We present results for the binding energies for ${}^4\mathrm{He}$ and ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ nuclei calculated in quenched lattice QCD at the lattice spacing of $a=0.128\mathrm{fm}$ with a heavy quark mass corresponding to $m_{\pi }=0.8\mathrm{GeV}$. Enormous computational cost for the nucleus correlation functions is reduced by avoiding redundancy of equivalent contractions stemming from permutation symmetry of protons or neutrons in the nucleus and various other symmetries. To distinguish a bound state from an attractive scattering state, we investigate the volume dependence of the energy difference between the nucleus and the free multinucleon states by changing the spatial extent of the lattice from 3.1 to 12.3 fm. A finite energy difference left in the infinite spatial volume limit leads to the conclusion that the measured ground states are bounded. It is also encouraging that the measured binding energies and the experimental ones show the same order of magnitude.

The large-scale curvature perturbations induced by spectator anisotropic stresses are analyzed across the matter-radiation transition. It is assumed that the anisotropic stress is associated with a plasma component whose energy density is subdominant both today and prior to photon decoupling. The enforcement of the momentum constraint and the interplay with the neutrino anisotropic stress determine the regular initial conditions of the Einstein-Boltzmann hierarchy. The cosmic microwave background observables have shapes and phases which differ both from the ones of the conventional adiabatic mode as well as from their nonadiabatic counterparts.

This work deals with the presence of topological defects in $k$-field models, where the dynamics is generalized to include higher order power in the kinetic term. We investigate kinks in (1, 1) dimensions and vortices in (2, 1) dimensions, focusing on some specific features of the solutions. In particular, we show how the kinks and vortices change to compactlike solutions, controlled by the parameter used to introduce the generalized models.

By identifying the recently introduced Barbero-Immirzi field with the QCD axion, the strong $CP$ problem can be solved through the Peccei-Quinn mechanism. A specific energy scale for the Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking is naturally predicted by this model. This provides a complete dynamical setting to evaluate the contribution of such an axion to the cold dark matter content of the Universe. Furthermore, a tight upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio production of primordial gravitational waves can be fixed, representing a strong experimental test for this model.

We present the complete set of analytical solutions of the geodesic equation in Taub-NUT space-times in terms of the Weierstrass elliptic functions. We systematically study the underlying polynomials and characterize the motion of test particles by its zeros. Since the presence of the “Misner string” in the Taub-NUT metric has led to different interpretations, we consider these in terms of the geodesics of the space-time. In particular, we address the geodesic incompleteness at the horizons discussed by Misner and Taub [C. W. Misner and A. H. Taub, Sov. Phys. JETP 28, 122 (1969) [C. W. MisnerA. H. TaubZh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 55, 233 (1968)]], and the analytic extension of Miller, Kruskal and Godfrey [J. G. Miller, M. D. Kruskal, and B. Godfrey, Phys. Rev. D 4, 2945 (1971)], and compare with the Reissner-Nordström space-time.

We investigate the generation of gravitational waves in the hybrid quintessential inflationary model. The full gravitational-wave energy spectrum is calculated using the method of continuous Bogoliubov coefficients. The postinflationary kination period, characteristic of quintessential inflationary models, leaves a clear signature on the spectrum, namely, a peak at high frequencies. The maximum of the peak is firmly located at the megahertz-gigahertz region of the spectrum and corresponds to ${\Omega }_{\mathrm{GW}}\simeq {10}^{-12}$. This peak is substantially smaller than the one appearing in the gravitational-wave energy spectrum of the original quintessential inflationary model, therefore avoiding any conflict with the nucleosynthesis constraint on ${\Omega }_{\mathrm{GW}}$.

We study the issue of algebraic classification of the Weyl curvature tensor, with a particular focus on numerical relativity simulations. The spacetimes of interest in this context, binary black hole mergers, and the ringdowns that follow them, present subtleties in that they are generically, strictly speaking, type I, but in many regions approximately, in some sense, type D. To provide meaning to any claims of “approximate” Petrov class, one must define a measure of degeneracy on the space of null rays at a point. We will investigate such a measure, used recently to argue that certain binary black hole merger simulations ring down to the Kerr geometry, after hanging up for some time in Petrov type II. In particular, we argue that this hangup in Petrov type II is an artefact of the particular measure being used, and that a geometrically better-motivated measure shows a black hole merger produced by our group settling directly to Petrov type D.

