A first order version of topological massive gravity is achieved by liberating its translational gauge degrees of freedom. In three dimensions, our Lagrangian consists of Chern-Simons (CS) terms for curvature and torsion inducing an effective cosmological constant dynamically, whereas a “mixed” CS term is substituting for the topological related Einstein-Cartan action. Anti–de Sitter and rotating black hole configurations are exact vacuum solutions. They also apply to a large class of Yang-Mills-type generalizations including “exotic” terms exclusively permitted in 3D. The reason for this can be partially traced back to a new strong/weak duality of the translational and rotational dynamical degrees of freedom.

The increasing precision of cosmological datasets is opening up new opportunities to test predictions from cosmic inflation. Here we study the impact of high precision constraints on the primordial power spectrum and show how a new generation of observations can provide impressive new tests of the slow-roll inflation paradigm, as well as produce significant discriminating power among different slow-roll models. In particular, we consider next-generation measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies and (especially) polarization, as well as new Lyman-$\alpha$ measurements that could become practical in the near future. We emphasize relationships between the slope of the power spectrum and its first derivative that are nearly universal among existing slow-roll inflationary models, and show how these relationships can be tested on several scales with new observations. Among other things, our results give additional motivation for an all-out effort to measure CMB polarization.

We clarify the properties of the behavior of classical cosmological perturbations when the Universe experiences a bounce. This is done in the simplest possible case for which gravity is described by general relativity and the matter content has a single component, namely, a scalar field in a closed geometry. We show in particular that the spectrum of scalar perturbations can be affected by the bounce in a way that may depend on the wave number, even in the large scale limit. This may have important implications for string motivated models of the early Universe.

We discuss the residual isocurvature perturbations, fully correlated with the curvature perturbation, that are automatic in the curvaton scenario if curvaton decay is sufficiently late. We contrast these residual isocurvature perturbations with the generally uncorrelated “intrinsic” isocurvature perturbation generated by an additional field such as the axion. We present a general formula for the residual isocurvature perturbations, referring only to the generation of the relevant quantity [cold dark matter (CDM), baryon number or lepton number] in an unperturbed universe. Specific formulas for the residual isocurvature CDM perturbation are given for most of the commonly considered CDM candidates.

A conserved cosmological perturbation is associated with each quantity whose local evolution is determined entirely by the local expansion of the Universe. It may be defined as the appropriately normalized perturbation of the quantity, defined using a slicing of spacetime such that the expansion between slices is spatially homogeneous. To first order, on superhorizon scales, the slicing with unperturbed intrinsic curvature has this property. A general construction is given for conserved quantities, yielding the curvature perturbation $\zeta$ as well as other more recently considered conserved perturbations. The construction may be extended to higher orders in perturbation theory and even into the non-perturbative regime.

Searches for gravitational wave signals which do not have a precise model describing the shape of their waveforms are often performed using power detectors based on a quadratic form of the data. A new, optimal method of generalizing these power detectors so that they operate coherently over a network of interferometers is presented. Such a mode of operation is useful in obtaining better detection efficiencies and better estimates of the position of the source of the gravitational wave signal. Numerical simulations based on a realistic, computationally efficient hierarchical implementation of the method are used to characterize its efficiency for detection and for position estimation. The method is shown to be more efficient at detecting signals than an incoherent approach based on coincidences between lists of events. It is also shown to be capable of locating the position of the source.

We present the concept of the “selective readout” for the recently proposed dual detector [M. Cerdonio et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 031101 (2001)] of gravitational waves which is a sensitive and broadband resonant-mass detector. The advantage of the proposed detection scheme is that it is made sensitive only to the acoustic modes of the masses forming the detector that have quadrupolar symmetry, and thus carry the signal, while it rejects efficiently the noise contribution from the other modes, either of thermal or back-action origin. The total effect is that the sensitivity of a dual detector equipped with the selective readout is flat within a wide frequency range and can be as good as $\sim 8\times {10}^{-24}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ between 1.3 and 4 kHz for a silicon carbide detector, 3 m in diameter.

