We give a reformulation of nonlinear Einstein gravity, which contains the dual graviton together with the ordinary metric and a shift-gauge field. The metric does not enter through a “kinetic” Einstein-Hilbert term, but via topological couplings, and so the theory does not lead to a doubling of degrees of freedom. The field equations take the form of first-order duality relations. We analyze the gauge symmetries and comment on their meaning with regard to the $E_{11}$ proposal.

We argue that, within a broad class of extensions of the standard model, there is a tight correlation between the dynamics of the electroweak phase transition and the cubic self-coupling of the Higgs boson: Models which exhibit a strong first-order electroweak phase transition predict a large deviation of the Higgs self-coupling from the standard model prediction, as long as no accidental cancellations occur. Order-one deviations are typical. This shift would be observable at the Large Hadron Collider if the proposed luminosity or energy upgrades are realized, as well as at a future electron-positron collider such as the proposed International Linear Collider. These measurements would provide a laboratory test of the dynamics of the electroweak phase transition.

The recently proposed “reheating-volume” (RV) measure promises to solve the long-standing problem of extracting probabilistic predictions from cosmological multiverse scenarios involving eternal inflation. I give a detailed description of the new measure and its applications to generic models of eternal inflation of random-walk type. For those models I derive a general formula for RV-regulated probability distributions that is suitable for numerical computations. I show that the results of the RV cutoff in random-walk type models are always gauge invariant and independent of the initial conditions at the beginning of inflation. In a toy model where equal-time cutoffs lead to the “youngness paradox,” the RV cutoff yields unbiased results that are distinct from previously proposed measures.

We explore the phenomenology of Kaluza-Klein (KK) dark matter in very general models with universal extra dimensions (UEDs), emphasizing the complementarity between high-energy colliders and dark matter direct detection experiments. In models with relatively small mass splittings between the dark matter candidate and the rest of the (colored) spectrum, the collider sensitivity is diminished, but direct detection rates are enhanced. UEDs provide a natural framework for such mass degeneracies. We consider both five-dimensional and six-dimensional nonminimal UED models, and discuss the detection prospects for various KK dark matter candidates: the KK photon ${\gamma }_1$, the KK $Z$ boson $Z_1$, the KK Higgs boson $H_1$, and the spinless KK photon ${\gamma }_H$. We combine collider limits, such as electroweak precision data and expected LHC reach, with cosmological constraints from WMAP, and the sensitivity of current or planned direct detection experiments. Allowing for general mass splittings, we show that neither colliders nor direct detection experiments by themselves can explore all of the relevant KK dark matter parameter space. Nevertheless, they probe different parameter space regions, and the combination of the two types of constraints can be quite powerful. For example, in the case of ${\gamma }_1$ in 5D UEDs the relevant parameter space will be almost completely covered by the combined CERN LHC and direct detection sensitivities expected in the near future.

We use a holographic principle to study the low-energy spectrum of walking technicolor models. In particular, we predict the masses of the axial-vectors as well as the decay constants of vectors and axial-vectors as functions of the mass of the techni-$\rho$. Given that there are very few nonperturbative techniques to study strongly coupled theories, using holography might provide us with insight into how to constrain the parameters of the low-energy effective action of walking technicolor models. We also compare our results with findings from other setups.

The CERN LHC will have unprecedented sensitivity to flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) top quark decays, whose observation would be a clear sign of physics beyond the standard model. Although many details of top flavor violation are model dependent, the standard model gauge symmetries relate top FCNCs to other processes, which are strongly constrained by existing data. We study these constraints in a model-independent way, using a low energy effective theory from which the new physics is integrated out. We consider the most important operators which contribute to top FCNCs and analyze the current constraints on them. We find that the data rule out top FCNCs at a level observable at the LHC due to most of the operators comprising left-handed first or second generation quark fields, while there remains a substantial window for top decays mediated by operators with right-handed charm or up quarks. If FCNC top decays are observed at the LHC, such an analysis may help decipher the underlying physics.

We study the longitudinal polarization of the ${\overline{\Sigma }}^{-}$, ${\overline{\Sigma }}^{+}$, ${\overline{\Xi }}^0$, and ${\overline{\Xi }}^{+}$ antihyperons in polarized high-energy $pp$ collisions at large transverse momenta, extending a recent study of the $\overline{\Lambda }$ antihyperon. We make predictions by using different parameterizations of the polarized parton densities and models for the polarized fragmentation functions. Similar to the $\overline{\Lambda }$ polarization, the ${\overline{\Xi }}^0$ and ${\overline{\Xi }}^{+}$ polarizations are found to be sensitive to the polarized antistrange sea $\Delta \overline{s}(x)$ in the nucleon. The ${\overline{\Sigma }}^{-}$ and ${\overline{\Sigma }}^{+}$ polarizations show sensitivity to the light sea quark polarizations $\Delta \overline{u}(x)$ and $\Delta \overline{d}(x)$, and their asymmetry.

