In mirage-mediation models there exists a modulus field whose mass is O(1000) TeV and its late decay may significantly change the standard thermal relic scenario of the dark matter. We study nonthermal production of the dark matter directly from the modulus decay, and find that for some parameter regions nonthermally produced neutralinos can become the dark matter.

The stationary background flow in the spherically symmetric infall of a compressible fluid, coupled to the space-time defined by the static Schwarzschild metric, has been subjected to linearized acoustic perturbations. The perturbative procedure is based on the continuity condition and it shows that the coupling of the flow with the geometry of space-time brings about greater stability for the flow, to the extent that the amplitude of the perturbation, treated as a standing wave, decays in time, as opposed to the amplitude remaining constant in the Newtonian limit. In qualitative terms this situation simulates the effect of a dissipative mechanism in the classical Bondi accretion flow, defined in the Newtonian construct of space and time. As a result of this approach it becomes impossible to define an acoustic metric for a conserved spherically symmetric flow, described within the framework of Schwarzschild geometry. In keeping with this view, the perturbation, considered separately as a high-frequency traveling wave, also has its amplitude reduced.

The high energy neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been expected in various scenarios. In this paper, we study the neutrino emission from early afterglows of GRBs, especially under the reverse-forward shock model and late prompt emission model. In the former model, the early afterglow emission occurs due to dissipation made by an external shock with the circumburst medium (CBM). In the latter model, internal dissipation such as internal shocks produces the shallow decay emission in early afterglows. We also discuss implications of recent Swift observations for neutrino signals in detail. Future neutrino detectors such as IceCube may detect neutrino signals from early afterglows, especially under the late prompt emission model, while the detection would be difficult under the reverse-forward shock model. Contribution to the neutrino background from the early afterglow emission may be at most comparable to that from the prompt emission unless the outflow making the early afterglow emission loads more nonthermal protons, and it may be important in the very high energies. Neutrino detections are inviting because they could provide us with not only information on baryon acceleration but also one of the clues to the model of early afterglows. Finally, we compare various predictions for the neutrino background from GRBs, which are testable by future neutrino observations.

We evaluate the transfer function of a novel kind of detector and reconcile our results with previously published calculations (whose conclusions are apparently significantly different from each other) thereby showing the natural equivalence of all considered methods.

Unparticles from hidden conformal sectors provide qualitatively new possibilities for physics beyond the standard model. In the theoretical framework of minimal models, we clarify the relation between energy scales entering various phenomenological analyses. We show that these relations always counteract the effective field theory intuition that higher dimension operators are more highly suppressed, and that the requirement of a significant conformal window places strong constraints on possible unparticle signals. With these considerations in mind, we examine some of the most robust and sensitive probes and explore novel effects of unparticles on gauge coupling evolution and fermion production at high energy colliders. These constraints are presented both as bounds on four-fermion interaction scales and as constraints on the fundamental parameter space of minimal models.

We study the high density region of QCD within an effective model obtained in the frame of the hopping parameter expansion and choosing Polyakov-type loops as the main dynamical variables representing the fermionic matter. To get a first idea of the phase structure, the model is analyzed in strong coupling expansion and using a mean field approximation. In numerical simulations, the model still shows the so-called sign problem, a difficulty peculiar to nonzero chemical potential, but it permits the development of algorithms which ensure a good overlap of the Monte Carlo ensemble with the true one. We review the main features of the model and present calculations concerning the dependence of various observables on the chemical potential and on the temperature, in particular, of the charge density and the diquark susceptibility, which may be used to characterize the various phases expected at high baryonic density. We obtain in this way information about the phase structure of the model and the corresponding phase transitions and crossover regions, which can be considered as hints for the behavior of nonzero density QCD.

An earlier calculation in a generalized linear sigma model showed that the well-known current algebra formula for low energy pion-pion scattering held even though the massless Nambu Goldstone pion contained a small admixture of a two-quark two-antiquark field. Here we turn on the pion mass and note that the current algebra formula no longer holds exactly. We discuss this small deviation and also study the effects of a SU(3) symmetric quark mass type term on the masses and mixings of the eight SU(3) multiplets in the model. We calculate the s-wave scattering lengths, including the beyond current algebra theorem corrections due to the scalar mesons, and observe that the effect of the scalar mesons is to improve the agreement with experiment. In the process, we uncover the way in which linear sigma models give controlled corrections (due to the presence of scalar mesons) to the current algebra scattering formula. Such a feature is commonly thought to exist only in the nonlinear sigma model approach.