We make an analysis of $Q$-balls and boson stars using catastrophe theory, as an extension of the previous work on $Q$-balls in flat spacetime. We adopt the potential $V_3(\varphi )=\frac{m^2}{2}{\varphi }^2-\mu {\varphi }^3+\lambda {\varphi }^4$ for $Q$-balls and that with $\mu =0$ for boson stars. For solutions with $|g^{rr}-1|\sim 1$ at its peak, stability of $Q$-balls has been lost regardless of the potential parameters. As a result, phase relations, such as a $Q$-ball charge versus a total Hamiltonian energy, approach those of boson stars, which gives us a unified picture of $Q$-balls and boson stars.

Treating inflation as an effective theory, we expect the effective Lagrangian to contain higher-dimensional kinetic operators suppressed by the scale of UV physics. When these operators are powers of the inflaton kinetic energy, the scalar field can support a period of noncanonical inflation which is smoothly connected to the usual slow-roll inflation. We show how to construct noncanonical inflationary solutions to the equations of motion for the first time, and demonstrate that noncanonical inflation is an attractor in phase space for all small- and large-field models. We identify some sufficient conditions on the functional form of the Lagrangian that lead to successful noncanonical inflation since not every Lagrangian with higher-dimensional kinetic operators can support noncanonical inflation. This extends the class of known viable Lagrangians and excludes many Lagrangians which do not work.

The early part of the gravitational wave signal of binary neutron-star inspirals can potentially yield robust information on the nuclear equation of state. The influence of a star’s internal structure on the waveform is characterized by a single parameter: the tidal deformability $\lambda$, which measures the star’s quadrupole deformation in response to the companion’s perturbing tidal field. We calculate $\lambda$ for a wide range of equations of state and find that the value of $\lambda$ spans an order of magnitude for the range of equation of state models considered. An analysis of the feasibility of discriminating between neutron-star equations of state with gravitational wave observations of the early part of the inspiral reveals that the measurement error in $\lambda$ increases steeply with the total mass of the binary. Comparing the errors with the expected range of $\lambda$, we find that Advanced LIGO observations of binaries at a distance of 100 Mpc will probe only unusually stiff equations of state, while the proposed Einstein Telescope is likely to see a clean tidal signature.

We study in detail various aspects of the renormalization of the spin-1 resonance propagator in the effective field theory framework. First, we briefly review the formalisms for the description of spin-1 resonances in the path integral formulation with the stress on the issue of propagating degrees of freedom. Then we calculate the one-loop $1^{--}$ meson self-energy within the resonance chiral theory in the chiral limit using different methods for the description of spin-1 particles, namely, the Proca field, antisymmetric tensor field, and the first-order formalisms. We discuss in detail technical aspects of the renormalization procedure which are inherent to the power-counting nonrenormalizable theory and give a formal prescription for the organization of both the counterterms and one-particle irreducible graphs. We also construct the corresponding propagators and investigate their properties. We show that the additional poles corresponding to the additional one-particle states are generated by loop corrections, some of which are negative norm ghosts or tachyons. We count the number of such additional poles and briefly discuss their physical meaning.

We present a flavor model of quarks and leptons with the non-Abelian discrete symmetry $S_4$ in the framework of the $SU(5)$ supersymmetric grand unified theory. Three generations of $\overline{5}$-plets in $SU(5)$ are assigned to $\mathbf{3}$ of $S_4$ while the first and second generations of 10-plets in $SU(5)$ are assigned to $\mathbf{2}$ of $S_4$, and the third generation of 10-plet is assigned to $\mathbf{1}$ of $S_4$. Right-handed neutrinos are also assigned to $\mathbf{2}$ for the first and second generations and ${\mathbf{1}}^{\prime }$ for the third generation. We predict the Cabibbo angle as well as the tribimaximal mixing of neutrino flavors. We also predict the nonvanishing $U_{e3}$ of the neutrino flavor mixing due to higher dimensional mass operators. Our predicted Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa mixing angles and the $CP$ violation are consistent with experimental values. We also study supersymmetry breaking terms in the slepton sector. Our model leads to smaller values of flavor changing neutral currents than the present experimental bounds.