We measure the branching ratio of the purely leptonic decay of the $D^{+}$ meson with unprecedented precision as $\mathcal{B}(D^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}\nu )=(3.82\pm 0.32\pm 0.09)\times {10}^{-4}$, using $818{\mathrm{pb}}^{-1}$ of data taken on the $\psi (3770)$ resonance with the CLEO-c detector at the CESR collider. We use this determination to derive a value for the pseudoscalar decay constant $f_{D^{+}}$, combining with measurements of the $D^{+}$ lifetime and assuming $|V_{cd}|=|V_{us}|$. We find $f_{D^{+}}=(205.8\pm 8.5\pm 2.5)\mathrm{MeV}$. The decay rate asymmetry $\frac{\Gamma (D^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}\nu )-\Gamma (D^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}\overline{\nu })}{\Gamma (D^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}\nu )+\Gamma (D^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}\overline{\nu })}=0.08\pm 0.08$, consistent with no $CP$ violation. We also set 90% confidence level upper limits on $\mathcal{B}(D^{+}\to {\tau }^{+}\nu )<1.2\times {10}^{-3}$ and $\mathcal{B}(D^{+}\to e^{+}\nu )<8.8\times {10}^{-6}$.

The DONuT experiment collected data in 1997 and published first results in 2000 based on four observed ${\nu }_{\tau }$ charged-current (CC) interactions. The final analysis of the data collected in the experiment is presented in this paper, based on $3.6\times {10}^{17}$ protons on target using the 800 GeV Tevatron beam at Fermilab. The number of observed ${\nu }_{\tau }$ CC events is 9 with an estimated background of 1.5 events, from a total of 578 observed neutrino interactions. We calculate the ${\nu }_{\tau }$ CC cross section as a function of one parameter. Assuming ${\mathrm{D}}_{\mathrm{s}}$ mesons are the sole source for ${\nu }_{\tau }$, the energy-independent part of the total CC cross section can be parametrized as ${\sigma }^{\mathrm{const}}({\nu }_{\tau })=2.51n^{1.52}\times {10}^{-40}{\mathrm{cm}}^2{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}$ for $n\ge 4$, where $n$ is the parameter controlling the longitudinal part of the ${\mathrm{D}}_{\mathrm{s}}$ differential cross section of the form $d\sigma /d{x}_F\propto (1-|x_F|{)}^n$. The analysis could not distinguish between ${\nu }_{\tau }$ and ${\overline{\nu }}_{\tau }$. The value of $n$ obtained from Pythia simulations, $n=6.1$, gives an estimated value of ${\sigma }^{\mathrm{const}}({\nu }_{\tau })=(0.39\pm 0.13\pm 0.13)\times {10}^{-38}{\mathrm{cm}}^2{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}$.

The effect of the Hawking temperature on the entanglement and teleportation for the scalar field in a most general, static, and asymptotically flat black hole with spherical symmetry has been investigated. It has been shown that the same “initial entanglement” for the state parameter $\alpha$ and its “normalized partners” $\sqrt{1-{\alpha }^2}$ will be degraded by the Hawking effect with increasing Hawking temperature along two different trajectories except for the maximally entangled state. In the infinite Hawking temperature limit, corresponding to the case of the black hole evaporating completely, the state no longer has distillable entanglement for any $\alpha$. It is interesting to note that the mutual information in this limit is equal to just half of the “initially mutual information.” It has also been demonstrated that the fidelity of teleportation decreases as the Hawking temperature increases, which indicates the degradation of entanglement.

We compare the phase evolution of equal-mass nonspinning black-hole binaries from numerical relativity (NR) simulations with post-Newtonian (PN) results obtained from three PN approximants: the TaylorT1 and T4 approximants, for which NR-PN comparisons have already been performed in the literature, and the recently proposed approximant TaylorEt. The accumulated phase disagreement between NR and PN results over the frequency range $M\omega =0.0455$ to $M\omega =0.1$ is greater for TaylorEt than either T1 or T4, but has the attractive property of decreasing monotonically as the PN order is increased.