An analytic approach to phenomenological models inspired by cubic string field theory is introduced and applied to some examples. We study a class of actions for a minimally coupled, homogeneous scalar field whose energy density contains infinitely many time derivatives. These nonlocal systems are systematically localized and an algorithm to find cosmological solutions of the dynamical equations is provided. Our formalism is able to define the nonlocal field in regions of the parameter space which are inaccessible by standard methods. Also, problems related to nonlocality are reinterpreted under a novel perspective and naturally overcome. We consider phenomenological models living on a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background with power-law scale factor, both in four dimensions and on a high-energy braneworld. The quest for solutions unravels general features of nonlocal dynamics indicating several future directions of investigation.

In scalar QED we study the Schwinger pair production from an initial ensemble of charged bosons when an electric field is turned on for a finite period together with or without a constant magnetic field. The scalar QED Hamiltonian depends on time through the electric field, which causes the initial ensemble of bosons to evolve out of equilibrium. Using the Liouville–von Neumann method for the density operator and quantum states for each momentum mode, we calculate the Schwinger pair-production rate at finite temperature, which is the pair-production rate from the vacuum times a thermal factor of the Bose-Einstein distribution.

We calculate the inclusive cross section of double $Z$-boson production within large extra dimensions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Using perturbatively quantized gravity in the ADD (Arkani-Hamed, Dvali, Dimopoulos) model we perform a first order calculation of the graviton mediated contribution to the $pp\to ZZ+x$ cross section. At low energies (e.g. Tevatron) this additional contribution is very small, making it virtually unobservable, for a fundamental mass scale above 2500 GeV. At LHC energies, however, the calculation indicates that the $ZZ$-production rate within the ADD model should differ significantly from the standard model if the new fundamental mass scale would be below 15000 GeV. A comparison with the observed production rate at the LHC might therefore provide direct hints on the number and structure of the extra dimensions.

The entropy of black holes in modified theories of gravity is examined in the Palatini formalism using the Noether charge approach. It is shown that, if the gravitational coupling constant is properly identified, the entropy of a black hole is one-quarter of the horizon area in $f(R)$ theories coupled to conformally invariant matter. If matter is present that is not conformally invariant, the entropy is still proportional to the area of the black hole, but the coefficient is generally not one-quarter. The entropy of black holes in generalized dilaton theories and in theories with Lagrangians that depend on an arbitrary function of the Ricci tensor are also examined.

The new physics contribution to the lifetime difference in $D^0-{\overline{D}}^0$ mixing is reexamined within the nonmanifest left-right symmetric model. Diagrams with one of $\Delta C=1$ transitions, mediated by a propagator with $W_L-W_R$ mixing, are revisited. While these diagrams are believed to give the dominant contribution, compatible with the experimental data, it is shown that, due to Glashow-Iliopoulos-Miani (GIM) cancellation, such diagrams are negligible in sum. Thus, the left-right symmetric model contribution to the lifetime difference in $D^0-{\overline{D}}^0$ mixing is about 2 orders of magnitude less than actual experimental value for $\Delta {\Gamma }_D$.

Recently, muon production in electron-proton scattering has been suggested as a possible candidate reaction for the identification of lepton-flavor violation due to physics beyond the standard model. Here we point out that the standard-model processes $e^{-}p\to {\mu }^{-}p{\overline{\nu }}_{\mu }{\nu }_e$ and $e^{-}p\to e^{-}n{\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ can cloud potential beyond-the-standard-model signals in $ep$ collisions. We find that standard-model $ep\to \mu X$ cross sections exceed those from lepton-flavor-violating operators by several orders of magnitude. We also discuss the possibility of using a nuclear target to enhance the $ep\to \mu X$ signal.