The light scalar meson $\sigma (600)$ is known to appear at low excitation energy with very large width on top of continuum states. We investigate it in the QCD sum rule as an example of resonance structures appearing above the corresponding thresholds. We use all the possible local tetraquark currents by taking linear combinations of five independent local ones. We ought to consider the $\pi \mathrm{\text{−}}\pi$ continuum contribution in the phenomenological side of the QCD sum rule in order to obtain a good sum rule signal. We study the stability of the extracted mass against the Borel mass and the threshold value and find the $\sigma (600)$ mass at $530\mathrm{MeV}\pm 40\mathrm{MeV}$. In addition, we find the extracted mass has an increasing tendency with the Borel mass, which is interpreted as caused by the width of the resonance.

The main goal of the IceCube Deep Core Array is to search for neutrinos of astrophysical origins. Atmospheric neutrinos are commonly considered as a background for these searches. We show here that cascade measurements in the Ice Cube Deep Core Array can provide strong evidence for tau neutrino appearance in atmospheric neutrino oscillations. Controlling systematic uncertainties will be the limiting factor in the analysis. A careful study of these tau neutrinos is crucial, since they constitute an irreducible background for astrophysical neutrino detection.

We search for $CP$ violation in a sample of $4.7\times {10}^4$ Cabibbo suppressed $D^0\to K^{+}{K}^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ decays. We use $470{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of data recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ storage rings running at center-of-mass energies near 10.6 GeV. $CP$ violation is searched for in the difference between the $T$-odd asymmetries, obtained using triple product correlations, measured for $D^0$ and ${\overline{D}}^0$ decays. The measured $CP$ violation parameter is ${\mathcal{A}}_T=(1.0\pm {5.1}_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm {4.4}_{\mathrm{syst}})\times {10}^{-3}$.

I show that the principle of equipartition, applied to area elements of a surface $\partial \mathcal{V}$ which are in equilibrium at the local Davies-Unruh temperature, allows one to determine the surface number density of the microscopic spacetime degrees of freedom in any diffeomorphism invariant theory of gravity. The entropy associated with these degrees of freedom matches with the Wald entropy for the theory. This result also allows one to attribute an entropy density to the spacetime in a natural manner. The field equations of the theory can then be obtained by extremizing this entropy. Moreover, when the microscopic degrees of freedom are in local thermal equilibrium, the spacetime entropy of a bulk region resides on its boundary.

We study theories of gravity with nonminimal coupling between polarized media with pole-dipole and quadrupole moments and an arbitrary function of the space-time curvature scalar $R$ and the squares of the Ricci and Riemann curvature tensors. We obtain the general form of the equation of motion and show that an induced quadrupole moment emerges as a result of the curvature tensor dependence of the function coupled to the matter. We derive the explicit forms of the equations of motion in the particular cases of coupling to a function of the curvature scalar alone, coupling to an arbitrary function of the square of the Riemann curvature tensor, and coupling to an arbitrary function of the Gauss-Bonnet invariant. We show that in these cases the extra force resulting from the nonminimal coupling can be expressed in terms of the induced moments.

In cosmic inflation driven by a scalar gauge singlet field with a tree level Higgs potential, the scalar to tensor ratio $r$ is estimated to be larger than 0.036, provided the scalar spectral index $n_s\ge 0.96$. We discuss quantum smearing of these predictions arising from the inflaton couplings to other particles such as grand unified theory scalars, and show that these corrections can significantly decrease $r$. However, for $n_s\ge 0.96$, we obtain $r\ge 0.02$ which can be tested by the Planck satellite.

As observers of the universe we are quantum physical systems within it. If the universe is very large in space and/or time, the probability becomes significant that the data on which we base predictions is replicated at other locations in spacetime. The physical conditions at these locations that are not specified by the data may differ. Predictions of our future observations therefore require an assumed probability distribution (the xerographic distribution) for our location among the possible ones. It is the combination of basic theory plus the xerographic distribution that can be predictive and testable by further observations.