Mathematical connection between the quantum teleportation, the most unique feature of quantum information processing, and the black hole final state is studied taking into account the nontrivial spacetime geometry. We use the twist operation for the generalized entanglement measurement and the final-state boundary conditions to obtain transfer theorems for the black hole evaporation. This would enable us to put together the universal quantum teleportation and the black hole evaporation in the unified mathematical footing. For a renormalized post selected final state of outgoing Hawking radiation, we found that the information content, quantified by the mixedness of the state, is preserved only in the special case of the final-state boundary condition in the microcanonical form, which resembles a perfect teleportation channel.

This paper calculates the amount of baryon/radiation isocurvature fluctuation produced through the decay of a curvaton field. It is shown, in particular, that if curvaton decay preserves the baryon number and the curvaton dominates the energy density at the time of decay, the initial curvaton/radiation isocurvature mode is entirely transferred into a baryon/radiation isocurvature mode. This situation is opposite to that previously studied in three fluid models of curvaton decay; this difference is related to the conservation of the preexisting baryon asymmetry and to the efficiency of the annihilation of all baryon/antibaryon pairs produced in the decay. We study in detail the relevant cases in which the curvaton decay preserves or not the baryon number and provide analytical and numerical calculations for each situation.

We consider the examples of single-field inflation models predicting large amplitudes of the curvature perturbation power spectrum at relatively small scales. It is shown that in models with an inflationary potential of double-well type the peaks in the power spectrum, having, in maximum, the amplitude ${\mathcal{P}}_{\mathcal{R}}\sim 0.1$, can exist (if parameters of the potential are chosen appropriately). It is shown also that the spectrum amplitude of the same magnitude (at large $k$ values) is predicted in the model with the running mass potential, if the positive running, $n^{\prime }$, exists and is about 0.005 at cosmological scales. Estimates of the quantum diffusion effects during inflation in models with the running mass potential are given.

It is shown that amplitude-based, exact resummation tames the uncanceled IR divergences at $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }_s^2)$ in initial state radiation in QCD with massive quarks. Implications for precision predictions for LHC physics are discussed.

We perform a Dalitz plot analysis of $D^{+}\to K^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{+}$ decay with the CLEO-c data set of $572{\mathrm{pb}}^{-1}$ of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collisions accumulated at the $\psi (3770)$. This corresponds to $1.6\times {10}^6$ $D^{+}{D}^{-}$ pairs from which we select 140 793 candidate events with a small background of 1.1%. We compare our results with previous measurements using the isobar model. We modify the isobar model with an improved description of some of the contributing resonances and get better agreement with our data. We also consider a quasi-model-independent approach and measure the magnitude and phase of the contributing $K\pi$ $S$ wave in the range of invariant masses from the threshold to the maximum in this decay. This gives an improved description of our data over the isobar model. Finally we allow for an isospin-two ${\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{+}$ $S$ wave contribution and find that adding this to both the isobar model and the quasi-model-independent approach gives the best description of our data.

In this paper, we use the gauge embedding procedure and the master action approach to establish the equivalence between the self-dual and the Maxwell-Chern-Simons models with Lorentz symmetry breaking. As a result, new kinds of Lorentz-breaking terms arise.

We study vortex dynamics in three-dimensional theories with Chern-Simons interactions. The dynamics is governed by motion on the moduli space $\mathcal{M}$ in the presence of a magnetic field. For Abelian vortices, the magnetic field is shown to be the Ricci form over $\mathcal{M}$; for non-Abelian vortices, it is the first Chern character of a suitable index bundle. We derive these results by integrating out massive fermions and following the fate of their zero modes.

Coherent electrons coupled to the quantized electromagnetic field undergo decoherence which can be viewed as due either to fluctuations of the Aharonov-Bohm phase or to photon emission. When the electromagnetic field is in a squeezed vacuum state, it is possible for this decoherence to be reduced, leading to the phenomenon of recoherence. This recoherence effect requires electrons which are emitted at selected times during the cycle of the excited mode of the electromagnetic field. We show that there are bounds on the degree of recoherence which are analogous to quantum inequality restriction on negative energy densities in quantum field theory. We make some estimates of the degree of recoherence, and show that although small, it is in principle observable.

We derive big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints on both unstable and stable gravitino taking account of recent progress in theoretical study of the BBN processes as well as observations of primordial light-element abundances. In the case of unstable gravitino, we set the upper limit on the reheating temperature assuming that the primordial gravitinos are mainly produced by the scattering processes of thermal particles. For stable gravitino, we consider $B$-ino, stau, and sneutrino as the next-to-the-lightest supersymmetric particle and obtain constraints on their properties. Compared with the previous works, we improved the following points: (i) we use the most recent observational data, (ii) for gravitino production, we include contribution of the longitudinal component, and (iii) for the case with unstable long-lived stau, we estimate the bound-state effect of stau accurately by solving the Boltzmann equation.