Sterile neutrinos with masses $\sim 0.1\mathrm{eV}$ or higher, allowed with the current oscillation data, can potentially play an important role in astrophysics and cosmology. We explore possible signatures of such sterile neutrinos at long baseline experiments. We determine the neutrino conversion probabilities analytically in a 4-neutrino framework, including matter effects, treating the sterile mixing angles ${\theta }_{14}$, ${\theta }_{24}$, ${\theta }_{34}$, the deviation of ${\theta }_{23}$ from maximality, as well as ${\theta }_{13}$ and the ratio $\Delta m_{\odot }^2/\Delta m_{\mathrm{atm}}^2$ as small parameters for a perturbative expansion. This gives rise to analytically tractable expressions for flavor conversion probabilities from which effects of these parameters can be clearly understood. We numerically calculate the signals at a neutrino factory with near and far detectors that can identify the lepton charge, and point out observables that can discern the sterile mixing signals. We find that clean identification of sterile mixing would be possible for ${\theta }_{24}{\theta }_{34}\gtrsim 0.005$ ($3\sigma$) and ${\theta }_{14}\gtrsim 0.06\mathrm{rad}$ ($3\sigma$) with the current bound of ${\theta }_{13}<0.2\mathrm{rad}$; a better ${\theta }_{13}$ bound would allow probing smaller values of sterile mixing. We also generalize the formalism for any number of sterile neutrinos, and demonstrate that only certain combinations of sterile mixing parameters are relevant irrespective of the number of sterile neutrinos. This also leads to a stringent test of the scenario with multiple sterile neutrinos that currently is able to describe all the data from the short baseline experiments, including LSND and MiniBooNE.

The saddle points of a Lagrangian due to Efetov are analyzed. This Lagrangian was originally proposed as a tool for calculating systematic corrections to the Bethe approximation, a mean-field approximation which is important in statistical mechanics, glasses, coding theory, and combinatorial optimization. Detailed analysis shows that the trivial saddle point generates a sum over geometries reminiscent of dynamically triangulated quantum gravity, which suggests new possibilities to design sums over geometries for the specific purpose of obtaining improved mean-field approximations to $D$-dimensional theories. In the case of the Efetov theory, the dominant geometries are locally treelike, and the sum over geometries diverges in a way that is similar to quantum gravity’s divergence when all topologies are included. Expertise from the field of dynamically triangulated quantum gravity about sums over geometries may be able to remedy these defects and fulfill the Efetov theory’s original promise. The other saddle points of the Efetov Lagrangian are also analyzed; the Hessian at these points is nonnormal and pseudo-Hermitian, which is unusual for bosonic theories. The standard formula for Gaussian integrals is generalized to nonnormal kernels.

Conical brane singularities in six-dimensional flux compactification models can be resolved by introducing cylindrical codimension-one branes with regular caps instead of 3-branes (à la Kaluza-Klein braneworlds with fluxes). In this paper, we consider such a regularized braneworld with axial symmetry in six-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory. We derive a low energy effective theory on the regularized brane by employing the gradient expansion approach, and show that standard four-dimensional Einstein gravity is recovered at low energies. Our effective equations extend to the nonlinear gravity regime, implying that conventional cosmology can be reproduced in the regularized braneworld.

We investigate the equal-mass three-body system in general relativistic lineal gravity in the presence of a cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The cosmological vacuum energy introduces features that do not have a nonrelativistic counterpart, inducing an expansion/contraction of space-time that competes with the gravitational self-attraction of the bodies. We derive a canonical expression for the Hamiltonian of the system and discuss the numerical solution of the resulting equations of motion. As for the system with $\Lambda =0$, we find that the structure of the phase space yields a rich variety of interesting dynamics that can be divided into three distinct regions: annulus, pretzel, and chaotic; the first two being regions of quasiperiodicity while the latter is a region of chaos. However, unlike the $\Lambda =0$ case, we find that a negative cosmological constant considerably diminishes the amount of chaos in the system, even beyond that of the $\Lambda =0$ nonrelativistic system. By contrast, a positive cosmological constant considerably enhances the amount of chaos, typically leading to KAM (Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser) breakdown.