The cross section for the production of the lightest neutral Higgs boson in association with a high-$p_T$ hadronic jet, calculated in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), is presented. The expectations for the hadronic cross section at the CERN Large Hadron Collider are discussed using reasonable kinematical cuts. In particular the contributions from superpartner loops to the cross section and their dependence on the parameters of the MSSM are investigated and found to be significant. Comparisons show that the production rate for $h^0$ + jet in the MSSM can differ widely from the corresponding standard-model prediction.

Strong penguin operators are singlets under the right-handed flavor symmetry group $\mathrm{SU}{\mathrm{}\left(3\right)\mathrm{}}_R.$ However, they do not remain singlets when the operator is embedded in (partially) quenched QCD, but instead they become linear combinations of two operators with different transformation properties under the (partially) quenched symmetry group. This is an artifact of the quenched approximation. Each of these two operators is represented by a different set of low-energy constants in the chiral effective theory. In this paper, we give analytic estimates for the leading low-energy constants, in quenched and partially quenched QCD. We conclude that the effects of quenching on $Q_6$ are large.

Semileptonic and nonleptonic decays of the $B_c$ meson to charmonium and D mesons are studied in the framework of the relativistic quark model. The decay form factors are explicitly expressed through the overlap integrals of the meson wave functions in the whole accessible kinematical range. The relativistic meson wave functions are used for the calculation of the decay rates. The obtained results are compared with the predictions of other approaches.

The potential of the $\gamma e$ mode of a linear $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider to probe $\mathrm{ZZ}\gamma$ and $Z\gamma \gamma$ vertices is investigated through Z boson production from the process $\gamma \overrightarrow{e}\mathrm{Ze}.\mathrm{}$ Considering the longitudinal and transverse polarization states of the Z boson and incoming polarized beams we find 95% C.L. limits on the form factors $h_3^Z,$ $h_4^Z,$ $h_3^{\gamma },$ and $h_4^{\gamma }$ with an integrated luminosity of $500{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ and $\sqrt{s}=0.5,$ 1, 1.5 TeV energies. It is shown that the polarization can improve sensitivities by a factor of 2 to 3 depending on the energy.

We study a defect conformal field theory describing D3-branes intersecting over two space-time dimensions. This theory admits an exact Lagrangian description which includes both two- and four-dimensional degrees of freedom, has $\mathrm{}(4,4)\mathrm{}$ supersymmetry and is invariant under global conformal transformations. Both two- and four-dimensional contributions to the action are conveniently obtained in a two-dimensional $\mathrm{}(2,2)\mathrm{}$ superspace. In a suitable limit, the theory has a dual description in terms of a probe D3-brane wrapping an ${\mathrm{AdS}}_3\times {\mathrm{S}}^1$ slice of ${\mathrm{AdS}}_5\times {\mathrm{S}}^5.$ We consider the AdS/CFT dictionary for this setup. In particular we find classical probe fluctuations corresponding to the holomorphic curve $wy=c{\alpha }^{\prime }.$ These fluctuations are dual to defect fields containing massless two-dimensional scalars which parametrize the classical Higgs branch, but do not correspond to states in the Hilbert space of the CFT. We also identify probe fluctuations which are dual to BPS superconformal primary operators and to their descendants. A nonrenormalization theorem is conjectured for the correlators of these operators, and verified to order $g^2.$

We revise existing limits on the D-dimensional Planck scale $M_D$ from the nonobservation of microscopic black holes produced by high energy cosmic neutrinos in scenarios with $D=4+n$ large extra dimensions. Previous studies have neglected the energy radiated in gravitational waves by the multipole moments of the incoming shock waves. We include the effects of energy loss, as well as form factors for black hole production and recent null results from cosmic ray detectors. For $n>~5,$ we obtain $M_D>1.0\mathrm{}–1.4\mathrm{TeV}.$ These bounds are among the most stringent and conservative to date.

