}}_{m,n}$ of lower degrees $Q=mn$ in the limit of the gauge coupling constant vanishing. The masses of the static gauged Hopfions are found to be less than the corresponding masses of the usual ungauged solitons ${\mathcal{A}}_{1,1}$ and ${\mathcal{A}}_{2,1}$, respectively; they become lighter as the gauge coupling increases. The dependence of the solutions on the gauge coupling is investigated. We find that in the strong coupling regime the gauged Hopfion carries two magnetic fluxes, which are quantized in units of $2\pi$, carrying $n$ and $m$ quanta, respectively. The first flux encircles the position curve and the second one is directed along the symmetry axis. Effective quantization of the field in the gauge sector may allow us to reconsider the usual arguments concerning the lower topological bound in the Faddeev-Skyrme-Maxwell model.

We study the performance of various analytical frequency-domain templates for detection and parameter estimation of gravitational waves from spin-precessing, quasicircular, compact binary inspirals. We begin by assessing the extent to which nonspinning, spin-aligned, and the new (analytical, frequency-domain, small-spin) double-precessing frequency-domain templates can be used to detect signals from such systems. For effective, dimensionless spin values above 0.2, the use of nonspinning or spin-aligned templates for detection purposes will result in a loss of up to 30% of all events, while in the case of the double-precessing model, this never exceeds 6%. Moreover, even for signals from systems with small spins, nonspinning and spin-aligned templates introduce large biases in the extracted masses and spins. The use of a model that encodes spin-induced precession effects, such as the double-precessing model, improves the mass and spin extraction by up to an order of magnitude. The additional information encoded in the spin-orbit interaction is invaluable if one wishes to extract the maximum amount of information from gravitational wave signals.