We introduce a new numerical scheme for solving the initial value problem for quasiequilibrium binary neutron stars allowing for arbitrary spins. The coupled Einstein field equations and equations of relativistic hydrodynamics are solved in the Wilson-Mathews conformal thin sandwich formalism. We construct sequences of circular-orbit binaries of varying separation, keeping the rest mass and circulation constant along each sequence. Solutions are presented for configurations obeying an $n=1\mathrm{}$ polytropic equation of state and spinning parallel and antiparallel to the orbital angular momentum. We treat stars with moderate compaction $[{\mathrm{}(m/R)\mathrm{}}_{\infty }=0.14\mathrm{}]$ and high compaction $[{\mathrm{}(m/R)\mathrm{}}_{\infty }=0.19\mathrm{}].$ For all but the highest circulation sequences, the spins of the neutron stars increase as the binary separation decreases. Our zero-circulation cases approximate irrotational sequences, for which the spin angular frequencies of the stars increases by 13% [11%] of the orbital frequency for ${\mathrm{}(m/R)\mathrm{}}_{\infty }=0.14\mathrm{}$ $[{\mathrm{}(m/R)\mathrm{}}_{\infty }=0.19\mathrm{}]$ by the time the innermost circular orbit is reached. In addition to leaving an imprint on the inspiral gravitational waveform, this spin effect is measurable in the electromagnetic signal if one of the stars is a pulsar visible from Earth.

We study cosmic string formation within supersymmetric grand unified theories (GUTs). We consider gauge groups having a rank between 4 and 8. We examine all possible spontaneous symmetry breaking patterns from the GUT down to the standard model gauge group. Assuming standard hybrid inflation, we select all the models which can solve the GUT monopole problem leading to baryogenesis after inflation, and are consistent with proton lifetime measurements. We conclude that, in all acceptable spontaneous symmetry breaking schemes, cosmic string formation is unavoidable. The strings which form at the end of inflation have a mass which is proportional to the inflationary scale. Sometimes a second network of strings form at a lower scale. Models based on gauge groups which have a rank greater than 6 can lead to more than one inflationary era; they all end by cosmic string formation.

We show that $3+1$ vacuum spacetimes admitting a global, spacelike, one-parameter Lie group of isometries of translational type cannot contain apparent horizons. The only assumption made is that of the existence of a global spacelike Killing vector field with infinite open orbits; the four-dimensional vacuum spacetime metric is otherwise arbitrary. This result may thus be viewed as a hoop conjecture theorem for vacuum gravity with one spacelike translational Killing symmetry.

We study the process $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to e^{+}{e}^{-}E/$ at a high-energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ collider, where the missing energy arises from the radiation of Kaluza-Klein gravitons in a model with large extra dimensions. It is shown that at a high-energy linear collider, this process can not only confirm the signature of such theories but can also sometimes be comparable in effectiveness to the commonly discussed channel $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to \gamma E/,$ especially for a large number of extra dimensions and with polarized beams. We also suggest some ways of distinguishing the signals of a graviton tower from other types of new physics signals by combining data on our suggested channel with those on the photon-graviton channel.

We calculate the $O\left(a\right)\mathrm{}$ improvement coefficient $c_{\mathrm{SW}}$ in the Sheikholeslami-Wohlert quark action for various improved gauge actions with six-link loops. We employ a conventional perturbation theory introducing the fictitious gluon mass to regularize the infrared divergence. Our results for some improved gauge actions are in agreement with those previously obtained with the Schrödinger functional method.

The structure of the flux-tube profile in Abelian-projected (AP) SU(2) gauge theory in the maximally Abelian gauge is studied. The connection between the AP flux tube and the classical flux-tube solution of the U(1) dual Abelian Higgs model is clarified in terms of the path-integral duality transformation. This connection suggests that the electric photon and the magnetic monopole parts of the Abelian Wilson loop can act as separate sources creating the Coulombic and the solenoidal electric field inside a flux tube. The conjecture is confirmed by a lattice simulation which shows that the AP flux tube is composed of these two contributions.

A new parametrization of the $\overline{p}$ inclusive production cross section in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions is proposed. A sample of consistent $p\overrightarrow{A}\overline{p}X$ experimental data sets measured on $1<~A<~208$ nuclei, from 12 GeV up to 400 GeV incident energy, has been used to constrain the parameters. A broader energy domain is covered for the $p\overrightarrow{p}\overline{p}X$ reaction and with a simplified functional form used in the fits. The agreement obtained with the data is good. The results are discussed.